Hounds’ Dean raises bar ‘significantly’
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
For a young team, the Ontario Hockey League Christmas break can sometimes spark a transition.
On Tuesday, the head coach of the Soo Greyhounds spoke of how he wants to make sure his players take full advantage of three months’ worth of experience.
To that end, John Dean says expectations are about to change.
“We want to hold ourselves to a significantly higher standard,” said Dean, whose club is set to return to action on Wednesday in Flint (7 p.m.), followed by a Thursday game in Saginaw (7:05 p.m.).
After losing arguably their best seven players to graduation, the 2022-2023 Greyhounds entered the break with a 10-12-5-4 record. With 29 points, the Soo presently holds the eighth-and-final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference.
That’s one point ahead of ninth-place Guelph (12-16-3-1), and the Hounds also have a game in hand on the Storm.
Dean talked about how his young club has pushed hard to establish as high a standard as possible over its first 31 games.
“But I think now the guys see they can play with any team in the league,” Dean added. “Now that we realize we can play with the big boys, our standard day-in-and-day-out has to be greater and we have to expect a lot more from ourselves.
“In the first half of the season our first-year guys are feeling things out and getting used to being away from home. In the second half it’s about finding ways to make an impact.”
There’s no doubt Dean would like to see his players spin hard lessons – the Hounds lost 7-2 in Oshawa and 9-0 in Kitchener earlier this month – into gold.
“We’ve shown some great spurts of hockey where we’ve looked like the team we want to be,” the coach said. “And then we’ve had games like Kitchener and Oshawa where we’re a team we don’t really recognize.”
The hope in the first half of the season, as it is for all young teams, is the newcomers begin to understand the league and what it takes to be successful at the Major A level.
Once players begin the second half, Dean believes there are no excuses.
“Now it’s their opportunity to take the bull by the horns, and become every-day players who make an impact, shift after shift.”
Obviously, offensive production is an area the Hounds must see improvement in. With just 91 goals in 31 games, the Soo is 19th in the 20-team loop. Only Niagara, with 86 tallies in 27 starts, has scored less.
However, only the Greyhounds are averaging fewer than 3.0 goals per game.
“We need to produce more offensively and that’s no secret,” said Dean, whose club is slated to entertain Sudbury on Saturday (2:07 p.m.) after playing twice on the road. “And we need to be more consistent. We can’t just be happy to be engaged and competitive. We have to expect to win hockey games. The bar for us will be set extremely high.”
Asked about the status of goaltender Charlie Schenkel, out since Nov. 27 with an upper-body injury, Dean confirmed the Ottawa native will not play this week.
Schenkel was hit by a shot in warmups prior to a game in Hamilton. His status is day-to-day, but he did not practice with the team on Tuesday before the Soo departed for Flint.
Rookie Landon Miller, who has been serving as the backup to veteran Samuel Ivanov, remains with the Hounds.
Dean also said he doesn’t expect to be without any of his other skaters on this trip.
Greyhounds’ players, idle since dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to Guelph on Dec. 17, returned to the Sault Monday night.
Meantime, Flint enters Wednesday’s clash in sixth place in the conference with a 16-12-2-1 mark. Saginaw stands third in the Western Conference with a record of 20-9-2-0.
