Hounds ‘so excited’ about season opener
by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Bob Davies
Winger Justin Cloutier would love to get a little payback on Friday.
The 19-year-old (2005 birth year) veteran still bristles at the mention of how last season ended.
After finishing the regular campaign with a 45-18-3-2 mark, the Soo Greyhounds dropped a 3-1 decision in Saginaw in Game 7 of the OHL’s Western Conference semifinals.
Skating as the host team, the Spirit wound up winning the first Memorial Cup in franchise history.
“I’m so excited about Friday,” said Cloutier, whose club begins the 2024-2025 season against the Spirit (7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens. “The fact they beat us in Game 7 last year, I mean, could you write a script any better?”
“It still burns, obviously,” veteran winger Marco Mignosa said about the way in which the Hounds were eliminated. “But it also gives us fuel for this year.”
Veteran defenceman Andrew Gibson is also focused on turning the tables – at least in the opener – on the Spirit.
“It was very tough to see them smiling at one end of the ice,” Gibson said of last year’s conclusion to Game 7, “while we were shedding tears.”
While he believes it’s “natural” for his veterans to grab motivation from the way in which last season ended, Hounds head coach John Dean said the focus “should be on us. It’s not about our opponent at all.”
And, as overage defenceman Caeden Carlisle pointed out, the torrid rivalry between these two teams would be there, regardless of what happened a season ago.
Saginaw finished last year with a 50-16-1-1 mark. The Spirit opened the regular season at home on Wednesday, dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to Windsor.
Having lost much of their core group to graduation, the 2024-2025 Hounds dropped three of four during the exhibition season. Icing a young lineup, they lost a pair of 6-3 decisions to the Spirit.
Asked what he’d like to see from his charges on opening night, Dean spoke of watching the Greyhounds play with confidence and swagger. That was one of the keys to last season’s success.
“We want to play a predictable brand of hockey for each other,” Dean added. “That way, we can play with a very fast pace.”
The coach also discussed his feeling that the young Hounds have a ways to go and must eliminate some miscues.
“I think we’re making some very youthful mistakes and that’s causing us to be very disconnected,” Dean explained. “When that happens, things snowball into a body of work you might not be happy with.”
Cloutier, a Pittsburgh Penguins training camp invite, talked about the need for his club to play a full 60 minutes. He also spoke of the importance of playing with structure.
“A lot of people are counting us out,” Cloutier added. “But they don’t know us, they don’t know what kind of people we are. We’re hardworking and we’re going to shock a lot of people. I think we’ll shock people on Friday night.”
“We have to play structured, detailed, all-out hockey,” said Carlisle, who also recently returned from the Penguins camp. “We’re younger (this season), but we have a hardworking team.”
Having just returned from the camp of the Nashville Predators, Gibson is expected to play on Friday. Another Soo vet, overage centre Owen Allard, a fifth-round pick of Utah over the summer, remains at pro camp.
The Soo will also be minus second-year rearguard Brodie McConnell-Barker, expected to miss the first few weeks of the regular season after suffering a lower-body injury in the exhibition opener.
It’s not known whether Saginaw defenceman Zayne Parekh, drafted by Calgary ninth overall over the summer, has rejoined the team and will be available on Friday. Parekh didn’t play in the Spirit’s Wednesday opener.
Michael Misa, expected to be one of the league’s bright stars this season, scored twice in defeat against Windsor.
Asked about the Greyhounds choice for captain and alternate captains, Dean said Thursday night a decision would be finalized on Friday.
Notes:
Following Friday’s clash, the Soo is slated to entertain Sudbury on Saturday at 7:07 p.m., before hitting the road next week for a three-game trip. It begins Thursday in Windsor (7:05 p.m.) before continuing Friday in Guelph (7:07 p.m.) and Sunday in Sarnia (2:05 p.m.).
