Sting add leadership just in time for playoff run.
By Daniel Punch from the Observer
Original article and video can be found here
Talent can get you far but leadership and experience wins hockey championships.
Sarnia Sting head coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu knows this, and its why he brought in four players at the OHL trade deadline with the intangibles to push his squad over the top.
The 2011-2012 Sarnia Sting feature some of hockey’s top prospects. These guys put pucks in the net and butts in the seats. But as the team gears up for what should be its first playoffs in three years, Beaulieu has stockpiled two former captains and some veteran leadership.
“When you reach the playoffs, (experience) is a huge factor,” said new Sting defenceman Adrian Robertson. “If you have guys who’ve been through the ups and downs of the playoffs, it can only add to your team.”
Robertson, 20, was captain of the Windsor Spitfires before being traded to the Sting at the deadline. He played 18 playoff games in 2011 as the Spitfires reached the OHL semifinals. He says the wealth of leadership on the Sting’s current roster puts them in great position for the post-season.
“It’s something you might not see on the ice with the skill, but it’s really valuable,” he said.
But the team didn’t have to choose between skill and leadership. Newcomer Ryan Spooner was a second-round draft pick in the 2010 NHL draft and has consistently put up big numbers wherever he’s played.
Spooner is nearly 20 years old and is playing in his fourth OHL season. He came from a young Kingston Frontenacs team where he was thrust into a leadership role. Spooner joins the Sting alongside his former teammate, Tyler Brown — also traded from Kingston to Sarnia just before the deadline.
Brown, 20, was the captain of the Frontenacs and a vocal leader in the locker room. He’s in his last year of OHL eligibility and taking pre-med classes online at Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan. But even with 31 games of playoff experience under his belt and 19 goals on the season, Brown knows he is just a piece of the puzzle.
“I just have to play my role, I’m going to be more of an energy guy on this team,” Brown said.
But a championship team still needs steady play in net. For that, Beaulieu turned to 19-year-old former Mississauga St. Michaels Majors goalie J.P. Anderson.
Anderson has 25 playoff wins in three trips to the post season. 15 of those wins came last season in the Majors’ run to Memorial Cup.
“It was a little hard getting over that,” Anderson said of his Memorial Cup experience. “If you get a chance to get back there, you’re definitely going to try and make the best of the opportunity.”
And all four players believe their new team has the opportunity to win it all.
“We expect to go all the way,” Robertson said. “If we expected anything less then I don’t think we’d be able to win a championship.”
Robertson says Beaulieu has installed a winning attitude with the team. With the new players settling in and other key pieces getting healthy, he thinks the Sting are a team to watch.
“They didn’t build Rome in a day, it may take some time here,” he said. “Once the playoffs come, with the talent and experience we have, I think we could be a force to be reckoned with.”
