Storm on verge of elimination
The Guelph Storm dropped its third straight game to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Sunday night at the Sleeman Centre and Robby Fabbri watched most of it from the bench.
The Storm’s star forward was benched by coach Bill Stewart for the second and third periods as the Storm lost 6-1.
The Greyhounds now lead the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal 3-0. Guelph will try and fend off elimination Tuesday at the Sleeman Centre.
Fabbri said he didn’t know why he was benched by Stewart.
“I guess we don’t see eye to eye. We haven’t seen eye to eye for a while. I guess this is what it came down to,” Fabbri said.
“For me, I don’t see why I got sat the whole game. I didn’t think my first period was as bad as maybe they thought.”
Asked when the last time he was benched for that length of time in a game, Fabbri replied “I couldn’t tell you.”
Stewart said the benching was an effort to make Fabbri a better player now and in the future.
“The kid’s a great player. He’s going to be a fantastic National Hockey League player. This is just a learning curve and if he’s mad at me, that’s okay,” Stewart said.
“Down the road when he becomes the great player that we all know he’s going to be, he’ll remember this day.”
After the post-game interviews were done, Stewart and assistant coach Todd Harvey did meet privately with Fabbri to talk things over.
Stewart said the benching was nothing personal and downplayed Fabbri’s remark about the two of them not seeing eye to eye.
“Sometimes you do something for the betterment of the player. It’s only about performance, it’s nothing personal,” Stewart said.
He felt some of Fabbri’s remarks may have been the result of “catching a guy after a game in an emotional situation who probably has never been benched in his life.”
