Hi hockey fans.
We've struggled a bit since my return to the lineup March 2 (1-5-0) after serving my 10-game suspension. Maybe the team was a little drained mentally or physically after going on a little roll there, but we've got to turn the ship around prior to the start of the OHL playoffs.
We play Barrie if we earn the seventh seed in the East. We're tied with Mississauga at this point with two games remaining against Mississauga and North Bay in the regular season.
I got thrown into the fire right away upon returning to the lineup, which is good for me. I'm not the type of guy who likes to get eased into things. Last year, my first year, I felt I was thrown into the fire as well. They gave me a good role on this team so I feel like that same kind of thing happened when I came back from the suspension. I like that type of thing because you're exposed to everything right away and you adapt right away instead of being slowly pushed into it.
I think we have a young team and one of the things we struggle with is that some of the younger guys aren't as mentally prepared as they need to be. We need to get everybody on the same page because when we're dialed in before the game, we play well. We've proven we can compete with the better teams. We've beaten Sault Ste. Marie and Sarnia, two top teams in the league. We defeated Barrie in overtime on Thursday.
No one person can contain any player; it's a group assignment. Obviously, the name Andrei Svechnikov will be mentioned in game talks if we do face Barrie in the opening round of the playoffs. But we need to worry about that whole line; not just one player. Aaron Luchuk and Dmitry Sokolov have also played very well this season on a line with Svechnikov. We have to stick with what we usually do and kind of have a 5-on-3 mentality down low, which means having all the guys work together to pressure the three forwards.
We have a 10-second rule where, as defensemen, we try and get the puck out in 10 seconds when it's in our end, so it's about getting puck possession as a group. That helps and when you're up against one of the top lines in the OHL.
That said, Svechnikov did things so patiently when I was with him at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in January. It was pretty incredible, he's pretty fast. When I went out and did the testing with him, he was one of the fastest and most agile guys. In every category, you could just see he excelled and those little things just add up.
Thanks for reading this month.
