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by David Clark
Spitfires more than just “rebuilding!”
The Spitfires don’t act like a rebuilding team but at the beginning of the season they were somewhat limited to that title with most of the Memorial Cup players from the last two years had moved forward to professional hockey. Recognizing the talent he already has, Warren Rychel also pulled a few new players out of the hat by the trade deadline, complimenting his already formidable roster.
Unfortunately, Windsor lost backup goalie Troy Passingham who had a respectable record including a few wins against elite teams. In his first year as a Spitfire, we took a real hit by dealing Eric Locke to Barrie who was scoring in bunches before he left.
Former Barrie Colt sniper, Taylor Carnevale is now situated with the Spitfires, occasionally finding the net as of late. Carnevale, an offensive entity gave Windsor fits during the playoffs last year with a high-achieving Barrie Colts outfit. The Soo surrendered Jake Carrick who brought an instant injection of toughness to Windsor, complimenting Kassian’s supremacy on the ice. He fights, and has showed everyone that yes, he can score.
Rounding off the incoming guys is former Peterborough defenceman, Adrian Robertson and Jeff Brown who was very effective at stirring up trouble in Oshawa, a real gritty player to be certain. Kerby Rychel is now back home from Mississauga, modestly contributing to the Spitfires cause. To top things off we acquired John Cullen from the Sting in the Passingham trade and Cullen has been sensational in net, playing like it’s his last game everytime he suits up. We had to lose a few in preparation for a Memorial Cup run but now we’ve got more toughness, scoring ability with the help of a few seasoned veterans who can lead the Spitfires into the playoffs.
During this “rebuilding” season, the Spits are actually becoming contenders in the West but are still trying to catch up to the Kitchener Rangers and secure a third place position in the Western conference. Home-ice advantage is the reward. The Owen Sound Attack and Saginaw will probably finish one-two when everything is said and done.
Are Spitfires up to the challenge?
We can see that Windsor is now stacked and prepared for the post-season but they are still having trouble picking up wins against the elite teams. A notable exception, Windsor tussled with the Ottawa 67’s on January 14/2011 and came out victorious (6-3) but Tyler Toffoli still managed to score two and assist on one. Ottawa is positioned in the top three in the Eastern Conference amongst the high-flying Mississauga St. Michaels Majors and the Niagara Ice Dogs who have shadowed the Majors all season.
Since January 1/2011, the Spitfires have performed fairly well but we need to beat the elite teams if we want to have a long run deep into the playoffs. Already this year, we succumbed to Owen Sound twice, Kitchener and a nail-biter against the Majors. The vastly improved Plymouth Whalers also stole two from the Spitfires and are considered to be a powerful emerging team coming out of the West. Saginaw is another force in the West having shutdown the Spits on three occasions this season.
It looked like Windsor would try to catch the Rangers but the Plymouth Whalers are going after Windsor in a very determined manner from behind. As of February 16, Windsor is just one point ahead of the Whalers.
Kitchener was in town hoping to steal one from the Spitfires. A glorious opportunity, Windsor tried to inch closer to that third spot where the Rangers presently sit. Cullen got the nod for the Spits and the Ranger’s Gabriel Landeskog was back from injury with a vengeance. Akeson and Murphy were red hot.
In the end though Kitchener holds a seven point lead as the Rangers dismantled the Spitfires 5-3 in front of 6276 @ the WFCU.
