It was just one game, the opening game of the Eastern Conference semi-final, but the Mississauga St Michael's Majors coach couldn't even look at his players as they left their silent dressing room.
BRAMPTON, ON --
Dave Cameron wasn't disappointed as much as disgusted.
The Brampton Battalion had pitched a shutout in beating the visitors 3-0.
Not just a shutout on the scoreboard, not just a shutout registered on goaltender Thomas McCollum's stats package. No, the Battalion never gave Cameron's team a life, not really a single moment of hope that they were a threat to knock off the second-seeded team in the conference.
"We did not compete," he said.
Asked what adjustments he can implement in a series, Cameron was blunt.
"It doesn't matter what you do with Xs on Os if you don't compete and we didn't compete," Cameron said.
Okay, time for some perspective.
Yes, the Majors flat lined. One measure of how one-sided the game was this: In the last two minutes, down 3-0, the Majors' talented 16-year-old Devante Smith-Pelly dented the post from point-blank range but in the 58 preceding minutes, Mississauga's two best scoring chances came when McCollum mishandled the puck around the Brampton net. Which is to say, the Majors needed to be handed chances rather than be counted on to create them.
I've written in this space before that the Majors, after a dismal start to this season, climbed a long way to make it into the fourth slot in the Eastern Conference standings by virtue of work ethic and a counter-punching game.
They just seem to hang around in games. Some teams are out to brawl with you, standing toe-to toe.
The Majors are the other type of team-they're a nuisance.
Well, they were little nuisance to the Battalion last night. Brampton rolled over them like they were a repaired pothole.
It wasn't necessarily a great game for Brampton or even a particularly good one, just a safe win.
"My best players were my best players," Battalion coach Stan Butler said.
True enough. All things equal, Butler has at his disposal three weapons: forwards Cody Hodgson, Matt Duchene and Evgeni Grachev, that Cameron can't really match. The Battalion has three bona fide talents, each of them being months away from the jump to the NHL, and that's something you can't say about the Majors. All things being equal … well, let's face it … in this case all things are only equal during those occasional junctures when those three are on the bench.
They are the un-equalizers.
The Majors have to play at the top of their game and be hitting on all cylinders to get a scoring chance, while Hodgson, Duchene and Grachev can create them one-on-one on just about every shift, even when it looks like they should be locked down.
One patch of play in the third period was fairly representative. The Majors had an extended five-on-three powerplay and not only couldn't generate a shot but were lucky that Hodgson didn't score on his solo foray up the ice.
As it was, the three Majors who were back on the play couldn't get the puck off him. While the crowd chanted "M-V-P," Hodgson ragged the puck in the Mississauga end of the rink, weaving between the checkers and playing keep away.
The die was cast early: The Battalion went up 2-0 in the first 12 minutes on goals by Grachev and defenceman Josh Day before the Majors registered their second shot on goal. Mississauga goaltender J.P. Anderson kept his team in the game-on the scoreboard, at least-through an 18-shot first period.
"My goaltender was my best player," Cameron said and he wasn't going to entertain the thought of players who might qualify as runners-up.
The Majors hung around at 2-0 through the next 28 minutes of game action, seemingly close enough to make you believe that one goal would get them right back in the game. Thomas Stajan's marker in the last minute of the second period rendered the third period moot.
It was a twenty-minute victory lap.
It was an emphatic win. Sitting there, I kept thinking it was boys vs. men. A quick look at the rosters validated the notion.
Brampton has eight players on the roster who were born in 1989 while the Majors have just four. The numbers are reversed when it comes to 1991 birthdays: The Majors have nine kids who turn 18 in this calendar year while the Battalion has just three, one of them being Duchene, one of the five best talents in this year's draft class.
Another example of how all things aren't equal: If you have decent junior players, legit kids, but one is 17 and the other 19, the outcome is pretty predictable. It's a variation on the Darwinian struggle: survival of the fittest, older, more physically mature, experienced player.
The Majors can't match the 19-year-old muscle of shotgun-riding players such as Anthony Peluso (6'4," 230 pounds) and Andrew Merrett (6'2," 200 pounds).
Brampton looked like a heck of a team, one that has to be given a shot at winning the O, while the visitors looked like a team that will be a threat next year and the year after. They are separated by a couple of stops on the 403 and a couple of years. That the Majors have a chance to experience the playoffs this year-whether it's a series win over Barrie complete with an epic triple-overtime in the clincher or a schooling by the Battalion-will only better position them when their players come of age.
The teams will meet again tonight in Mississauga. The Majors might like their chances a little better in Game 2 … after all, they're a day older, a day wiser and a day closer to their prime. Stuff that fell out of my notebook...
A couple of months back I suggested in this space that Plymouth might prove to be a tricky opponent for the Western Conference heavyweights, Windsor and London. That turned out to be the case in the semi-final opener in Windsor last night, the Whalers knocking off the host Spitfires 6-3. Plymouth's Matt Hackett stopped 46 of 49 shots but that's pretty much been an average performance for him in the postseason. He registered a .970 save percentage in the Whalers' series win over Sarnia in the opening round. Windsor, on the other hand, didn't get goaltending of the quality needed of a Memorial Cup contender … I'm shocked that Owen Sound goaltender Matt Stajcer wasn't selected to the Canadian under-18 team. Truly deserving his slot … It was a pretty gutsy move on Dave Cameron's part to go with J.P. Anderson, born in 1992, over Chris Carrozzi, who was drafted by Atlanta last year. The emergence of Anderson, who was the starter for the Ontario team that ran the table at the under-17 this winter, will allow the Majors to move Carrozzi, a very useful junior goaltender, for a piece or pieces that can move them into the upper echelon down the line … Faced with a long three-on-five penalty kill, Stan Butler sent Evgeni Grachev over the boards, a testament to his two-way game … I have to believe that the Battalion didn't mind seeing the Bulls stretched to overtime in their win over Niagara last night. Any tough time for Belleville is a good time for Brampton, the prospective opponent … It was painful to watch Ottawa fritter away a two-goal third-period lead in Game 7 against Niagara at the Civic Centre on Tuesday. The 67's were an absolute no-show in the third period and brief overtime, a desultory and undeserving end to the coaching career of Brian Kilrea. In this space a while back, he praised his players' work ethic. Well, they picked a hell of a time to forget what got them there. After the game, Kilrea said that he learned long ago not to tear himself up when he lost with his best players on the ice. Well, his best players were on the ice for 13 seconds after the third intermission but they might as well have stayed in the dressing room. I don't think it's any consolation that his best player lost the faceoff and lost his way back to the Ottawa end of the rink or that his best defenceman coughed up the puck like a hairball on the winning goal. Kilrea didn't throw them under the bus but I'm sure some of his friends would have been inclined to.
