CHL Notebook: Sniping about conference championship celebrations

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Mississauga Steelheads captain Michael McLeod (Terry Wilson/OHL Images)

Of all the playoff hockey tropes, the superstition that a conference championship trophy should be treated like a door prize has to be the silliest.

At worst, it amounts to trying to dictate other human beings’ emotions. At best, it’s a stale joke. (We all do that sometimes.) Tangentially, in the spirit of how everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, winning the league’s sub-championship, or half-crown, means something unique to each member of an organization. They should get to acknowledge it publicly before resetting for the final.

It was refreshing, then, to see that the Mississauga Steelheads actually did let loose after winning the OHL Eastern Conference title last week. Steelheads captain Mike McLeod (NJD) not only touched the Bobby Orr Trophy, but it got passed around, presumably in predetermined order, going from the main cogs to the depth players. It was like they were a bunch of 17- to 20-year-old young adults.

The weeknight gathering of 2,744 at the Hershey Centre, whether they were loyalists or come-latelies, also got rewarded for supporting a team that can be a faint dot on the Greater Toronto Area’s sports landscape.

For posterity’s sake, the Erie Otters won the Western Conference title on Sunday and observed the superstition, not that there is anything wrong with that.

The two WHL conference crowns were awarded on Sunday, too. The Regina Pats curbed their enthusiasm after eliminating the Lethbridge Hurricanes to capture the Eastern Conference. The Seattle Thunderbirds picked up their trophy, even though they were the repeat Western Conference winner.

On one level, most people just evoke this for a larf. On another, it reinforces hockey’s reputation for humourlessness.

Tough sell for Steelheads

So much for Bayshore South 2. Stating a preference for a championship series opponent is verboten for coaches and players. For Mississauga, getting Owen Sound in the OHL final would have been better for the live gate than Erie, a U.S.-based team.

Attack fans travel well, after all. Back in 2011, the Owen Sound supporters took over the Hershey Centre during the OHL final in Mississauga. The attendance-challenged Steelheads could use every advantage to counter having the early 7 p.m. weeknight starts for Games 3 and 4, which are scheduled for Monday and Wednesday of next week.

Mississauga averaged 2,626 fans at their two home games during the sweep against Peterborough, which were on those same two nights of the week. (The price-point was also low, with two tickets to Game 4 going for $23.60.) Having the series schedule set a week in advance helps, but chances are there will be a couple thousand empty seats next week.

The two prevailing hot takes about Mississauga’s attendance that (1) the Steelheads don’t have fans and (2) wondering why hockey fans in the GTA don’t turn to the OHL once the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season is over both fail to address the main point. If an OHL team in Peel Region is ever going to be relevant attendance-wise, it’s going to have to make a sincere effort to go outside the traditional support base and encourage the region’s large South Asian community to identify with junior hockey. Otherwise the Steelheads will keep swimming upstream at the gate.

Pats power through

Choose your cliché: cream always rises to the top? Can’t rush greatness? When the Pats celebrated their conference title on Sunday, it marked the second time in a row they won the final three games of a series after trailing.

Not counting empty-netters, the Pats scored 16 goals across the final three games against Lethbridge. While Adam Brooks (TOR) had eight points in that span, the Pats did not have a two-goal game from any player. During the games that comprised the twin three-win streaks, 19-year-old defenceman Sergey Zborovskiy was a sterling plus-15.

While Brooks was able to produce, his overage-scorer counterpart, Lethbridge captain Tyler Wong, was held to two points (both assists) in the six-game series.

Bear down

The status of Ethan Bear (EDM) is the main pre-final story with the Seattle Thunderbirds. The first-pair defenceman missed the final three games of the Western Conference final with an injured left hand that is in a soft cast.

Players typically will battle through those injuries and the Thunderbirds do have a four-day layover before the WHL final. How effective Bear could be while playing hurt remains to be seen. This is nothing new for Seattle, which is 12-2 in the post-season even though Bear, playmaker Mathew Barzal (NYI) and overage winger Ryan Gropp (NYR) have only skated in five games together.

The Thunderbirds’ series against Kelowna was dictated by attrition. The Rockets’ loss of their 19-year-old defenceman, Jason Hilsendager, might have had even more effect on the final outcome.

It is the eighth time in 10 seasons that a U.S. Division team has reached the WHL final, although only the 2008 Spokane Chiefs and 2013 Portland Winterhawks won the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

Emotional end for Charlottetown

Athletes are often praised for competing immediately after the death of a loved one, even though it can be more harmful in the long run to put off confronting loss. It was reassuring, then, to see the Charlottetown Islanders did the right thing when forward Dillon Boucher joined his grieving family following the death of his father Brad Boucher, even though the QMJHL team was on the brink of elimination.

The Islanders kept Dillon Boucher’s sweater behind their bench last Saturday, when they were ultimately eliminated by the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.

Boucher, a depth forward, had as many goals during the playoff run (four in 11 games) as he did during the entire regular season.

Blainville-Boisbriand and Saint John begin the President’s Cup final on Friday.

Capital shuffle

Jeff Brown, like his predecessor with the Ottawa 67’s, made the right moves in service of a future that will only materialize on someone else’s watch. Brown resigned last week after three seasons, including two as a dual coach-GM.

Three of Ottawa’s top five scorers from this season, Sasha Chmelevski, Austen Keating and defenceman Noel Hoefenmayer, will still only be 18 next season. Given that Brown came to the 67’s as a relative outsider who had never worked in the OHL, an educated guess is his replacement(s) might come from within the league.

Early this season, Brown was suspended for roughing up a player during a road game against the Sarnia Sting. The former NHL defenceman also took a leave of absence during the season. That can’t be ruled out as a contributing factor in the move.

All told, four OHL teams — with Barclay Branch now in Flint, George Burnett now in Guelph and Rob Papineau in Sudbury — have a new GM.

Canadian NHL team prospect of the week: Thomas Chabot, D, Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL)

Chabot, the Ottawa Senators first-rounder, is probably the third-round leader in the QMJHL playoff MVP race. The skilled defenceman has 19 points across 14 playoff games. The 19-year-old ignited Saint John’s third-period comeback win to close out the semifinal series against Chicoutimi, scoring a goal and getting the sole assist on the equalizer.

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