As tough losses go, none gets worse than the one that ended the Kingston Frontenacs’ playoff run last spring. Bad enough that it came a single goal in Game 7 at home. Even tougher to swallow the fact that it went down to overtime. Worst of all, it gave Peterborough a victory in an opening-round series that the Frontenacs had led three games to love.
Not something that you get over in a few days. Or a month. Or even an entire summer.
And yet, Kingston coach Paul McFarland didn’t lose a minute’s sleep over it. He wasn’t there for it. McFarland took over the Frontenacs post last summer when the team didn’t extend Todd Gill’s contract despite a solid 39-23-6 record. Tough losses in the spring, especially in front of a rare capacity crowd, have a way of undoing a lot of good will built up over the winter.
There could be a learning curve for any coach walking into a new situation, but McFarland—previously an assistant with the Oshawa Generals—has a head start many other of his peers wouldn’t. “I probably saw Kingston 40 times last season doing advance scouting and games against the Generals,” he says. “I had a pretty good idea of what type of team and talent I was getting when I signed on.”
What McFarland is getting is the No. 2-ranked team in the CHL’s pre-season Top 10. The Frontenacs are behind only the Rimouski Oceanic and ahead of everyone in the OHL, which usually tilts westward. Sault Ste. Marie sits in the sixth slot with defending Ontario league champs Guelph a couple of pegs below. Usually the Eastern Conference is a wide-open proposition—North Bay’s run to the league final last season was further proof of a phenomenon going on for more than a decade. So why is Kingston so highly thought of?
Sam Bennett is a good place to start. The fourth-overall pick in June’s NHL draft, the skilled and elusive Bennett rang up 36 goals and 91 points in 57 games and keyed an attack that produced 301 goals in 2013-14. Only the heavyweights in the Midwest Division, Guelph, Erie and London bested that number, and the latter two by not that much. In returning support, Bennett can look to his right and find Spencer Watson who produced 33 goals and 35 assists. And if opponents sit on Bennett too much, bruising centre Ryan Kujawinski will offer a contrast in styles and pose a threat on the second line.
McFarland wouldn’t address the too-awful-to-contemplate scenario of Bennett sticking with the Flames. “It’s really out of our control,” he says. It’s far more likely that Bennett will be back than pressed into duty with an NHL side that will be in the turtle race for Connor McDavid (Bennett’s minor-hockey teammate) and Jack Eichel.
That the Frontenacs didn’t get out of the first round suggests that a high-powered offence wasn’t enough. Actually, ‘suggests’ is a little weak. You know exactly where the hole is: Kingston could score and so could everyone else who played the Frontenacs. “The four teams with the best goals-against were the last four teams playing last year, so it’s pretty plain where we have to improve,” McFarland says.
The man speaks the truth: Erie gave up 170, Oshawa 187, North Bay 189 and Guelph 191. The Frontenacs gave up 255. A goal a game more is something that’s bound to catch up to you. Against the Petes it did. Peterborough won Games 5 and 6 in the comeback by pouring in six and five goals respectively. Like in Game 7, the Frontenacs fell one short both nights. “We were confident going into those games, ” left winger Samuel Schutt says. “But we got a couple of bad bounces and let the Petes back in those games. The message was that we have to be better in our own end if we want to go farther this year.”
McFarland makes the case that the Kingston blueline will be stronger this year because of the continued emergence of Roland McKeown, a second-rounder by the Los Angeles Kings last June. “He’s going to be the key for us,” McFarland says. “He’ll be the guy that we turn to in all situations.” The dark horse in the blueline mix is Finnish import Jarkko Parikka. “He’s been really good for us in camp,” McFarland says. “There will be a learning curve like there is for a lot of imports but he’ll bring a lot of skill to our back end.”
There’s a lot to be excited about in Kingston, but they don’t hand out a Cup to the top team in the pre-season rankings. “We were there and it didn’t do us any good,” Schutt says. “It doesn’t make losing in the first round any easier.” When you cough up a 3-0 series lead and lose at home in overtime, you don’t want to hear about rankings. One potential distraction the new coach doesn’t have to worry about.