The Barrie Colts are moving on to the OHL championship series.
Not that they care.
In a bizarre press conference following their 5-0 win in Game 7 over the Brantford Bulldogs on Monday, head coach Dylan Smoskowitz and star defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson, who scored the winning goal, offered the same answer to every question.
"No one cares. Work harder," was the repeated response.
According to Barrie Today, the Colts were reacting unfavourably to not being allowed by the league to bring more players to the media conference. Barrie Today added that other players were made available to the media afterward, and that the team's ownership was looking into the matter.
OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford said the team would be punished for the antics, though he did not offer specifics, per The Waterloo Record on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what that was about,” Crawford said. “We expect better interactions and representing our league in the right way and their team and themselves as well.”
Smoskowitz and Aitcheson faced six total questions before the moderator cut off the availability.
With each, they pretended to give a genuine answer before repeating the same answer. Smoskowitz was asked to compare how the team felt after it lost Game 4, 6-1, to fall behind 3-1 in the series to now after it had completed the comeback.
"Yeah, really good question," he said. "No one cares, work harder."
The Colts stand four wins away from reaching the Memorial Cup. They will face the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL finals.
