The following notes are taken from an interview with Jim Cressman on TEAM 1200 (Sportscall) with Dave Gross and Garry Galley. Cressman is the junior hockey reporter for London, and writes for the London Free Press.
Cressman’s predictions for the East are Mississauga and Ottawa. He feels that the West remains stronger than the East (“the power is in the West, with a few in the East like last year”).
Brian Kilrea really relies on his scouts. He trusts their decisions. He also relies on his network to bring in European players. Cressman said that you can count on one hand the number of times that Ottawa has been at the bottom. It is remarkable. Most are looking forward to getting a look at the two new European players, Petruzalek and Kaspar.
Cressman said that the defence position has become the ultimate position in the OHL. He said this is why we have stopped seeing such large scores; there will be no more big shoot-outs in the OHL.
The NHL lockout has been good for the OHL in at least one regard. All players who would have been involved in NHL training camps and pre-season games are back with their OHL teams. Some of the OHL teams would be missing 4,5,6, up to 7 of their big guns, and then they have to work them in to existing line-ups 3 weeks into the season. This hasn’t happened this year.
The Knights will host the Memorial Cup this year. It finally hit Cressman the other day: There is a 1 in 4 chance that the Knights will win the Memorial Cup. Because they are hosting. This is the 40th season for the Knights in the OHL, and the first time the Knights will go to the Memorial Cup. Fans still stop him on the street and ask him if he thinks the Knights will make it to the Memorial Cup this year, because they can’t believe it yet that it’s guaranteed they will get to play for Cup.
Even though Cressman thinks that Mississauga will be a contender this year, he still feels that the owner, Mario Forgione, will screw it up as he has decided to be the general manager this year.
Cressman said that what Jeff Hunt has done with the Ottawa 67s is incredible. He said that other owners should have to talk with him to get some ideas on how to improve their businesses.
Hunter has done a great job to immediately replace any players they lost. They are really excited about Brian Rodney.
Rob Shremp seems to be happy. Need to wait and see though. Cressman said he is a good kid, he can play the game, and he may have been humbled by his draft experience.
Dale Hunter has been suspended for 4 games, so he will not be on the bench for the first 4. Apparently, he was awarded the suspensions as follows: 2 games for a player leaving the bench to initiate a fight on the ice, 2 games for being awarded a game misconduct during a game for mocking a referee (Dave Branch got fed up after hearing about the misconduct that he gave Hunter another 2 games). Galley mentioned that he used to room with Hunter, and said he was never that abrasive, vocal back then.
The first game of the season for the 67s is tonight. They 67s are in Sudbury. The game will be broadcast on the TEAM 1200.
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