by Peter Ruicci (Independent Media) | Photo by Natalie Shaver (OHLImages)
Long-term injuries are always problematic.
But player absences can be toxic for rebuilding teams.
Injuries have proven difficult to overcome for the 2022-2023 Soo Greyhounds, but the club is beginning to get some of its skaters back.
Goalie Charlie Schenkel, out for over two months with an upper-body injury, returned on Feb. 5 against Mississauga.
Now, centre Owen Allard and defenceman Connor Toms are on the verge of suiting up.
“They’re playing this weekend,” said head coach John Dean, whose team is set to begin a three-game trip in St. Catharines on Thursday.
Start time for the clash with the Niagara IceDogs is 7 p.m.
Asked if both players could see action in the first game of the trip, Dean said: “There’s a good chance.”
The Soo’s road journey continues on Friday in Guelph (7:30 p.m.) and concludes on Sunday in Kitchener (2 p.m.).
“It’s great news,” noted Dean, whose club couldn’t be receiving some help at a better time.
The Hounds have lost three straight and are fresh off of blowing a 4-0 lead, before losing 6-5 in overtime to Erie last Saturday.
With 14 regular season games remaining, the Soo takes a 16-24-9-5 mark into its matchup with Niagara (11-35-7-1).
With 46 points, the Hounds stand ninth in the Western Conference, five points ahead of 10th-place Erie (18-29-1-2) and five points behind eighth-place Kitchener (24-26-3-0). The Otters have two games in hand on the Soo while the Rangers have one.
Flint (25-26-4-1) is seventh, nine points ahead of the Greyhounds, who have played two fewer games than the Firebirds.
Guelph (26-24-4-1) holds sixth place, 11 points up on the Soo. The Hounds do have a game in hand on the Storm.
Allard has yet to play this season after suffering a shoulder injury last summer at the Ottawa Senators development camp. He then re-injured the shoulder in August, while skating with Greyhound veterans prior to the start of OHL training camp.
The 19-year-old (2004 birth year) Ottawa native underwent surgery in early October.
Toms suffered what the Hounds will only confirm was a lower-body injury on Dec. 28 in Flint. The 18-year-old (2004) Sault native has missed 22 consecutive games.
Neither player could be reached for comment by Independent Media on Wednesday.
The return of two veterans “injects some experience into our lineup, that’s No. 1,” said Dean, whose club departed the Sault on Wednesday morning. “With Allard, he adds a lot of speed. Tomsy gives us some poise on the blue-line. Between the two of them, they’ll be adding some significant minutes to our lineup, which is great.”
However, the Hounds coach offered a degree of caution.
Dean talked about the lengthy period Allard has been sidelined, and how Toms has missed nearly two months.
“So, we have to temper expectations a bit,” he added. “Still, this is a huge boost for our lineup.”
Having watched video of Saturday’s contest, Dean’s opinion of his team’s performance against Erie didn’t change much.
He discussed how the Soo played well early, but later “we thought the game was going to be easier than it was. We mismanaged the puck and, ultimately, it cost us a game.”
In his post-game comments on Saturday, Dean told gathered media members his plan moving forward was to concentrate on forging a consistent compete level this week in practice.
The Hounds players “don’t pay attention to the systems anyway,” the coach said angrily. “That’s as bad a third period as you can play.”
On Wednesday, Dean explained how he and his assistants “focused on the guys working hard this week. We competed very hard in practice. We’ve had a difficult time following structure for a full 60 minutes. But when you’re competing hard and working your butt off, structure tends to follow.”
Notes:
Defenceman Andrew Gibson (lower-body injury) and winger Ethan Montroy (upper body) remain sidelined and are still considered week-to-week. Following this trip, the Soo returns home to face Sarnia one week from today (7:07 p.m.) at GFL Memorial Gardens.
