Muskies tune up for all-Ontarios

What would you rather have as a hockey player—an experienced mind or young legs?
“I’d like to have a nice combination of both,” answered Muskie head coach Shane Bliss.
“Our boys play with a lot of energy, and they’ve played with a lot of energy all year long, but the puck can always move faster and they saw that with how the older guys played tonight.”
“Tonight” was Tuesday night at the Ice for Kids Arena and the “older guys” were Hopper’s Bruins, who played the black-and-gold in an exhibition game to help them tune up for the all-Ontarios, which get underway next Wednesday morning in Windsor.
“It’s good to break up the monotony of practising for two weeks straight and also to see what those guys do,” said Bliss. “And that’s what I told our guys, ‘Watch what those guys do out there and how they get open, and how the puck dances out there.’”
As it turned out, Hopper’s Bruins controlled the game from whistle to whistle enroute to a 9-3 victory.
Usually the player’s bench is forbidden territory for the media, but considering it was just an exhibition game, yours truly was given permission to take a spot in the Muskies’ bench, where I heard such things like:
“Go fast and they’ll tire out,” Muskie defender Matt Redford said of his older competition before the game began.
“Yeah, I heard that one before,” rebutted long-time Muskie coach Ken ‘Kenno’ Christiansen.
“You’re not going to score unless you shoot that puck. Keep digging boys, keep digging,” Bliss said in the second period when his team was down 5-2.
“That’s the worst display of anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Muskie forward Brock Benjamin after an anemic end to a power play at the end of the second.
“I’m beginning to wonder which team is in worst shape,” observed Bliss after watching Hopper’s control the puck in the Muskies’ zone for a long period of time.
Before the game began, Bliss gave these words of advice to his squad: “It’s going to be hard to get in the slot against these guys and when we head down east [Windsor] and get good shots off, so let’s try and do that.”
Try they did, but Hopper’s were led by A.J. Tucker and Kevin Webb, who were dazzling at times with the way they worked the puck.
“It’s always a tough challenge, and it’s not always that a Muskie team beats an alumni team like that, but it’s a good lesson for them,” said Bliss.
Two people missing from the Hopper’s line-up were Neil Cooper, the trainer for the Muskies and a former university-calibre goalie, and Bliss, who still is known to unleash an 80 m.p.h. slapshot.
(Sean Taggart, who is also a Muskie assistant coach, did play for Hopper’s).
“I wanted to spare a few goals for the boys and I didn’t want it to be too bad on them,” Bliss laughed when asked why he chose not to play.
“If they would’ve needed guys, then I would’ve played, but I wasn’t too heartbroken that they found enough, that’s for sure,” added Bliss. “Plus it was too fast for me anyways because blowing the whistle in practice doesn’t get in you in that good of shape.”
The Muskies are going to Windsor as the 17th-ranked team out of 20 in the ‘AAA’/‘AAAA’ division, with their first game coming next Wednesday morning against eighth-ranked St. Thomas More (Hamilton).
Their next game will take place next Thursday morning against Chatham Kent, who are ranked 16th, and then they will face top-seeded St. Mary (Pickering) that night
The black-and-gold then will wrap up pool play next Friday morning against the ninth-ranked Orangeville Bears, with the quarter-finals to go later that day.
Last year, the Muskies finished 1-2-1 at the all-Ontarios in London, which was not good enough to qualify for the quarter-finals.
But 12 players from last year’s team are on this year’s squad and expectations will be high. On the other hand, they are heading into the tournament with blindfolds on because they haven’t been able to collect as much information on the other teams as they would like.
“I’d love to be able to find out some more stats on the other teams and I usually do, but I can’t find anything for some reason on any of the teams,” Bliss conceded.