Gordon Anderson
TORONTO— Keeping a bunch of rambunctious teens entertained in a confined space for 19-20 hours can’t be an easy thing to do, but prudent planning probably helps.
As the Muskie boys’ hockey team boarded the charter bus around the dinner hour on Saturday, heading for the OFSAA ‘AAA/AAAA’ championship in Toronto, it would be safe to say the 1,200-km distance is a big mental hurdle to overcome.
You know when you’re looking forward to getting into Terrace Bay—the unofficial halfway point of the ride—that it’s a long way.
But that’s were strategic planning becomes a factor. You need to be a veteran of the charter bus wars to stay one step ahead of the players.
If you can limit the amount of time the guys are on the bus, before lights out, then you may have the boredom problem licked until sunrise.
“That’s why we travel all night,” noted Muskie head coach Shawn Jourdain, a member of the long bus ride club.
“We leave about seven in the evening, right after supper.”
Once again, it all went off without a hitch.
“It was actually a nice, quiet bus ride,” Jourdain recalled. “They slept through the night.
“It actually worked out pretty good.”
So how was the bus trip for the players?
“It was a long ride,” said Muskie defenceman Davis Ross, certainly the understatement of the year.
“You just have to get through it,” he reasoned.
But there are things that can be done in the confining space of the bus. Thank goodness for technology.
“We watched movies and played on our iPods and tried to have a good time,” Ross said.
“We just tried to make the best of it.”
Upon arriving in Toronto on Sunday afternoon, the team went to their hotel and relaxed before a Monday morning practice.
That’s part of the reason why Jourdain had the bus leave a day early because he knew the legs would be like cement come practice time.
“Physically, we were all pretty tired,” Jourdain admitted. “That’s why we come in a day ahead of time and we always get an hour to an hour-and-a-half of ice time to try and get the bus legs out of the boys and get ready for our first game.”
Ross agreed. He said the guys could feel it pretty quick in practice, adding drills that wouldn’t tire them normally wore them down pretty quick.
“In practice you could really feel it in your legs,” Ross remarked. “My legs were burning after a while.”
Sluggish start
Still, the long bus ride may have been a factor in the Muskies’ sluggish start to their opening game against the seventh-ranked Our Lady of Mount Carmel Crusaders yesterday morning.
The black-and-gold turned the puck over several times in the opening period as the Crusaders jumped out to a 3-1 lead en route to a 7-4 victory.
The Muskies, ranked 13th in the 20-team field, battled back in the second period but Mount Carmel pulled away over the final 15 minutes.
“I think they outworked us,” Muskie defenceman Chris Cousineau said after the game.
“They had more fire than us and outnumbered us in the corners all the time,” he noted.
Muskie goalie Devin Stromness also struggled. He left a few rebounds out but, in his defence, he didn’t get a lot of help in front of him.
Still, Jourdain thought Stromness could have been better.
“He’s had better days,” Jourdain replied tersely when asked about Stromness’ effort.
Colton Spicer led the Muskie attack with a pair of goals, including a short-handed tally in the third period.
Nick Jourdain and Chris Bobczynski added singles.
The black-and-gold, grouped in Pool ‘A,’ were on the ice for a pair of games today, facing the 12th-ranked St. Thomas of Villanova Wildcats (Lasalle) at 7 a.m. before clashing with the top-ranked St. Mary’s Monarchs (Pickering) at 1 p.m. (CDT).
The Muskies then wrap up play in Pool ‘A’ tomorrow at 8 a.m. (CDT) versus 20th-ranked Holy Cross.
The top four teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, it hasn’t been all work and no play for the squad.
After Monday’s practice, the Muskies got an added bonus of watching a Toronto Maple Leafs’ workout at the MasterCard Centre before they headed over to the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto.
Then after yesterday’s loss to Mount Carmel, the team went to the Rogers Centre and had a tour of the Blue Jays’ new $5-million clubhouse.
But they all got something they didn’t expect while walking around the streets of Toronto.
“The funny thing was they [the players] were all pointing and laughing [at people] in the bus as went down one of the streets,” Jourdain noted.
“Then when we got out to walk, people were actually staring at us [because of dyed blonde hair] as we were walking down the street.
“It’s pretty bad when people are staring at us in Toronto,” he laughed.
Ross happens to be a first-timer to the city and said he has enjoyed everything, namely all the people and the tall buildings.
Not to mention the experience.
So, has Toronto attracted another potential tourist in Ross?
“I like it,” he said. “It’s good.”
