The Superior International Junior Hockey League is scrambling this week after announcing Monday that the defending champion Schreiber Diesels have folded.
The sudden turn of events has all sorts of ramifications for the remaining six teams in the league—from scheduling to points totals.
SIJHL chairman Ron Whitehead held a teleconference meeting with the remaining team owners last night to discuss how the matter should best be handled.
“It’s not something that I have any choice in, and I’m not very happy,” said Whitehead.
“It appears that Bill MacLaurin, the owner, is at the end of his rope, so to speak, spending his time and money on a championship team, and he’s not receiving the return back from the town,” Whitehead added.
While the move technically won’t be recognized before Hockey Canada is notified in writing by MacLaurin, Whitehead has spoken to the Diesels’ owner and said the league will “take his word for it” that Schreiber is out.
“It’s not an irrational ranting and raving in the middle of a meeting, or a penalty-filled game, or something that would upset him [MacLaurin],” Whitehead said.
“He just can’t see himself putting the effort in any further.”
MacLaurin declined to comment, saying he had “nothing to say” and would not be speaking to the media about the matter.
But in an interview with the Times back in September, he expressed frustration with the team’s struggles to fill its roster just months after winning the SIJHL crown.
While specifics have yet to be discussed, and the impact on the Fort Frances Jr. Sabres is still to be felt, at the very least the Sabres’ first game of the new year (scheduled for Friday, Jan. 4) will not be held, at least not as planned.
Obviously, the Sabres’ final regular-season homestand, slated for March 7-8 against Schreiber, also is up in the air.
Whitehead said while changes definitely will need to be made, he’s hoping the schedule could be rearranged with as little disruption as possible.
Ideally, teams would be matched with other teams to make up for Schreiber dates with as little need to book venues for new dates or times as possible.
“There’s commitments made to communities and season ticket-holders that we’ll be playing ‘x’ number of games. We’d like to [keep the same game dates].
“It may not be that simple, though,” he admitted.
Whitehead said either reducing or expanding the 50-game schedule for each team to keep the second half even could be a possibility, but making changes without unbalancing the difficulty of opponents could be a challenge.
“I don’t know how you’d do it fairly,” he said, explaining teams would be upset to get additional dates against league powerhouses like the Fort William North Stars or Dryden Ice Dogs.
“Meanwhile, you find out the guy you’re competing with for the playoffs, he just hit the lottery, he’s got two games against [cellar-dwelling] Marathon.”
A major change also might be made to wipe points earned in games against the Diesels off the books.
“Let’s just assume that Schreiber never existed this year is how you’d attack that,” Whitehead said.
“Where it could help is that, for example, Fort Frances may have lost every game they played against Schreiber [while] the team a couple points ahead of them may have won every game against Schreiber.”
The Sabres had a 2-2-1-0 record against the Diesels while the Ice Dogs and Thunder Bay Bearcats—both ahead of Fort Frances in the standings—compiled 1-3-0-0 records against Schreiber.
The Diesels’ demise marks the first time an SIJHL team has folded its tent since the local Borderland Thunder packed up in 2005—and the first time a team has done so mid-season.
“I’d much rather have hockey teams fold in July than December or January,” Whitehead said.
While anyone plausibly could contact MacLaurin about purchasing the team or securing the franchise rights to the Schreiber area, Whitehead said that had not yet happened and MacLaurin would not comment.
Whitehead also said that even with the loss of a franchise like the Diesels, he’s not concerned about the hit to the league’s credibility.
“We still have interest for next year, so we’re not moving backwards. It’s just we won’t be moving as far ahead,” he remarked, referring to parties interested in starting franchises in Wawa and Sioux Lookout for next season.
“It’s not all gloom and doom by any means,” Whitehead stressed. “It’s just next year I’d rather say we had 10 teams rather than eight or nine.”
Sabres’ owner and president Carolyn Kellaway said yesterday the team would offer “no comment until I talk to Ron” during the teleconference scheduled for that night.
“We’ll get everything organized after that, hopefully,” she added.
As for how the meeting would go, Whitehead said the task at hand is pretty straight forward.
“It’s all logistics. There’s nothing mystical or magical,” he noted. “We move on with six teams as opposed to seven teams.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
