I will say it sure is odd that Sid is not a part of the All Star lineup but does it bother me...no. Although he's heated up of late thankfully his numbers were downright abysmal in Oct/Nov....and yep the time off should work wonders for him....
Without doubt London is the monster of the OHL, followed closely by Oshawa (currently in a rebuilding mode after that Mem Cup), Kitchener, Ottawa, and Windsor....Erie certainly is the class of the American based teams, Saginaw has never really managed to put any consistency together and Plymouth (essentially Detroit) has marched down the road to Flint. I think it's no co-incidence that the overwhelming majority of the powerhouse teams have facilities that seat between 6-8000 and are usually close to capacity most nights. Compare that to the Petes renovated old barn that sits 4000 and is usually 3/4 capacity and that's quite a difference. A consortium came to Peterborough 3 years ago offering to purchase the team (it is currently still community owned), and build a state of the art 6000 seat arena. The debate was a passionate one and the team sale was rejected....'they'say the Petes /Generals rivalry is one of the biggest in all of hockey, I think it's still a great one but was huge back in the 80's/90's. One thing will NEVER change , I HATE the Gens more than any other team in any sport. I live smack dab middle between Peterborough and Oshawa, and I'm probably outnumbered by Gens fans 4 to 1? Which makes life with my neighbours fun lol...
I'm unsure if the Petes still own the distinction of graduating the most players to the NHL? If they do I'm pretty sure some team will catch them soon...perhaps London...as I say the Hunter clan has built a monster there....
Those names are something else eh? There are banners all over the arena celebrating all the past greats. Bowman, Roger Neilson, Colin Campbell in coaching. And yes Pronger, Stevie Y, Larry Murphy, The Staal bros , Redmond, Begosia....I could go on for hours happily!
To say I was overjoyed when Jordan Staal became a Pen would be an understatement. ...however I understood when they had to trade him at the time...he was my fave Pete all time.
I dont recall Asshat Kassian engaging with Asshat Jenner really and it may be that age difference you mention...
Oh one other thing you may or may not know....The Petes were essentially the Canadiens farm team of youth back in the day and the Generals the Bruins! Both NHL clubs had ownership interests in these 2...50's and 60's from what I remember?
7-2 Petes the other night...they can score it's the D that needs work...how familiar lol....anyway enough ramblings from me for now....
Man, I
loved this post......
I'm far more interested in the O (and to a lesser extent, the Q and W) than ever before since the Draft.....and hence, the Major Juniors.....has become a pretty common topic of discussion on NHLN Radio. And exchanges with you give me perspective I'd otherwise never have.
I did see that Zach Bogosian was a Petes alum, but missed the fact that Larry Murphy was as well (only a small handful of players
ever in the League with a better NHL resume than his). I'm familiar with the Kitchener name (Rangers, right ??) but I honestly couldn't name a single NHL'er from there off the top of my head.....though I'm sure I'm familiar with plenty of them.
I also didn't know the Petes more or less "belonged" to the Canadiens.....though I assume all their great French players came from the Q. But the Oshawa connection to the Bruins makes sense, as I believe that's where Bobby Orr played as a Junior. BTW, I also forgot that's where Lindros played; that's reason enough alone to despise the Gens. Also, does that mean Kitchener belonged in those days to the NY Rangers ??
I've often wondered how the Major Juniors drew; I thought I've heard in the past that London draws upwards of 10K/game (not sure the exact number). With all the news over the past few years about the Hunter interests owning the Knights, I guess I assumed
all the teams were "privately" owned these days. But as a municipally owned organization, are the Petes now the exception or the rule in the O ??
One more question for now......and I don't mean for this to sound stupid......but the players in the O (and Q and W)
are paid-to-play and under formal contract, right ?? Not sure what most uninformed (probably the best description for yours truly) Americans know or think about the Major Juniors......and while US college players obviously are
not paid, they're playing under full scholarship.......but I have no clue what a typical kid earns.
I also assume money remains the main reason why a majority of top NA (and foreign) players still come from the Juniors rather than the colleges (who I guess are now attracting most of the US kids). Presumably, Conner McDavid was easily the highest paid player in the O (and perhaps in all the Juniors) last season, but I have no clue how much......do you ??
for an interview on Monday. Meanwhile, I couldn't agree with you more about McCaffrey; he's an incredibly impressive player. How the kid seems to find so much open field when he's got the ball in his hands is hard to believe.![[roll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif "roll [roll]")
..... is thinking.
![[thumbsup]](https://res-1.cloudinary.com/rivals/image/upload/tpajusiw2imufeahiuam.png "Thumbs up [thumbsup]")
