A Tale of Two Teams

Two seasons ago, the Erie Otters and the Guelph Storm were squaring off in the OHL Western Conference Final in which Guelph would ultimately win in five and go on to win the J.Ross Robertson Trophy before falling a win short of the Memorial Cup that season.  Here we are now, and Erie is at the top of the league while Guelph still hasn't cracked 10 points for the season.  What happened?

In the junior leagues, every team will see their share of highs and lows, some more on the high side than others. Erie was supposed to fall off a little this season with Connor McDavid moving on to the NHL.  They were still supposed to be good with Dylan Strome being the man now, but somewhere along the way, something better happened.  Alex DeBrincat has emerged as a true goal scoring threat, something that was still in question after last season even though he was the only 50-scorer in the league last season. It is clear that DeBrincat is out to not only prove that his play isn't just a result of playing with McDavid, but also that being 5'7" isn't going to be a hindrance, and given that there is a precedence for players his size succeeding in the NHL, he may do it.  On the other end, Guelph is dead last with just five points to show for the season, and it's now past the first third.  Seeing the likes of Jason Dickinson, Robby Fabbri, and Tyler Bertuzzi leave to turn pro, it wasn't supposed to be this terrible.  However, this is where they are, and now, not only can they not score, they can't stop the puck from going in, either.  Justin Nichols accounts for both of the team's victories, and he sports a decent save percentage at .914.  However, the same cannot be said for Bradley Van Schubert, who is winless in nine starts, and sports a ghastly 5.89 GAA and a .845 save percentage, which was why they brought in Michael Giugovaz, who has been well-traveled in the OHL.  Of course, he hasn't done great in two starts with the Storm, but then again, the Storm are the worst offensive team with just 42 goals, which is 20 behind the next worst team in Owen Sound, who sit in the sixth spot for the playoffs as of this writing.  Given that the Storm share a division with Owen Sound, Kitchener, London, and Erie, with the last three leading the Conference in the standings, things look bleak for the Storm this season, which means they will have the first overall pick in the OHL Priority Draft to look forward to, whoever that ends up being.