In playoffs that so far have been bereft of major upsets the Cobourg Cougars, seventh place finishers in the Central, find themselves in a game seven situation in Markham on Monday night. The Cougars finished 31 points and five positions behind the second-place Waxers in the regular season. Undaunted by this they took game one at home 7-4 but then proceeded to lose the next three being outscored 9-4 in the process. Game five was a turning point as they stole one in Markham 3-1 and then followed it up with a 4-1 win at home to set up the final game. Goalkeeper Mathieu Cadieux has a .945 save percentage to date in the playoffs. The Oshawa native played 23 games this season with Peterborough before coming to the Cougars where he played 10 times.
An alarming statistic in this series is the lack of success of the Markham powerplay which in the regular 53 games ran at a remarkable 24.77 percent, the third highest in the League..only Couchiching and Wellington were better..and now in the playoffs it stands at 8.11 percent..only Burlington of the current playoff-involved teams has a lower success rate.
Patrick Jobb led the Cougars with 76 points in just 48 games and continues to be the point leader in the series. Matt Singleton who finished with three points less than job has kept up the momentum in the playoff. He has six points as does Adam Place who came over from the Wings and got himself 17 points in 20 games in regular season action for Cobourg. After connecting just seven times in the regular season blueliner Lawton McCracken has posted three in the series including a game winner.
On the other hand some of the Waxers' leaders during the course of the season have struggled for points, notably Shane Ferguson, who has just three in the six games and Bryan Potts who lit the lamp 48 times but has been held pointless in the series. Another regular season big gun Giancarlo Iuorio who tallied 69 points has not been able to play as yet in the series but veterans Kevin Hudes and Marc Zanette have picked up the slck in the scoring department.
Any way you look at it Monday night's game should attract the biggest crowd of the season to the Centennial Centre.
Any comments or more info from Waxer or Cougar fans would be appreciated.
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The real Shane Ferguson has appeared.His phantom assists may have caught up with him lol. Amazing stats this year, but take a look at his career stats. He has always been a good third line player but never put up #'s like this before(especially the assists). If the Cougars advance there will be alot of people "eating crow".
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After attending all 6 games. I can tell you Cobourg is out working the Waxers. Cobourg is winning all the battles and wants this series bad.
Cobourg made 2 great acquisitions before the trade deadline. Adam Place and Mathieu Cadieux. It seems to have help gel this team to believe they can win any game,anytime. Some players just make the people around them better, how could Hamilton and Peterborough let these kids go? I believe Cobourg should win this series and they deserve it.
As far as Hudes, he had it out with the coach and was told not to return. ( I was told )
Go Cougars, Go !!!!
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What has happened to Potts?..I saw him several times and he always looked like a top notch player..in fact I remember one of his goals..actually in the shootout..was nothing short of spectacular.
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The other Monday night game features the Raiders who are looking to make it 2-0 over the Vipers Of Vaughan..the city above Toronto..but it will not be easy there for Georgetown though they should get through 5-4.
Can Cobourg pull of the shocker? I think this will be close too but I'll forecast the Waxers 5-3 but I would not be surpised to see the Cougars advance depending on the availabilty of Markham vet Kevin Hudes.
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The Cougars are a hard working, disciplined and focused organization from top to bottom. In this case, it literally starts at the top. Here are the lessons as I see them based on my observations of watching this organization from outside Cobourg and with no direct connections to it - past, present or future.
As you may recall, 2007 involved a change in ownership ... A local contingent with strong hockey knowledge and connections was re-installed after being absent for a few years. These local governors are highly successful individuals in their own right, but they are also very involved in minor hockey, the development and evolution of hockey and a myriad of other public initiatives, which includes assisting Cobourg with the development of a new stat of the art multi-use, multi-generational rec centre which will include at least 2 NHL-sized rinks.
After a series of strategic but much needed staff changes, Perry Bowles and Wayne Marchment were brought in to work with the governors as GM and Head Coach, respectively, and Bob Duignan was formally installed as director of hockey operations. Nick Nowack a local upstanding citizen and former Cougars captain Brad Whelan (who played with current NHL stars Randy Jones and Justin Williams in Cobourg) were brought in to help re-build the organization and to install all of the necessary ingredients for achieving principled success.
With the organizational structure in place, this team developed a 3-5 year strategic plan. While the strategic plan contained the usual mission statements, vision and core values, it also set forth a blue print of sorts that was built on consensus and with a manageable and responsible budget. Public meetings were held, with the press present, to introduce the new direction and I understand the organization has been fully transparent in sharing its plan with anyone who has been interested in seeing it. While some teams in the OPJHL worked hard at thwarting the formation of the Central Division, this organization worked hard off-season on the development and implementation of this new-found professional and focused approach for its own organization, as well as the development of the Central.
The organization realized that, while its roster was not laden with superstars - a curse for some teams sometimes - it needed to gel as a TEAM and that it would be required to work hard. While the organization invested in technology - video equipment and other technology aids - it was good old-fashioned work ethic and ice time that has brought this team to a new level. Technology and talent are great, but being on the ice 6 teams/week allowed this team to work, practice, develop and play as a TEAM. The last-time I checked, hockey remains a team sport.
This organization has gone the next mile to re-acquaint itself with the community. Strong community relations requires a strong and diverse sponsor base, an excellent volunteer base, excellent minor hockey relations and even a strong relationship with the guy who runs the rink. Cobourg seems to have all of this in place and that only comes about through active community involvement and hard work. Whether having its players help a school and its students during a time of great tragedy, being involved in minor hockey skills development sessions, helping kids with their reading at public library sessions and a myriad of other activities, success within the community requires focus, dedication and attention.
Building a strong organization requires a commitment to being principled, teaching goodness, discipline and knowledge and leadership - all qualities that are needed for success off the ice and on it. This team took a lot of abuse (as did some of the other CD clubs for letting Cobourg "in") for being one of the founding fathers behind the much maligned CD - but those who get it really get it and absolutely love what this 1 season has done for the advancement of junior A hockey in Ontario. This team helped develop the rules - indeed it was one of the real leaders - and lived by them, at times even to its on-ice detriment. Building a successful and respected organization requires commitment, active engagement and principled leadership. This organization plays by the rules in all respects and is respected by its peers as a result.
Through a year of turbulence and adversity, this organization has stayed remarkably humble and has avoided becoming engaged in the usual public banter and irrational and primitive forms of chest-beating that the likes of SMC57 have regrettably made a personal mission so common. This to me is comforting and refreshing to see. By all accounts, this team has become a real leader with junior hockey and that only comes to those who treat others with respect and are willing to work hard.
In summary, my observations are as follows:
1. In order to build a strong community-based organization requires a connected and highly involved and respected community ownership group.
2. Bring in strong and principled hockey folks with impeccable credentials and respected reputations, predicated on records of past and well-earned successes.
3. Work hard at defining what you want from your organization in terms of developing and maintaining clear goals and objectives, how you want for it act to be perceived and judged, give the on-ice guys the ability and indeed the tools to implement the plan without ownership interference or second-guessing and stay focused on the longer-term goals.
4. Development and success means ice-time and more ice-time for your players, coupled with the use of technology to augment teaching, skills development and game preparedness and be sure to have in place great coaching.
5. Build an organization comprised of players, coaches and front office who share the common values of understanding the community and practicing what they preach in that regard.
6. Say what you are all about in clear and unequivocal terms as an organization and stick with it without deviation and most of all resist the temptations that so many succumb to which include without limitation the payment of salaries to players and introducing other cancerous aspects to team environments that only lead to despair and misguided goals and objectives.
7. Do not be afraid to develop young players as an integral part of your organization's plans - there will be some challenges along the way, but you will be extremely satisfied with the results, especially in the play-offs.
8. Remain focused and do not engage in disrespectful activities or word wars. Such activities can remain beneath you and will not require you to defend decisions or engage in other very negative and acidic navel gazing.
9. Have fun and remember hockey is still just a game and in this case involving impressionistic adolescents and very young men at a critical time in their lives. Remember it's about development and not engaging in an arm's race of self-destruction.
By all accounts and regardless of the outcome of the Cougars' 7th game against the formidable Waxers, many can learn from the Cougars, what they have done in the past 12 months and what they are poised to do in the future - all consistent with this TEAM's MASTER PLAN.
Go Cougars Go and thanks for all that you have done for Junior A hockey in Ontario this season!
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Wow "muskokamangler" what a beautiful article of describing how Junior hockey is "suppposed" to operate! Somewhere along the way many of us have lost sight of what this level of hockey is all about! There are far too many issues for me to reference in your submission, I will however address two of your appropriate comments.
When you say that "This organization has gone the next mile to re-acquaint itself with the community" ...... how many organizations within this league can claim that distinction today? Teams are more likely to pack up their belongings and skip town as what happened in my hometown of Streetsville rather than consider the well being of the community! The "it's all about me, screw the foundation of what was established decades ago" seems to be the norm today!
Perhaps once these millionaire owners have breast fed their kids through this segment of their life they'll move on and hopefully a local business will pick up the shredded fragments of the Westwood, Humber, Etobicoke Derby's and bring them home, where they should be in Streetsville and restore this once very proud franchise to its solid foundation!
The other comment that immediately jumped out at me was; "Development and success means ice-time and more ice-time for your players" ..... How many teams today are in this for the immediate glory under the guise that this is a "development year", that "we're re-building for next year" scenario?
With that philosophy in mind they run two lines into the ice while the bench warmers feel further removed from that "TEAM" environment that the coaches bestowed upon the organization in September!
Having played on a few Championship "TEAMS" , we understood that every player has something to offer his comrades or else he wouldn't be there! It's the coaches responsibility to utilize "ALL" of his resources for the betterment of entire organization, as opposed to fulfilling his own self serving objectives!
You have nailed it on the head "muskokamangler" with your comments and have captured the literary wizardry that I'm not capable of expressing! Well done and thankyou for expressing what it is to be part of a "TEAM" as opposed to being a third or fourth line player who never has the opportunity to develop because of an owners/coaches selfish objectives!
And to think, all this time I thought that "WE" were a "TEAM" and that this is "development" hockey, how foolish of me!
This message has been edited by THAYWARD on Feb 24, 2009 8:09 AM
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Stars fan, Adam Place is just one of many players Hamilton has let go that have turned out to be great players elsewhere. Thats why we are NOT playing hockey but watching it AGAIN!
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Good series for the Cougars but it looks like it may be coming to an end as the Waxers lead 3-0 with just 12 minutes left in the third. Taylor Murphy two for Markham and Daniel Jones stopped 13 in each of the first two periods.
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You might well say that if the Cougars had a sinking feeling in game seven in Markham that it was in part due to Waxers' forward David Titanic who assisted on Murphy's first two goals and scored the third one himself. Blueliner Jordan Mustard completed the scoring in the third for a 4-0 Markham victory. Daniel Jones stopped 44 overall.
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