It is eleven games and counting for the Kingston Voyageurs. So who could blame them if they are absolutely giddy with visions of repeat champions again this year.
Their 136 minutes in PIMS is a best in the league and one reason why they are where they are. In fact, if you look at PIMS solely, you will see the top three teams have the least penalty minutes. 2nd place Georgetown and 3rd place Oakville have 205 and 203 minutes best in the league behind the Vees' total.
Only 13th place Huntville have fewer than Georgetown and Oakville with 184 but it has not translated into a great deal of success for the Otters this year.
That gives you the chance of fully utilizing your bench without wearing out certain players on the penalty kill while others cool off.
Now that the Vees are a loftily ranked 2nd in the country's CJHL rankings most recently released, there is much to admire about the defending league champions.
But PIMS' totals, an 11 game unbeaten streak and a high ranking among teams in the country does not necessarily mean the Vees are shoe-ins to roll along unchallenged.
But a closer look reveals the Vees rely on their backend for some of their scoring. Not that there is anything wrong with that but a reliance on your defence to provide some of the team's offensive spark cannot be a good thing. Two of the top six scorers on the team are defencemen in Christmas and Crawford.
Kingston Voyageurs
89 Melancon, Tyler 18 points
5 Christmas, Kevin 17
15 Laliberte, Craig 16
19 Higgs, Brock 16
20 Burton, Jarrett 9
11 Crawford, Corbin 9
Forward Laliberte and defenceman Christmas have 2 and 3 game-winning goals between them accounting for half the team's output in wins.
While it speaks well for the progress of last year's players contributing to the overall success of the Vees this year, the acquisitions have not made a significant impact in terms of offensive production.
Four of the top six are players who played here last year in Christmas, Laliberte, Higgs and Burton. It should be said that this is what is expected of them this year as significant contributors to the team with another year's experience under their belt.
What is troubling is that only Melancon and Crawford of the team's new acquisitions have really had significant input to the Big Red Machine's offence.
But it could be said that offensive production is not always the determining factor in a team's success.
A team can have some very good players but that in itself does not make a good team.
While this team just might be better than last year's team at this point, Coach Robinson bristles at comparisons of the two. Last year's team got better and better once they figured out how they could best execute their games to suit the overall plan of winning. Last year's team also had some significant pickups along the way that made them a better team in Chabot, Christmas and Walsh.
Robinson put away his championship ring and is concentrating solely on this year's edition of the Vees. And rightfully so.
Here is a man who was often crucified by his detractors for being too volatile behind the bench and losing his players in the process. But he has learned to coach in those years when he did not have the best players available to him.
That quality has served him well.But he would be the first to tell you that this game of hockey is indeed, a players game. It is the players who have to have both the talent and the willingness to execute on the ice. For anyone who saw the CFL's football game on Thanksgiving weekend, the coach made the right call,triple-team coverage, assigned the right players to cover Lion's receiver GeRoy Simon but that was as far as it goes for coaching.
Edmonton's defensive backs covering Simon were there, two of them bumped into each other and the other fell down after he saw Simon catch a long bomb and begin his scamper into the end zone with the winning touchdown.
A coach can make the right call, use the correct player deployment but is all up to the players themselves, to execute.
So as the Vees head into games against the lowly Bramalea Blues and the struggling Huntsville Otters, it looks good on paper to make it thirteen without a loss.
But the Vees have won five one goal games this year of their 11 and everybody knows the other team always brings their "A" game to play the champion.
The same will be true of this weekend.
The law of averages has it that the Vees have to lose sooner or later. In fact, it might be a real good idea if they do this weekend. It might serve well to tell this team, as a whole, that maybe they are not as good as they might think they are right now.
Nothing gets your attention than losing once in awhile to get your attention. To make one realize that this team is still a work in progress no matter how often owner Gregg Rosen, Director of Hockey Operations Kory Cooper, GM Dave Emmons, head scout Denis Duchesne and coaches Robinson, Goulet and Foster might tell them.
It all sounds like a moot point when the team keeps winning but some of it has come as a result more of good fortune than good execution.
True, the good teams are more often lucky than not, but even luck has a way of switching allegiances very quickly.
Just ask the Calgary Flames. They opened the young NHL season with 4 straight wins and now have lost 3 in a row.
The Vees would do well to work on minimizing turnovers inside their own blueline and the neutral ice if they want to improve their team game.
And those 11 returning players should remember all very well, how humbling an experience it was last year in the RBC when those powerhouse teams Vernon, Victoria and Humboldt teams reminded them that there is, indeed, always somebody better than you.
And if those eleven guys can impart what they learned of that humbling experience to those who were not there last year, it will go a long ways to taking this team where it needs to go to repeat another League Playoff championship.
Stay tuned.
Wayjoy
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