Pre season thoughts from Sparky

[Sparky]

Hey all,

I know that I've been just chiming in here and there and mostly in a negative way lately. Time has been a bit sparse for me lately, I read everyday but sometimes just don't have the time to post. With this being labor day weekend I just wanted to chime in with some random thoughts as I'm just sitting here relaxing.

Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

that training camp thread took a real turn for the worse. I didn't want to post my two cents because I did not want to be associated with that thread. I know we have had a lot worse, but I thought we were all trying to 'get along' since the 'wipe the board clean' incident. So, my two cents: The team obviously felt the need to close practices, I would like to have seen them because I was working from home last week and for once in my life, was not chained to a desk all day. Oh, well. Life goes on.

B p FO x, glad to have you back on the board. Now if only the fox pup disco stu would join us.

Season tickets: true to my word, my company (me) did not renew our season tickets (3). The only contact we had from the Spirit was a letter explaining how great it is to be a Spirit season ticket holder with a hand written note on the top from CG wanting us back and he would be calling us soon. Never called. Now, granted, my mother, who occupied one of the 3 seats, broke down bought 2 season tickets a couple weeks ago, which I'm sure I'll scam off her from time to time, so really the net loss is only 1 seat. But still, not much urgency to get us to come back. I will also add that as upset as I was at the non renewal of Mancini's contract, part of the reason we continued our 'boycott' was because we are expecting our first child December 1st and we're sure to miss a lot of games this season. I still wanted to send that message, but I guess it didn't matter to CG or DG.

I am looking forward to this season, and I do not think this team is in all that bad of shape. If the blue line shores up a bit, Daniels gets into a groove, and we can get some good back up goal tending, we should be ok. I am concerned about scoring. This team has never drafted a strong scorer like a Kane, or Perry (oh look both of my examples are from London).

I'm turning over a new leaf with this team now that the summer is over and I have ranted about the various managerial mishaps and minglings, I'm going to try to be positive and up beat when talking about the team, coaches and management. If I'm not, please call me out on it so I can see my negative ways and try to correct.

Watson should turn out to be a very good coach as long as management lets him do his thing (not starting the positive thing until AFTER this post ;D ) GM is up in the air, I still think he's a 'yes man'. The director of scouting better start finding us some bonafide scorers. As the only team in the league with a full time director of scouting, we sure haven't drafted like Kitchner, Plymouth and London.

In two weeks I start a 3 month project in Novi so my time to monitor this board will be limited again unless I can pick up a wi-fi signal on my notebook down there.

To everyone on this board, enjoy the rest of this great weekend and the up coming Spirit season!

[donjohnson]

Spark-diggity...i applaud that you held your word to not renew tickets even though you had like 9 other reasons not to but you still didn't do it.

I would like to sort of disagree or offer a comment on not being able to draft like Kitchener or London. One of the major reasons is the draft process itself which gives the agents/players all of the leverage and gives small or new market teams every disadvantage. The Spirit are still trying to sell the top Canadian players that they can have the same good fortune as they would have in a town/team like London or Kitchener. We have had two small victories with the American-born NCAA defectors gained this season but we have still yet to create the same effect on Canadian-born players. Basically, the Spirit and other top drafting teams are not able to draft the stars because they tell the hockey club that they are not going to report and that they will just go play in another league. Until the OHL finds a solution to this problem, the rich will continue to get richer.

[statestreet2005]

donjohnson said:

Spark-diggity...i applaud that you held your word to not renew tickets even though you had like 9 other reasons not to but you still didn't do it.

I would like to sort of disagree or offer a comment on not being able to draft like Kitchener or London. One of the major reasons is the draft process itself which gives the agents/players all of the leverage and gives small or new market teams every disadvantage. The Spirit are still trying to sell the top Canadian players that they can have the same good fortune as they would have in a town/team like London or Kitchener. We have had two small victories with the American-born NCAA defectors gained this season but we have still yet to create the same effect on Canadian-born players. Basically, the Spirit and other top drafting teams are not able to draft the stars because they tell the hockey club that they are not going to report and that they will just go play in another league. Until the OHL finds a solution to this problem, the rich will continue to get richer.

I'm not sure if it is drafting or signing that is the problem. Remember we had the best OHL drafted kid in Phil Kessel and we never got him signed. He was in the NHL at 19.

[donjohnson]

that is what i just said

[Sparky]

donjohnson said:

Spark-diggity...i applaud that you held your word to not renew tickets even though you had like 9 other reasons not to but you still didn't do it.

I would like to sort of disagree or offer a comment on not being able to draft like Kitchener or London. One of the major reasons is the draft process itself which gives the agents/players all of the leverage and gives small or new market teams every disadvantage. The Spirit are still trying to sell the top Canadian players that they can have the same good fortune as they would have in a town/team like London or Kitchener. We have had two small victories with the American-born NCAA defectors gained this season but we have still yet to create the same effect on Canadian-born players. Basically, the Spirit and other top drafting teams are not able to draft the stars because they tell the hockey club that they are not going to report and that they will just go play in another league. Until the OHL finds a solution to this problem, the rich will continue to get richer.

I completely understand this process and no one does it better than Plymouth, followed closely by London then Kitchner. Granted the stability factor here does not help the situation. But many players say the Spirit have the best facilities, and the best billets in the league. That says a lot right there. I also agree with the Phil Kessel statement but to add one small point, Phil knew he had a blank check no matter where he went and decided that he wanted the party life of the NCAA for a year or two (my opinion only). When it comes to the signing, the Bobby Ryan saga is the best example. Bobby wanted special privileges for him and his family (I heard he wanted a car for his parents to drive to every game or air fare) Spirit ownership said no way, that's not allowed in the OHL and to a point I agree and applaud that move. So what happened, OS provided an apartment in OS for his mother to stay all season and dad to come up when he could, I also heard OS gave her a no brainer job to make it all legit. This, of course, is purely rumor, but I truly have faith in my source.

The point is - about signing - there are gray areas that the team has not dared venture into yet, maybe Watson with his Plymouth training will shed some light on that with ownership.

My point about Haliburton, can he locate good raw talent? I think we have hit okay with our first round picks and pulled a few surprises out of the later rounds but all in all, we have yet to have a player in the top 10 in scoring at the end of the year.

[bpfox]

t HanX 4 tH e WEl coMe b aCk sP arKie, righting l iKe TH is huRtz mY heA d. Maykes ME f eel liKe I sH ouLd bE axIng fOr a RAnsom of sOme K inD! P ieCe

[MidlandSpiritFan]

bpfox said:

t HanX 4 tH e WEl coMe b aCk sP arKie, righting l iKe TH is huRtz mY heA d. Maykes ME f eel liKe I sH ouLd bE axIng fOr a RAnsom of sOme K inD! P ieCe

B p F o X wITh tHe PosT oF ThE WeEk!!!! ;D ;D ;D

[IGive1]

Plymouth gets all the Detroit area kids due to their connection with the Compuware program and the fact that kids can live at home and play in a great league. With Watson and now Kissel, they might some inroads into that Detroit pipeline.

[Sparky]

igive1 said:

Plymouth gets all the Detroit area kids due to their connection with the Compuware program and the fact that kids can live at home and play in a great league. With Watson and now Kissel, they might some inroads into that Detroit pipeline.

I worked with Wren Blair when he owned Kingston, he just hated Detroit/Plymouth. They would tell these highly touted american kids (not just from detroit mind you) to tell everyone they were going to US college. Then they would draft the best Canadian talent first and then 'take a chance' on the Americans that said they were goin to US college.

So Wren did it once and drafted a kid in the 2nd round that said he was going to MSU. and guess what? the kid went to MSU. He did however bolt from the NCAA after the first year like Nigel Williams did.