2024 Western Conference Finals vs London Knights

[aj0512]

Kaleb Lawrence and Landon Sim have both been suspended for five games.

[Bthumme]

May 4, 2024 12:27:15 GMT -5 aj0512 said:

Kaleb Lawrence and Landon Sim have both been suspended for five games.

Lawrence I'm not surprised at all. In fact if anything, it should be more, as he is a repeat offender and this was his first game back no less.

For Sim - for 5 games - that has to have been something really awful. I saw on the other boards a random tweet of a vulgarity hailed towards a Spirit player and I seriously doubt that warrants anything. The only thing I could speculate is that it was a direct threat to harm an official.

[spiritfan8]

The London HF board is beginning to rival our Facebook group in conspiracy theories, ref bashing, wishing injury on Spirit players (specifically Parekh) etc etc. nice to know there are plenty of….passionate fans…there also.

[spiritfan8]

And there’s an entry about a Spirit fan and a Knights fan getting in a fight after the game, the Spirit guy apparently getting the worst of it. Anybody know anything about that?

[spiritfan8]

Seriously? Nothing? Or just too soon🥲?

Thoughts:
Brutal no-call on the kick. Probably didnt matter in the overall scheme of things, but both in real time and replay, that was bad. Glad Bloom didnt get sliced.
Other than that? A good hockey game. London came to play hockey today, and they are formidable when they’re not stupid.
I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve see Zayne misplay a breakaway this year, but he did today. Didnt commit to either pass or shot, and LaLonde pretty much left in no man’s land.
The real dagger, of course, was the one they let in immediately after tying it at 2. A bad habit that’s hurt them several times this year.
Second time I’ve see the Gretzky awarded to the visiting team, and this one was worse than Guelph. There were some absolutely devastated guys out there, and I’ll bet a lot of tears in the room. 6 close games—just a few shifts made the difference. This will sting for awhile.

On the more positive side:
We’re not done playing, of course. There will be rust to work off, but offset by the opportunity to get more healthy.
Oke was backing up today. Great to see.
Drinkill was a genius to pick up LaLonde last fall. He was our MVP.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

Special teams cost them this series. Today’s game was a microcosm of that giving up a short handed goal and going 0 for 3 on the power play. They were better than London at even strength.

[donjohnson]

I was not at the game so I only saw it on the CHL streaming replay but I'll be the outlier here that didn't think the "kick" was worthy of a penalty. There's no middle ground on it, it's either accidental/incidental and no penalty or it's an "intent to injure" and big suspension coming with it. As much as I'd like to send another Knight to a suspension, to me it looks like he kicks backwards and doesn't step on him. Do I think he kicked him, YES, do I think there was "intent to injure...NO. So by my rationale there would be no penalty. I'm guessing I'm probably in a big minority here and that's ok.

It was nice to see Oke was back on the bench which means we'll have him back for the Memorial Cup. It will be interesting to see how the coaching staff handles that because Lalonde was very good but Oke was killing it before the injury so I'm curious if they'll go back with him to start the cup.

Tough giving up a shorty when you just can't afford any mistakes.

I REALLY, REALLY wanted to win a title this year but hopefully we can heal up and come out with an edge in the cup...we're obviously talented enough to not only be there but win it and I'd love to be able to get some revenge on London although their fans will say it's because we were rested (always an excuse).

I'm surprised Hache's dad didn't tell the refs to throw out Edwards for the stomp when they got on the headset...isn't that what everyone thinks happens?

[aj0512]

A hard part (for me, anyway) is knowing this was probably our most talented Spirit team ever, and as far as the OHL season goes, all we have to show for it is just another division banner. We can wonder how things might have played out if Saginaw got the 1-seed, but despite the result and circumstances, I think we showed we deserve to be a Memorial Cup team, even if we're now going through the backdoor. Time to rest up, I guess. Proud of the effort from the team. I do think we were better than London for a good amount of these six games; just didn't have enough puck luck.

[partyroy]

Regarding the kick, I was borderline on it when it happened. I saw it live but from the other end. It sounds like #92 stepped on a stick while trying to get up and slipped and that's what caused the kick. If true, no penalty was the right call. But I would've taken the 5 minute PP very happily.

I'm not sure I'd call it a back door entry, especially compared with what Windsor did. I don't think there is anyone with a brain (outside of some pouty Soo fans) who doesn't think Saginaw is deserving of participating.
Windsor obviously tanked to rest up. Clearly the Spirit gave everything they had to try and win.

[IGive1]

The team was not built with enough physicality, grit, and nastiness for the playoffs. I posted as much at the trade deadline. Soo takes out your starting goalie and leading scorer and the Spirit did not react. Jack Beck, who kills the Spirit, came back from an upper body injury, did anyone hit him? I did not see it. Turning the cheek may work if you have a very good power play, but the Spirit power play was a joke. Not sure which coach was responsible for the power play, but trying to do the same thing over and over with horrible results is futile. Copy London's power play, the Spirit have the personal to do that system.

Not fun to watch your team get slashed and beat up with no push back. Not a criticism of the current guys, it is not their style play. The team needed to add more sandpaper and push back. If I was Misa or Parekh's agent, I would be telling Drinks to get someone to protect their guys. Definitely need more to protect all the little guys he drafts.

[eric8199]

Honestly I'd rather not win a championship than to play the way the Soo did, or even the way London does on a consistent basis. If winning a championship means you have to go out and try to injure the other team, then I'm good making a deep run every few years and otherwise having a solid team each year.

That being said, I disagree with your assessment and do think we can win a championship without playing like goons. Unfortunately this year we teamed up against the worst possible second round opponent in the Soo, who were both a dirty, physical team, but also had a lot of skill, and it took the wind our of our sails that we needed to beat London. That added to the fact that London had home ice to start the series and took off to a 2-0 lead just proved to be too much to overcome. Losing twice in our own building was just the nail in the coffin.

I'll reiterate what was said before in this thread — there were a lot of meaningful pickups along the way that got us this far. Bloom being back has been big, he definitely played harder last night than anyone. Donovan has been a huge addition for us. Beck might not have done what we wanted him to do in this round, but he was huge for us.

But NO ONE that Drinkell got this season was even close to as important to our run this year than Nolan LaLonde. Had he not been here, we probably don't make it out of Round 2. LaLonde is by far the MVP of our post-season this year. He stepped up when he had to, made some huge saves, and the games we lost were not due to him. Excellent pickup. No clue who I want to see in net during the Mem Cup, because LaLonde has been outstanding, but so has Oke and I feel like it's Oke's spot. We'll see what the Spirit staff decide.

[Bthumme]

I'd imagine both goalies get at least one game to play. It will be interesting to see how it plays out especially if London wins.

If London does win, I suspect we see Lalonde / Oke / Lalonde -- TBD. If London does not win, I think we see Oke / Lalonde / Oke -- TBD.

[IGive1]

Not suggesting play like goons, perhaps something between turning the other cheek and playing like goons. Regards to goalies, I think one of them will be an O/A next year, since they don't have another goalie ready. Perhaps they get one in the Import Draft.

[donjohnson]

May 6, 2024 12:30:34 GMT -5 IGive1 said:

Not suggesting play like goons, perhaps something between turning the other cheek and playing like goons. Regards to goalies, I think one of them will be an O/A next year, since they don't have another goalie ready. Perhaps they get one in the Import Draft.

With Lalonde being signed, I think it's more likely that Oke is back but goalie is a tough position to get at the next level so it's possible that both are in the OHL next season. Certainly a team would be interested in both of them for trades since they've both shown they can be top goalies in the playoffs.

[aj0512]

I recall reading on MLive a while back that Oke was getting some contract offers. I think both Oke and LaLonde are both OAs next year (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps one might land on an ECHL team next year (similar to T-Bone Codd). Honestly wouldn't be surprised if both are back or if both are gone next year. Part of me thinks LaLonde will be back if Columbus thinks he could get more playing time here.