Stan Butler will deny it, but DJ Smith won’t.
That’s the fact that both teams decided they needed to add more size to their roster at the trade deadline isn’t a coincidence.
Those “big” moves were made with the future possibility of another re-match between the two biggest teams in the OHL East.
The Generals brought in four players, all well over 6’2’ and 190 pounds.
Michael McCarron was the biggest acquisition, so to speak, at 6’6” and 225 pounds.
“It wasn’t an accident that we went out and got bigger,” said Generals Head Coach DJ Smith.
On Friday, the re-match of the 2014 Eastern Conference final between the North Bay Battalion and Oshawa Generals faces off in Oshawa.
The Generals, who eliminated the Niagara IceDogs in 5 games, have a lot to prove after being swept in the Conference finals by the Troops last year.
“We felt manhandled in that series last year and as you see that someone gave me a stat that the four teams remaining are the four biggest teams in the OHL so if you have done your research you would know the big teams win in the playoffs and we had to get a bit bigger certainly down the middle that’s where we got Michael McCarron, that’s given us a huge advantage against some smaller centres, not so much against North Bay but all those other smaller teams can see in the playoffs it certainly helped us,” said Smith.
Up north, the Battalion made two key trades of its own at the deadline, bringing in Ryan Kujawinski from Kingston and Nick Moutrey from Saginaw. Both of them are well over 6’2” and 200 pounds.
The Battalion got to the Eastern Conference finals by sweeping the Kingston Frontenacs in round one and then disposed of the pesky Barrie Colts in 5.
Butler believes the re-match will be a clash of two teams that play a similar style.
“Both teams play hockey the right way, they are big and strong and neither team embellishes much,” noted Butler.
“They play a pro style game and both teams play you have to earn everything you get against them and I’m sure it will be tight checking and its one of those games where a break here or there is going to make a big difference.”
