The emotions were raw.
Not a lot of laughing and joking around.
It is one of the toughest days of the year.
Exit interview day which marks the end of a long hockey season.
For Ryan Oulahen, he is still trying to process his feelings after dropping game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final 5-1 in Oshawa on Monday night.
"It is a strange feeling, It feels like a dream," he admitted candidly.
It's the third straight year the Battalion made it all the way to the Conference Final, and for the second year in a row lose in game 7. Last year it was Peterbrough, this year Oshawa.
Liam Arnsby is one of three overagers who played their last OHL game Monday night.
He was flattered to hear his coach say he was the starting point for success for a new era for the North Bay Battalion.
"Coach Ryan has always been someone I have admired and been a great coach for me and phenomenal to the city," said Arnsby.
"This place is in good hands with him behind the bench."
Oulahen was not in the mood to dissect Monday's loss. But he did reflect on the three runs to the OHL Conference Finals.
"Year one we were extremely young and learning as we went and ran into a team, the Hamilton Bulldogs: a team like we wanted to become," he said.
"Last year it was a team with a ton of talent, firepower, that was one goal away again from possibly winning an OHL championship."
Oulahen believes the 23-24 Battalion team's superpower was the coachability factor and the group's belief and experience.
"If I was going to pick any team out of the three, I would pick this team all day long to want to replicate and want to do over again and that is what we are going to continue to build on," he said frankly.
"I am unbelievably proud of this group. It was a blast being on the bench with these guys it is phenomenal what we just witnessed here."
The Battalion made that run without star netminder Dom DiVincentiis and 58-goal scorer Anthony Romani who only got into three playoff games and returned to game five scoring twice against Oshawa but left due to injury and never played in the series again.
"One of the hardest things is to watch your team play and know that you can make an impact," said Romani.
"I think watching was really hard. Obviously I wanted to come back as soon as possible and it was a grind getting back and I only got one or two practices in before playing so it was tough and I was tired but I wanted to do whatever I could to try to help the team win and sucks that I got reinjured but I would do it again if I could."
Romani says this is the tightest group he has ever played with.
"We are brothers out there and I think it really showed in the series," he said.
"We came back from 3-0 which is pretty special and almost got it done. I would not want to do it with a different group of guys."
Dalyn Wakely, Romani's longtime linemate feels this team really believed they could get it done.
"There was a lot of belief in this group. we just thought one game at a time, one shift at a time and try to claw our way back and I think we did a pretty good job at that," said Wakely who led the Battalion in playoff goal scoring with 13.
"Yesterday we did not get what we wanted but this group fought really hard and McIvor played well in net for us and you could not really ask more of the group."
Nelson agrees. He says everybody on this team has a way to gel together.
"It is a brotherhood in there," said the Seattle Kraken prospect who scored the double OT winner in game five.
"I know going down in the third period last night we all said we are doing this for our overagers and we want to play together. There were about six guys in the room that piped up saying we are not ready to go home. Unfortunately, it did not come to that but it is a group of guys that love each other so much and want to play for each other and we all care about each other.
"For us, this is a lifelong team that we got ourselves here and I know I am going to be in touch with everybody throughout the whole summer and their whole careers checking in and making sure everybody is doing well and that is just the type of group we have got here."
