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BLUELINES: Battalion rebuild starts between pipes

Bluelines" is written by Ranjan Rupal, the play-by-play voice, and Greg Theberge, a former Memorial Cup winner and Washington Capitals defenseman and hockey analyst for The OHL Tonight on CogecoTV.
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Who replaces Jake? Will NOJHL First team All-Star Garrett Forrest be the man next year between the pipes for the Troops? Photo by Chris Dawson.

​During his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs, veteran NHL GM Brian Burke was often heard to say that great teams have great goaltending. 

“My philosophy is real simple,” he told Toronto Star reporter Paul Hunter, “which is build from the net out … if you don’t have goaltending you can’t win.”

It’s no secret that the four remaining OHL playoff teams have been getting great goaltending.  The Barrie Colts’ Mackenzie Blackwood leads the way with a .924 save percentage and, after allowing just six goals in four games against the North Bay Battalion, we see why the New Jersey Devils may have found an heir to Martin Brodeur’s vacant throne.

But the 2015-16 season might be remembered for the stroke of genius that saw the Niagara Icedogs acquire goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic from the Flint Firebirds at the trade deadline.  Nedeljkovic made several big saves in the second period of Game 4 to preserve the shocking sweep of the Kingston Frontenacs, and has been a big reason why the chronically underperforming Icedogs are our pick to emerge from the Eastern Conference.

Closer to home, Jake Smith’s departure leaves the Battalion’s goaltending pipeline thin on OHL experience.

Suddenly Jake Kment, 20, becomes the team’s veteran, however, having started only 28 games, will he command one of the overage spots on this roster?  A clunky .875 save percentage doesn’t help his case.  But come September, if Kment comes ready to play, has a great camp and plays brilliantly in the preseason, he might earn the job, otherwise, rest assured, Coach Stan Butler won’t be using up an OA spot for a backup goalie.

The Sault Ste. Marie product didn't have the finish to the season he would have liked allowing 26 goals in his final four starts including nine goals against in his last start against the Niagara IceDogs.  Did that finish, spell the end of his chance to return as the OA starter?  

Garrett Forrest on the other hand, a ’97 birthday, had a terrific season and playoffs with the Powassan VooDoos of the NOJHL, with a .934 save percentage and 5 shutouts over 38 regular season starts.  Whether the native of Ashburn, Virginia will opt for one, possibly two, seasons at the OHL level or preserve his NCAA eligibility remains to be seen.

Mathew Woroniuk gained notoriety during the 2015 OHL Cup championship game as goalie for the Don Mills Flyers who lost in the overtime thriller to Matthew Strome and the Toronto Marlboros.  His next stop was a bad Pickering Panthers OJHL team, mustering a 4.72 goals against with a .862 save percentage in 21 starts, while being slotted behind an overage goaltender.

The upcoming orientation camp should offer Battalion fans a chance to look at a pair of goaltenders chosen in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection: the diminutive Andrei Berezinskiy who backstopped the York-Simcoe Express to the OHL Cup, and the lanky Christian Purboo of the Mississauga Rebels.

A good campaign for Brady Lyle…

Over the course of the season, not much escaped the eye of Greg Theberge, hockey analyst for CogecoTV and former Washington Capitals defenseman, and he likes what he saw from defenseman Brady Lyle, the Battalion’s first round selection from last year’s OHL Priority Selection.   

“I think Brady handled the responsibility of logging more ice time when he was called upon,” says Theberge.  “He has excellent decoding strategies, being able to recognize passing and attacking sequences at a fast pace. You have to remember, defense is one of the hardest positions to learn at this level and it usually takes one or two or possibly three years to really pan out.”

Lyle stood out this season as one of the few 1999-born defenseman to play meaningful OHL minutes, and not just watch from the press box, or play Junior A.

“In the 44 games he played, accumulating 10 points and being a minus-4, earns a solid ‘B’ grade, which is a good foundation to build on,” says Theberge.  “I have no concerns of his play-reading on the offensive side of the puck.  Over the summer he’ll need to add 10 pounds of muscle, so that he can improve his defensive zone play, both containment and boxing out.”

Burnett sacked in Hamilton

After just one season at the helm of the Hamilton Bulldogs, veteran coach and GM George Burnett, 54, was relieved of his duties earlier this month.  With 26 years of coaching under his belt, Burnett was often mentioned as one of the greats of the game, and led the Belleville Bulls to three consecutive Eastern Conference finals from 2007-08, including a trip to the 2008 Memorial Cup in Kitchener.

Could he find his way back behind the bench?

Anything’s possible and, given the disarray in Flint, the steady hand of a well-respected hockey man might be exactly what the Firebirds need.  Or, perhaps closer to home, say in Sudbury, where his long time right-hand man from the Belleville days, Barclay Branch, is the current Wolves’ GM, having joined the struggling club last summer.