Fear The Boogieman!

If you didn't need another reason to fear "The Boogieman" here is another reason. Bob Boughner, The Windsor Spitfires coach has taken his team to victory in the OHL Championship.In an interesting conclusion to the OHL final the Windsor Spitfires did in fact finish off the sweep of the veteran Barrie Colts to take the OHL Title. That was the 7th straight victory for Windsor, who are looking to repeat as Memorial Cup Champions.

Where this gets even more interesting is the increasing bad blood between the two teams. After a Barrie player took a dirty run at the Windsor goaltender behind the net at the end of game three, Boughner took his goaltender out of the game for his own protection and was yelling at the Barrie coach. By all accounts he looked like he may live up to his nickname "The Boogieman" and jump the boards and go after the coach. There was also some rough play at the end of the game that resulted in 3 player being suspended indefinitely. This has now seemed to deteriorate any good feelings between the two teams. Bob Boughner, Spitfires Coach chose not to shake hands with the Barrie Coach after the series. Was this because of the shenanigans from the play on the ice or the shenanigans from the boardroom where there was a chance that there could be more blood shed there then on the ice?

At the recently held OHL Draft Owner/GM Warren Rychel made it known that he intended in drafting his son in the second round. Usually there is a gentleman’s agreement that if a family member is available in the draft that teams would let them fall in specific slots in the rounds that they were expected to go in. For example the Foligno’s were allowed to land in Sudbury and the Hunters were allowed to land in London. Rychel sent a memo to all teams with this request and all seemed fine with it, all except for Barrie. They took Rychel’s son at the end of the first round. Was this because he was that good a player or was it spite for what was happening on the ice between the two teams? Barrie has a reputation for playing a little fast and loose and this doesn’t help their rep.

In Barrie’s defence Rychel may have been looking to have his cake and eat it too and may have gotten a little greedy. He traded down in the draft to acquire more picks and better his team (that has been very good the last few years), thus allowing him to potentially get his son at an even better value. So that may not have been on the up and up either. Barrie has a veteran team that will need to rebuild and may look at this as a way to hold up Kerby Rychel for a kings ransom to Windsor in order to fast track them in rebuilding the team.

As a side note, there was no contact between Barrie and the Rychel’s before the draft and calls to Kerby to congratulate him upon being drafted to Barrie have yet to be returned.

This is like hockey, WWE Wrestling, Prime Time Drama and Soap Opera all rolled into one.
All it is missing is the relationships and love interests and love triangles to make it complete. I look forward to seeing how it all plays out regardless of how Windsor does in the Memorial Cup.

Around The Horn

Don’t Call It A Comeback, He’s Been Here For Years! Roy Halladay can now be pencilled in as the National League Cy Young winner. Since moving to the Phillies in an off season trade with the Blue Jays he has amassed a record of 5 wins-1 Loss,1.47 ERA in 49 innings - 3 Complete Games and 2 shutouts with 39 strikeouts.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see him get into the 20’s in wins with the lineup he has around him. If only Toronto could have fielded a better team in his time there. His numbers would likely be out of this world. He has even learned how to handle a bat a little bit. After looking awkward and tentative early on he looks a little better in the box and now has managed 4 hits.

The Windsor Spitfires were on a 3 game losing streak going down 0-3 versus the Kitchener Rangers then after an amazing comeback they took the series 4-3. Now in the OHL Final the Spitfires have won the first 3 and are on a 7 game winning streak and are up 3-0 in the series versus The favoured Barrie Colts. They might be a tough team to face should they advance to the Memorial Cup as they look to defend the title they won last year in comeback fashion.

Floyd "Money" Mayweather took down "Sugar" Shane Mosley on the weekend in decisive fashion. Sure he may be pound for pound the best fighter out there, and after this bout it is hard to dispute. All that is left is for Mayweather to take on Manny Pacquiao. Just to put any critics and fans questions to rest this match needs to happen. Either Mayweather needs to drop his demand for a blood and urine test or Pacquiao needs to suck up his "Fear of Needles" and just get this done. Quit the ducking and just fight. Boxing is in enough trouble with MMA on its heals it needs to keep any momentum that has going.

The Thorpedo may be looking to make a comeback in the pool for the 2012 Olympics.
Ian Thorpe was the world’s highest-profile and at the time the best swimmer in the sport until American Michael Phelps came onto the scene, and had a list of lucrative endorsement deals. He admitted in February that he had financial problems after his personal savings were affected by the global economic crisis, This was most likely his motivation for a possible comeback. It was reported that Thorpe talked to several of Australia’s leading sprinters recently about a potential return for the 400-metre freestyle relay. Thorpe retired after the 2006 Olympics and is now 27. It would be interesting to see both he and Phelps in a pool at the same time.

Talk About Comeback Kids!

Down 3-0, The Windsor Spitfires became only the third team in history to win a playoff series after losing the first three games. Windsor defeated The Kitchener Rangers to move on to face the Barrie Colts in the OHL Final for the Championship and the right to represent the OHL at the 2010 Memorial Cup. That’s right, Memorial Cup NOT Mem.Cup.

Their improbable comeback is topped only by last year’s improbable run where they became the first team to capture the Memorial Cup after losing the first two games and needing to go through the tiebreaker. The Spitfires are my adopted Western Conference team as I feel the need to like the 67’s but that is primarily a geographic thing. The Spitfires have just a wealth of notable named players that makes the team easy to follow. This is either as a result of being a good prospect or as a by-product of the World Juniors Tournament. When you can float players out like possible top draft pick Taylor Hall, Ryan Ellis (Nash), Adam Henrique (NJ), Greg Neimez (CGY), Cam Fowler Top 5 potential, Zack Kassian (Buf), Eric Wellwood (Phi) Scott Timmins (Fla) and Dale Mitchell (Tor) it makes it surprising that they fell down 0-3 but also explains how they managed to fight back to take the series.

When the Spitfires match up versus the Colts it is going to be a good series, these are both highly rated and highly skilled teams. It is a shame that these teams can’t both move on. With the host being from the WHL they get the benefit of the extra team. It would be a good story to have Windsor move on to defend their title but after such an emotional comeback it will be interesting to see how they respond in the OHL Finals.

If your teams happens to be eliminated in the NHL, maybe have a look into this series and the other CHL games on the road to the Memorial Cup.

Barrie Colts vs. Windsor Spitfires:
Game 1 – Tuesday April 27 at 7:35 pm – Windsor at Barrie
Game 2 – Thursday April 29 at 7:35 pm – Windsor at Barrie
Game 3 – Sunday May 2 at 4:05 pm – Barrie at Windsor
Game 4 – Tuesday May 4 at 7:05 pm – Barrie at Windsor
Game 5 – Thursday May 6 at 7:35 pm – Windsor at Barrie*
Game 6 – Saturday May 8 at 7:05 pm – Barrie at Windsor*
Game 7 – Monday May 10 at 7:35 pm – Windsor at Barrie*