Dukes Hockey
Flailing
Dukes in search of character and discipline
It was just one game. Another oddity in a particularly screwy Dukes schedule this season, had Wellington playing a single game last week. Still, they didn’t show up. When the opposition found another gear, the Dukes responded with angry words. Useless words.
It is an odd thing. Dukes teams have traditionally found ways to ratchet up their game in January. The playoffs are on the horizon. Points are more meaningful. Every game gets a bit more intense.
But not so with the Dukes of 2018. Not yet, anyway. Can they feel the Conference championship slipping through their fingers? Does it matter? It is hard to know.
Mitchell Martan has been bestowed with hockey gifts. Speed. Intelligence. Agility. He sees the game better than perhaps anyone else in this league. He leads the Dukes in points by a wide margin. Sadly, Martan is the latest to become a full member of the fraternity of the undisciplined.
In the dying minutes of the Dukes’ loss to Aurora last week, Martan chose to unload his frustration upon the referees. The game was over. The Dukes had lost. To a lesser team. The Dukes’ points-leader responded with a full-on tantrum. Abuse of officials. Two game suspension.
It was his second abuse-of-official penalty in three games. Add a spearing penalty in the Orangeville game and it’s been a bad start to the new year.
Martan lacks the size of some of the behemoths of the OJHL—so he, and his offensive prowess, tend to be the focus of their attention. He is subject to a lot of goonish behaviour after the whistle. But this is the game. It always has been. He has endured this before. He has succeeded at it before. He must find a way absorb this punishment, without taking the useless penalties, and make opponents pay on the scoresheet.
The Dukes hardworking forward Graeme McCrory takes the puck to the net, still angling a shot while falling to the ice.
The Wellington Dukes need Mitchell Martan to be a leader. They need him to be on the ice. That begins by skating away from the referees.
So Martan will sit and watch from the stands against Newmarket and Markham—a pair of North East conference competitors. Both are eying the opportunity of knocking the Dukes from their first place perch.
Defenceman Geoff Lawson will sit out the last of a three-game suspension tonight when the Dukes host the Hurricanes.
While Martan has been letting his passion get the better of him of late, some of his teammates have yet to ignite a fire. The Dukes’ second line of Andrew Rinaldi, Ben Evans and Mitchell Mendonca are among the most talented threesomes in the OJHL. They can dominate any line they face in this league. But it doesn’t happen regularly enough. They were mostly absent on Friday.
AURORA 4 – DUKES 3
This game should never have gotten away from the Dukes. Aurora leans heavily on its top line. The Tigers don’t have the bounty of talent that skates in Wellington.
Aurora had even obliged Wellington by spending a good chunk of the first period in the penalty box. On the first of these, Mason Snell forged up the ice before dishing to Mendonca. A laser-accurate wrist shot and the Dukes had the lead.
But then it was the Dukes turn to begin the procession to the box. Powers, hooking. Lugli, holding. Burridge, hooking. McCrory, slashing. Snell, holding. The Dukes made the reckless Tigers look like models of discipline.
Aurora took the lead in the second period, with two unanswered goals. Dukes netminder Jonah Capriotti was brilliant at times, ordinary at others.
Martan scored back-to-back goals in the third—a minute apart—retaking the lead for the Dukes. He had a couple chances for the natural hat trick, but it never came.
Mitchell Martan scored two goals in the third and very nearly notched a natural hat trick in the Dukes loss against Aurora on Friday. Then he earned a two-game suspension.
a response. The Tigers scored to tie the game at three goals apiece midway through the third. Then a slashing penalty. Dukes. In the offensive zone! They weren’t fighting for survival. It wasn’t desperation. It was a lack of discipline. Pure and simple.
The Tigers scored on the power play. When it was over, both Evans and Martan ventilated their frustrations upon the on-ice officials. Pointless.
UP NEXT: NEWMARKET AND MARKHAM, WHITBY, COBOURG
The Dukes host a rare Wednesday night game tonight as they welcome the Newmarket Hurricanes. This is a make-up game for the match postponed due to snow.
Newmarket is nipping on the heels of the Aurora Tigers in the North Division and still harbour ambitions of catching the Dukes to capture the North East Conference regular season championship.
Newmarket has the best netminder in the league—which is usually a good measure of team defence. Fraser Kirk owns an impressive 1.86 goals-against-average after 22 games.
When they last met, the Dukes dropped a 2- 0 decision, failing to get a puck by Kirk. The Dukes spent 15 minutes of this game shorthanded, however, enduring 90 seconds in the third period with two Dukes defencemen in the penalty box. It’s hard to compete when you spend so much time shorthanded. Newmarket has fewer than half the penalty minutes of the Dukes.
We shall see, this evening, if our hometown team has the capacity for growth.
On Friday, the Dukes host the Markham Royals, who sit just behind Newmarket in the tight North Division race. Markham, however, has won just a single game in its last five. The Royals have two strong lines of offensive power—but their back end is suspect. The speedy and agile Dukes should make mincemeat of the Royals.
Perhaps as penance for the slow-week meltdown, the Dukes schedule heats up this week. On Sunday, Wellington travels to Whitby—a team fighting for their playoff lives. On Monday they face another East Division rival, Cobourg.
What,, and Sunday afternoon games disadvantage the Dukes? Hmm, and blaming Marty! Don’t you just love Daddy owners and how they almost always ruin good teams.
Susan’s comments, highlight a point I would like to clarify. Marty scheduled the beginning of the season. The rest of the season was sheduled by someone else. My point being, we will ensure a better schedule next year. I apologize if it was all placed on Marty.
I always find your reporting interesting. I wouldn’t call it reporting as much as an editorial column , which is the beauty of community papers. I am not a huge fan of the personal attacks of these young players in the editorials . These guys are mostly under 18 years old still. Still learning and not getting paid to pay .We are aggressively addressing these discipline issues . I do not disagree with you that if we do not address these issues it will cost us not only a first place finish in the N.E. , but an early playoff exit…no argument there.Comparisons to previous Dukes teams are really not fair , as most of those teams were assembled throughout the year, adding 19 and 20 yr old peices from all over to the puzzle for a run to the playoffs. Rarely was there room to develop a core of young players to foster a grass roots foundation. Very difficult to do in this league. Wellington is doing it right now. We will have a strong core , a local core , with local connections for a long time. Patience and persistence with this team will pay dividends. There is a pipeline of quality local players available coming through the system the next five years. We will continue to build and develop while always striving for excellence. Some of these discipline issues will be corrected as we slowly change the culture and expectations of the club.
Secondly, to clear up a few things. The wacky schedule that was thrust upon us this year was created by the coach of our local rival days before his exit…Hence the Sunday afternoon games at home vs. Trenton. Coincidence, I think not. We will be able to control our own destiny next season. The inconsistency of the officiating especially with regards to stick penalties has been problematic. The definition of what is a slash and not a slash changes from region to region to period to period. Over the course of the last few years, the Dukes paid extra money to have referees from outside the area referee the local games as it was viewed there was sometimes a built in pre conceived reputation or impression of some of the players on behalf of the officials. The idea that familiarity breeds contempt. By bringing in outside officials this was alleviated in the view of the previous management. New management decided we wanted to support our local referees.Develop them and advocate for them by consenting to have local referees do our games. What seems to be lacking in todays game is the relationship and repore you could develop with the officials. Lyle Lloyd, a County guy, was a great official. He understood how to diffuse a situation .If you called into question his mother or his family lineage…yes you would get ejected.But questioning a call, even in a heated manner was usually evaluated based on the immediate situation, not based on any previous encounters. Martan’s comments to the official on Sunday were ill advised and not acceptable…we agree.However, a great official like Lyle Lloyd would have recognized the significance of the game, the frustration of the player, and the fact that a late questionable slashing call changed that game that the Dukes controlled for the most part. It was a teaching moment, not a retribution moment, which is what that official decided. Our boys need to learn the discpline needed to win championships.We are in violent agreement on that point. I am very pleased with our coaching staff and excited for the future. I am not asking for any favours in your commentary. I would only ask that you point the criticism at the team as a whole as opposed to the individuals. Thank you for your continued support.
Randy Uens