Mav to return? No way.

It’s on Fronts Talk that there’s a rumour that Larry Mavety is going to come back next season — it’s not clear that he would come back as general manager or as GM-coach.

Neither one would be satisfactory. The Frontenacs’ late-season improvement and the move the K-Rock Pot built up a lot of goodwill, but remember, Mavety is the one who dug them such a big hole in the first place. The man has to be allowed to retire, for the benefit of all concerned.

Doug Springer, I would squash this rumour as soon as possible and say that you’re looking for a new coach and GM.

 

Games 707, 708, 709 …

Sunday, March 16, 2008: Brampton 5, Kingston 3

Friday, March 14, 2008: Kingston 9, Sudbury 2

Wednesday, March 12, 2008: Ottawa 2, Kingston 1

Real life got in the way of commenting on the last three games, which is no great loss. The Frontenacs are done for the season; Nathan Moon got to 35 goals and it looks like Josh Brittain will be a decent draft choice.

There’s a lot to be done. The Frontenacs need an overhaul top to bottom. Let them know what you think; don’t be happy just with a coaching change.

 

Game 706…

Tuesday, March 11, 2008: Kingston 6, Oshawa 2

If there’s a more messed-up team that’s begging to get swept four straight in the first round than the Gennies, they aren’t playing in any junior league on this planet. For all their talent, Oshawa can’t skate their way out of a wet paper bag.

The Fronts assured that Larry Mavety won’t go out on a sub-50-point season. Now, is Mav retiring? That’s the rumour over at Fronts Talk, but already people are figuring they’ll stay in house and give the job to the long-time assistant, Tony Cimmellaro.

It’s hard to feel encouraged by that speculation. Cimmellaro’s been part of the losing culture that’s come to be identified with the Mavety/Springer regime. If Mavety is going to retire, the Frontenacs should change their coaching staff and their personnel people lock, stock and barrel, as much as is humanly possible.

 

Brittain’s stock is rising

Everyone see that The Hockey News was showing some love to Fronts forward Josh Brittain, talking him up as a possible second-rounder?

Josh Brittain – How about a 6-foot-4 power forward who will score 30 goals in his sophomore season on a Kingston Frontenacs team that won’t come close to making the playoffs? He has been outstanding since Larry Mavety took over behind the bench. Along with his scoring touch, Brittain has shown a grit and toughness that were absent from his game with Bruce Cassidy as coach …Much like Eric O’Dell (from the Sudbury Wolves), we may be underselling him in the second round, but since their teams won’t make the playoffs, we’re hopeful they’ll be selected for the Canadian under-18 team to further examine their potential.

(Some of us who have long memories will note that Drew Doughty and Zach Bogosian are listed as the third and fourth-best Canadian-based prospects — and Larry Mavety drafted Brittain when both those guys were available two years ago.)

 

Game 705…

Sunday, March 9, 2008: Les Frontenacs six, Les Soixante-Septs trois

Pass. Weird how the Frontenacs could never win in Ottawa when they had a decent team and now they can’t lose there with a non-playoff team.

Four games to go; if the Fronts beat Sudbury on Friday that should clinch the No. 4 draft choice. This is just the lull before the real serious stuff in the off-season – will Doug Springer come to his senses and change the coach and GM and who will the Frontenacs draft.

Ideally, they would take a defenceman high, but between this draft being top-heavy with forwards and players who will go the USHL or college route, it’s hard zeroing in on a player who you can say, without a doubt, would actually thrive with the Frontenacs. (Plus it’s always creepy to talk about 15-year-old kids like they’re commodities.)

It would be nice if Erik Gudbranson, a big defenceman from Ottawa, could fall into the Fronts’ laps, but Mike Foligno would have to go into a coma in Sudbury before that would happen.

 

Game 704…

Friday, March 7, 2008: Kingston 5, Oshawa 4 (shootout)

The weather outside was frightful, but the game was sure delightful, with the Fronts scoring twice in the third to force prolongation.

There’s been some optimistism about ‘08-09, since the team probably has played better than .500 hockey since mid-January. Has Larry Mavety really coached for “next year” or to make “this year” more respectable and try to quell the calls for his firing?

Larry Mavety has given the bulk of starts in goal to an overage netminder. The team leader in ice-time, Justin Wallingford, is an overager. Four of the forwards are ’88s, meaning at least one or two guys among Kyle Bochek, Andris Dzerins, Matt Kang and Kyle Paige will not come back in September. (It’s pretty rare for imports to play an overage year, and Dzerins has played his best hockey since New Year’s — when the Fronts started to play better. It’s hard to imagine that a player with Kang’s skills wouldn’t get a good offer from an ECHL or CHL team, or maybe try Canadian university hockey.)

The Front’s improved record also has to be taken with a grain of salt due to the feeling that the Eastern Conference, once you get past Belleville and Brampton, is a complete sinkhole. 

By the way, the Fronts are one point behind Owen Sound for ”overtaking” them and sliding from the No. 3 to the the No. 4 draft choice. They also have two games in hand. 

 

Game 703…

Thursday, March 6, 2008: Peterborough 6, Kingston 4

It’s really, when you think about it, an accomplishment to miss the playoffs in a league where 16 of 20 teams make it. The Petes went ahead for good with the dreaded goal in the final minute of the second period and got an empty-netter in the final minute.

The Fronts Talk gang are pretty ticked at some of the genius coaching moves. Larry Mavety decided to shorten the bench (if only he had a general manager who could give him some more reliable fourth players) and also pulled the Goalie of the Future, Mavric Parks, after a 3-3 tie through 20 minutes.

That proves again that any talk of rebuilding so long as Doug Springer owns the team and Larry Mavety is involved in any way, shape, or form is just a sham. They’re just eager to try to scrape their way by and treat being in the top 80 percent of teams in the league as an actual accomplishment.

 

Let’s cut to the chase

It’s actually three current or ex-Frontenacs (Bobby Hughes, Cory Emmerton and Justin Wallingford) who helped organize the Facebook group demanding to keep neckguards out of the OHL.

Whatever, boys, it’s for your own good. The OHL brought in visors, the world didn’t end. The American Hockey League brought in visors, the world didn’t end. There is a small point that maybe it could wait for the off-season, but if it’s a good idea and could save a player’s life someday, why wait? 

(Update: It’s on, starting next week.)

 

Giving Jimmy G. his due

Did everyone see the article in Kingston Life on the man, the myth who is Jim Gilchrist?

Said it before and will say it again: It doesn’t matter what the Frontenacs’ record is, it’s worth tuning in to Lite 104.3 just to listen to Jim call the action.

 

Spelling disaster … nothing new for the Fronts

Man, does anyone know who wrote the team history that appears on the revamped Frontenacs website? Here’s a typical grammar-challenged sentence:

The next season however saw the Frontenacs return to the previous two seasons, as the team blew an eight point lead to St,Mike’s over the last four weeks of the season and missed the playoffs.

This is on the actual website of an actual major junior hockey club. Talk about amateur hour. I have to admit, though, the level of brutal honesty is rather refreshing for an official team website:

The next two seasons saw the Frontenacs’ relocate to their familiar “last in the Leyden” spot, until a break through season in 1992-93.

Then there’s the treatment that the “official team history” gives to former owner Lou Kazowski, who owned the team for a year-plus in the late 1980s. Kazowski’s little more than a bad memory to Kingston fans, but man, is it necessary to smear him like this?

After the season, as the story goes, Kazowski was losing money and his with his shifty business dealings, Kazowski was ready to move the club to Owen Sound …

I can’t help but wonder if Kazowski is still active as a businessman and how he feels of being accused of engaging in “shifty business dealings.” It probably wouldn’t hurt him financially, but man, if you’re a businessman, you don’t want that up on the internet.

Look, no one is perfect and I know my grammar and spelling are perfect. However, the team’s website is supposed to look professional. This is amateur. They couldn’t get a first-year Queen’s stuent who’s really good in English to read it over first?

 

The city’s dirty dancing with Dougie Springer

Hope everyone saw Ken Dearborn’s letter to the editor on the Whig-Standard website, Frontenacs’ longtime fans abandoned.

It feels like the new Frontenacs fan that is being courted is not really interested in hockey per se. Hockey is secondary, almost an afterthought.

I have no doubt that first-class events such as The Tragically Hip and Avril Lavigne concerts will fill the new facility. But the major tenant, the Kingston Frontenacs, do not measure up to that standard, and they haven’t for a long time. Small crowds at the Memorial Centre were not a reflection of the arena. They were a reflection of the product on the ice. As Whig-Standard reader Brian Cook wrote in a letter to the editor (”Expect more empty seats,” Feb. 28), the Frontenacs will not suddenly see an attendance increase just because they are playing their games in a new building.

In short, I believe Springer and Rosen have abandoned the faithful and are courting an audience that will not buy an inferior product … The “Krock Pot” will attract diminishing hockey crowds as the novelty wears off … making the same 35-minute drive to park in a free parking lot, buy a cheaper ticket and see better hockey at Belleville’s Yardmen Arena, where the Bulls play, is looking pretty fine to me.

Well said, except just as no one puts Baby in a corner, no one dares speak truth and reason to Doug Springer. We’re all supposed to shut up and just bask in his aura. It’s great that the Whig-Standard is finally getting religion about the godawful Springer and Mav regime and the sweet set-up they have scored at taxpayers’ expense, only aren’t you supposed to warn people about how they’re going to get screwed, not wait until they’re screwed?

 

Game 702 of the Frontenacs Held Hostage

Sunday, March 2, 2008: Kingston 4, Mississauga-St. Michael’s 3 (overtime)

It’s obvious now. The  Frontenacs have their sets sight on catching Owen Sound (they’re only three points back with three games in hand) and dropping from the No. 3 to the No. 4 overall draft choice.

That’s got to be it — sliding down a spot increases their chances of actually getting a player who would report to Kingston and life under the reign of Doug Springer and Larry Mavety. They won’t catch Peterborough, but with this three-game win streak, they’re hot on Owen Sound’s heels.

Kidding aside, the players worked for this one, with Justin Wallingford getting his second power-play goal of the day in for the overtime game-winner. They even killed off a 5-on-3 power play to start the overtime. They were also outshot 130-99 over the weekend and won all three games. They don’t know the meaning of the word “quit.” 

Goalie of the future, Mavric Parks, who made 51 saves against Peterborough, should get at least four starts in the remaining seven games. That won’t happen. Larry Mavety is coaching for his ego and cracking the all-important 25-win plateau.  

The official attendance: 4,340… can anyone who was there speak to the accuracy of this? That is a more promising figure, if it’s actually indicative to how many butts were in the seats.

(Speaking of the draft, one of the message boards says starting in 2009, the OHL will bring in a “sandwich round” — giving extra picks to teams whose first-rounder from the previous year was a no-show. That couldn’t come soon enough for Kingston.

By the way, since Miley Cyrus has a 1992 birthdate, the Frontenacs should try drafting her… she could sing before the game, they could have a sellout and then all the parents could take their kids home. Hey, it’s not like the owner cares so long as the tickets are sold. He doesn’t even stay for entire games.)

 

Game 701…

Saturday, March 1, 2008: Kingston 5, Peterborough 2

Mavric Parks could have had all three stars. Fifty-one saves? Granted, the goalie of the future needed to get a lot of shots to make up for all the time he’s spent on the bench while the genius GM-coach was giving most of the starts to play an overager in net during what’s supposed to be a rebuilding season.

The Fronts will probably be X’d out on Thursday when they go back to play the Petes.

 

Best name in the game…

…. goes to former Frontenac Bobby Bolt. Wow, better than Bear Trapp? That’s an upset.

 

Game 700…

Friday, Feb. 29, 2008: Kingston 6, Barrie 3

It figures the Fronts would get goals from six players — how about Justin Wallingford scoring from centre ice? and draw 4,005 fans after last night’s little rant. They had their moment; who knows, maybe they can delay the inevitable tonight just a little more by winning in Peterborough.

The Petes clinch the last playoff spot if they beat Kingston tonight. It’s too bad the dagger couldn’t come on Sunday, when ex-coach Jim Hulton and local boy Jordan Mayer come to town with Mississauga.