Greyhounds season opens Friday night (video)

Though league-wide the 2014-15 Ontario Hockey League season officially got underway on Wednesday, the Soo Greyhounds kick off the new season Friday night as they host the Sarnia Sting.

The new season brings a renewed feel around the team after the team finished atop the OHL’s West Division before bowing out in the second round of the playoffs against the Erie Otters.

“Generally there’s a lot of excitement,” Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe said earlier this week. “It’s been a long summer. Training camp and exhibition games are getting you back into it but you put all the time and effort into training to play in the games when the people are here and there’s a lot of excitement. I know our guys are anxious to get going.”

Although Friday’s game marks the season opener for both clubs, Keefe says the early part of the season could still have an exhibition feel at times.

“We’ve been happy (with training camp). There have been some challenges, the biggest one being the large group of players leaving for NHL camps,” said Keefe. “When you have players that make up such a big part of your team, and not just the volume of players but what they mean to us, it presents some challenges. We’ve spent a lot more time with our younger players, trying to bring them up to speed on the things we covered last season. Really we won’t start moving until we get everybody back. Then we can really get our team going. We’re still going to have a little bit of an exhibition feel in the first couple of weeks while we really get things settled.”

“That’s one of the positives from having such a large group of guys go off to NHL camps is that the younger guys get more of an opportunity,” Keefe also said. “They’ve played in more games and more situations that allow them to get comfortable and grow through making mistakes as well. That’s a positive as well as the additional practice time and time to get to know the group of new players and the younger ones that were with us last year that are back again and taking on bigger roles.”

The 2014-15 season is one of high expectations for the Greyhounds. The team is expected to be among the top teams in the OHL.

“In terms of expectations, the expectations from the coaching staff are no different than what they ever have been,” said Keefe. “We felt last year that we had a strong team that could compete with anyone in the league. Through the course of the regular season we proved that was the case. This year we feel like we can compete as well. The reason why we were successful last year was that we focused on the process every single day of coming in and working to get better every single time out.”

Keefe also said that, despite the expectations, the team still has a youthful feel.

“This is still a pretty young team,” said Keefe. “There are a lot of expectations, as there should be. It’s still a young group. We have four 16-year-olds on our roster this year and then a good young core of 17-year-olds as well. There’s some young guys coming in that are going to make an impact on our team.”

With the graduation of goaltender Matt Murray, who turned pro in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, Brandon Halverson takes over the position as the Greyhounds starting netminder.

“It’s an opportunity for Brandon to take over and be the number one guy,” said Keefe. “He’s a guy who doesn’t have a lot of experience in this league (19 starts). His talent is obvious. The Rangers recognized that drafting him in the second round despite (a small) sample to go by in major junior hockey. He’s a big guy who had a good summer and he’s as athletic as you’re going to find in a goaltender.”

The team will at least start the new season without the services of defenceman Darnell Nurse. The veteran blueliner is currently competing for a spot on the Edmonton Oilers blueline. Nurse was the Oilers first round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

“Our thought throughout the summer was that he wasn’t going to be here and he obviously isn’t here and hasn’t been here since the start of training camp. It’s been easy to forget about his presence so we’re just going forward with the guys that we have and not changing a lot in terms of how we prepare our team or how we play as a group.”

“In the event that the Oilers decide that he’s better suited spending more time with us then we’ll welcome him back with open arms,” Keefe added.

The opening weekend of the season will see the Greyhounds play a pair of games beginning with their home opener on Friday night against Sarnia before facing the Niagara IceDogs on Saturday night. Puck drop for both games is 7:07 p.m.

File photo by Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday

For a video interview with Greyhounds coach Sheldon Keefe, click here