IceDogs ready to prove naysayers wrong
Owen Flores is scheduled to start for the Niagara IceDogs Friday when they open the 2024/25 OHL season in Ottawa. Photo: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs don’t mind being underdogs this season.
The IceDogs head into the 2024/25 Ontario Hockey League season with high hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since the 2019/20 season, even if the pre-season OHL power rankings opine otherwise.
The rankings have the IceDogs rated 18th in the 20-team league, something Niagara coach Ben Boudreau took great umbrage with.
“As a Niagara resident, especially growing up here, that fuelled the fire,” Boudreau said. “I’m pissed off to see that, but at the same time it’s motivation and it’s bulletin board material, which is why I posted it up there.
“If we can find a reason to inspire them every single day and keep them accountable for what our common goal is of making the playoffs is, we’ll use whatever we can, and that’s just a little bit more fuel for the fire.”
Boudreau said he has been cracking the whip in practice recently to set the tone and get the team ready for Friday’s opener in Ottawa.
“You can tell by the effort level and the energy in practice that there is respect mutually both ways,” he said. “I think the people that are on this team right now are all here to prove themselves, but I think collectively as a group we’re here to prove everybody wrong, that we can can be good collectively, that we do have things going in the right direction.
“I think it’s gonna be really big as an organization to have success, which means make the playoffs, and we’re not going do it just talking about it. You gotta walk the walk, so there’s challenges being issued every day to come together as a team and play as a team.”
Boudreau said the entire roster will be at his disposal for the opener, with the exception of captain Gavin Bryant and defenceman Andrew Wycisk, who have yet to be cleared to play.
“I can’t wait, this is where this is where it really starts,” he said. “You can’t afford to start the season late, so we have to make sure that we’re ready.”
Following is a position by position look at the 2024/25 IceDogs.
GOALTENDING (2)
Owen Flores (OA), Charlie Robertson.
“On any given night, they’re going to give you a chance to win,” Boudreau said. “They’re no longer just learning what it takes to play in the league. They have expectations for themselves and to be surrounded by some better players in our lineup, I think they’re going to thrive.
“Both of those guys, as older goaltenders, are going to want to play. We’ll start with Flores Friday, but it’s up to him to keep the pipes because he’s got a 19-year-old healthy Charlie Robertson that wants to push for his job at the same time.”
DEFENCEMEN (9)
Noah Van Vliet (OA), Jack Brauti, Callum Cheynowski, Blair Scott, Darcy Dewachter, Matthew Virgilio, Andrew Wycisk, Nick Frasca, Joey Wassilyn.
“I think everybody needs to have a different role on the team. It takes a few different ingredients to make a successful recipe and it goes the same thing for the hockey players,” Boudreau said. “Van Vliet doesn’t come in expecting to run the power play and score many goals, but his influence as an overager, the stability on the ice and his dependability not to get scored on, is a huge role. To put him with a healthy offensive player that can count on always being back there, I think is huge. We have to find the same thing for the other four guys that are going to play every single night.”
FORWARDS (14)
Alex Assadourian, Kevin He (Winnipeg), Ethan Czata, Mike Levin, Gavin Bryant (C, OA), Rafek Dianov, Max Crete, Ryan Roobroeck, Andrei Loshko (Seattle, OA), Sean Doherty, Mathieu Paris, Braidy Wassilyn, Masen Wray, Ivan Galiyanov.
“When you look at four lines, you have an identity with every line and you’ve got a healthy captain that still isn’t even in there so he’ll bolster our group when he comes back,” Boudreau said. “You look at our top line right now with our oldest players. Loshko is an overager, a top-notch centre who should be ready to dominate and you put that with a healthy Kevin He and Mathieu Paris, that’s something that we didn’t have last year. You follow that up with Ryan Roobroeck, who scored 28, and Ethan Czata and Braidy Wassilyn, who’s just all world class. It goes on. Your third line has an identity, your top two can score on any given night. You’ve got six good defencemen, two great goalies.
“We’ve run out of excuses not to be a successful hockey team. And as a head coach, I’m charged with getting all of them on the same page in the same direction and having them all accountable and buying in. Changing the culture doesn’t happen overnight. You have to live it and breathe it every single day.”
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