Bell chimes in for Panthers
Zachary Bell has resurrected his career with the Pelham Panthers.
The 20-year-old forward was released by the Stratford Warriors in November and was contemplating his next move when he hooked on with the Panthers.
“I was looking around and I heard nothing but great things about Pelham so I came, skated with them and fell in love right away,” Bell said. “It’s a great group, great coaches.
“It’s been an awesome place to play.”
Bell admits he was beginning to wonder if his junior career might be over.
“It was hard being a 20-year-old. You can only carry so many and I only have half a season left,” he said. “I’m aging out. Do I hang them up? It’s a hard decision so I really I wanted to find something that was a really good fit.”
Bell has brought both offence — he has six goals and 10 points in 30 games — as well as some much needed leadership and experience to a youthful Pelham roster.
Pelham coach/assistant general manager Zac Rinaldo says Bell has added some much needed maturity to the room.
“He’s brought a calmness to our dressing room and a calmness to our bench,” Rinaldo said. “His demeanour as well, it was a new look that he brought into our team. Maturity wise, his calmness, but I think it gave a totally different outlook for our other older guys, a different way to conduct themselves.
“He came in as a breath of fresh air to leading the way for our older guys and for our younger guys.”
Bell, who named an assistant captain only a couple of weeks after arriving, has no issue with being put in a position of leadership.
“I’ve been a leader on many teams before, with a letter, without a letter,” Bell said. “I just kind of want to lead by example and just be a guy that the other guys feel comfortable going to. So yeah, I think it’s just a role I kind of embrace.”
Bell, an Ohio native who grew up about 20 minutes south of Cleveland, is taking on-line courses to prepare for life after hockey, which is looming on the horizon.
“It’s cliche, but it flies by,” he said. “It’s definitely not easy. We have like 10 regular season games left and I really want to see how far we can go. I only have so much time but it’s hard to embrace. You just have to take it day by day and really like soak in the moments and kind of lead the young guys. Leave the place better than you found it. It’s definitely hard but it’s enjoyable and it teaches you to kind of number your days and really enjoy your time.”
The Panthers have won five of their last six games and sit in the eighth and final playoff spot, four points up on Brantford and four behind Hamilton for seventh place. The Panthers host the Kilty B’s Sunday at 2:45.
“Zac and Emelie (general manager Emelie Ficht) have been talking about it’s do or die,” Bell said. “For a team in our position, it’s either you clean up your act and you make a good push or you don’t make playoffs. So I think it’s something that the guys have kind of noticed and we’ve just kind of ran with it. We went on a five-game win streak and we’ve just kind of redefined what we are as a team.”
Rinaldo has been happy with the team’s efforts of late.
“We identify where we are, we identify what we need to do, we identify the theme to our team is push,” he said. “We’re going to get pushed, we will have to push back. We’re going through a lot of adversity with penalties, a lot of adversity from the refs, a lot of adversity when we play a strong team.
“We’re playing a very good brand of hockey. We’re playing to our strengths.”
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