Faceoff Factor

Otter Tracking

C.J. "Stoosh" Jiuliante | Amateur Hockey (Juniors/NCAA)

Oct 5, 01:36 AM | Hype this story!

Those who know me are aware of my loyalty to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins are not just my favorite hockey team; there is no team in all of sports I follow more closely or more intensely than the Pens. They are my favorite sports team, period.

Those who know me also are aware of my love for just about all things Erie. It’s where I was born, where I grew up and where I came to know and love the game of hockey. Those who know me well certainly know there is one other team that I regard above all teams not wearing the flightless bird on their crest. That team? The Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters, of course.

The Otters came to existence right about the time I was busy swearing off my allegiance to the Vancouver Canucks and becoming a diehard Penguins fan. The Niagara Falls Thunder relocated to Erie following the 1995-96 season and were renamed the Otters. Major junior hockey was a new thing for Erie; all we’d been used to before was minor pro hockey with the ECHL’s Erie Panthers. It didn’t take long at all for the rabid hockey fanbase in Erie to warm up to the up-tempo, physical, high-energy style of play that dominated OHL contests (that’ll happen when you have ultra-talented kids playing in front of NHL scouts every night as opposed to some never-will-bes and has-beens just happy to be getting paid to play hockey).

So back in college, I read this book called “For The Glory” by Ken Denlinger. It was a book about Penn State football, and in writing the book, Denlinger was given unprecedented access to the program by head coach Joe Paterno. Why? Rather than focusing on just one or two seasons, Denlinger’s book essentially followed an entire recruiting class through their four or five years in the Penn State program. He tracked the rise and fall of a class of players expected to keep Penn State at or near the summit of college football.

I thought of that book as I watched the Otters essentially overhaul their franchise last season. Just a handful of seasons removed from a magical three-year run that included three straight division titles and culminated in the 2001-02 OHL championship and appearance in the 2002 Memorial Cup, the Otters had bottomed out. Unable to adequately replace voids in leadership and on-ice talent in the few years after, the Otters had encountered rough waters. Consistent success was fleeting and general manager Sherry Bassin was never quite able – despite his best efforts – to find the right balance of talented veterans, character players and promising youngsters.

Things came to a head in the 2006-07 season, when Bassin was looking at roster that was heavy on extremely young talent and established veterans, but almost nothing in between. After stumbling out of the gate, the decision to rebuild was made swiftly. Veteran players like NHL first-round pick Ryan O’Marra, Sean O’Connor and Andrew Hotham were dealt to contenders and a youth movement was embraced. A roster laden with 16, 17 and 18-year olds took their lumps through the remainder of the season, gaining valuable ice time but paying the price for their inexperience. The Otters finished with not just the worst record in the OHL, but also the worst record in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

Bassin, one of the OHL’s most reputable judges of talent, had his work cut out for him. There are rebuilding projects, but this was almost a total overhaul. The project was made easier thanks to in-house talent like Nick Palmieri, Ronny Rogers, Kelly Geoffrey and Josh Kidd. The acquisition of young building blocks like Zach Torquato and Jordan Skellett would serve to bolster the rebuilding further.

It’s not often that a team puts itself in a position to build from square one. Pens fans saw it in the 2003-04 season when the financially-strapped franchise stripped payroll down to minimum levels, but hoped to use it as the first stage of a massive rebuilding effort to return the team to successes it knew not long before.

It was this situation that for some reason caused me to think of Denlinger’s book, and how it might make an interesting story depending on how this pans out. Given that the Faceoff Factor staff has a few writers who follow the junior hockey ranks, I presented the idea of tracking this club through the next season or two (or three or four) of this process to see what happens.

We’ve decided to run with it because well…I, at least, have no life or anything. It’s just something different and it gives me an excuse to follow my team a little closer. Who knows how long this will last or where this will end up. And the names, faces and characters involved will surely change a bit as we go on. At the very least, NHL ’94 legend and former Hartford Whaler Peter Sidorkiewicz coaches the Otters. The only way this is any cooler is if Dave Babych is an assistant coach.

We’ll update as frequently as we can. I plan on trying to catch games as often as possible – as much as time and finances permit – on the OHL Livestream. There will almost certainly be at least one road trip to Erie for a weekend full of games and that will be a story in and of itself, I’m sure (at the very least, I get Tim Horton’s coffee out of it). We’ll get some different insight and perspective along the way, even some from Jesse despite the fact that he likes the London Knights (for the great OHL unwashed, that’s pretty much like cheering for Satan…or the New York Rangers).

And if this thing winds up with the Otters winning another OHL title and getting another shot at a Memorial Cup, just remember…the fat guy running down State Street in Erie wearing nothing but an Otters jersey and a pair of boxers? That’s not me.