Faceoff Factor

Otter Tracking: Turning a Corner?

C.J. "Stoosh" Jiuliante | Juniors

Nov 6, 12:45 PM | Hype this story!

The first six weeks of the 2007-08 season have bordered on the sublime to the ridiculous. Sublime has been the eleven-game winless streak that cost coach Peter Sidorkiewicz the head coaching duties, although Sidorkiewicz has reportedly stayed on as an assistant to new coach Robbie Ftorek. Ridiculous would be the fact that one of their players – 18-year old winger Shayne Taylor – was the victim of a mugging on Tuesday, October 30 at the Millcreek Mall. It’s all a microcosm of a season that currently finds the Otters last in the OHL with seven points thanks to a record of 3-13-1, 23 points behind the first-place Kitchener Rangers in the Midwest Division only 17 games into the season.

Taylor thanfully appears to be on his way to a complete recovery (more on that later). Just as positively, his Otters team may finally be turning a corner.

The Otters took Kitchener – the league’s top team with 30 points – to overtime last Friday night in Ftorek’s first game as head coach. The Otters lost 4-3 despite giving up 61 shots (a disturbing trend that’s reared its head way too often going back to last season) and losing rookie and first overall pick Ryan O’Reilly, who left the game after bruising his right knee.

The following night, the Otters headed back to Erie to host the Plymouth Whalers and also give the home fans their first glimpse at the new head guy behind the bench. Playing with only sixteen skaters and missing the services of O’Reilly, they held the Whalers to only 25 shots, including just one in the second period. The Otters led 2-1 with about 10 minutes remaining in the contest. Plymouth converted a shorthanded chance at the 9:42 mark of the third, and then scored a power-play goal with twenty seconds left in the game to win it 3-2.

The best news the Otters could receive, though, is the pending return of star winger Nick Palmieri. Palmieri has been out most of the season battling both mononucleosis and tonsilitis. It was just reported recently by the Erie Times-News that Palmieri will return to the ice this week and is hoping to play when the Otters return home to face Owen Sound on November 14. Palmieri, a 6’3”, 212-pound forward scored 24 goals and had 45 points in 56 games last year with the Otters. He was a third-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft this past summer.

The young Otters team seems to be battling more and finally showing signs of playing within a system. We’ll find out more as they take yet another road trip this weekend to Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. Those will be the twelfth and thirteenth road games the Otters have played in a season that will be nineteen games long at the end of the weekend. Suffice it to say the OHL schedulemaker probably isn’t going to be getting a Christmas card from Otters’ GM Sherry Bassin this year, although the schedule balances out later this month and into December.

Some more notes:

- As noted above, Otters winger Shayne Taylor was the victim of an attack on the evening of October 30 outside the Millcreek Mall. According to a report by Cody Switzer that appeared in the Erie Times-News website www.goerie.com, Taylor was attacked by three young males in their late teens or early 20s as Taylor was walking into the mall entrance. The three reportedly asked him for money and when Taylor said he didn’t have any, they asked to see his wallet. Taylor refused again and was jumped from behind as he headed towards the mall. He suffered what Switzer described in his report as “heavy facial swelling and a concussion” as a result of the attack.

For those familiar with the mall, this happened outside the Macy’s/McDonalds entrance to the mall, which is probably the entrance that sees the most traffic, and given that this happened between 6:30 and 7:00, I’m pretty sure there were witnesses. It also usually has the largest amount of seedy-looking people hanging around, which is why I was always reluctant to use it when I lived in Erie.

Taylor is expected to make a complete recovery, and the search is still on for his assailants.

- The Otters had recently retained the services of overage defenseman Lyon Messier. You might know his dad.

Messier came to the Otters after being waived by both the Kelowna Rockets and Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL. Messier had recently played for Texas of the NAHL as well.

His Otters career may have been just as abrupt. He played this past weekend in both the Kitchener and Plymouth games, but reportedly did not see the ice in the third period of the Plymouth game. In eight games, he scored no points, posted a plus/minus rating of minus-4, and racked up four PIMs. On the Otters stats page on the OHL website, it lists him as no longer active with the team. He may have been let go after just four games. I’m waiting to confirm this.