Whalers and Bulls on the bluelines before faceoff. Photo by Keith Dotson
The Whalers were looking to shake off the loss the the Hounds from the night before and bounce back with a win. With they way that the team came out of the gate you got a sense what this team can do this season. (more…)
Whalers drop their first game of the season in OT. Photo: Andrew Mady
Maybe having almost two weeks between the Whalers last preseason game and their first regular season game was too much time because it was not until the second period that the Whalers looked like they were there to play.
Last Season: 47-18-2-1 | 97 Points(1st West Division, 2nd Western Conference)
Playoffs: Western Conference Semifinals – Eliminated by the Kitchener Rangers in 7 games.
Departing Players:
Mike Vellucci was the guest of a live chat courtesy of the Detroit Free Press. It really is in interesting read and I highly recommend reading the full transcript.
Here are some of the highlights of today’s chat.
Overall a good look into the upcoming season for the Whalers. The season starts for the Whalers this Friday in the Soo and the Whalers head back to Plymouth to host the Belleville Bulls in their home opener.
Whalers New Captain Colin MacDonald. Photo Courtesy – PlymouthWhalers.com
The Whalers announced via their twitter account who will be wearing the C for the team this year.
https://twitter.com/PWhalers/status/248146243107291137
Colin, the 270th overall pick in the 2008 OHL Draft is coming into this season as an OA. This now ends the speculation of who will take over for the previous captain Beau Schmitz.
He is a great kid and very mature for his age, works hard on and off the ice. The best is that he was a 15th rd pick of ours and has worked so hard to just make the team and get better. Colin is a driven player. –Mike Vellucci – Whalers GM/Head Coach
I am really happy to hear Macker got the C this year. He has come a really long way from when he was drafted in the 14th round in 2008. Colin and I have become really good friends over the course of our time together in Plymouth and each year he improves and shows a lot of heart and determination around the rink. A lot of guys will say he is a lot more serious then most, but I think it’s a good trait in a captain. Mac understands the amount of responsibility that is asked for from a captain. I am positive he will lead the Whalers to another successful season and hopefully the OHL and Memorial Cup. – -Scott Wedgewood – Former Whalers Goaltender
Now who will be the assistant captains? Don’t worry, they announced those as well.
https://twitter.com/PWhalers/status/248146332940910592
Adding Carreck, Noesen and Wilson gives the Whalers a strong leadership core heading into what looks to be an exciting season.
Photo Courtesy: Plymouth Whalers Facebook
We all knew the NHL Lockout was coming. Many people, myself included were optimistic that a deal would get done and everything would start on time. While it currently looks like both the NHL and NHLPA are far apart on many issues, the one thing that we as fans can take solace in is the fact that the OHL season starts this week. Without further delay, let’s get to the news.
Later this week I will post my review of NHL 13 and a 2012-13 season preview. In the meantime let us welcome the bandwagon into Compuware Arena and show the newcomers that the Whalers are worth the price of admission.
The Whalers drop another game to the London Knight in St. Thomas by a score of 3-1, and finish up their preseason play with a 2-2 record.
The Knights continued where they left off on Friday and were able to get three goals past Corbin (13-16 stops) to take a 3-0 lead after two periods of play. Nedeljkovic took over in the second period and stopped all 14 shots he faced. The Whalers turned on the pressure in the third period outshooting the Knights 21-5, but were only able to get a lone goal by Curcuruto to finish the game at 3-1. Former Whalers goaltender Jake Patterson looked sharp for the Knights stopping 40-41 shots on the night.
The storyline of both games were the fights. Three bouts on Friday only to be topped on Saturday with seven fights. Albertini, Payne, Carrick, Vanderwiel, Malysa, Sills, and Wilson all dropped the gloves at one point during the game. With this being preseason play and game misconducts being handed out with each fight, both benches got a bit roomy by the end of the third period.
The Whalers next game will be on Friday, September 21st as they go up to the Soo to open the season agains the Greyhounds. The Whalers home opener is the next day, September 22nd against the Belleville Bulls.
Whalers traveld to the John Labatt Centre / Budwiser Gardens to take on the London Knights. Photo courtesy of: @NickJ_Rocks
The Whalers went on the road to take on the OHL Champion/Memorial Cup runner-up London Knights. This is the team the Whalers were supposed to face in the conference final in the playoffs last year before being upset in seven games by the Kitchener Rangers.
The Knights built up a 3-0 lead into the second period, by some amazing special teams play, scoring two shorthanded goals and a power play goal. The Whalers started battling back into the game in the second period with Curcuruto putting the team on the board. Meurs got his team leading third goal of the preseason to bring the game within in one.
Curcuruto had the scoring touch again in the third for his second goal of the night and Rakell gave the Whalers a 4-4 tie in the third. However Bo Horvat broke the tie with 3:04 remaining in the period and giving him the game-winning-goal. London got an empty netter within the final minute of play to take this game with a score of 6-4. London out shot the Whalers 42-34
The Whalers scratches were Alex Nedeljkovic, Nick Malysa, Alex Peters, Tom Wilson, Stefan Noesen, Mitchell Heard and Simon Karlsson. While the Knights sat Trevor Wheaton, Tommy Hughes, Max Domi, Kevin Raine, Brett Welychka, Paxton Leroux, Owen Macdonald and Jacob Jammes.
The good thing to take out of this is that the Whalers are never fully out of a game, though they should not make a habit of going down 3-0. This is just preseaon play, so this can all come with a grain of salt, we always want to see our team win every game, but I will take a loss in preseason over a regular season loss any day.
The bad news to take away from this is that Mitch Jones left in the first period due to an injury. No word yet on the severity of the injury, so we will have to keep an eye out if he will be in the line up tomorrow. Sills, Miller, Vanderwiel, and Albertini were ejected for fighting throughout the game.
Whalers face the London Knights again tomorrow in their last game of the preseason at Timken Centre in St. Thomas, ON. Sadly there will be no audio or video broadcast of the game on the Whalers side of it. If a Knights broadcast is found, we will let you know.
Whalers beat the Spits 5-3 on Monday at the WFCU Centre in Windsor. Photo: Andrew Mady
The Whalers continued where they left off on Saturday. In fact they started the scoring very quickly. Nine seconds into the game Ryan Hartman picks up a giveaway from Nick Ebert and makes him pay. Meurs flipped a puck into the net on a power play to give the Whalers a 2-0 lead as they headed to the locker room after one period of play.
The second period was filled with a dominant Whalers team, and a struggling Windsor team that is trying to find that chemistry. The Whalers kept possession of the puck most of the period, outshot the Spits 20-7 and tacked on goals by Jones, Meurs (PP) and Noesen (PP). We also saw Bowen instigate a fight with Tom Wilson with Wilson landing a good number of hard punches.
Windsor did however manage to score their first goal of the preseason on a power play goal by Kirby Rychel. Ho-Sang and Clarke would add goals in the third to make the final score 5-3 in favor of the Whalers. Goaltender Riley Corbin stopped all 13 shots he faced through the first half for the Whalers. Alex Nedeljkovic made his debut in goal for the Whalers and stopped 13-of-16 shots in the last half of the game.
Plymouth has started the preseason with strong special teams play and today’s game was no exception as they went 3-5 on the power play and 5-6 on the penalty kill today against the Spitfires.
The scratches for the Whalers included Heard, Miller, Curcuruto, Rakell, MacDonald, and Mahalak. Meurs wore the “C” for today’s game.
Preseason play continues for the Whalers this weekend as they take on the 2012 OHL Champion/2012 Mastercard Memorial Cup Runner-up London Knights.
The Whalers get instruction from Mike Vellucci during a timeout.
Yack Arena was the site of Plymouth’s only home preseason game today. This is the fourth time the Whalers have held their only home game of the preseason at a community rink, and today the community of Wyandotte got to see a strong Whalers foundation take on a rebuilding Spitfire team.
The Whalers, who made cuts to the team yesterday, scratched Heard, Noesen, Carrick, Wilson, MacDonald and Nedeljkovic for today’s game. Windsor sat 11 players (Pavelka, Alonge, Brathwaite, Sieloff, Rychel, Ionin, Ebert, Posa, Clarke, Brown & Marchese) allowing a lot of their younger players to get time on the ice. Miller was wearing the captain’s “C” for the game while Whaley, Aleardi and Rakell wore the “A” on their shoulders.
Payne opened the scoring 2:16 into the game which turned out to be the game-winning goal for the night. Crombeen and Rakell added powerplay goals in the third to sure up the victory for the night.
Both Mahalak and Corbin played well for the Whalers tonight, thought I would personally vote that Corbin had the Save(s) of the Game with him making a pad save and then seconds later having to dive to stop a sure Windsor goal.
What the fans got a good look at tonight was the special teams play. Both the Whalers and the Spitfires had their share of calls against them tonight, creating long power plays and a number of 5-on-3 situations. The Whalers were able to kill off all six penalties tonight while converting on two out of six power play opportunities.
The Whalers gave us a look into what we can expect from them this season, and if this keeps up they will be fighting for the division championship once again. The Whalers continue their preseason on Monday as they take on the Spitfires at the WFCU Centre in Windsor.
Whalers On The Moon 