Never a Good Sign

By Andrew McGilligan

SN Staff

Here’s a rule for hockey teams: if you’re resorting to gimmicks, you’re done.

The Sea Dogs will take on the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in Round 2 of the QMJHL playoffs, after the Drakkar completed a surprising sweep of the Victoriaville Tigres.

When did people realize this series was over? I would suggest before the opening faceoff of Game 3 when the Tigres decided to come out and stretch in the Mighty Ducks flying V formation in the warm up.

Baie-Comeau players responded by simply staring them down at centre ice. I’m not sure what the V was supposed to do, but I’m sure it did not have the desired effect – the Drakkar won 8-2 and took a stranglehold 3-0 lead in the series, winning the series the following night in overtime.

If you’re resorting to warm up gimmicks to get pumped for a game, then you’ve already lost. Being down 2-0 should have been enough motivation, no one should have even been thinking about how to uniformly stretch.

If you’re thinking about that type of thing and not what you have to do to win, then the game is over before it starts.

The Titan did this a few years ago, stretching in the shape of a T before some playoff games with the Sea Dogs – they lost the series in six games.

To recap, in the playoffs winning should be top of mind, formation stretching should not even occur to you.

Here’s the video: