No Shortage of Storylines For the OHL Finals

Will it be Kitchener, or the upstart Barrie Colts who created a little on-ice magic by storming back from a 3-1 deficit against the favoured Brantford Bulldogs being the OHL representative at the Memorial Cup? Game 1 was played last night in Kitchener and it was the Rangers who broke open a 2-2 tie in the 3rd period, winning 5-2 to take a 1-0 lead. That and the serious injury to Barrie's Joe Salandra were the defining storylines on the ice as we kicked off the OHL Finals. Leading up to the final? Plenty of meat on that bone! Lets dive in.

NO ONE CARES, WORK HARDER

If you are even a casual follower of junior hockey, or hocke in general, you know exactly what the headline means. I'll bring you up to speed anyways. Barrie, who as was mentioned above, created THE storyline of the OHL playoffs when they won three straight against the Brantford Bulldgos to shade the Eastern Conference regular season champs in seven games. They also did it without Cole Beaudoin, their best player. Firstly, the Colts comeback gave us a 7th game and the OHL desperately needed that after the first three rounds were littered with sweeps and 4-1 series victories. The way that they did it was storybook-like as they won Game 5 and 6 in OT and then put forther a complete performance in Game 7 wininng 5-0. Brantford had never lost three in a row during any part of the season and they were beaten three times at home in the series.

The story though was the post game press conference which from beginning to end lasted 1minute 28 seconds. As OHL Director of Communications Josh Sweetland lobbed an open ended question to both Coach Dylan Smoskovitz and Defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson they responded "No one cares, work harder" which has been their slogan for the whole playoffs. The floor was then opened for questions from the media and both Smoskowitz and Aitcheslon remained consistent and uttered the same five words. Sweetland quickly shut down the press conference as the discomfort and awkwardess was as real as real can be. I've had first dates that had less awkwardness and uncomfortable silences. It was a shocking and flagrant disregard for media etiquette, particuarly after a team won. The clip went viral and the OHL was forced into the uncomfortable position of having their press conference overshadow the accomplishments of the eastern conference winner. It was not a great look for the league, and the Colts and the team was rightfully fined $15 000 dollars.

As a general rule of thumb, when there is a public relations crisis the mantra is, and should be, get ahead of the story and don't let whatever the story is gain too much momentum. In this day and age with social media and things that go "viral" that can be hard to contain. The next steps taken by the Colts and their coach would be crucial. Let it go and approach the finals as business as usual would mean the story overshadows the finals and the Colts would be cast in the roles of villains. However Smoskovitz, who by the way looks like a slightly younger version of WWE Superstar CM Punk, smoothed over the troubled waters in a manner that was more consistent with his previous media interactions that saw the coach being thoughtful and articulate. The first thing he said on TSN 1050's popular Overdrive show was to completely exonerate Kashawn Aitchelson by saying it was 100% his idea. This was important because although Aitcheson is a brash, confident player (meant as a acompliment) nd a first round draft pick, the criticism he was receiving was harsh and unwarranted. Plus the Islanders, the team who drafted him, likely raised an eyebrow or two at what their potentially star defenceman was doing. Smoskowitz then opened Game 1's post game press conference by personally apologizing to Josh Sweetland and the rest of the assembled media. It was exactly the right tone and exactly the right response and now we can focus on the game on the ice. Though I do expect the "Don't Care, Just Work Harder" theme to be more prominent in Barrie as they've already used the motto on towels and other paraphanlia given out for free.

(Sidenote: I am a high school teacher and have a lot of students offer up any manner of excuses for not getting assignments in. I played the clip for the class an said that when they came to me for extensions or made excuses my response would be "Don't care. Just work harder." So....... thanks? )

WHO WINS?

On the All61 Podcast I contribute to I picked Barrie in 6 because I thought that the Colts would take the same intensity and never say die approach to Kitchener, even though the Rangers are the strongest deepest team standing. While I will stick to that for the sake of consistency, I wish I could have a do over. Barrie is without the services of Utah 1st round pick Cole Beaudoin and that is a monumental loss for them. Plus they might be worn down after the grueling seven game series they just had vs Brantford. Kitchener, on the other hand, is relatively healthy and is a hearty 13-2 (after wining Game 1) and unbeaten at home. My Barrie pick was mainly based on how Barrie answered the two big questions I had after last season's conference final exit to Oshawa in a one sided sweep. Could Ben Hrebik be a reliiable post season goalie? He was 1-4 with a 4.96 goals against average last year. This year so far he's 12-6 and stole games five and six for the Colts. Also, could Barrie win on the road after a dreadful 1-6 mark last year? Well, they beat Brantford in the Madhouse on Madison three times in the conference finals. They answered my questions and had momentum. Kitchener, however, is that damn good and that damn deep. Sam O'Reily , who will be an outstanding pro sooner rather than later, and Dylan Edwards, who is unsigned, have combined to be a real one two punch with almost 30 goals between them. Still, I've got to stay true, so I say with trepedation and doubt Colts in 6.

TSN'S APPROACH TO THE CHL FINALS CHANGES

The one thing that has not changed is that TSN has limited their coverage the last couple of seasons to league finals and the Memorial Cup. This is a departure from the way they covered the first season when they got the CHL rights when they went with the more traditional game of the week leading into the finals and Memorial Cup. The reality is the the CHL is largely a regional league with limited national appeal. I call games for the OHL so I am invested in the rest of the country but even I found myself not watching the WHL and QMJHL with the same intensity as the OHL. I get TSN's approach, but you are covering a league with not a whole lot of momentum heading into your finals and Memorial Cup. That said, it's outside the box thinking as TSN is just trying to maximize the investement they have made in the league. This year for the finals a lot of production fell on the well respected Dome Productions, and not TSN, and that is where the changes start. Differrent on-air talent was chosen by the league, some tied to TSN like Matt Cullen who calls some regional games for the Ottawa Senators as well as lacrosse, while others like Peter Loubardias were not with TSN or like David Foot who has covered few events for TSN. Gone was the traditional intermission panel, or analysis from the studio as all coverage in the intermissions remained on-site. Gone for now is Bardown. These are things that the average fan might not notice, but those in broadcasting and media nerds such as myself do notice. The thing TSN cannot control is how the series will go, and they are hoping for better luck than the last couple of years which have mainly been one-sided sweeps and five game series'. This year the league finals featured two 7 game series', two 6 game series', a 5 game series and just one sweep. There's hope for parity and a compelling final. The Memorial Cup is almost always compelling and dramatic theatre despite a format that might need tweaking (more on that in a future post!)

TSN's deal is up after three years of coverage so it will be interesting to see how the CHL approaches the deal. I am sure they love the national bump and audience that TSN provides but at the same time might seek a more consistent presence week-to-week. I wrote about the CHL as a TV property a couple of years ago, and I will be writing an updated version as things have changed in the broadcasting landscape, but I'm happy to share a couple of takes that have not changed. If TSN wants to continue to be the rights holder then that's great. Even if you're not delivering national audience numbers, the presence on a national stage is good business, though I do think there could be more structure to the deal and more content in the form of podcasts and other creative content. I am unsure of the appetite of Rogers jumping back in given their multi-billion dollar investment in all things MLSE and NHL rights.

My free advice to the CHL is for each league to strike a deal that best suits their regional audience. The leagues, in essence, would be striking a deal much like NHL regional rights in which the games are only available in a certain part of the country, or region. Whether that is with TSN or Rogers would be entirely up to the leagues themselves. CBC might be an option though they did have games the first year of the three year deal and then that was it. We know CBC is unparallelled in their Olympic/amateur coverage but might choose to focus on their PWHL, CPL and CEBL coverage as well. I'm old school in that an on-air TV presence still matters and delivers bigger audiences than streaming audiences might. I'd also advise the leagues to not forget about their local broadcasters as they provide so much value and content to the league and are the true and season long link to the fans. There's lots of moving parts to this but this is a really important deal given the changing nature of how we consume our sports and the fierce competition with the NCAA. You want the athletes to have the best exposure possible. How that looks in this day age? It's a big, big questions I will try to tackle in a later post.

IN CONCLUSION.

On the whole I love this time of year. We are hurtling towards the Memorial Cup that this year is being held in beautiful Kelowna, BC and the race is on join the hosts to form the four teams that will vie for Junior Hockey's most coveted trophy. Next year the torch is being passed to the Ontario Hockey League and Guelph. Not long after that it is the NHL Draft which serves as my own personal Super Bowl. My familly is thrilled when I go full scout mode and break down the 3rd round pick of the Seattle Kraken. All that along with the NHL playoffs means hockey is pretty much on our TV screen at home all night long. There's no binge watching Netflix or Amazon TV shows at Maison Clark when you can binge watch Ron MacLean Elliote Friedman, Kevin Bieksa and the rest of the panel and bask in the dulcet tones of Chris Cuthbert, John Bartlett or Harnaryan Singh!

Enjoy the CHL league finals everyone!

Steve Clark

www.steveclarkmedia.com