Grinding road ahead for Bulldogs

Scott Radley
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 26, 2009)

Momentum in sports is a mysterious thing that can’t be bottled or summoned on demand. Which is why most coaches hate the arrival of the all-star break when their team is on a bit of a roll and points are regularly being deposited into the standings bank.

Not Don Lever.

Even though his team has won two tough games in a row and four of its past six — and even though his time off will be spent painting his bedroom rather than a few days on the beach of Cancun or something else a tad more glamorous — the Hamilton Bulldogs’ bench boss says he’s quite excited to step back for a few minutes and catch his breath. Sixteen games in the 30 days since Christmas takes a toll. And he knows the rest of the way isn’t going to be any easier.

“I’m very happy with the way we are at the break, but we have a long way to go,” he says.

Following Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Binghamton Senators, the Bulldogs have 58 points, good for third in the American Hockey League’s North Division. That total puts them on pace for 101 points. Last year, every team that had 88 or more made the playoffs.

But when the team reconvenes for its next game — Friday in Toronto against the fourth-place Marlies — Lever has some potential headaches waiting.

To make room for the return of Marc Denis from his emergency backup stint with the Montreal Canadiens, the Bulldogs’ sent the guy who was their best goalie in recent weeks down to the ECHL. Loic Lacasse won six of the seven games he played with Hamilton, never giving up more than three goals.

Since coming back, Denis has struggled with rust. And Cedric Desjardins has been hot and cold. Though he was certainly the former on Saturday, particularly in the first period when the Bulldogs — who’d arrived in Binghamton at 4 a.m. — didn’t have their legs and were badly outplayed. Were it not for the goalie keeping them in the contest while his side was managing just three shots, the game would’ve been lost early.

Lever isn’t picky about who gets going, he just wants one of them to step up and become his No. 1 guy. The sooner the better.

“If I had two that were hot, I wouldn’t mind that,” he quips.

The other area of real concern has to be personnel.

Ryan O’Byrne has started to find his game again and he could soon be recalled to the Habs. Team captain Kyle Chipchura makes a huge difference here but has already been up to the big club a couple times this year and is just one injury to a Canadien starter away from going again. And in this, the Habs 100th anniversary season — with dreams of a Stanley Cup dancing in every Montrealer’s head — the priority will clearly be anyone who starts playing really well here is likely to get called up.

Still, Lever’s content to enjoy the respite, especially after Saturday’s effort.

Tired, and with their minds likely on the coming break if only a bit, his Dogs fell behind early and then scored four unanswered goals. The Sens closed the gap with two of their own late in the third, but an empty-netter from Chipchura sealed it and sent them away on their mini-vacation happy.
But they should be wary. When they return, only eight of their remaining 34 games are against sub-.500 teams. Seven are against division leaders, 11 are against teams with records over .600, and 23 are against division rivals. With that dance card waiting, a season that’s offering plenty of promise right now is either going to finish with a battle-hardening run to the post-season, or turn into a slippery slope nightmare like last year.

On Friday, we start to find out.