The intrigue for the Battalion on Thursday was focused on what the team did off the ice with the trade deadline looming, and it certainly stayed there when the team sleepwalked through a listless 6-0 loss to the Mississauga Steelheads at Memorial Gardens Thursday night.
James Hardie had two goals and an assist, and Nicholas Canade added a goal and two assists of his own to keep the Steelheads hot of late, having gone 6-3-1 in their last ten games. Goaltender Kai Edmonds made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season. With the win, Mississauga, who scratched two of their top three scorers, moved a comfortable 15 points ahead of last-place North Bay for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The biggest news of the day was the trade of captain Brad Chenier to his hometown Sudbury Wolves. North Bay received the Wolves captain Shane Bulitka and a pair of draft picks in return, a third-round pick in 2023 and a conditional eighth-round pick in 2022. The trade is the second significant roster move of the week for the Troops, who had first-round import draft selection Martin Has in the lineup after he reported to the team Wednesday. Has was a part of the Czech Republic entry at the recent World Junior Championship.
Chenier participated in the ceremonial puck drop with staff from Canada Life, the game’s sponsor. In a feel-good moment, newly-named captain Luke Moncada came to centre ice for the faceoff in a sort of torch-passing moment, with the two embracing following the puck drop.
The pregame was one of the only highlights of the game, with another coming during the second period when rink attendant Josh Innes drew a laugh by hot-dogging to the crowd of 1,782 after acrobatically fixing a pane of broken glass next to the visitors’ bench. Otherwise, the Battalion looked lifeless and could not get going offensively.
“We had opportunities to get pucks in behind their defencemen and use our speed. Our execution in our own end, coming out clean, is where it started.” said head coach Ryan Oulahen. “We couldn’t build offence getting out of our end coming clean and coming fast, like we have seen this team do in previous games.”
The game itself was one the Battalion will quickly want to forget. The team struggled all night to gain any traction in the offensive zone, and were undone by a number of defensive miscues that led to several Steelheads goals. Oulahen and the coaching staff took on a share of responsibility for the difficulties the team seemed to have right from the drop of the puck.
“We weren’t prepared. We’ve got to take the brunt of that. We feel bad as a staff. We seemed a little bit shocked that Mississauga was coming hard. That showed that they were ready to take us and we weren’t ready to take them.”
As for the newcomers, Bulitka, like the rest of the Battalion, couldn’t get going and was largely a non-factor in his debut. Interestingly, Has barely played more than a few shifts per period. That usage fuels speculation that another roster move involving him may be in the team’s plans before the trade deadline at noon tomorrow.
Bulitka won’t have to wait long to face his former teammates as the Troops head to Sudbury tomorrow night. Chenier will not dress for the Wolves as he is due to serve the third game of a three-game suspension after he drew a major and a misconduct for a check from behind in a 6-1 road loss last Saturday night to the Barrie Colts.