OPINION: No more excuses, Wolves players must produce

The inmates appear these days to be running the asylum that is the Lakehead Thunderwolves dressing room.

While the team is being close-mouthed to a man about just what led to the firing of coach Joel Scherban, it’s pretty clear some, if not all, of the players staged an open revolt, a mutiny that would have made Fletcher Christian proud.

It seems, dear hockey fans, the coup leaders gave the hockey team’s management and athletic director Tom Warden an ultimatum: either Scherban goes or we go.

What choice did the board of directors and the university have?

If a dozen players or more walk at this stage of the game, the team stood little chance of surviving. Replacements would be few and far between and certainly not of the calibre fans have come to expect of the Thunderwolves, now in their 12th season of OUA play.

Rumour has it the team threatened to cut the ringleaders loose and hold open tryouts, an empty threat given the investment of the ownership group and the need to ice a competitive team.

The players won.

Now it’s on them to produce under interim coach Mike Busniuk.

It’s up to them to prove that Scherban was the problem, that his systems were wrong, that he didn’t inspire them to greatness.
It’s time for the selfish play to disappear, once and for all.

Mike Quesnele and Matt Caria, you’re too talented to spend huge chunks of important games warming the pine of the penalty box. Smarten up. That goes for everyone.

If someone pushes you after the play, skate away. Let them take the stupid penalty, and crush them on the ensuing power play.
The Wolves have developed a nasty reputation as a team that’s goat can be gotten, and easily. Last year LU compiled 664 penalty minutes in 28 OUA games. Western, the cream of the OUA West crop, had 378.

This is a team with all the talent in the world, certainly good enough to challenge the Westerns of the world for top spot in the OUA West and fight for a spot at nationals.

But you’ve just shed your only excuse -- and still found a way to blow Busniuk's opener, unable to hang onto a 4-3 third-period lead against Waterloo on Friday night.

Scherban deserved better than this. He led Lakehead to a spot at nationals in 2010, a spot the team earned. Yes, they lost to Laurier in the opening round the following year and ran into hot goaltending against Windsor in the second round last year, but it happens.

The players may have won for now, but don’t be surprised if a number of familiar faces are quietly told not to bother booking a flight back to Thunder Bay next fall, when team officials have time to find replacements to build anew once again.