OHL North Bay Battalion

Battalion Schedule Turns Toward Home

Published on December 27, 2013 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - With 33 games left on the schedule, the North Bay Battalion is ready to return to action, primarily at home, after the Ontario Hockey League ' s Christmas break.

The Battalion, with a won-lost-extended record of 18-15-2 for 38 points, third in the Central Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference, visits the Sudbury Wolves at 7 p.m. Saturday before hosting the Wolves at 2 p.m. Tuesday in a New Year ' s Eve clash.

The Troops, 7-6-1 at Memorial Gardens and 11-9-1 on the road, have 20 home games and 13 away dates left.

"I always thought we played well at home in Brampton and we played good games there," said Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach. "We need to do the same thing here in North Bay."

The Oshawa Generals lead the East Division and the conference with 51 points, while 12 points separate second-seeded Sudbury, which has won eight straight games, including the last seven at home, and the Peterborough Petes, who occupy the seventh conference playoff berth. The Niagara IceDogs, Ottawa 67's and Belleville Bulls are battling for the final playoff spot.

The Battalion has yet to meet the Generals and will play the first of four games against them at Oshawa on Wednesday. Five games against the Wolves are among 24 dates left against conference opponents.

"Sudbury and Oshawa are probably ahead of the pack," noted Butler. "The next group of teams are all trying to figure themselves out.

"Our schedule doesn't get any easier when we get back into it. There are no easy games in this conference. Belleville will always be a hard team to play against. Ottawa isn't going to back off. The Petes have an older, experienced defence."

The Troops ' schedule was front-loaded with road games because of ongoing renovations to their arena, and the team has yet to take full advantage of home ice. But the Battalion, 9-4-1 in its last 14 games overall, has won five of its last six, the exception being a 1-0 overtime loss at Sudbury on Dec. 15.

Butler, a 57-year-old Toronto native who began his OHL coaching career in 1994-95 with Oshawa and who has been with the Battalion since a year before its inaugural 1998-99 season, has quickly come to appreciate the franchise ' s new home in Northern Ontario, where the team has drawn an average of 3,319 fans per game.

"There ' s no doubt that North Bay is a hockey city, and as a coach I like that support and it's good for the players to experience that. It's a nice city with a lot to offer. I'm not into hunting or fishing but, if you are, there ' s certainly plenty of it here. There are outdoor rinks, and there isn't a lot of pollution."

Fourteen players on the current roster skated with the club in Brampton.

"We've all had to adapt," noted Butler. "I moved up here and into a new community just like the players did. The players have adjusted pretty well. I think our guys liked playing in Brampton. There were a lot of great things there, but the crowds weren't one of them. There ' s a lot more media here, and I think the media attention is healthy. It can be good or bad, depending on how the team is doing. The team becomes the subject of plenty of coffee shop conversations, and I ' m sure we ' ve given them plenty of that so far.

"We had to pretty much start all over again up here. The high school is very different; there might be 500 kids there. The players are much more involved in the community here. Everybody knows who they are. There are a lot more people who want them involved in things. I ' m sure the front office gets a lot of requests for the players to attend events."

Given the distorted schedule, the record midway through the season is something of an accomplishment.

"I wish we were a bit better, but I ' m not disappointed with where we are," said Butler. "We could be worse. We ' ve won our last three home games. We play most of our second-half games at home and, if we can use our rink to our advantage, there ' s no reason we can't have a really strong second half."

Arena renovations forced the Battalion to play its first nine games on the road, a stretch from which the Troops emerged with a 5-4-0 record.

"It was a challenge to have that many games on the road. You have to find ways to deal with it, and that can be difficult. It was important for us to get off to a decent start, and we emphasized that to the players. We didn't want to dig ourselves into too big a hole before we started to play home games."

Butler said the renovations have presented problems.

"There have been some disruptions. We were thrown off by some of the arena issues and, if it throws me off, it throws the players off. There ' s still construction going on here; the rink is a long way from being finished. We ' ve been dealing with that. We finally got our video system installed, and that will be a great teaching tool for the players."

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