04/16/24
November 09, 2015
SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
That's a nightmare scenario for the OHL commissioner. He needs to make sure the team keeps playing, but I don't know what he can do to the owner of the team making a personnel decision like that.
posted by grum@work at 01:02 PM on November 09, 2015
The owners have a nightmare PR scenario brewing. Firing a head coach because he's not playing your son as often as you'd like?
posted by NerfballPro at 02:04 PM on November 09, 2015
Flint Firebirds re-hire coaches after player protest
posted by tommybiden at 03:04 PM on November 09, 2015
This was pretty crazy, and it means Rolf Nilsen has a massive strike against him moving forward. The CHL is extremely protective of its image, and David Branch will have made clear to Nilsen that if he ever pulls a stunt like this again, the league will force him to sell his franchise.
This isn't even the first time this has popped up in recent memory, though. The Sudbury Wolves had Connor Burgess (son of owner Mark Burgess) on their roster for 95 games and he managed to racked zero goals and three points in that time. It was an open secret that the younger Burgess was simply not an OHL-caliber player, but the father insisted on keeping him (and giving him the full scholarship package).
Right now HHOFer Dale Hawerchuk is coaching the OHL's Barrie Colts and has his son, Ben, on the team. There was quite a bit of handwringing about it, but mostly from Dale himself not wanting to put undue pressure on his kid. Ben has worked his ass off, though, and this year is starting to shine as not only a pretty good scorer and motor guy, but also one tough little bugger.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:09 PM on November 10, 2015
Entire OHL team quits after Flint Firebirds' coach fired