As Guelph Storm coach George Burnett headed down the Sleeman Centre tunnel following a 4-0 loss to the Erie Otters on Monday, someone told him the game was “embarrassing.”
“I mentioned to him that he was bang on,” Burnett said. “It was not good in any way, shape or form.”
Burnett wasn’t mincing words after the loss, nor should he have.
“Our work, our compete, our care … there isn’t anything I can be particularly positive about,” he said.
It capped a miserable weekend that saw them earn a single point in three games, an overtime loss at home Friday versus Ottawa. They also lost in Erie on Saturday.
And this was supposed to be the easy weekend.
“Right now I would encourage to evaluate their own contribution and impact from a positive way on the weekend and if they’re being honest with themselves I don’t think there would be a lot of positive results,” Burnett said.
“I would say we took a huge step back this weekend and I’m responsible for that. I’m not going to be pointing any fingers here,” the coach said.
With all due respect to the Otters, a rebuilding club that sits 18th out of 20 teams in the OHL’s overall standings, the Storm were terrible for five of the six periods they played against the Otters.
Monday’s Family Day matinee was the capper, shut out by 17-year-old rookie Daniel Murphy on home ice.
Effort, determination and execution all seemed lacking at various times.
It got so bad that Burnett benched veterans James McEwan and Liam Hawel for the last 10 minutes of the game, attributing it to wanting to get some young players more ice time.
“It’s pretty tough to only pick two tonight,” Burnett said.
The weekend leaves Guelph in seventh place in the Western Conference, eight points out of the coveted fourth place and home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
Perhaps more importantly it leaves them just three points up on eighth-place Windsor and a first round matchup against the vaunted Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
“We’re ahead of those guys in the standings and I definitely think we’re a stronger team all-around, but we didn’t show it this weekend,” said Storm forward Isaac Ratcliffe.
“We can’t make excuses about it, there’s no sugar coating it, but we’ve still got 12 games left, so we just have to bounce back before the playoffs.”
Ratcliffe said Erie came out Strong Monday and the Storm just didn’t have a response for it.
“Just another thing we have to push behind us,” Ratcliffe said.
The Storm’s Tag Bertuzzi missed Monday’s game with an upper body injury.
Guelph has another three-in-three weekend coming up: Owen Sound at home Friday, Saturday in Barrie and Sunday at home against Mississauga.
