Dave Paul Entering this season the talk among Sarnia Sting fans focused on how many of the team’s young stars – Pavel Zacha, Travis Konecny and Jakob Chychrun – would remain with their NHL teams.
Dave Paul
Entering this season the talk among Sarnia Sting fans focused on how many of the team’s young stars – Pavel Zacha, Travis Konecny and Jakob Chychrun – would remain with their NHL teams.
Well, so far none have been returned and fans might not ever see them again in a Sting jersey.
And yet, more than a month into the season Sarnia is battling it out for first place in the Ontario Hockey League and has flirted with being a top-10 team in Canada.
Sting radio analyst Patrick Desrochers said it’s a good group.
“I don’t think it’s surprising,” said Desrochers. “There were high hopes for this team coming into this season.
“We thought we might get a couple of (the NHL prospects) back. And we still might. Nothing is set in stone.”
One of the reasons for the team’s early success is homegrown goalie Justin Fazio.
“Last season you could see him coming into his own. Now, he’s a year older with another full season under his belt,” Desrochers said. “Skill-wise, he’s already one of the best in the league and now he’s matured … He’s playing great.”
Fazio, 19, has the right mental make-up to be an elite goalie, added Desrochers, who is uniquely qualified to make the assessment. He’s the Sting’s goaltending coach and the best goalie ever produced by the Sting organization.
A former first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes, Desrochers, 37, had a decade-long pro career that included stints with the Coyotes and Carolina Hurricanes.
The Sting have had little success developing goalies so having a Sarnia-born product like Fazio is pretty special. With eight wins, he was among the league-leaders and had played in all but one of the Sting’s games.
“I don’t think (overuse) is an issue right now,” Desrochers said from Sault Ste. Marie, where he was a goalie coach for a Canadian team in the World Under-17 Hockey Championships. “Maybe, as the season progresses and you have some weekends where you play three games in three days he’ll need a day off here or there,” he said.
“But he’s fine right now. He’s young, he’s got lots of energy, he can bounce back. And most of all he’s hungry. He wants to play every game.”
Desrochers said there are a number of reasons Sarnia finds itself atop the OHL standings, even without the trio playing in the NHL.
“There are some new faces on the team this year and the coaching staff has done a good job of bringing everyone together, he said.
“The team is meshing. They’re playing really well together … and the special teams have been very good.”
Desrochers said it would be nice to get Zacha, Konecny or Chychrun back.
“But that’s junior hockey. The coaching staff and management of the Sting can be proud of the job they’ve done in helping these players graduate to the next level.
“And we still have a good team, even without those guys.”
