Scott Radley: Bulldogs shredded in OHL playoff opener

You may recall that last spring, the Hamilton Bulldogs won their first 12 games of the playoffs, sweeping through the first three rounds unscathed.

We're not in 2022 anymore.

That became entirely obvious on Thursday night in the first game of this year's post-season when the Bulldogs were drawn and quartered by the Barrie Colts en route to a devastating 10-2 beat down.

It wasn't pretty. As if that wasn't bloody obvious.

What went wrong? Gosh, what didn't?

The black and gold gave up four power play goals, two short-handed goals and were massively outshot. Barrie chased Hamilton's starting goalie early in the second period and then proceeded to abuse his replacement the rest of the way.

Oh, and the one guy that was highlighted before the series as the Colts' biggest threat and the guy the Bulldogs had to pay particular attention to or he'd destroy them? A guy named Brandt Clarke? Yeah, he scored twice - including a lacrosse-style Michigan' goal - and added four assists which earned him the game's first star.

If this was an episode of Stranger Things, last year was played in Hawkins and this year was played in the Upside Down.

What was stunning about all this is that while the Colts were the better team this regular season by a comfortable 22 points, each of the four games the teams played against each other were close. There's no question which side is favoured in this matchup, but not by a margin like this.

In addition to everything else, this result stretched Hamilton's losing streak to six games during which it's now been outscored 32-9.

All that said, you do have to win four times to take the series, so one loss isn't catastrophic. Still giving up one more goal in this single game than the total number the Bulldogs gave up in the entire first round last year isn't going to spawn any kind of overwhelming confidence that an upset is brewing.

Game 2 on Saturday (faceoff at 7:30 p.m. in Barrie) now becomes not just a really important game but a test of this team's makeup. Anything short of a massive effort and a competitive result - a win would be nice, too - and you'll hear the trumpeter warming up to play Taps.

And you'd be able to start the countdown to Brantford earlier than anyone wanted, too.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com