Scott Radley: Bulldogs’ ‘big, slow D’ stiflyingly dominant
In the moments after the first game of the Eastern Conference final - a 5-2 Hamilton win on Friday - one of the North Bay Battalion's top players offered a bold opinion about his opponent.
The secret to having success in this series, Brandon Coe said, was to get the forecheck going on the Bulldogs' big, slow D."
As good ideas go, this was the verbal equivalent of licking your finger and sticking it in an electrical socket. Having won 19 games in a row and 44 of their past 48, the black and gold have shown they don't need any extra motivation. But, if you want to give them some extra material for their bulletin board and a tiny bit more fire in their bellies, well, that's certainly brave.
Because calling them big and slow is not a compliment. And, in case you were wondering, yes, they did hear about it.
Yeah, we might've got a sniff of that," says Bulldogs captain and defenceman Colton Kammerer. I mean, it didn't sit too well with us."
Clearly not. On Sunday, that allegedly lumbering and barely mobile group (cough, cough) was impenetrable in a dominating 5-0 Bulldogs win that gives Hamilton a 2-0 lead in the Ontario Hockey League semifinal.
North Bay's five 30-goal scorers? Not a factor. The Bulldogs' defence? Outstanding.
I guess you could say he poked the bear," Kammerer says.
The weird part about this is the comment wasn't just ill-advised, it was nonsensical.
Nothing about this team is slow. That's a big part of why they're so dominant. The Bulldogs move the puck fast. They counterattack fast. They win a majority of races to loose pucks. They arrive in lanes in time to block shots. They pressure the puck better than any team in the league.
If anything does get through, goalie Marco Costantini has been excellent as a last line of defence. Sunday was his second shutout in 10 playoff games. All wins.
So, big? Maybe. Though other than Arber Xhekaj, they really aren't huge. But slow? No.
They're big and strong and they do a really good job," North Bay head coach Ryan Oulahen says. I wouldn't just say their defence but as a five-man unit, including their goaltender, they do a good job defending their zone."
Would he call them big and slow?
No," he says. Like I said, I see them as a real big, older, strong group."
But, if the comment from his 20-year-old star wasn't enough to juice up the home side on Sunday, North Bay decided to up the ante even more.
Right from the start of Game 2, it was clear they wanted to get after Hamilton star Mason McTavish. He was pinned to the ice at one point for an extended time. He was run. He was cross-checked from behind into the boards. He was centred out for special attention.
This appeared to be another bad idea.
On Hamilton's first power play, it took all of seven seconds for him to set up Logan Morrison for the opening goal. Then late in the period - after being hassled again - he got free and fired a shot worthy of a third-overall NHL draft pick to make it 2-0.
He immediately turned and gave a North Bay player a long dose of stink-eye.
Two more goals (including one short-handed) by Avery Hayes and one by Ryan Winterton and it was game over. Now 20 in a row and 45 of the last 49.
The series now heads to North Bay on Wednesday and Friday where the challenge for the hosts will be significant. The Battalion has now played the Bulldogs four times in 2022. They've lost all four. The margin of victory hasn't been smaller than three goals in any of them. To win this series, they must beat Hamilton four times in the next five games.
Oulahen says he saw some good things from his team that gives him optimism. There was some pushback and some emotion shown by his guys. It's something to build on, he says. We'll see if that - and the chance to match lines with the last change at home - is enough.
After the game, Hamilton head coach Jay McKee talked about how proud he was of his players and about his team's culture and his goalie and respect and a bunch of other things. The one thing he didn't want to wade into was commenting on any comments about his defence corps. But, he couldn't help himself just a little.
You know," he said wryly, I don't think they looked big and slow tonight."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com