London Knights season preview: Expect another Memorial Cup run

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Is an encore in store?

The London Knights will raise the Ontario Hockey League championship banner before their 2024-25 season opener against Flint Friday at the arena known as Budweiser Gardens for just two more weeks. They will need to repeat the feat to get back to the Memorial Cup final slated for next June 1 at Rimouski, Que.

“It’s hard to win,” London head coach Dale Hunter said. “There’s a lot of tough competition so when you win (a league title), you have to take pride in it.”

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Can the Knights do it again? On paper, of course.

Dale Hunter and his brother Mark, the team’s GM, have a history of opening three-year windows of greatness. They constructed one that started with the 2005 Memorial Cup champion ‘team of the century’ and lasted through the scoring exploits of Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner in 2007.

Then, the Knights built another dynasty that featured three straight Cup appearances (2012-14) and two more league titles.

This is their third three-year powerhouse. London went to the OHL final in 2023, came so close to winning it all in ’24 and are regarded as top contenders again throughout the Canadian Hockey League.

“The biggest thing in junior hockey is to win the Memorial Cup and I think that’s going to be the mindset all season,” returning defenceman Henry Brzustewicz said. “It has been like that already. The boys are dialed in and ready to go. Every year, London is up there. Pressure, to us, is a privilege.

“We’re going to embrace that everyone else wants to beat us and run with it.”

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THE FUEL: You have all seen the video of the Josh Bloom winner with 21.7 seconds left in the Cup final at Saginaw last June.

After London’s great rally to tie it, veteran forward Max McCue tried to flip the puck into the neutral zone.

Spirit defenceman Jorian Donovan cut it off, weaved around Knights forward Ruslan Gazizov and took a shot that bounced off Oliver Bonk, hit McCue’s stick and skipped through goaltender Michael Simpson.

McCue dove and blocked the puck before it crossed the goal line. Bloom poked it home under him for the unforgettable finish.

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“It’s hockey,” Dale Hunter shrugged. “It’s a game of inches and with 20 seconds left, stuff can happen.”

It was a historic heartbreaker for the Hunter crew. They went through it in the 2012 Cup final in Shawinigan when Anton Zlobin’s overtime winner beat Michael Houser.

But London won the 2016 Cup final on Matthew Tkachuk’s overtime tally. The Knights also celebrated the 2013 OHL title on Bo Horvat’s Game 7 goal with under a second left.

The Hunters also guided Canada to a world junior gold medal four years ago thanks to a flipped puck that hit a TSN camera to negate what would have been a devastating delay of game penalty.

Stick around long enough, these crazy finishes tend to even out.

THE ROSTER: It’s in flux.

This isn’t the first time in London and it certainly won’t be the last. When you’re sending double-digit players off your roster to NHL training camps, it’s a guarantee many of them won’t be back for a while – or ever.

Reigning OHL MVP Easton Cowan is the big one. It will be fascinating to watch how the Maple Leafs utilize him – especially after he worked with an all-Knights line alongside Mitch Marner and Max Domi Thursday.

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The Knights will be contenders without him. But they are favourites if he comes back.

It makes for good debate.

Oliver Bonk (Flyers) and Sam Dickinson (Sharks) will anchor the London defence when they return. Denver Barkey, when he’s back and healthy after an illness, and Sam O’Reilly (Oilers) can handle business up front.

They could use Kasper Halttunen’s goal-scoring knack again, but San Jose is still to sort out where the big Finn plays this year.

For now, the Knights will be a young group. It’s going to be hard to win that way.

“It’s about trusting our abilities,” speedy forward Evan Van Gorp said. “We have a lot of talent. We’re building some chemistry at practice so we’ll be good to go. We want to start on the right foot. It’s crazy to say guys like Henry (Brzustewicz) and I are the older guys, but we are right now.

“Personally, I want to be more of an impact guy and play in all the situations.”

There is a Knights formula to follow, systems to develop and it should turn out alright.

“It’s through repetition and practice,” Dale Hunter said. “They’re young kids and they’re wanting to learn. They’re getting put in situations where they’re killing penalties and on the power play. It’s a great opportunity for them to show their stuff.

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“There’s a few mistakes and that will happen because they’re young kids. They’re all hard workers and they always get better if they work hard.”

Everyone wants to rush from the gate like the 2005 Knights. But for almost every team, there are bumps in the road.

As of Thursday, there were eight players who will make a difference still with their NHL squads.

“Last year, once guys started going away (to world junior camp), we found our groove with the younger guys,” Brzustewicz said. “If we have that same mindset of competing and working, we’ll be fine.”

They almost always end up in a great place.

rpyette@postmedia.com

OPENING KNIGHT

London vs. Flint

When: Friday, 7 p.m. at Budweiser Gardens

The matchup: A good early home-and-home with the Firebirds, who lost to London in a four-game, first-round sweep last spring. It was physical and competitive, though, and the ’Birds expect to be much better this season.

New this year: A third arena name when building becomes Canada Life Place Oct. 11. Massive state-of-the-art OES scoreboard and high-tech signs at the rink. Knights players will debut new black gloves with a touch of green. Jersey patch sponsored by major agri-chemical company Syngenta. Arena concessions are cash-less, but the Knights Armoury and 50/50 sales still accept it.

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FIVE THINGS TO WATCH . . .

• SPECIAL TEAMS. The Knights were historic last season with a record-breaking 32.6 per cent power play and best-in-league 85 per cent penalty kill. It’s going to be difficult to sustain that this year, but they should have the weaponry and depth.
• GOALIES. It’s Owen Willmore’s turn in the spotlight, but there will be four or five Knights players fighting for the three over-age spots this season. He is one of them. Basically, he has to prove he can carry the No. 1 duties. The Knights will run three goaltenders with up-and-comers Alexei Medvedev and Finn Wilson supporting the veteran. “He’s played well,” Dale Hunter said of Willmore. “All three of them have so far. It’s a good sign.”
• STREAKY. If you’re going to finish first in the OHL, you need to compile around 50 wins. You can’t do that without a good, long winning streak. The Knights did just that in 2023-24 with a 23-game point run that lasted from Dec. 14-Feb. 16. That two months made a difference in earning home-ice advantage through the playoffs. The Knights made it work en route to their fifth OHL championship title.
• THE PENALTIES. There were a lot of them last year. The Knights racked up a CHL-leading 1,065 of them, plus led junior hockey in suspensions. They were at times controversial, but naturally, want to repeat a rambunctious brand. Sawyer Boulton, Max McCue, Kaleb Lawrence and Jackson Edward are gone. But they still have Ryder Boulton and brought in big d-man Liam Spencer to mix it up. We’ll see if there are enough ingredients for another spicy recipe.
• SWAN SONG? Top centre Jacob Julien returned from the Jets. New Finnish forward Jesse Nurmi is expected to play Friday after Islanders camp. But the Knights are still starting with eight big-name players out of the lineup. Nothing will be sorted out until the fate of those guys – led, of course, by Easton Cowan – is learned.

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