Knights 6-0 start is best since 'Team of the Century'
Getting back to playing in the OHL in an ever-more-normal hockey setting has been a positive thing for players forced to sit out last season. But how the London Knights have kicked off the season is another thing altogether.
Captain Luke Evangelista says a “6-0 to start the season, only undefeated team in the OHL, we’re really happy with our start, so it’s been a lot of fun for us so far.”
The 6-0 start book marks a seven-game win streak the team was on when the 2020 season was abruptly cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Knights haven’t lost a game since Feb. 21, 2020, but are focusing on the day-to-day routine.
“We’re not getting too ahead of ourselves here, we’re not taking team for granted, we’re keeping it locked in every day,” says Defenceman Ben Roger.
And yet every day, the rarified air of a start most of these players are too young to remember hangs in the rafters. The 6-0 start is the best opening to a season since ‘The Team of the Century’ in 2004.
“We kind of joked about it at the start of the year, I mean the older group we were talking about how much fun it would be to set some records here and whatnot,” says Evangelista. “It was just an idea at the start, but now that we’re 6-0, we have more and more confidence, it kind of feels like you’re getting closer and closer."
That 2004-2005 team started with 10 straight wins, and went 31 games before losing on their way to winning the franchise’s first Memorial Cup championship.
It’s a high bar, but there is a sense the current team is special in its own right.
“I think there’s something special, I think we have a great group of guys in the locker room,” says Roger. “I think when a group all pull the rope in the same direction it can create some special.”
The Knights team is off to Owen Sound Wednesday for its fourth meeting with the Attack, and then home again to welcome Sarnia on Friday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.