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.
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