With two games remaining until a 10 day break in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the London Knights sit in top spot in the midwest division.
“We got off to a rough start, but recently we’ve been on fire,” said George Diaco, who has 28 points in 25 games since coming to London early in the season.
Diaco, a London, Ont. native, was acquired early in the year from Hamilton.
It was after winning just one of their first six games, management made a pair of big trades moving Liam Gilmartin and Gerard Keene.
“You can’t be scared to make changes,” said Rob Simpson, associate general manager.
He added, “We could easily have been one and eight, or one and 10 and then your season’s a lot different. It’s not going the way that you want sometimes and you got to be willing to make changes and trust your scouting history with your staff and make the change that you feel is necessary to at the time.”
The London Knights have a new reverse-retro jersey with an old logo and modern colours. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
They’ve also seen their young talent emerge. Denver Barkey, Easton Cowan and Oliver Bonk are stepping up, with Bonk earning a selection to next month’s top prospects game.
“It’s [going to] be good to compare myself to [Connor] Bedard and all those guys from different leagues, so it’s [going to] be fun to play there,” he said.
Last Friday was a big measuring stick.
“If you want to be a big guy, you got to beat the big dog, so that was a real important one for us,” said Bonk, referring to a 1-0 shootout win over league-leading Ottawa.
“It had kind of a playoff feel to it,” said Simpson.
He added, “We were kind of laughing in the room that you know the fans here at Budweiser Gardens were pretty excited for a 0-0 game. Anytime there was a scoring chance — there wasn’t a ton of them in the game — so the crowd got up. We showed we’re right there was with some of the top teams.”
London Knights management recognized early in the season that changes needed to be made. Since making some trades, they are the best team in the OHL. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
London will try to finish the first half strong this weekend before getting 10 days off. They also won’t be losing any players during the holidays to the World Junior tournament.
“Normally we have two or three guys that are gone and it gives some of the younger guys a little bit more of a chance to play,” said Simpson.
“This year is a bit different where we do have some younger players like Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey, and Easton Cowen that are playing prominent roles in the team. It’s nice just to be able to have them here all the way leading into the break and then after and just keep our team rolling along,” he said.
Diaco believes his team needs to keep the momentum going when they return from the break.
“After Christmas, that’s when everything dials in,” said Diaco. “We just make sure to keep on playing our game.”
Fans may have noticed a bit of a different look recently, including in Saturday’s win over Peterborough. The team is now wearing a sharp reverse-retro jersey with an old logo, but modern colours. They’ve sold out of them in their own shop, but expect to have more for fans to purchase in the New Year.
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