The Petes are in tough. With 3 weeks left in the season the Petes are 11 points back of North Bay for the final playoff spot and North Bay has 2 games in hand.
The Petes are much loved. Any regular fan at the games knows that this Petes team doesn’t give up. There is a universal respect for this group of players and it shows in attendance. 19 sellouts already! Why? Because this team is in every game. They compete against top teams and often win. It was a very, very slow start in the win column for the Peterborough Petes 2024/25 season, but from the beginning and since, with a few typical goose eggs in-between, the Petes have competed and been in a position to win every game.
Consider this, the Petes have lost 17 games this season by 1 goal. Often winning by a goal with 7 minutes left in the 3rd, giving up the lead and then losing in the last minute, overtime or shootout. Heartbreakers. In 3 additional losses, the Petes lost by 2, on an empty net goal. Now consider this, 10 of the Petes 16 wins have been against top OHL teams. Kitchener, Barrie, Oshawa and Kingston to name a few.
If the Petes has score 16 more goals at the right time, over 57 games, they would have 8 more wins and be 4 games over 500 and comfortably in a playoff spot. How’s that for glass half full. If you want to fill that glass up even a little bit more, consider that for Petes fans, when every game is close, it’s also entertaining. An entertaining hockey game between elite hockey players, up the street from your house for $30 or less per ticket. In an NHL market with just one ticket costing 200-800$, a Petes game is a great product and a great value.
Braydon McCallum
The term re-build has always had more meaning in the OHL than in the NHL. An OHL player competes from age 16 to 20 years. The 20th year is an overage year and teams are only allowed 3 overage players. So it's a 4 year cycle at its core. It wasn’t until a decade ago when the Leafs sports media started demanding that teams be ‘blown-up’ and 're-built' after an early playoff loss. A re-build in the OHL is as much about maintaining momentum. If the fans are engaged after a championship season, they will genuinely look forward to watching a re-build. Watch the kids grow together. The term re build has always had more meaning in the OHL than in the NHL. An OHL player competes from age 16 to 20 years. The 20th year is an overage year and teams are only allowed 3 overage players. So it's a 4 year cycle at its core. It wasn’t until a decade ago when the Leafs sports media started demanding that teams be ‘blown-up’ and 're-built' after an early playoff loss. A re-build in the OHL is as much about maintaining momentum. If the fans are engaged after a championship season, they will genuinely look forward to watching a re-build. Watch the kids grow together.
That is, in many ways, the best part of being OHL fans. Seeing a young Nick or Tucker Robertson grow from a baby faced rookie to a top prospect and champion. Watching J.R. Avon go from being just another really fast skater, to a clutch playoff sniper and carrying the Petes on his back in a playoff coming party for the ages.
You learn a lot about hockey, the game, by watching players ‘find it’ as they say. Finding their game. Finding a scoring touch. Knowing where to be. Toughing it out. Finally committing to back checking, back checking, backchecking. Defence is offence. A steal is a goal.
Martin Matejicek
If you are looking for a night out and getting your money’s worth, go watch Braydon McCallum play a game of hockey. The Petes diminutive forward is a pan-faced firecracker. Cute and dangerous. Troublesome and the total teammate. After spending the first half of the season in the penalty box, McCallum has been double shifting. A coach’s pet that bites. If McCallum is on the ice he is directly in the middle of the play, at all times.
Martin Matejicek has grown from a quiet and stable defensemen to the apple of a scouts eye. Big, dependable, smooth skating and often first to the corner in an offensive zone dump and chase. Not to mention a new found deft scoring touch for big goals at just the right time.
In all the positivity, some nights it feels like one close, last minute loss after the next. If it’s tough on the fans, it’s gotta be tough on the boys.
But what isn’t tough is cheering for this Petes team. They give it everything they got every night and that’s a tale worth telling.