Tomorrow the 2023/24 roster of the Owen Sound Attack will play their final regular season home game at the Bayshore. This 4 p.m. game will also be a formal opportunity for fans and families to say goodbye to perhaps the strongest trio of over-agers to take the ice this season in the OHL: #7 Deni Goure, #29 Ethan Burroughs and #9 Sam Sedley.
You’d be hard pressed to find a shift this season, a key moment, or a great celebration that didn’t have at least one of these three, if not all of them, on the ice. Make no mistake, tomorrow night is the end of an era for Attack fans. It’s rare for a player to spend their entire career on one OHL team, to truly know that a home game means a night at the Bayshore, for a player to know the community they play for inside and out. To have three graduating players who have played side by side, through highs and lows, through Covid shutdowns, all ending their career in the very same place it began is truly unique. Tomorrow night is going to be tough.
There’s been a lot of talk about family this year. Last week, the moms of these same players took to the ice to skate with their boys. Many of you thanked them for sharing their boys with you for the last four years. When a family hands over their son to this team, they soon learn they are in good hands. We are a small team in a small town with a big heart. Deni, Sam and Ethan will all tell you this is a special place to play. Their parents will tell you the same. Win or lose, tomorrow night is a celebration of these boys, what they’ve accomplished, what they’ve shared with us and what we hope they accomplish, in life and in hockey, in the future.
I can’t profess to know every great story about Deni, Sam and Ethan from the last four years. But I can share a few thoughts about each of them after two seasons shooting these boys.
To Deni – don’t ever change. For real, just don’t do it. And do not fix that tooth. For as long as you are taking the ice, that trademark grin, and your intense face-off stare belong together. You never quit and it’s so awesome to watch. You love to score big dramatic goals—short-handed game changers, big OT winners in clutch moments. You leave it all on the ice, every single game, and what you did this season was amazing.
To Ethan – the perfect human. When someone calls you that once, it’s funny. When it comes up again and again, you know you are doing so many things right. You’re consistent, you smashed your own records this season, you are a consummate professional. You surprise me every time you drop the gloves, sometimes you skate by bleeding and no one has even noticed. You soldier through injuries silently because your team needs you. I can’t even imagine how big of a hole you’ll be leaving here. Also, your mom, for real, will be missed by many. It’s not hard to see how you became who you are.
To Sam – So quiet but so awesome. Offence, defence, running the power play, you can do it all. There’s been much talk about your hockey IQ this season and it’s been a pleasure to watch, week in and week out as you break franchise records. I have a feeling you are far funnier than I’ve gotten to see but I feel confident the boys in the locker room the last four years know what I mean. I, like all of us, will be watching to see where you end up.
I’m sure those of you who’ve been lucky enough to catch the majority of games this trio has played have some amazing stories to share, players I’m sure you do too. Feel free to send them in the comments or shoot me an email at allison@allisonkennedy.com and I can pull them together in their own blog for the boys.
Meanwhile, show up tomorrow night, smiles on, cheers ready, as we close out the regular season with our Attack family and prepare for the playoffs. Cheers to #7, #29 and #9.
POSTSCRIPT
I did get to interview all three of the over-agers this season on the blog. If you missed those you can read them here:
Catching up with Ethan Burroughs