At the end of this month, you know,
it's March. So at the end of this month
, it means it's, uh, we're getting close
to O H L cup time. Um, you
know, for maybe the people that, that are
watching or listening this, uh, tell them about
the O H L Cup, the 2019 0 H
L cup or your, your memories of that when
you, when it gets to this time of year
. Yeah, it's, it's the biggest tournament,
uh, for mine, I imagine it's the biggest
tournament for minor hockey. Pretty much. It's the
culmination of minor hockey. It's, uh, it's
something we're all looking forward to at the end of
the season. You know, it's all the top
teams from Ontario and some from the States. You
know, I'll, I'll, I'll jumble together in
Toronto and, uh, it's a big tournament and
we were, we were, we were, I
guess the favorites coming in. We had a very
strong, uh, minor mid team. But,
uh, yeah, the, the barns are filled
and everything we were, I felt, uh,
it was really cool for all of us. Uh
But yeah, it was, it was a good
tournament. We, we had a strong group.
Uh, we, and we ended up making it
to the finals and that was at, uh,
Maple Leaf Gardens and that, that was cool to
play there. I never been there before actually.
So it was cool to go there. And then
, uh, and that was an interesting game.
We went down 41 in the second period. You
could see the, the, the faces in the
crowd who were pretty disheartened. They were, you
know, on our side, they were, uh
, they were pretty upset. I, I don't
know, I, I, I believed all along
, we were gonna pull it off. I think
everyone on that bench believed we were gonna pull it
off. And, uh, that's exactly what we
did. We had a, we had a resilient
group and we had a, we had a group
that, um, you know, there was a
reason we, we were pretty much undefeated all year
because, you know, it's, we didn't give
up on each other and the same that night,
we didn't give up on each other. We made
it 43 going into the, going into the third
and we tied it 44. They eventually made it
54 with like six minutes left or so. And
then we tied it up, uh, 55 with
like three minutes left. So it was, it
was a pretty wild game, to be honest with
you. And then, uh, and then me
, Shane and Oman, uh, me, Shane
and Brennan all connected, uh, on the O
T winner. I kind of flicked it up to
Shane. He went in on two on one with
Brennan and, uh, and Brennan went, posted
in to, to seal the deal way up in
the air. Francesco Patel was back there. So
is Frank Clark, Shane Wright to flip play the
other way? This came right in front of that
. They score Brennan Osman wins it for the Da
Mills Flyers. Their magical season continues with an O
H L Cup championship. So it was, it
was a really cool moment, you know, we
all flooded on the ice. The just, yeah
, like I said, it was at May Leaf
Gardens. It was a really special moment and uh
just to do with that team, I, I
still have a lot of friends on that team.
You know, I played, I played on the
team for three years, the Don Mills team.
I, I'm so happy I got to be a
part of that group and, uh, yeah,
I don't know, it was really special. It
was definitely the best minor hockey moment of my life
and uh definitely one of the greatest hockey moments of
my life still to this day. So it was
, uh, yeah, it's gonna be fun for
these kids going up into this tournament. It's definitely
, uh definitely something that lives up to the hype
, you know. So it's, it's gonna be
cool for them. You guys, like you obviously
knew you guys had a good team and you knew
that, uh, a lot of you'd be drafted
into the O H L. Did you at the
time have an inkling that, you know, as
, as we are today, there are seven of
you that are, you know, have rights held
by NHL teams. Like that's, that's pretty wild
. It is, um, it is pretty wild
but, uh, I don't know, I feel
like we can all credit, credit our success to
that Dominoes team. You know, I feel like
we, we had a lot of pressure on us
. We were all really high end players, but
we learned how to like, uh you know,
be coherent, you know, not be uh be
grounded, you know, uh still be selfless teammates
and still uh put the team first and like that
. So, you know, you can have all
the talent in the world, but if you're not
a good teammate, it doesn't, doesn't, won't
really get you anywhere. Uh If you yourself,
yeah, if you're selfish, it won't really get
you anywhere and we kind of learn that, you
know, if we're gonna do this, we have
to really be gelled and that every single night for
85 games or whatever it was, we were,
we were at the, the, the tight knit
group and we didn't, we never wavered and uh
we, yeah, I think if you ask any
of those guys, uh, if to credit their
success to, to something they all, I think
they'd all say tie it back to Don Mills and
just know how, you know, you gotta believe
in each other, you gotta believe in your teammates
because, you know, you can't do without them
. You can, like I said, you could
have all the time in the world. But if
you're, if you're on a crappy team or if
you're on a team that's not, uh, gelled
very well. It's not gonna get you very far
. So, I think that's, that's something that's
, we all take away from that.