Niagara vs. London (Feb.4) - CHRIS DESOUSA'S RETURN

[123 G!]

Let's be honest, love him or hate him, DeSousa was pretty much invisible out there. He quit a team on bad advice from his agent. And he tried to fight a guy that had never fought before - full marks to Freddie Hamilton! And as someone mentioned earlier, he made himself look even worse tonight.

Great win by the Dogs.

[dogbone15]

oh and wait, lets not forget... desousa had a fight with someone who never fights..

what did freddie have? ohh, just two goals and his FIRST ohl fight...

enough said.

[bulldog]

Desousa lost all my respect taking on Hamilton who scored both goals to beat London. Londons antics getting off the ice were asinine IMO. You can take that open letter from Chris and put it in your bathroom for proper use. Glad he is gone and I won't miss him.

[fishfan51]

Originally Posted by Section M

What A Game by DeSousa!!!!!! He was Awesome!!! Vintage DeSousa that we all loved!!! I think he played a great game....
The whole game was so fun, so much happening that I forgot to watch Vis. Great win by the dogs!

Freddie dropping the gloves??....Whatever... After watching the fight again, I counted at least 9 punches from Chris and ZERO for Freddie. No wonder he never fights. As I saw it... Petgrave and Kadri were chatting when Freddie stepped into Kadri and DeSousa just cleared Freddie out from his teammate... Great to see DeSousa stepping up for his teammates!

Full marks to Petgrave for protecting our ice... both the warm-up and 2nd intermission when Knights players were waiting for him to leave first and jumping back on the ice, Petgrave made sure to be last on. Way to go Matt!!!

Desousa was awesome last night.... if you are a Dogs fan.

He was like a magician..... because he was invisible.

He didn't hit anyone, missed the net on practically every shot he took, and never passed the puck. Add the fact that he dropped the gloves with a kid who has never fought in his life and its easy to see why scouts passed on him.

If that is "vintage Desousa" it doesn't matter what team he plays on, the scouts won't be looking at him.

[DOGPILE]

ok - so before the national anthem ... the referees were waiting to get on the ice. After the ice was available - the older ref #30 stayed and chatted with the london coaches for 3 - 4 minutes - in a friendly conversation (how's the wife and kids kinda talk). Throughout the game when a call went against London, the ref in question #30 would explain the call at length to the coach and to the players on the ice. There were many calls that did need explaining though. When McCourt wanted an explaination, the ref didn't make himself as available to us. It looked bad - and it seemed kinda 'fishy' that in the 3rd period with london down 2-0, that there was suddenly a 2 man power play in favour of the Knights. Sigh - just go ahead and put on a striped london knights jersey.

#2 - how about that brutal elbow by the london player which dropped Freisen to the ground. 2 minutes for a head shot - how about a 5 minute major for intent to injure ? It should have been a more stringent penalty in my opinion.

anyways ... good game - good speed - good puck support.

[blackjeep]

I booed every time he touched the puck but that wasn't very often. He plays 3rd line minutes and doesn't kill penalties anymore. Here he played 25-30min, last night between 16-18. The grass wasn't greener on the other side, just the jersey is greener.

But more importantly, what I have been seeing on our own side is a better team since he left. The boys have really come together and they were fired up for this one but still played it cool. There was a lot of action behind the play by us to get under London's skin and off their game and it worked as the Kights blew a few powerplays opportunities by taking a dumb retaliation penalty.

I really like the team we have now, the work ethic is there and you would never guess where they were in the standing by the attitude on the ice, and they playing like winners. The results are starting to show up now that we can beat anyone.

[Reddog]

Great team game all around! No comments about Desousa from me...I think Dogbone15 said it best. London showed it's arrogance by the captain taking a chair at the exit at the end of the second.

[Reddog]

Friday, February 05, 2010
Knights’ skid hits 3

Chris DeSousa hears nothing but jeers upon return to Niagara

By RYAN PYETTE, THE LONDON FREE PRESS

Chris DeSousa knew he was going to get jeered.

He did, though, stack up some serious kindling onto the boo blaze in a less-than-successful return to St. Catharines.

The feisty forward, who demanded a trade from Niagara in the fall before finally landing with London, fought two-goal man Freddie Hamilton with 7.4 seconds left of a 2-1 loss to his old IceDogs mates before 3,145 Thursday night at old Jack Gatecliff Arena.

Boos rained down on DeSousa as he headed to the visiting dressing room after his bout.

"I did what I did," the 19-year-old said. "Once you get on the ice, no one's a friend."

Not so fast on that friend stuff, Hamilton said.

"He can't say we're still friends," the IceDogs' 21-goal guy said. "Not when he does that. He just threw his gloves off and came at me."

And that, even in hockey, is not what friends are for.

"Five seconds left and a key faceoff, I want to be out there," said Hamilton, a reluctant pugilist. "I'm not looking to fight there."

The Knights are still looking for their game after losing three straight. They certainly didn't find any answers in wine country.

It's their second such defeat streak this season after a November skid of losing to Saginaw, Kitchener and Brampton, who visits the John Labatt Centre on Saturday boasting a finally healthy Cody Hodgson (two assists in his season debut against Erie Thursday).

Michael Hutchinson, in the Knights net after back-to-back yankings, was strong. He stopped 36 shots.

He gave his team a chance. No one else responded.

"We were better (than the losses to Windsor and Plymouth) but it's still not good enough," London assistant coach Jacques Beaulieu said. "We didn't get enough shots through and when we did, no one battled enough to get to the rebounds.

"We can do better than that."

Their lone goal came on a slapper during a two-man advantage by Steve Tarasuk, who tied Dog and former Knight Reggie Traccitto for the OHL lead in goals by a defenceman (15, though Tarasuk still hasn't been credited for a goal awarded to Nazem Kadri).

The Knights had a pair of two-man power plays but they also didn't get a ton of calls to go their way. Daniel Erlich got a bloody nose from taking an errant Dog stick. No penalty.

Nazem Kadri busted a stick heading to the bench after being tripped twice. He needed another twig but what the Knights really needed then was a call.

DeSousa got tackled in front of the Niagara net with a few minutes left.

"It's obviously frustrating to lose three in a row," Erlich said. "We're just going to have to come out on Friday, work hard, play the underdog role and beat Plymouth."

The Whalers are the hottest team in the OHL so it won't be easy to prevent loss No. 4.

But at least they'll be at home, where the Knights are 22-4. They didn't look comfortable in the cozy confines of Gatecliff.

The Knights passed too much and shot too little.

"You have to shoot from everywhere in here," Beaulieu said. "The puck bounces all over the place."

"I thought we figured that out a little bit too late," Erlich said.

And the IceDogs, in desperation mode to make the playoffs, knew the Knights would try to zip the puck around.

"We noticed that they like to do that," Hamilton said, "and we tried to take away their lanes."

They succeeded.

All along downtown St. Catharines, there are banners featuring famous folks here who made a difference.

Supermodel Linda Evangelista. Rower Buffy Williams. Hockey player Stan Mikita.

DeSousa will never get one.

Not after the Hamilton fight and not after he walked out on the Niagara IceDogs in the fall and demanded to be traded.

The citizens don't forget stuff like that here. Heck, the hockey fans booed former IceDog Jadran Beljo when he came to play in St. Catharines after being traded to the London Knights.

And Beljo never even played a game for the club. He had suited up for the Mississauga team before it moved.

"They're knowledgeable hockey fans here," DeSousa said. "I was here for that game (booing Beljo)."

He was also here for the first game back in St. Catharines, period.

"You could say I was part of Niagara history," he said.

[strohs]

Originally Posted by Section M

What A Game by DeSousa!!!!!! He was Awesome!!! Vintage DeSousa that we all loved!!! I think he played a great game....
The whole game was so fun, so much happening that I forgot to watch Vis. Great win by the dogs!

Freddie dropping the gloves??....Whatever... After watching the fight again, I counted at least 9 punches from Chris and ZERO for Freddie. No wonder he never fights. As I saw it... Petgrave and Kadri were chatting when Freddie stepped into Kadri and DeSousa just cleared Freddie out from his teammate... Great to see DeSousa stepping up for his teammates!

Full marks to Petgrave for protecting our ice... both the warm-up and 2nd intermission when Knights players were waiting for him to leave first and jumping back on the ice, Petgrave made sure to be last on. Way to go Matt!!!

Did we watch the same game? Great game by Desousa? Please, he was completely invisible, except for the last ten seconds of the game, when he starts a fight, which draws the defensemen from his own team into the icedogs end, past the hashmarks, which puts the faceoff at least outside the blue line, and seals the win for the Dogs. Yes, great game Desousa, thanks for sealing the win for us, you bum! now get back on the bus, and go find a beer league to play in next year....if you are lucky maybe you can play in the Colonial Hockey League.

[strohs]

Originally Posted by blackjeep

They're not all buddies. Some of them feel like they were stabbed in the back. Its one thing to ask for a trade, bailing on your buddies is in a different category.

Some of them feel like they were stabbed in the back? How about all of them!?

Good comment.