Gone Skidding

The roads across Chatham-Kent aren’t slippery yet, unless you’ve been watching the Blenheim Blades over the last month, who have yet to stop their multi-week skid, despite apparent improvements to their roster.

The Blades 6 straight losses Sunday night, falling to the Essex 73s 5-4, and their only two wins in the last month have come against the Wallaceburg Lakers.

Blenheim now finds themselves 8th in the 9 team PJHL Stobbs Division, with only the Lakers behind them.

Over the last month, the Blenheim Blades have added Seth Henderson and Chase Henry from the Chatham Maroons, and recently traded for veteran Steven Funk from the Dresden Kings. The lone detraction from their roster, was sending Austin Bentley to Wallaceburg.

Two glaring statistics in the Blades’ struggles, are that first, the team has the most penalty minutes in the PJHL Stobbs Division, by far. Blenheim has 469 penalty minutes through 18 games. The next closest team is the Wheatley Sharks, who have 386 minutes. Blenheim’s 469 averages out to over 26-minutes per game. That’s nearly half a game worth of penalties, per contest.

Second, Blenheim is only 3-7 at home, which again, other than the Wallaceburg Lakers, is the worst winning percentage this season on home ice.

With the Dresden Kings, Lakeshore Canadiens, and Essex 73s, the league’s top three teams at the moment, up next on the schedule, the road appears no less slippery for the Blenheim Blades in the coming week.

Will they pull out of the skid? We hope so, but only time will tell.