The Fort Erie Falcons season came to a screaming halt on Sunday evening, losing a lopsided game against the Wisborg Donuts which resulted in a four-game sweep of the 50+ win squad this year.
The team arrived back in Fort Erie this morning from Wisborg and met with the media at the airport to discuss the loss.
“It’s a tough loss for our team. We did so many great things this season. I think after losing in game three the way we did, we just didn’t have anything left emotionally in that fourth game. You can’t blow a lead like we did and lose in overtime and pretend it’s not an emotional blow. We have so many young players that haven’t been through this before but now that they have we expect next year to be much different,” said Captain Blake Wheeler as he exited the team bus.
While being swept in the second round was not exactly ideal, we would be foolish to ignore the strides the organization has made in the last calendar year.
The Falcons were picking first overall last June and had very few players that would be so vital to this year’s success. It was a very fast rebuild that has allowed the team to prosper this season and beyond.
That’s exactly how General Manager Matt Young sees it as well.
“If you look at where we were a year ago, it’s a vastly different situation. We’re young and we’ve got a ton of talent at every position; with more coming in the following years. We have two first-round picks this summer as well. We’re in great shape. We’ve got Chabot, Dunn and DeBrincat joining the team next year as well. I’m excited for our future and our fans should be excited too.”
With the excitement for the future, the General Manager also did not want to ignore what happened in Wisborg.
“It’s a learning experience for a team that is just coming together. For many of them it’s their first year here or in the league. We’ll build off of this and be better from it. Our hats are off to Wisborg who played a tremendous series. We did not seem to recover after game three and it showed in game four. Our message to the players was to simply not forget how that loss felt and use it in their offseason workouts to become better for next year. It’s really the best piece of motivation we can give them at this point because it doesn’t feel good for anyone in the organization.”
While the playoffs have officially ended, it doesn't appear Young will waste any time retooling for next year. While he refused to confirm anything upon the team's return from Wisborg, he did indicate he'd have more to say in the coming days about those rumours.
"Anytime you lose, it's not fun. If you don't win you can find a way to be better and I assure you we will be better but I won't say anything further today. It's too soon," concluded Young.
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