The number one question I get from Storm fans at this time of year is “How good are they going to be?”
There is never a black and white answer to the question and it is measured in experience, gut feelings and the leadership you see in the front office and in the dressing room.
The short answer is that I think fans are really going to get their money’s worth.
This will be a high-octane team that will push play up the ice at every opportunity and then hope that goaltender Garret Sparks can hold the fort in the defensive end. I think there will be a fair number of high scoring games and many lessons learned along the way.
General manager Mike Kelly has been through almost two decades of OHL training camps and he feels that one word sums up this team.
“Tenacious,” he said Sunday night, driving home from a scouting trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan. “I still think we will really begin to mature around Feb. 1, so that tenaciousness will have to carry us for three or four months until experience catches up to us.”
“We want to play a style of game that is fun for these guys,” said coach Scott Walker referring to the pressure forechecking game they hope to master.  “(The type of game) that makes (players) want to come to the rink.”
But to play this style of game, there is no room for passengers. Every shift must be played at full speed.
“If you can go out and play for a minute in our system, you’re not doing it right,” said Walker, referring to the fact that you should be heading to the bench gasping for air after 45 seconds.
There is plenty of talent among the forwards. Expect Walker to roll four lines (which is also consistent with general manager Mike Kelly’s philosophy), which will help this team develop.
This is still a very young club with just one overage player in Cody McNaughton.  Impact 19-year-olds include Zack Mitchell, Tanner Richard, Andrey Pedan, gritty Ryan Horvat and of course goaltender Sparks.
The club’s weakness will be on defence, where you have one consistently excellent player in Toronto Maple Leaf draft pick Matt Finn, an inconsistent player with the potential to be an impact guy in Pedan, and then five other guys hoping to prove they can be reliable defencemen.
Right now, Zac Leslie, Ben Harpur and Daniel Poliziani have been entrusted with the number 3, 4 and 5 spots. In reality they would be very solid 5th and 6th d-men on a really great team, but they will be challenged this year to bring more. Kelly, to his credit, wants to give them at least 10 games to prove their worth. If they can’t, they can always bring in a veteran defenceman to solidify things. This likely won’t be the year this team contends for the Western Conference title, but I think it will be a year where they lay the ground work to be serious contenders the next two seasons. Along the way, Storm fans will have lots of fun.
From the Land of Oz . . . Hunter Garlent received a 5-minute slew footing penalty during the team’s 4-2 exhibition loss to Barrie on Saturday night and will likely be suspended to open the season . . . Last week, there was no way Brock McGinn and his injured wrist were going to be ready to open the season, but Kelly now says chances are “50-50.” If Garlent and McGinn are both out of the line-up, the 12th forward will be a defenceman . . . The home opener is Friday  at 7:30 p.m. against Saginaw.