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It was mid-November when Bailey Brkin made the trip east to join the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds after clearing waivers in the Western Hockey League.
At the time, the Greyhounds were in the midst of a stretch that saw the team win just twice in a span of 15 games.
On Nov. 12, the Greyhounds dealt goaltender Christian Propp and a draft pick to the Kingston Frontenacs for Brkin.
The team proceeded to go 4-3-0-0 to round out the November schedule after the trade and have posted a record of 11-4-1-0 since the trade
With the team heading into the Christmas break with just one loss in its last eight games, Brkin spoke of “having fun and keeping loose” but also maintaining focus.
“The up parts are really fun,” Brkin said. “It’s probably one of the more fun 10-game segments I’ve had in my career. It’s just making sure that we’re having fun and keeping loose, but our highs aren’t getting too high. We know it’s a long season and lows are going to come. We have to be able to balance ourselves out and keep showing up every night because we’re still in a playoff race.”
Heading into action on Saturday night at home against the Sudbury Wolves as the OHL regular season resumes, the Greyhounds are in a tight battle in the Western Conference where 10 points separate the ten teams in the conference.
“From here on out, it’s going to be a tight playoff race until the playoffs are set,” Brkin said. “Every team knows that every single night, they have to come out and play. You can’t take any nights off.”
The trek east was an adjustment on the ice for the overage netminder with the systems in the WHL a little different than what he’s seen with the Greyhounds.
“Definitely coming over from the WHL to the OHL, they’re both good leagues and there are NHL-calibre players in each league, this is more of an offensive-minded league,” Brkin said. “You don’t see many teams with as many puck-moving defencemen like (Robert) Calisti or (Billy) Constantinou out west. It’s not encouraged as much, unless you’re Ty Smith or Bowen Byram. We’ve done well for ourselves (as a team) since I came in. It’s been a change of mindset of everyone in that room.”
The veteran netminder also spoke of the importance of his mental health in making the transition to a new league and new province so far from home.
“Working with our goalie coach (Dan Stewart) and keeping on top of my mental game and my mental health has really been important for me, especially transitioning and moving three provinces away (from home),” Brkin said. “Working with our goalie coach has been really good. It hasn’t been changing anything huge technically. It’s just back to the basics.”
Greyhounds coach John Dean has praised Brkin for his play with the team since the trade with Kingston.
“He stole the Kitchener game (before the Christmas break),” Dean said. “That’s an example, and one of many, where he’s been really good for us. We talk about it time and again, our team needs every once in a while, for our goaltender to settle us down and get us back to even keel and he’s done a very good job of that. When things seem to be busy around our net, he’s done a very good job of doing it in a calm, composed fashion. It doesn’t look like he’s fighting and scrambling. When that happens, your bench can still feel the deflation of ‘Oh wow, that other team is really coming.’
“When Bailey is in the net, I find that the other team can get two or three really good scoring chances and maybe the coaching staff knows it, but the guys on the bench don’t realize it happened because Bailey makes it look simpler than it really is,” Dean added. “That’s where his biggest asset is is making some of those saves look calm, cool, and collected so no one on the bench is losing any sleep over it. It doesn’t mean that we don’t realize that we need to change some things, but it just makes our bench really confident to play our game.”