Wolf Tracks: Sudbury veteran shared some wise words after a humbling loss to the Brantford Bulldogs

Alex Pharand, middle, of the Sudbury Wolves, and Sam Dickinson, of the London Knights, jostle for position in front of Knights goalie Aleksei Medvedev during OHL action at the Sudbury Community Arena in Sudbury, Ont. on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. Photo by John Lappa /The Sudbury Star

If this is rock bottom, at least the only direction is up.

It’s hard to see a way things could get worse than a 9-3 loss in front of the home fans, just three weeks after adding key pieces at the trade deadline in hopes of going on a second-half run.

It’s junior hockey, so teams have ugly games sometimes, and the Sudbury Wolves have had a few of them this season. Until Sunday’s game, however, the others were largely in road rinks.

They lost 7-2 in Kingston on Oct. 11, 8-4 in Kitchener on Nov. 1 and their two worst losses were by identical 8-1 scores at Sadlon Arena in Barrie on Nov. 9 and Canada Life Place in London on Jan. 19.

As bad as those were, a 9-3 shellacking at the hands of the Brantford Bulldogs at Sudbury Community Arena, where the Wolves have last change and a home crowd behind them is demoralizing.

The Bulldogs are good and they’ve been red-hot — winners of 11 of their last 12 games, including all three in Northern Ontario last weekend.

But they’re not six-goal loss good.

Ask Alex Pharand.

The 19-year-old forward, who grew up in Chelmsford and has grown into a young man right before the eyes of Wolves fans, was brutally honest about his own play and that of his teammates in his post-game interview on Sunday.

Pharand called his team’s play unacceptable and said he and all of the other leaders need to be better.

The 6-foot-3, 192-pound Chicago Blackhawks prospect is a streaky player, but has had a solid season overall, putting up 44 points in 44 games (16-28-44). Like most of his teammates, this stretch of six losses in seven games has not been his best work.

Pharand is a player you want to cheer for — not just because he’s a local product, but also because he comes across as an honest, hard-working, polite and humble kid.

Every team has a rough patch or two throughout the season and the Wolves really hadn’t gone through that kind of adversity to this point. They would always find a way to be resilient and bounce back from a bad game with a big win.

Where did that team go?

A team that was playing well added elite talent to the roster in defenceman Henry Mews from the Ottawa 67’s via trade and welcomed back former first-overall OHL pick Quentin Musty from injury. They also acquired solid, seasoned blueliner Noah Roberts and picked up an older forward in Jack Ziliotto out of the British Columbia Hockey League for free.

Yet somehow, they’re playing worse, not better.

It’s a head-scratcher and it will take the entire coaching staff and all 20 players to figure out why. As Pharand said following Sunday’s loss, hockey is a team sport, and it takes all 20 players to win. He also mentioned three obvious things — it’s not going to work if we harp on each other and blame everything on each other, everyone needs to play their role, and no one should play selfishly.

It reads like an agenda for a players-only meeting.

Anything the fans can think of, you can rest assured the coaching staff has already said. Some of Pharand’s words would be the result of his own experience and some are likely coming from themes the coaches have drilled home.

Something has been off lately, and it’s up to the players to look in the mirror and look at each other to find the solution.

It really doesn’t get any easier, with a road trip that was to start in Brantford on Wednesday, before the Wolves pay a visit to the pesky Niagara IceDogs on Friday night and venture into the Erie Insurance Arena to face the Otters on Saturday night.

A road trip in this situation can go one of two ways: it can dig the hole deeper, or it’s possible the travelling will provide a team that added many new faces in recent weeks the opportunity to bond properly, build chemistry and get in synch. The first trip with all the newcomers on the bus was to Windsor, Sarnia and London and it didn’t go so well, but everything was probably a bit too new at that point.

With more than 20 games remaining in the regular season, there’s plenty of time to turn things around. If they can get on a winning streak, climbing the standings is not out of the realm of possibility for the Wolves, but for now, the task is merely to find some cohesion and build momentum.

Pharand’s words seemed wise and powerful. Do the little things right, lift each other up and if everyone buys in, they can get rolling again and turn some heads like they did in the first half.

Pin that message up on the dressing room wall.