It’s only been a few days since the South Esk Scotsmen lost in 5 games to an impressive Saint John Kings team.  Fans were obviously disappointed in the final result, but after four seasons with a losing record, there was a lot to be thankful for.  The Scotsmen finished 11 games over .500, their best season since going 36-21-7-8 in season 4 of the league, which they followed by going 9 games below .500 in season 5, a .500 season in season 6 and then losing records in the next four seasons.  

But losing in a cup final isn’t what fans want to focus on.  Can the team get back and compete for it’s second ODBHL cup?  The team had what experts would call a soft road to the cup finals, without any offence to the Miramichi Moose or the Oromocto Senators.  The Moose are in the midst of a rebuild.  Management was forced by league rules to even ice a competitive team and was more interested in how they could draft the Sedins in the upcoming entry draft than having any expectations of returning to the league finals.  The Senators struggled all season and finished with their worst record since season 4.  Their upsetting of the Cains River Blues in the first round was both a shocking surprise to Senators fans, and a relief to Scotsmen fans who were 3-5-0 against the Blues during the season but played well against the Senators all season, going 6-1-1 against the team.  But the road doesn’t matter when you face a Kings team that was 7-0-1 against the Scotsmen.  That’s right, the first game the Scotsmen won against the Kings last season was in game 4 of the cup finals!

There are some bright spots on the Scotsmen roster to look at going into the coming seasons.  A large part of the core is hitting their prime years and signed to terms that should allow the Scotsmen to compete for several seasons.  Askarov is still developing but led the playoffs for netminders with 2.69 GAA, 0.899 SA% and a shutout in each of the first two rounds.  Before giving up a handful in the finals, he had the rumblings of a playoff MVP.  The team has multiple cup winners looking to get back to a championship including Kirby Dach, Elias Pettersson, Leon Draisaitl, Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake Sanderson, and then there is perhaps one of the most successful players in the league history.  

After the finals concluded, the announcement went out that Nikita Kucherov would be returning to the Scotsmen after scoring the cup winning goal for the Kings against them and capturing his 3rd championship with three different teams.  A consistent goal scorer, Kucherov first won a championship with the Scotsmen in season 3 and again with the Miramichi Moose after the Scotsmen went into a rebuild.  The Moose after going into a rebuild sent Kucherov to the Kings where he played 3 seasons before winning a championship with them.  The return of Kucherov gives the Scotsmen a scoring upside on a defensively responsible team.  The team is hoping the experience mixed with young players will create an exciting response to the last 6 difficult seasons that will get the Scotsmen back to the cup at least a couple of times over the next several years.