Stories: Kevin Bailie and Ball Hockey

A Kevin Bailie story

For anyone who doesn’t know that junior hockey is a business, there is the cautionary tale of former Oshawa General and Belleville ball hockey star Kevin Bailie.

Bailie, a 2008 first round draft pick of the Generals, was enjoying his finest season in the OHL this year while playing for the powerhouse London Knights as an overager. As one-half of the Knight’s goaltending tandem with Jake Patterson, Baillie was part of history as the team reeled off a league record 24 straight victories – one shy of the CHL record.

Bailie’s record was 18-4, his goals-against average was a sparkling 2.50 and he boasted an impressive .921 save percentage. He was also in net for the biggest win in the streak, a 19-round shootout victory in Mississauga.

And then he was abruptly released.

The Hunter boys, who own, manage and coach the Knights, put him on waivers mere days before major junior teams around the country had to freeze their rosters. Too late to sign with a QMJHL team, in fact.

Bailie was without a job because Anthony Stolarz, a Philadelphia Flyer draft pick, decided to leave the University of Nebraska-Omaha early and the Hunters decided they wanted the younger goalie for next year’s Memorial Cup, which will be held in London.

We don’t know who recruited who, but we know that Bailie hadn’t lost a hockey game in two months, and just like that, he was out of major junior hockey.

The bright side is that Bailie did find a job, albeit one level lower in Tier 2 junior ‘A’ with the Summerside (PEI) Capitals.

 And the irony was unmistakable when the Knights, who won the OHL title and entered this year’s Memorial Cup as a co-favourite, struggled in the tournament, eventually bowing out in the semi-final.

The reason? Goaltending woes.

Meanwhile, Bailie, took his Summerside team all the way to the final of the RBC Cup, knocking off the top ranked Surrey (B.C.) Eagles in the semi-final along the way with a 50 save performance.

But barring a pro offer, Bailie is headed to Kingston next year to play hockey and study law at Queen’s University.

The Hunter boys, along with Stolarz, will go back to London to get back to the business of major junior hockey.

A ball hockey story

Bailie is no stranger to championships in the off season, and to say he is an accomplished ball hockey player is a bit of an understatement.

He helped his local Belleville squad win three straight junior national championships and followed that up by starring between the pipes for Canada when they won the World U-20 Championships last year.

But this story goes back to his first provincial tournament in 2008 in Midland/Penetang when he was part of a powerful team that boasted no less than six OHL players, including number one draft pick Taylor Hall (Edmonton Oilers) and Andrew Shaw, who now stars for the Chicago Black Hawks.

My son Cameron was on a pretty good Oshawa team that met Belleville in the semi-finals and though the score was never in doubt, the Oshawa boys – particularly an undersized but absolutely fearless defender named James – weren’t intimidated.

Young James is back of his net mixing it up with Shaw and taking a few, uh, liberties with his opponent, who happened to be a noted enforcer with the Niagara Ice Dogs at the time. Shaw, as you would expect, wasn’t thrilled to be treated this way by a house leaguer and took offence.

“Do you know who I am? I’m Andrew Shaw,” shouted Shaw, who, in his defence, was a future NHLer on the ice and already a highly decorated and world class ball hockey player on the floor.

James clearly had never heard of him and responded with appropriate disdain as the linesmen arrived to break up the party.

But Shaw had the last words:

“Google me!”