Seeking the true North

Hey, has anybody seen the North Conference of the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League?
This was supposed to be a difficult, no-nonsense conference this season with the Collingwood Blues expected to take a run at the Aurora Tigers, Newmarket Hurricanes and Stouffville Spirit in an effort to crack the Big Three, which has dominated the standings in recent seasons.
Well, the Tigers (11-0) and Blues (8-3-0-1) are living up to their end of the bargain and have already lapped the rest of the field.
The same cannot be said, however, of the Spirit and Hurricanes, whose respective starts to the season have been far from satisfactory as the teams sit with eight and seven points, respectively, in 10 starts. Worse, the York Region rivals seem intent on matching each other stride for stride in an early season march to mediocrity.
The Spirit were the initial victim of the expansion Orangeville Crushers, on home ice no less. Then the Orangemen recorded their first laugher in embarrassing the Hurricanes by five goals last Friday in Orangeville. Coming off a run to the league final a season ago, Stouffville had some
holes to fill, to be sure. But the wealth of returnees, particularly in the forward ranks, should be enough to get past some of the teams to which they have lost.
The Hurricanes? Well, it's a noble gesture to load up the roster with tons of local players. It¹s quite another to be scuffling along with a roster loaded with too many players not up to playing at this level of hockey.
Simply, there appears just too much duplication of players which is better if those players happen to be first and second liners.
All said, it's been a disappointing opening month for two teams from which a lot more is to be expected.