Ramblers Lone Soldiers On

You have to feel for Peter Baldwin.
Acquired in the middle of a fire sale from the Yarmouth Mariners a month ago with the hope of getting one last chance at a playoff run, Baldwin was as shocked as anyone that good friend Adam Chipman and Derek Smith were sent to the Pictou County Weeks Crushers the morning of trade deadline day in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League on Sunday.
Baldwin is now the team’s lone overager, and with head coach and general manager Corey Crocker admitting his club is not in a position to win a championship this year, the forward from Port Williams is staring at an abrupt end to his junior career come the end of February.
Baldwin said his team was still reeling from the news when it headed to Truro on Sunday night and it showed in a 9-3 thumping at the hands of the host Bearcats.
“It was pretty hard to see them go,” said Baldwin, whose club visits the Dieppe Commandos today at 7:30 p.m. “But it’s a business and it was the right move in management’s eyes for the team going forward.”
In a cruel bit of irony, Baldwin’s former team will have to be one his current team chases down to earn a playoff spot. Amherst is two points back of fourth-place Yarmouth and one behind the fifth-place Halifax Lions. The Ramblers have 14 games left, the Mariners 16 and the Lions 20.
“We have to come together as a team right now,” he said. “Every game from now until the end of the season is a playoff game for us.”
Forward Simon Bissonnette aggravated a groin injury in Sunday’s loss and will be a game-time decision. Crocker said no decision has been made on who will take over from Chipman as captain or if another alternate will be named in Smith’s spot.