Barrie Colts Face Major Backlash After Game 7 Press Conference

The Barrie Colts are officially headed to the OHL Championship Series, but the conversation surrounding their Game 7 victory has taken a very strange turn. After blanking the Brantford Bulldogs 5-0 on Monday night to capture the Bobby Orr Trophy, the focus should have been on a historic comeback.

Instead, everyone is talking about a 90-second press conference that went viral for all the wrong reasons.

Big Win Overshadowed by Bizarre Press Conference

The Colts managed to pull off the unthinkable by coming back from a 3-1 series deficit against a Bulldogs team that had only lost once at home in regulation all season. But when head coach Dylan Smoskowitz and co-captain Kashawn Aitcheson sat down for the postgame media availability, things got weird fast.

To every single question asked by the media, the duo gave the exact same five-word response: “No one cares; work harder.”

It didn’t matter if the question was about Ben Hrebik’s 40-save shutout or the team’s resilience without star center Cole Beaudoin. The answer stayed the same. The clip made the rounds pretty quickly online, leaving fans and analysts split. Some called it a legendary display of a “job not finished” mentality, while others saw it as a disrespectful stunt that overshadowed a great hockey series.

Coach Smoskowitz Takes Full Responsibility

By Tuesday afternoon, Smoskowitz was already trying to clean it up. During an appearance on TSN 1050 OverDrive, he admitted the whole thing was a big mistake that he regretted immediately.

The coach explained that he originally wanted to bring the entire team into the press conference room to celebrate together in their championship hats. When he was told the room was too small and the plan wouldn’t work, he admitted he let his frustration get the best of him. He took full responsibility for it and made it clear that Aitcheson was just being a “good soldier” by following his lead.

Colts’ Focus Shifts to the Finals

It is a shame the presser took up so much attention because the game itself was outstanding. Hrebik was a brick wall, stopping 63 straight shots dating back to Game 6. Aitcheson opened the scoring late in the first, and Emil Hemming put the game away with two goals in the third period.

The Colts are now preparing for their first OHL Final appearance since 2013. They have a date with the Kitchener Rangers starting Wednesday night at the Memorial Auditorium. Smoskowitz has promised the media that the “one-liners” are over and the focus is strictly on winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup. After the week they’ve had, the Colts probably just want the headlines to stay on the ice from here on out.