If the St. Michael’s Buzzers are going to secure seventh place in the West Division standings by the end of the week, it will have to wait until then as they definitely are not going about it the easy way.

Armed with a chance to move seven points ahead of the North York Rangers with wins on Sunday afternoon (head to head against the Rangers) and on Monday night against the Hamilton Red Wings, the Buzzers came away with nothing to show except uncertainty as to where they will finish in the standings and which team – either the Burlington Cougars or the Newmarket Hurricanes - they will ultimately meet in the first round of the playoffs.

Trying to rebound after squandering a chance to put some room between themselves and the North York Rangers on Sunday, an even worse fate was in store for the Buzzers against the Red Wings as they fell by a score of 8-0.

After weathering a solid first two shifts from St. Michael’s, bounces started to go the Red Wings’ way and once they got rolling, the Buzzers, somewhat troublingly, showed very little will to fight back.

“Basically we laid an egg, we were awful all around: in net, on defence, up front and on the bench as coaches, we all had a letdown today and going into the playoffs, it’s not the way you should be playing,” said Buzzers’ Assistant Coach Tony DiNunzio. “We had too many guys coasting and I think the majority of our guys didn’t come to play tonight and don’t realize the importance of finishing the regular season strong.”

Having clinched a playoff spot several weeks ago, DiNunzio explained his bewilderment as to how there does not seem to be more urgency coming from the Buzzers having had a chance to not only secure seventh place but move up further in the standings had their play over the past three weeks yielded better results.

“We’re supposed to be in a playoff race, we’ve clinched a playoff spot and now we’re fighting for position and then we turn around and come out with performances like today and like yesterday (against North York) that are completely unacceptable,” said DiNunzio, who played for the Buzzers between 2002-2004. “Either things have to change or people have to start changing their attitudes.”

After a reasonably solid start to the game from St. Michael’s, the Red Wings jumped in front on a power play at the 11:35 mark of the first period when a drive from Jeremy Goodwin beat Buzzers’ netminder Joe D’Elia from the point. Late in the frame, Noah Schwartz grew the lead to a pair of goals.

“I had a little meeting with the guys before the game and it seemed to be a positive vibe, we started off okay and then it just went downhill from there,” said Buzzers’ Captain Dan Ciampini. “It’s unexplainable and it’s unacceptable at this late stage in the year.”

Evan Haney built the Red Wings’ lead to 3-0 early in the second period and at that point, St. Michael’s seemed deflated. Hamilton put the game away with three goals in one minute and nineteen seconds starting at the 13:21 mark. Andrew Rajenovic, Christian Powers and Zach Hyman all found the net during that stretch leaving the Red Wings with a commanding 6-0 lead after two periods.

“We just have to go back to practice and work on little things in the defensive zone,” said Ciampini. “Defensively, we didn’t play as strong as we wanted to and up front, guys weren’t creating as many opportunities and it’s the second game in a row we made their goalie look like Marty Brodeur. (Drew) Fielding played one hell of a game and kept their guys in it but we still should have been better. They had a number of mistakes and we just couldn’t capitalize yet they capitalized on eight of our mistakes.”

Jonathan Loparco replaced Joe D’Elia in the Buzzers’ net to start the third period and allowed two goals on fourteen shots faced – both off the stick of Matt Carey, his second goal coming as the result of a clear cut breakaway and a good shot to the high glove side.

Throughout the upcoming week, the Buzzers’ coaching staff will try to drive the message home of how important it is to go into the postseason on a high, although DiNunzio warned, and quite rightly, it is difficult to change a mindset in only a week’s time. There has to be willingness on both sides – the coaching staff and the players – for a true change of direction to occur.

“It’s tough to change bad habits in a week, that’s for sure but we have practice tomorrow and practice all week and it’s not going to be easy quite frankly,” said DiNunzio. “It’s going to be tough practices, bag skates and if guys aren’t ready to practice, because that’s where good habits start, they’re not going to play.”

Simply showing up and going through the motions without any kind of focus or commitment will not get it done at this time in the season.

“Right now, there’s an attitude where I think, personally, guys are just going through the motions and that includes showing up at the rink, at practice and what they’re doing on their off time,” suggested DiNunzio. “Guys are just not focused on winning, not focused on this team and not focused on becoming better hockey players.”