2014 was not the year the Brampton Excelsiors had hoped for when the season began. The Excelsiors have been one of the top teams in the MSL for years but recently they have started to decline and this year they finished dead last in the MSL as they finished the season with a 5-13 record.
The Excelsiors in their first three games looked competitive as they had close games against Six Nations, Peterborough, and Brooklin, some of the top teams in the MSL. However, Brampton could not find a win and lost their first five games of the season before picking up their first win against Kitchener-Waterloo. The Excelsiors could not build on this momentum as they then fell into a four-game losing streak before beating Brooklin for their second win of the season. Brampton would pick up another win against Six Nations before falling apart once again. The Excelsiors would pick up two more wins in their last six games and finished in last place. The Excelsiors finished with a 3-6 home record and 2-7 road record.
One of the Excelsiors’ biggest problems this season was their lack of offense. Brampton only had two players with over 30 points this season and only five with over 20 points. The Excelsiors were missing that dynamic forward to carry the offensive load this season which hurt them. While they had some scoring depth they had no player that defenses had to pay attention to thus making them easy to play against.
To say the Excelsiors goaltending struggled would be an understatement as Brampton used five goalies this year and none of them had a GAA of less than 9.00 at the end of the season. The Excelsiors will need better goaltending next year as you cannot win with goalies posting those kind of numbers unless you have one hell of an offense that can outscore every team in the league.
In the end the Excelsiors will be looking to rebuild for the 2015 season and hope to once again be a powerhouse in the MSL.
