CREDIT: CLAUS ANDERSON, GETTY IMAGES AND LONDON KNIGHTS
In order for the Knights to make it back to the Memorial Cup, they need all of their talent on the bench and not in the box.

The post-season is just around the corner in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and it’s time for the London Knights to start acting that way.

Since a 5-2 win in Kitchener on Feb. 10, the Knights have amassed a 5-4 record. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but dive deeper into it, and the numbers don’t look great.

With just seven games left in the regular season at the time of this post, the Knights are just a point ahead of the Owen Sound Attack for third place in the Western Conference.

More importantly, they’ve racked up more penalty minutes than any other playoff team in the West. The Knights have been undisciplined all season, and that’s concerning moving into the post-season.

Adrian Carbonara and Brandon Crawley both rank in the top 10 for penalty minutes in the league. Crawley is fifth, but he’s spent a lot of time throughout the season in the top three.

Crawley is one of the Knights’ best defencemen, and London needs him killing penalties, not serving them.

Another example of their undisciplined play is Max Jones. He’s another guy who is a huge part of this team, but can’t be effective watching from the press box.

Jones has always been a feisty player, leaving it all on the ice and never backing down. But there are times where the Knights forward lets his temper get the best of him. A few weeks ago, Jones crosschecked Attack forward Jonah Gadjovich in the face and after a goal no less.

Gadjovich really didn’t do anything that deserves any type of retaliation, much less a stick to the face. It could have been the fact that he was tangled up with Knights goaltender Tyler Johnson, but it was Johnson that was holding Gadjovich’s stick.

Jones is paying the price, with a 10-game suspension. Including injuries and his time at the Anaheim Ducks training camp, he is on pace to miss a shocking 35 of London’s scheduled 68 games. He can return on March 14.

The Knights need this guy in the playoffs. They need their best players on the ice.

Another concerning trend is the amount of goals the Knights have given up lately. After being a stingy defensive team for most of the season, things have started to unravel lately.

In their last four games, London has surrendered 16 goals. That’s uncharacteristic for a team that boasts the kind of goaltending and defensive depth the Knights do.

That includes a 7-3 thrashing at the hands of the Attack on Feb. 25. That’s a team they could potentially play early in the playoffs.

This isn’t to say that the Knights still aren’t a favourite to win the OHL Cup because they are very well still one of the top teams in the league.

But no team that is spending all of its time shorthanded is going to have success, especially with the way the defensive coverage has been for the Knights recently.

When Jones returns from his suspension, he needs to be healthy and disciplined. Crawley needs to stay out of the box. And the rest of the Knights need to stick to the systems that have made them so successful during the season.

With less than two weeks before playoffs start, excitement is starting to build in London. Dale Hunter has built a team that can realistically compete for back-to-back Memorial Cups for the first time in their history.

But all of the Knights need to buy into a clean, solid, disciplined style of hockey for that to happen.

Lately, they’ve left a lot to be desired.