Jan 15, 2010 - 04:30 AM

By Brian McNair

They say timing is everything.

And, sadly, the timing seems to be a little off for the Oshawa Generals with respect to Memorial Cup bids.

The team's braintrust held a meeting Thursday to consider the possibility of making another bid, and while the outcome of that gathering won't be known until further conversations with the City, it seems unlikely Oshawa would be a favourite to host the 2011 national junior hockey championship.

There are reasons to like Oshawa as a potential host: the General Motors Centre remains one of the newest and finest arenas in the Ontario Hockey League; the Eastern Conference is overdue after losing out in the past three Ontario bids; and the addition of Adam Graves and Peter DeBoer to the ownership ranks brings a higher level of respect.

But, on the ice, where it matters most, the Generals don't seem to be stacking up as a strong enough team to compete at that level. Although the Generals have flashed signs of promise, the fact of the matter is they remain a sub-.500 club still in danger of missing the playoffs for a second straight year.

Chris DePiero, the team's GM and head coach, has done a fine job, but it would be hard to imagine the kind of surge needed in a year's time to make Oshawa a viable threat to compete for a national title.

Maybe two years down the road, or three, but not one.

The strength of this team seems to be in the crop of rookies, led by Boone Jenner and a trio of defencemen. Toss in the possibility of luring Tyler Biggs and Lucas Lessio to town and no team in the league can match Oshawa for 1993-born talent.

But that doesn't help much right now.

The reality is the Generals have decent but far from overwhelming overage potential, a so-so crop of soon-to-be 19-year-olds, with the notable exception of Calvin de Haan, and a goaltending tandem that has not developed as hoped.

The roster won't hold a candle to that of the current Brandon Wheat Kings, hosts of this year's tournament, or even to last year's Rimouski Oceanic, which won only one game.

More relevantly, it's hard to imagine competing with the likes of Windsor, which has already expressed an intention to bid.

Hopefully stable ownership will help the Generals restore a proud tradition, making bids down the road more likely.

But if 2008 didn't work out despite the presence of John Tavares, it's hard to imagine 2011 faring better.