According to Rouyn-Noranda coach Andre Touragny, his Huskies have a bout of sickness running through the team. That would explain a great deal of what transpired in last night's game, with the Huskies clearly not playing to top speed. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that the Huskies are still a relatively small team overall. It's tough to win with smaller teams... just ask the last two editions of the Wildcats (who were rebuilding yes... but a lack of size didn't help matters). Rouyn isn't "8-3 bad" vs. a team like Moncton and everyone knows it... but do they have the horses for a long playoff run? Probably not right now, in my (amateur) opinion.
Back to the Foreurs. If there's a visiting team that I like the most, Val d'Or might be it. For a long time, I thought it was an unhealthy fascination with the color green, but it's really more than that.
During their best seasons, they usually employ a core of players whom I enjoy watching. First, it was JP Dumont, the very underrated dman Mathieu Letourneau, Benoit Dusablon and Steve Begin plus some goalie (what was his game? Lugano?) from the '98 Presidents Cup team. The '01 team was hard not to like with super sniper Simon Gamache, Brandon Reid, Stephane Veilleux, David Cloutier, then 16 year old netminder Maxime Daigneault and Miramichi's finest (not to mention Mike Ribeiro's best friend), one Kory Baker. Even the '07 team, though friends of mine in Cape Breton will disagree, was interesting to watch at the very least with the likes of Kris Letang, Brad Marchand (can't dislike him... he served the Cats too well) and company. Plus I can't not like a team that employs Jerome Samson. So in terms of teams, I've always found their best ones to be fun to watch, with (for me, anyway) likable players.
Then there's the town and the rink. I have to admit, I've never had the pleasure of visiting the Centre Air Creebec... but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't on my bucket list. The place is just so intriguing. For the best synopsis from a visitor's perspective, follow this link with a write up by fellow blogger and arena maven Kevin Jordan. Kevin's comments pretty much sum everything up. They are probably the best and most fascinating definition of "small town team" in the CHL. Aside from that, what makes the fan base in Val d'Or... ummmmmm... stand out would be the tale of one game early in the history of the Halifax Mooseheads in which someone in crowd up in Val d'Or threw a totally real, honest to goodness severed head of a moose (the animal, not the athlete) onto the ice. That's a story I've heard from a few sources, but the man who has told it to me best is probably Commandos head coach and former Moncton Alpines/Wildcats defenseman Jeff Leblanc who as a 16 year old rookie was heading to Val d'Or for a game with the Alpines shortly after the incident with Halifax took place. I think he's still in disbelief over it nearly two decades later... anyone really blame him?
Finally, the Foreurs (and their then head coach Richard Martel) are the masterminds behind this classic moment in Wildcat history:
Two things: Firstly, I miss Richard Martel. The Q needs more colorful characters like him in it. Secondly, what a thug that JF Damphousse was. It's always the quiet ones... remember that.
In other news, the Commandos go for three in a row in Campbellton tonight, the Monctonian is in full swing this weekend and with the mention of Centre Air Creebec, an arena of the same vintage saw it's last Jr.A game last night as the Pictou County Weeks Crushers played their final contest at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium last night. Like the Bridgewater Arena and Amherst Stadium, it was just a classic Jr.A rink and a fun place to watch a game. The Crushers christen their new home, the Pictou County Wellness Center on November 22nd when they host the Truro Bearcats.
Also, I'll talk more about the lockout in two weeks.
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