No rest for the wicked

A day off? Not likely.

Almost all of the crew left right after the game to head to Quebec City for Game 2. I stayed back so that I could have a shorter drive to Shawinigan in the morning in order to do a commercial spot for BMO and the Mastercard Memorial Cup. The extra time allowed me to get into the "Q" room to gauge the team’s mood after losing Game 1. I caught up with the always affable Brandon Gormley.

8:15 a.m. On the road to Centre Bionest in Shawinigan.

9:35 a.m. The first thing I noticed was the newly-landscaped parking lot. The Cats were favoured to get the 2009 MasterCard Memorial Cup, but the building and surrounding infrastructure were simply not ready. It looks great now.

11:30 a.m. The shoot concludes and as we are leaving the ice to allow the general public onto the surface for a free skate, an 83-year-old man inquired about the commercial shoot. He proceeded to tell us that he grew up in the area playing with the legendary Jacques Plante some 70 years ago. I asked if he’ll be at the Cup and he joked he’ll be there if he’s "still around." The guy didn’t look a day over 65.

11:45-12:30 p.m. I take the opportunity to spend some time with Cataractes head coach Eric Veilleux and assistant coach Steve Larouche. We went over plenty of scenarios, including their injuries (at one point they were missing eight players, now just five). We discussed the departure of defenceman Ryan Kavanagh, the addition of Kirill Kabanov and how he feels about hosting the Cup and the plight of his hockey club.

12:45 p.m. On the road to Quebec City. Made a few calls to the family along the way, and made an attempt to put the Hyundai Genesis rental car to the test.

2 p.m. I arrived in Quebec City, on a picture-perfect day. Quebec City is one of the most beautiful cities in Canada. It’s vibrant, the fall colours are beautiful and our hotel is perfectly located with a view of the St. Lawrence and is just a quick jaunt away from Old Quebec.

I unpacked my bags, learned of Tom Kuhnhackl’s 20-game suspension and immediately get on the horn with Niagara IceDogs head coach and general manager Marty Williamson. As one would expect, he wasn’t happy with the result.

He acknowledged the carelessness of the play. Kuhnhackl also hurt his knee on the play and will undergo further examination in the coming days. I also picked Marty’s brain about the Hamilton brothers and Ryan Strome, whom we will see in the OHL portion of the schedule. Marty said he’ll be in Sault Ste. Marie for Monday’s tilt.

3 p.m. Off to the Colisee Pepsi to check in on Team QMJHL. We ran into the injured Stanislav Galiev of St. John, who informed us he was there to speak to head coach Valery Bragin, looking for a spot on the world junior team. A very interesting scenario indeed, as Galiev has been in North America for the past three seasons, and that doesn’t always sit well with the Russian federation.

We also spoke briefly with Xavier Oulette, who said the new rink in Blainville-Boisbriand is simply stunning. He’s a great kid and one of the top defenceman in the Q.

Scheduled for a stretch-only session, the team took to the ice to work on the power play. The coaching staff was not happy with the 0-4 performance, saying they needed to get more traffic while also taking advantage of the aggressive nature of the Russian penalty kill. After practice we spent 15 minutes with the Yanick Jean to get his thoughts on Game 1. They were happy neutralizing the Russian speed, happy with the shots on goal (42), but not happy about the lack of finish and the 3.5 breakaways given up to Nikita Kucherov.

We got a chance to speak with Gormley again, and then to Zach O’Brien, an under-the-radar forward from Newfoundland who found his stride in Acadie-Bathurst last year, and is now amongst the top snipers in the Q.

The Russians also skated, but theirs was a very light-hearted one, segmented into forwards and defencemen doing their own thing. We got a look at top draft prospect Mikhail Grigorenko, who will be added to the Russian roster for Wednesday’s game. He’s got good size and can shoot it a ton.

The Russians were feeling good about themselves.

6 p.m. Back to the hotel, a quick shower and then out to dinner with the crew at 7. Fauldsy (Rob Faulds) finds us a great restaurant (no easy task here as there are several to choose from).

There were six of us out to dinner and we discussed the previous game and how we would like to approach the next show.

9:45 p.m. Back in the hotel to finish up the blog, write down a few notes from the day’s events and soon it will be 10 toes up.