Blades preparing for Memorial Cup
The MasterCard Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades returned to the ice in preparation for next month’s national championship.
Following their first-round sweep at the hands of the Medicine Hat Tigers, the players were given time off and returned home. Now they’re gearing up like the way the Shawinigan Cataractes, last year’s hosts, did after their early exit in the playoffs with a competitive training camp.
Blades head coach and general manager Lorne Molleken outlined the tentative schedule to Daniel Nugent-Bowman, the team’s beat reporter for the Star Phoenix. Preparations will include off-ice testing and practices for the rest of this month. Multiple practices per day and intrasquad games are scheduled for May.
“They’ll be very competitive,” Molleken described the practices. “Nothing will be negotiable. It’s going to be a lot of hard work. They’re going to be pushed to the limit.”
They’ll have one less player when the tournament opens on May 17.
Stefan Matteau Jr. rides the bus…with fans
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada general manager Joel Bouchard isn’t shy when it comes to discipline. Earlier this season, Matteau Jr., the New Jersey Devils’ first-round pick, was suspended by the league with an additional game tacked on by the team for continued undisciplined play.
His undisciplined play resurfaced recently in the playoffs, and a slashing penalty late in the second period of Game 2 set the stage for the Baie-Comeau Drakkar’s eventual game-winner 10 seconds after his penalty expired. He was glued to the bench during the third period, which was only the beginning.
According to beat reporter Francois Parenteau, Matteau Jr. then served a unique form of punishment by returning home to the Montreal suburb on a bus with the team’s fans, and not his teammates. His father, former New York Ranger Stephane, is an assistant coach on the team.
As of late Sunday night, there were rumblings Matteau Jr. didn’t appreciate his benching to the point where he may quit the team. The same story indicates Bouchard will meet with the media on Monday to discuss the situation.
The Armada trail the best-of-seven semifinal series 2-0 with Game 3 on Tuesday.
P.E.I. Rocket taking off?
The lone junior team in Canada’s smallest province could be on the move.
A press conference was held on Wednesday where part-owner Serge Savard Jr. acknowledged reports that an offer was received from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League head office in the ballpark of $3.5 million, and that they intended in taking the offer. The league gave the current ownership group a deadline of April 26 to find local investors to purchase the team to keep it in P.E.I., or it would be sold to the league with reports indicating the team would be relocated to Sorel-Tracy, Que. next season.
Knights, Colts and Spitfires make formal Memorial Cup bids
The London Knights, Barrie Colts and Windsor Spitfires each made their formal bids to host the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup.
The Knights are hoping their star-studded lineup will play a factor in swaying the host committee.
The winner will be announced sometime in early May.
Meanwhile, former Spitfires forward Eric Wellwood nearly lost his life in an American Hockey League game two weeks ago. “Once I learned how close (it was) a couple of days later, how severe it was, it sent a chill down my spine. (I’m just) happy to still be breathing,” he said.
Remparts to bid on 2015 Memorial Cup, could have kept Kucherov
There’s never a dull moment with the Quebec Remparts.
In the days after being eliminated by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the second-round, the team held a press conference to announce its intentions in bidding to host the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup. Quebec City had previously intended in bidding to host the 2015 World Juniors, but will drop those plans to focus on the Canadian Hockey League’s crown jewel, that they previously hosted in 2003. No other team has declared intentions in bidding at this point.
The decision to trade Nikita Kucherov in November was because of their intentions in bidding to host the 2015 Memorial Cup, according to team owner, head coach and general manager Patrick Roy. That puts a positive spin on what was otherwise a negative story after Kucherov was instrumental in eliminating the Remparts.
Perhaps the most ironic part of the story broke last week when it was learned the Remparts could have kept Kucherov, along with their other two imports, Mikhail Grigorenko and Nick Sorensen. The new rule, which only came into the league this season, left some confusion and, ultimately, partly forced Roy’s hand.
“We still managed to get something for Kucherov,” Roy said. “In hindsight, is drafting three Europeans a better solution? With everything we know today, I’m confident the CHL will improve the situation. We were the guinea pigs in this new process.”
Edmonton takes a page from Calgary
The Edmonton Oil Kings, who are owned by the Edmonton Oilers, are seeing the fruits of building a business model that mimicked those of the team they’re playing.
“We compared our situation to Calgary and Vancouver,” said Darryl Porter, the Oil Kings’ vice-president and alternate governor. “We were all expansion franchises, we’re all in NHL markets, we all had the same challenges. We looked at both everything from best practices, pricing, marketing, all the rest of it.”
The Oil Kings and Calgary Hitmen are tied at one in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference final following Edmonton’s lopsided 6-0 win on Friday. The story from that game was undoubtedly the Hitmen’s lack of discipline, and perhaps some one-sided officiating.
At least the Hitmen will have their logo at centre ice soon enough.