As a Devils fan I know this is wrong but....

I kinda like the Philadelphia Flyers. I guess you could say that I have a crush.

The Flyers have recently done something smart and inked Moncton Wildcats Goalie and their 2009 5th round draft pick Nicola Riopel to a contract. Because some girls like to listen to french boys talk, because west coasters are not familiar with Riopel, and because everybody else hates the Flyers and would never dare to visit their web page - I am including Riopel's draft day video here as a final goodbye.



It appears as if Riopel will not be back with the Wildcats and that the goaltending reigns will be handed over to behbeh LBD, goaltender for Canada's under 18 team and hot list hottie for the hockey news. That is a list of young hotties, right?

So while everybody in Halifax was doing a Stanley Cup /Sidney Crosby birthday celebration pee-dance of excitement yesterday, I was sitting around sighing for goalies and the Flyers. This was followed by soulful Flamenco...the expressive dance of my own personal suffering at the hands of heart breaking goalies.

To get my mind off of goalies today I watched this video of former Gatineau Olympique star forward Claude Giroux, who now also plays for the Flyers. Enjoy, and please don't forget his name. I suspect he won't let you! If you don't know him now you will know him soon enough.




Now my mind is wandering. Why does he have a giant inflatable dinosaur in his back seat? Sometimes it takes the BIG questions to get goalies out of my head.

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Riopel Image from Courrier de St-Hyacinthe via RDS

Squirrels, Dogs, Sea Dogs and other such Cougarbaits

The NHL.com has two new full profile articles about Q players, one about former Moosehead (+Moncton, ++Val D'Or) and Boston Bruins prospect Brad Marchand, the other about Fog Devils defenceman TJ Brennan. They remembered to mention that Brad is too daft to listen to his coaches sometimes. For example:

"Ted Nolan coached him with Moncton of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and reportedly used a few disciplinary benchings to get through to Marchand"

"Brent Sutter benched him a few times in the 2007 World Juniors"

"...coach Cam Russell benched him for the final playoff game, a loss"

...but they forgot to mention that he, like a dog, perspires via panting. That is the only explanation I can come up with for why his tongue is always hanging out of his mouth.

A profile on Rangers prospects does not mention former Moosehead winger Ryan Hillier but does feature former PEI netminder Antoine Lafleur and 2008 draft pick Chris Doyle. There is also a Flyers profile on everybody's favorite squirrel Claude Giroux (Gatineau), Lewy/Quebec defenceman Kevin Marshall, Marc-Andre Bourdon (Huskies) and former Mooseheads goaltender Jeremy Duchesne:

"The Flyers' fourth-round pick in 2005 (No. 119) started his professional career with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL last season, where he went 13-13-5 with a 2.97 GAA, 10th among the league's rookies, in 31 games.

He made two late appearances for the Phantoms, winning his only start.

At 6-foot and 201 pounds, Duchesne has good size but needs to work on his positioning and efficiency of movement. As one of the few goaltending prospects in the club's pipeline, he'll likely get a shot at winning a full-time spot in the AHL next season."

In current Q-news:
The Sea Dogs have traded 20 year old enforcer Brett Gallant to Lewiston for a draft pick in the 2009 draft. This solidifies the Sea Dogs 20 year old roster spots as Liske, Sparling and Gauthier (hot, hot, short but still totally hot... hot is a default state for my secret lovers - the Sea Dogs). You can read more about Brett's trade at the Telegraph Journal (for a Sea Dogs perspective) or at the Asylum (Lewiston Perspective). Don't cry Sea Dogs fans. You need experienced goal scorers not sweet and pleasant enforcers.

Speaking of Enforcers - the Q has handed down its recommendations on dealing with violence in the league. Fights are not banned. Whew.

Groulx has left the Gatineau Olympiques for the AHL. If cuddly squirrel Claude Giroux was leaving me behind I would get outta dodge too. Former assistant coach Mario Richter will be taking over.

The Wildcats have signed a giant - 6'8". I think I am in love. They had better not forget about my unrequited love Tyler Noseworthy. I want to see Noseworthy in a cats uniform this season. They have also signed on some other free agents for tryouts.

Huskies goaltender Mathieu Leclair will not be reporting to training camp. 18 year old Leclair was pretty much assured to be the Huskies starter this season but decided to concentrate on his studies instead.

Elsewhere in the Cougarbait Hockey League:
Someone needs to tell Stefan Legein that if he gives up the hockey it means he is giving up the hos. My sweet little cheshire cat can do whatever he wishes and whatever will make him happy but I'm just saying "Won't somebody please think of the puckbunnies?"

Squirrels at boy camp

The Philadelphia Flyers have opened up their prospect development camp. Flyers prospects from the Q include Squirrels Giroux (Gatineau), Kevin Marshall (Lewiston, Quebec), Marc-Andre Bourdon (Rouyn-Noranda), Mario Kempe (St. John's), and former Mooseheads Freddy Cabana and Jeremy Duchesne. For a full list of development camp attendees check out the Flyers website.

Anywho, during the first day of training camp they interviewed Squirrels, who was a first round draft pick of the Flyers in 2006. Squirrels chattered:

“I’m going to go to camp with the mentality that I want to make the team,” said Giroux. “I’ll go there, work hard, play my game and see what will happen.”

Giroux received a small taste of life in the NHL with a two-game stint last season, making his NHL debut on February 19, against the Ottawa Senators.

“It was only two games, but I learned so much in those two games,” stated Giroux. “I talk a lot with [Danny] Briere and Simon Gagne and all of them. I learned so much and I know more of what I can expect for next season.”

They also interviewed him for Flyers TV. A full 12 seconds into the video he does his squirrels sniffle. I love this kid. I should hate him for what Gatineau did to my team this year in the playoffs - but he is squirrels, so I cannot. I would put "squirrels down my pants for the purposes of gambling" if it weren't illegal.




For more info on Squirrels record breaking season with the 'piques check out this older article from the Flyers website.

Rouyn-Noranda vs Olympiques, Game 1: Just as I predicted.

In all the fuss over the IIHF, I almost forgot about the QMJHL finals. I am lying, I could never forget about the QMJHL finals especially since I saw half of my returning team last night at the Metro Centre watching IIHF hockey when I was hoping to see them in Rouyn Noranda actually playing hockey. Well no, actually I was hoping to see Saint John in Halifax, but that was hoping for a lot.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies faced off against the Gatineau Olympiques at the Arena Dave Keon. The Huskies lost 6-2 on home ice. Photos are available through the Huskies official photographer - Michel Fortin's site.

I mean geeze Huskies, at least we lost in OT on home ice. You are going to have to do better than that. Unfortunately they cannot, Gatineau have some big snipers, and despite all the fuss about how well 'the Gouge' has been for the Huskies in these playoffs, he was not really that good against Saint John and I don't expect much more from him facing the Olympiques.

Captain Jean-Philip Chabot had a hat trick and Squirrels Giroux netted one goal and had three helpers. Paul Byron and Gerrit Fauser rounded out Gatineau's scorers. Pistilli, Prokop, and Labrie helped out with a number of assists. Hubert Labrie also has a quick hits interview that you can read on the QMJHL sight right now.

Claude Giroux is a rabid squirrel, nibbling and clawing his way to the top of the Q with 41 points, 15 points more than his nearest competitor. This is why Philly fans should rejoice.

Tyler Hawes and Yannick Riendeau scored for the Huskies. The Huskies PK did not look so good as they allowed the Olympiques to get 4 goals on 6 powerplay attempts. They are either going to have to get back to shutting down the opposing team's power play or smartening up and not taking so many penalties (not likely). If their pride is the offensiveness of their defense and not the defensiveness of their defense...the Huskies are screwed. However, I was looking over the game photos and it does look like they were smart enough to hurt Byron. The Piques are wee tiny things and should be easy to break. Was Groulx being literal when he leaked that his team have a weakness.

Gougeon allowed 5 goals on 34 shots (0.85 save %) whereas Mior allowed only 2 goals on 27 shots (0.926 save %). Mind you, Gougeon is not as easy to dislike with a full beard,when compared to his normal meticulously groomed cornucopia of hair-douchebaggery, but I will stick with Mior because he still looks as wonderfully psychotic as ever.

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Team USA cannot afford name plates on their jerseys, or matching gloves, or team USA helmets and pads for their goalie. That country is just Ghetto. This is war time people, America must conserve its resources. It was fun not having a game schedule and trying to guess the team USA players by face alone (many did not have their usual team numbers). Like I am going to recognize someone from the St Louis Blues - HA. Boyfriend was useless, he has no idea what Paul Martin looks like. Neither of us knew who David Backes was (sorry Backes). We still managed to recognize 3/4 of the team by face alone. Here is the USA roster.

Moose vs Olympiques: Game 2. No goalie, don't go.

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Mooseheads vs Olympiques: Game 1. Meh.

The Gatineau Olympiques defeated the Halifax Mooseheads 2-1 in overtime. There I got that off of my chest. You can read Wuest' s game blog at the Metro. I am ready for game two. I don’t think Gatineau outplayed us, but I also do not think that the Moose gave their hardest fought effort. Maybe it is just that both teams are really rusty from being off for more than a week and they were also testing out the waters, since we have only faced each other twice this season.

The three stars were Byron, Giroux and Yetmen who had a 0.94 save %.

Gatineau opened the scoring at 8:28 into the second with a goal by Byron from Pistilli and Giroux. Pistilli sounds delicious; I assume it contains pine nuts and wild mushrooms in a cream sauce with port. Voracek responded for the Mooseheads ten minutes later with a goal on the powerplay. Then I had to sit there and watch as we did nothing 5 on 5 for the rest of regulation except throw the puck to the side of the net. Byron finished us off in OT.

If you think the things I say about Travis Fullerton are bad, you are lucky that I don’t say what I think about the Moose goalies – so nuzzley sweet. My feelings for P-O can be likened to Michael’s crush on the Chair Model in a recent episode of the office. It is just that sad. There was a feature on the goalies in this week’s team program and this, of course, got me sooo excited that my Lady balls dropped.

Neither the Mooseheads nor Gatineau forwards actually wasted their time challenging the goalies – 33 vs 36 shots in 74:15 minutes of play. I think Yeti was challenged by the forwards moreso than Ryan Mior. Gatineau had a couple of breakaway chances that Yeti handled with aplomb. Thank the Gods for Yeti. So while Yeti faced only a few more shots than Mior, they were more dangerous shots. I don’t know how many times our forwards missed the net. Mior must wear a puck repelling cologne or he is a very lucky bitch.

I must give credit to the Ds for keeping the puck away from the net. Go defense go. More specifically go O’MacMonabonaenderchuk. I am not saying Go Go Gatineau Ds - I would not do that. Our defense helped with killing off a full 4 powerplays and kept that squirrely Giroux away from the net. Now all we have to do is try to avoid falling down in OT followed by standing around in shock as Byron skates by with the puck, gets into our zone all alone, comes face to face with Yeti, and gets a goal. It made Andrew White so angry that Byron stole his move (except Byron went glove side on Yeti, not blocker side like White did with Roy) that he tried to smash his stick on the boards right in front of me.

Hooray for me. I managed to resist stealing Claude Giroux and putting him in my pocket and taking him home. I secretly love him and I want to keep him in a cage with a wheel. I promise I will give him fresh food and water everyday. He is growing a little goatee thing. Awwww he thinks he is men. Clermont is pretty adorable too, such chubby little cheeks. I am also an orange junkie, which means that while I don’t really like his pads because they are gaudy and I like white pads, I still kinda like his pads. The orange is a bold choice. Did I mention his chubby cheeks?

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news links:
Gatineau wins Game One.

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Special message to Carey Price:
What the fuck Carey!!! I don't just love you because you are pretty, I mean it helps, but come-on guy - pull it together. You got a shut out with a big pimple on your nose, and yet when you look good - nothing. 10 goals against in two games. You and Fully are up in the same abysmal tree. Get out of that tree, back onto the ice, and play like you have never played in your life.