SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

THOMAS NOT SUSPENDED; PETITION STARTED
Sea Dogs captain Mike Thomas has not been suspended yet for his hit on Alex Wall of the Moncton Wildcats Friday at Harbour Station. A suspension is still possible but is becoming more and more unlikely with time passing by.

Thomas hit Wall behind the Sea Dogs goal. It appeared that the Sea Dogs’ tough guy may have left his feet as he laid a shoulder into the head of Wall, who reportedly suffered a concussion after the hit. It was one of the hardest hits seen this year from a Saint John stand point.

Thomas picked up a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct after the hit. He was suspended by the league for Sunday’s 5-2 win over Halifax. Wall was a scratch from the Wildcats lineup yesterday as they defeated the Montreal Junior.

A petition was started following Friday’s game calling for the QMJHL to “Review poor officiating and suspension of Mike Thomas.”

27 have signed the letter as of the time of this publication. To view the information on the petition click HERE.

Shout out to Twitter follower Stacie Smith for sending this to us.

ROCKET READY FOR THE DOGS
If there is any team that can beat the Saint John Sea Dogs, it is the PEI Rocket. The Sea Dogs are 4-3-0-0 against the Rocket this year with one game remaining against each other. That tilt goes on Friday night at the Charlottetown Civic Centre.

"We want to go into the playoffs with momentum,” said Samson Mahbod to The Guardian, who scored twice including the third-period game-winner against Saint John in their 3-1 victory Wednesday. “Every game until the end of the season is playoff hockey.”

Mahbod, 20, said things like “we talked before the game and we thought we could beat them, we could compete with them,” and, “we followed the game plan, we said it’s a playoff game.”

The Rocket and Sea Dogs will likely meet in the opening round of this year’s playoffs which begin March 19 at Harbour Station.

Peter McGuire took a look at the upcoming playoffs in his column today. Click HERE to view the article.

POLL RESULTS
The question this past week was: will any former Sea Dogs participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics?

The results can be seen below:
Yes- 8
No- 16
Olympics- 3

Thanks to everyone who voted, even those clever three who picked “Olympics?”

This week’s question is “how far will the Sea Dogs go in the playoffs.” The poll closes on Monday.

THE SHOOTOUT
Many Sea Dogs fans had difficulty sleeping on Friday night after their team lost their first shootout in almost a year at the hands of the Moncton Wildcats.

Our friend Nathan White (at least I think we are friends) took a look at the shootout on his website “Keep Your Stick On The Ice.” Is the shootout the right way to declare a winner? Voice your thoughts HERE.

The only problem we have with the shootout is the stupid Zamboni scrap they have following overtime. It does nothing but kill the entire atmosphere in the building following five minutes of four-on-four.

LIVE ACROSS NORTH AMERICA…
PRESS RELEASE
As teams wrangle for playoff positions, U.S. fans will get a taste of Canadian Hockey League (CHL) action in the month leading up to the league’s pinnacle tournament -- the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The NHL Network U.S. in association with the CHL today announced it will carry three regular-season CHL games during the month of March -- highlighted by a Windsor-London clash on March 12. Windsor’s roster includes two of the top three rated prospects for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, LW Taylor Hall and D Cam Fowler.

NHL Network U.S. takes viewers to the east coast and the QMJHL on March 14, when the top-ranked Saint John Sea Dogs, led by C Mike Hoffman (drafted 130th overall by the Ottawa Senators in 2009), visit the Moncton Wildcats with top-ranked QMJHL prospect D Brandon Gormley at 8:00 p.m. AST.

The game will be available in Canada on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS.

SOME PHOTOS
Our Twitter buddy/enemy Marc Grandmaison took his show on the road last week when he visited Harbour Station on Friday. The photographer took some great shots from the game and can be seen by checking out his Flickr account and TwitPic page.

NEXT UP
The Sea Dogs travel to Sydney to take on the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. Station Nation will have a full pre-game report for the game.

ANTHONY ON HIGHLIGHT REEL
Steven Anthony’s breakaway goal on Sunday against the Halifax Mooseheads made this week’s QMJHL “plays of the week.” To check out the highlights click HERE.

For the first time in League hitory, the QMJHL offers its fans a video compilation of the MAZDA Plays of the Week. As of today, QMJHL followers will get to see the most spectacular plays on the official website, curtesy of TELUS and PQM.net.

MEDICAL EMERGENCY UPDATE
Reader j4m13m (if that is your real name) explains to us what happened in the third period of Sunday’s game at Harbour Station. Paramedics spent much of the frame in the lower bowl.

The medical emergency was from a puck to the side of the head. Simon Despres rang it around the boards, and it caught the poor lady square above the ear. Sadly, I was in perfect position to see it happen. She was paying attention to the play, but the puck just came too fast for her to move.

RANDOM FLEABURN VIDEO
Really good tune right here...