SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

THE PARADE
The Saint John Sea Dogs’ championship parade is tomorrow at noon. The parade will travel down King Street before the rally gets going at the Market Square Boardwalk at 12:20 pm.

The weather is supposed to be nice but, if it begins to rain, the event will be moved to the Market Square Atrium.

Motorists can expect brief traffic disruptions along the route during the noon hour.

WELCOME HOME
There was a big crowd today at the Saint John Airport as the Sea Dogs arrived home with the Memorial Cup. CHSJ News has a couple of videos:





"It's crazy," said Zach Phillips to News 88.9. "There's so many people that came out to support us. It's great to see - I didn't expect that many people! It's a great feeling to see that the community appreciates what we did."

"There was a nice little reception for us at the airport, and some of the kids were out in school parking lots (on the way from the airport),” said head coach Gerard Gallant to the Journal Pioneer. “The fans and people here are real excited."

On CTV News, Sea Dogs majority owner Scott McCain was near speechless about the amount of people that showed up to greet the team at the airport.

MVP
If you didn’t hear, Jonathan Huberdeau was named the Memorial Cup’s Most Valuable Player after Sunday’s victory. From the Memorial Cup website:

Jonathan Huberdeau of the Saint John Sea Dogs finished tied for second in tournament scoring with six points in four games including three goals and three assists. The 18-year-old from St-Jerome, Quebec, scored a goal and an assist in the 3-1 Championship Final victory over the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors. Eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Huberdeau is the third ranked skater by NHL Central Scouting and is the first Quebec-born player to win the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy since Danny Groulx of the Victoriaville Tigres in 2002.

Huberdeau came close to winning the MVP Triple Crown. He was named QMJHL Playoff MVP, Memorial Cup MVP, but fell short in winning the QMJHL’s regular season MVP award.

ALL-STAR TEAM
Jonathan Huberdeau and Nathan Beaulieu both made the tournament’s all-star team.

Huberdeau finished the tournament tied for second in scoring with six points – three goals and three assists. One of his goals was an overtime winner and another an insurance goal in the championship game.

Beaulieu finished the tournament tied for second in scoring amongst defensemen with a goal and two assists. He scored the game-winner in the Saint John's first game.

The full all-star team:

Goaltender – Jordan Binnington, Owen Sound Attack
Defence – Stuart Percy, Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors
Defence – Nathan Beaulieu, Saint John Sea Dogs
Forward – Andrew Shaw, Owen Sound Attack
Forward – Devante Smith-Pelly, Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors
Forward – Jonathan Huberdeau, Saint John Sea Dogs

HUBERDEAU
A solid Jonathan Huberdeau highlight package put together by NHL Draft Video.



DESPRES MOVING ON
It’s extremely unlikely Simon Despres will return to Saint John next year. Mike Colligan of The Hockey Writers had a nice breakdown of Despres’ development and the Penguins farm system.

“It excites us that he’s playing in big games,” Penguins assistant general manager Jason Botterill said in the post. “We want [our prospects] to get used to playing on the big stage. Sure, it’s a level lower [than the NHL], but you still have the intensity and the pressure of raising your game in huge situations.”

Despres will join former Sea Dogs Alex Grant and Nick Petersen at Pittsburgh camp this fall.

ANTHONY OFFICIALLY SIGNS
It took forever, but the Vancouver Canucks officially announced today the signing of Sea Dogs forward Steven Anthony.

Anthony played in the Memorial Cup final on Sunday after missing all but one game of the President’s Cup final and all of the round-robin in Mississauga because a torn MCL.

THE HATS
A neat fact from Terry Doyle of Loose Pucks via Twitter:

A little tidbit - Memorial Cup championship hats were made on-site (with winner's logo). No risk of "wrong" hats floating around/wasted.

THE KHL DRAFT
Jonathan Huberdeau spoke to the National Post about being selected fifth overall in the Kontinental Hockey League draft a few days ago.

“For sure, I don’t want to go there,” Huberdeau said. “I didn’t talk to anybody about that.”

“You know what the kids are like,” Gallant said. “They just joke and talk about that. I’m sure Jonathan’s father is going to leave him in Canada next year, whether it’s in the National Hockey League or in Saint John. He’ll be doing his studies, and I don’t think he’ll be studying much in Russia.”

We’re still puzzled why this team wasted their fifth overall pick on Huberdeau, a North American player that could see time in the NHL as early as next year.

CONGRATS
Lastly, some gangster congratulates the Sea Dogs on their Memorial Cup win. (Note: PG-13 language)



From now on, all Maritimes based teams will be referred to as “Mariteams.”