Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Notebook: Bishop backs up Leafs

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Former Sea Dogs goaltender Alex Bishop was the Toronto Maple Leafs backup goaltender on Saturday night against Thomas Chabot and the Ottawa Senators.

The Leafs were forced to sign Bishop, currently a member of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, due to Petr Mrazek's injury and salary cup issues.
The Leafs won the game 3-1 with Jack Campbell playing the full 60 minutes in net.

Bishop spent parts of three seasons with the Sea Dogs between the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons. He also played with the Quebec Remparts and Val-d'Or Foreurs in the QMJHL - and later the MHL's Summerside Western Capitals.

The 24-year-old is in his fourth season with the Varsity Blues.

FRANCIS AND THE HEAT
Ryan Francis has now appeared in two AHL games with the Stockton Heat. He has been held off the scoresheet in both games but did record a shot in Saturday's 3-2 Heat win over the Tucson Roadrunners.

Defenseman Yan Kuznetsov, Saint John's top pick in June's CHL Import Draft, has also been held pointless in two games.

The Heat are back in action on Friday, visiting the San Diego Gulls.

COMING UP
Following Wednesday night's Sea Dogs/Titan matchup, Saint John will play back-to-back games over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Sea Dogs face the Moncton Wildcats for the first time this season. Game time for that one is 7 p.m. at TD Station.

The rebuilding Wildcats have been hot-and-cold to start the season and currently own a respectable 3-3-0-0 record.

On Sunday afternoon, the Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst to battle the Titan again. It'll be the fourth meeting of the month between the two.

BID DETAILS
CHL president Dan MacKenzie recently discussed Saint John's successful Memorial Cup bid with Junior Hockey Magazine (via CHL.ca).

"We liked the vision that Saint John brought forward in terms of how they are going to engage the entire community," said MacKenzie. "Given the fact that they have never hosted before, through their bid you could tell their passion and their desire to host this event. Prior to deciding how we were going to announce it, we brainstormed with our internal team and made the decision that me and a couple of folks would head out and surprise both the team and the executives who were involved in the bid process and we captured it all on video. It ended up being pretty successful. It was a lot of fun."

PATENAUDE VS EAGLES
Noah Patenaude has struggled against the Cape Breton Eagles in his QMJHL career - but you wouldn't know that by how he played last weekend.

Patenaude allowed a goal on 24 shots in a relief appearance on Friday and followed that up by allowing three goals on 31 shots on Saturday.

Here's an updated look at his season-by-season numbers against the Eagles.

2021-22: 1-1; 2.20 GAA; .927 SV%
2020-21: 1-2; 4.99 GAA; .853 SV%
2019-20: 0-1; 6.31 GAA; .845 SV%

ROY ON TOP
Entering play Wednesday, former Sea Dogs forward Joshua Roy leads the league in scoring with 15 points in seven games with the Sherbrooke Phoenix.

The Montreal Canadiens prospect has six goals (tied for the league lead) and nine assists (tied for second).

Roy had 35 points in 35 games last season split between Saint John and Sherbrooke.

The Sea Dogs and Phoenix meet on Dec. 4 in Sherbrooke and Jan. 8 in Saint John.

ISLANDERS STRUGGLES
After picking up wins in each of their first three games to start the season, the Charlottetown Islanders have dropped four straight.

The Islanders carry a 3-4-0-0 record into their Wednesday matchup against the Cape Breton Eagles.

That four-game skid includes a 3-1 loss to the Sea Dogs on Thanksgiving Monday - which was sandwiched between back-to-back shutout losses. Charlottetown is averaging just 2.43 goals per game, the sixth fewest in the league.

Islanders forward Xavier Simoneau, who started the year with eight points in five games, has not played since getting injured late in that Thanksgiving Monday game against Saint John.

TOP 10
The Sea Dogs were once again left out of the CHL Top 10 rankings, which are now topped by the Quebec Remparts.
The Sea Dogs visit the Remparts in a couple weeks (Nov. 4).

HUBERDEAU GETS 500TH POINT
Congrats to Jonathan Huberdeau.
OTHER THINGS
  • The Saint John Union of the Eastern Canadian Basketball League hope to begin play in March - but acknowledge COVID is still very a much a thing, reports CHSJ News.
  • The Sea Dogs are averaging just 2,372 fans per game this season. There's no denying that it's bad - but numbers are pretty bad across the league. Halifax and Quebec are averaging under 6,000. Moncton is at 3,592. We're not going to have the quick rebound that was hoped.
  • I was listening to the Ottawa Senators radio broadcast on Sunday night (as one does) and the announcers said 6,000 or 7,000 fans at puck drop was a pretty good crowd. All about perspective I guess.
  • CHL president Dan MacKenzie recently told Junior Hockey Magazine that the league is "putting the finishing touches on our schedule with TSN and RDS."
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