Thursday, October 14, 2021

Notebook: Eagles coming to town

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
SAINT JOHN - For the first time in nearly a year, the Saint John Sea Dogs and Cape Breton Eagles will square off.

The Eagles were the last Nova Scotia club the Sea Dogs faced last season, falling in a wild 8-6 contest on Nov. 18, 2020 at Centre 200. That game ended up being Saint John's last until the restart in March.

The last time the Eagles were in Saint John was on Halloween of 2020.

The Eagles will have a couple of familiar faces in their lineup when they take on the Sea Dogs on Friday and Saturday at TD Station. Former Sea Dog Nicholas Girouard leads the team in scoring with five goals and three assists while Dawson Stairs has a goal and three helpers.

BASKETBALL IS BACK
Basketball is returning to TD Station.

The Eastern Canadian Basketball League announced this week that Saint John is officially the second franchise in the new Maritimes-based hoops circuit. The team will be called the Saint John Union.
Truro was announced as the league's first franchise. The league expects to have four to six teams when it tips off next March, reports the Telegraph-Journal (paywall).

The Saint John Riptide, formerly the Mill Rats, of the National Basketball League of Canada were the last professional basketball team to call Saint John home. They took a one-year absence from the league in 2019 but never returned.

DOGS IN THE SHOW
Nine former Sea Dogs started the 2021-22 season in the NHL. According to the CHL, that's the most of any QMJHL team.

They are: Mike Hoffman (Montreal Canadiens), Nathan Beaulieu (Winnipeg Jets), Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida Panthers), Charlie Coyle (Boston Bruins), Jakub Zboril (Boston Bruins), Matthew Highmore (Vancouver Canucks), Julien Gauthier (New York Rangers), Thomas Chabot (Ottawa Senators), and Mathieu Joseph (Tampa Bay Lightning).

Unsurprisingly, the London Knights led all CHL clubs with 32 players on opening night NHL rosters.

OUT OF THE TOP 10
Saint John's slow start to the season has knocked them out of the CHL Top 10.

The Sea Dogs are 1-3-0-1 on the season following Monday's win in Charlottetown. The Acadie-Bathurst Titan, who beat the Sea Dogs twice last week, sit third overall.
SCORING LEADERS
Bathurst's Riley Kidney and Blainville-Boisbriand's Miguel Tourigny are tied for the QMJHL scoring lead with 10 points each.

Other notables in the top 15: Nicholas Girouard (sixth - eight points), Joshua Roy (10th - eight points) and Brady Burns (14th - seven points).

Drummondville's Tyler Peddle, the second overall pick in June's QMJHL Entry Draft, currently leads the league in goals with six. He has an impressive seven points in four games with the Voltigeurs.

NON-QUEBEC ROSTER
Every now and then a fun fact will shake me to my core. This is one of those times. From Patrick McNeil's latest column in the Cape Breton Post:

Lapierre's absence puts the Titan in the record books. In his absence, the Titan roster is entirely composed of players born and raised outside the province of Quebec. The only time this has happened previously in the QMJHL was with the 1984-85 Plattsburgh Pioneers. The New York-based club iced an all-American roster, and lost 17 consecutive contests to begin their existence. The franchise folded and their games were erased from the league record books.

I even had to look at the Titan's roster to truly believe this. Wild.

FIRST GOAL
Speaking of the Titan, Hendrix Lapierre, who is at least starting the season with the Washington Capitals, scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on Wednesday.
Lapierre, acquired in a trade from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, appeared in just one pre-season game with the Titan this year, recording a goal and an assist against Saint John on Aug. 28.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)