Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Notebook: Titan in trouble (again)

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan once again find themselves in a 2-0 hole.

The Titan dropped games one and two of their second round series against the Charlottetown Islanders by a combined score of 9-2. One of Bathurst's goals came courtesy of Charlottetown scoring on their own net during a delayed penalty call.

The Titan trailed their opening round series against the Halifax Mooseheads 2-0 before rattling off three straight wins to advance. But most would argue that the Islanders, 5-0 so far in these playoffs, are a superior opponent to the Mooseheads. This will be a tough task for a Titan team that seems to be feeling some fatigue after a rough stretch run.

The Rimouski Oceanic, meanwhile, continue to do Rimouski Oceanic things. After dropping the series opening 4-0 to the top-seeded Quebec Remparts, the Oceanic rebounded with a 4-1 victory. The next two games of the series will be in Rimouski.

The other series have the Sherbrooke Phoenix leading the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 2-0 and the Shawinigan Cataractes up 2-0 on the Gatineau Olympiques.

All four series resume Thursday.

ATHLETIC ARTICLE
By now you've probably checked out Scott Wheeler's excellent piece on the Sea Dogs' on- and off-ice Memorial Cup preparations. If you haven't read it, you should definitely do that.

A few of the tidbits from the piece that stood out:
  • The Athletic confirmed what had been assumed (and I don't think ever publicly stated) what Saint John's plan was at the 2018 QMJHL Entry Draft: draft defensemen and smaller forwards who would a) be in their primes when hosting the Memorial Cup and b) not jump to the NHL early.
  • The Sea Dogs have had Charlie Coyle call up NCAA committed players and pitch Saint John to them.
  • The Athletic also reported that it was McCain who stopped the Sea Dogs from dealing two first round picks to the Moncton Wildcats for Brandon Gormley during the 2012 trade period. Wheeler writes that McCain now "believes the Sea Dogs would have won the Memorial Cup with Gormley and argues Gormley put the Cataractes, who made the trade when Saint John wouldn’t, over the edge."

LONG LAYOFF
The Sea Dogs will have 38 days between games. That's a lot - but, as Mikael Lalancette breaks down, that's a fairly average amount.
Another random thought on this: there's likely never been a generation of players more experienced in handling lengthy breaks between games (thank you for your service, COVID). Plus, unlike many COVID breaks of the past, the Sea Dogs have a definite date (fingers crossed) of when they'll be returning to game action. Maybe it won't help at all, I don't know, but it's something to consider.

WINNING IS HARD
Winning both your league championship and the Memorial Cup as the host team? It ain't easy.
COUTURE'S NEW MASK
It's here.


ZBORIL SIGNS EXTENSION
Former Sea Dogs defenseman Jakub Zboril has signed a two-year contract extension with the Boston Bruins. The deal has an annual cap hit of $1,137,500, according to the Bruins release.

The 25-year-old was off to a strong start in 2021-22 but appeared in just 10 games with the Bruins after suffering a season ending ACL injury in early December. He's appeared in 54 career NHL games over parts of three seasons.
Zboril spent three seasons with the Sea Dogs, helping the club win the President Cup in 2017.

TOP PLAYS
OT NUMBERS
Last Thursday's devastating overtime loss to the Rimouski Oceanic was a rare playoff OT loss for the Sea Dogs. The team is now 15-7 all-time in playoff overtime games, which includes last season's provincial tournament thing.

YearRound, GameOpponentScoreScorer
2008Round 2, Game 6at Bathurst5-4 W*Payton Liske
2009Round 1, Game 1at Cape Breton5-4 LJoey Haddad
2010Round 1, Game 4at PEI2-1 WTomas Jurco
2010Round 4, Game 4at Moncton3-2 WNick Petersen
2011Round 2, Game 4at Victoriaville5-4 WJonathan Huberdeau
2011Round 3, Game 1vs Lewiston5-4 WStephen MacAulay
2011Round 4, Game 4at Gatineau4-3 W^Ryan Tesink
2011Round 4, Game 6at Gatineau3-2 W*^Alex Beauregard
2012Round 3, Game 3at Chicoutimi5-4 LEtienne Brodeur
2012Round 3, Game 4at Chicoutimi3-2 WCharlie Coyle
2012Round 3, Game 5vs Chicoutimi4-3 W*Stanislav Galiev
2012Round 4, Game 1vs Rimouski3-2 W^Zack Phillips
2016Round 1, Game 5vs Bathurst4-3 W*Thomas Chabot
2016Round 2, Game 2vs Cape Breton4-3 WJoe Veleno
2016Round 2, Game 5vs Cape Breton4-3 LGiovanni Fiore
2016Round 3, Game 1at Shawinigan6-5 WMatthew Highmore
2016Round 3, Game 4vs Shawinigan4-3 LDanny Moynihan
2017Round 2, Game 1vs Val-d'Or2-1 WSamuel Dove-McFalls
2017Round 3, Game 2vs Chicoutimi3-2 L^Nicolas Roy
2021Round-robinat Bathurst4-3 LJaxon Bellamy
2021Round-robinat Moncton6-5 WCam MacDonald
2022Round 1, Game 5vs Rimouski4-3 L*Alexander Gaudio
*Series clincher
^Double overtime

WJC TICKET TALK
Some more details surrounding tickets for the 2023 world juniors have been reported.
  • As mentioned previously, you can sign up for the ticket priority draw now
  • According to a CTV Atlantic report, "preference will be given to Moncton Wildcats and Halifax Mooseheads season ticket holders." This is pretty standard and will presumably be used as a way to boost season ticket sales in both cities.
  • The organizers confirmed to Global Maritimes that the two cities had been working on a bid for the past two years - but they expected to be bidding on a tournament to be held later this decade. The 2023 tournament was removed from Russia a few months ago.
  • Organizers told Global that “we want to make sure that it is affordable and that it is Maritime-priced.”

ALAN DOYLE NEWS
OTHER THINGS

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