A Look At The Camp Roster

A new era in Saint John Sea Dogs hockey kicked off today at Harbour Station as players hit the ice for the start of training camp.

The Sea Dogs released the roster for the first week of training camp yesterday and, as expected, there are not a whole lot of familiar faces. Only Oliver Cooper, Devon Oliver-Dares, and Sebastien Auger were regulars on the team last year.

A lot of the players won’t be total strangers though. Guys like Stephen Anderson, Brock Morrison, Mackenzie Brown, and others saw action with Saint John last season and will be on the radar of fans for the next few weeks.

The roster includes a number of free agents but also quite a few draft picks from recent years, including Olivier Leblanc who was a first round pick of the Sea Dogs back in June.

As Peter McGuire explained in today’s Telegraph-Journal, the training camp schedule will be a bit different this year than it has in the past.

A third exhibition game in Bathurst is scheduled for Aug. 22, after which camp will break for a week until Sept. 3, when between 24 and 26 players are expected to report back to camp.

Veteran players will report to camp on September 3 and prepare for a weekend exhibition series against the Moncton Wildcats.

For the first part of training camp, the roster has been split in half. Team A and Team B played a scrimmage this morning and will do so again tomorrow. On Friday, they’ll open their pre-season schedule up with a game against the PEI Rocket at the qplex.

Below is a breakdown of the Sea Dogs’ camp roster. Personal info (weight, height, etc.) was taken from the Sea Dogs/QMJHL website so it may not be completely up-to-date. As for as the status of each player, there are a few we left blank because we are unsure if they are a free agent or signed as an affiliate player or something over the past year.

Huberdeau Leads Canada To Series Win

twitter.com/JonnyHuby11/st…

— Jonathan Huberdeau (@JonnyHuby11) August 15, 2012

Jonathan Huberdeau scored and added two assists as Team Canada won the final game of the 2012 Canada-Russia Challenge 4-2 last night at the Halifax Metro Centre.

“Well, Jonathan Huberdeau dominated, making a play on the first Canada goal of the game that got line mate Lucas Lassio the puck in front of the net,” writes Cam Charron of Yahoo! Sports. “He cleared the front of the net later on a powerplay and created the space for Ty Rattie to tie the game 2-2 in the second. He had another assist in that period on a Rattie goal, and scored again in the third with a little under six minutes to go on another power move in front. Canada had a 4-2 lead at that point and hung on for the victory after 60 minutes.”

Tye Rattie scored a pair of goals and Lucas Lessio added a single in the game. Malcolm Subban made 26 saves for the win.

The victory tied the four-game exhibition series at 2-2, sending it to a 20-minute sudden death overtime period to decide a winner. At 3:20, Ryan Strome sniped a hard shot to give Canada the series victory.

Huberdeau, who was captain for the second straight night, was handed the large black trophy first. A number of players then skated around with it.

Huberdeau had a very good tournament, recording two goals and three assists in the three games he played in.

After the jump, Huberdeau's goal and a John Moore interview.

Canada Falls Again; Must Win Tonight

HALIFAX – Team Canada fell behind early and could never take the lead as they fell 6-5 to Team Russia in Game 3 of the Canada-Russia Challenge at the Halifax Metro Centre last night.

Russia pulled ahead by two goals early in the game. Canada would tie it up a few times but could never get the lead. Even though Canada lost, exhibition hockey games in August don’t get much more exciting than last night’s.

Ryan Murphy, Ryan Murray, Sean Monahan, Charles Hudon, and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Canada. Laurent Brossoit didn’t have his greatest night in net, allowing six goals on 27 shots.

Huberdeau wore the ‘C’ last night and had a few terrific scoring chances before finally connecting in the third period on a power play.

Huberdeau now has a goal and assist in the two games he has played in.

Some other observations:

• For some bizarre reason they played the Survivor theme song during the game.
• TSN’s Craig Button didn’t take part in the wave when it circulated around the arena during a TV timeout.
• Solid atmosphere at the Metro Centre.
• Reminder: every team in the QMJHL passed on picking up Russian goaltender Andrei Makarov in the Lewiston expansion draft.
• Nail Yakupov is upset over the lack of fruit.

Game 4 of the four-game series is tonight at 8pm at the Metro Centre. TSN’s coverage begins at 7:30pm.

Canada must win tomorrow's game in regulation to stay alive; if they do then we'll have a 20-min sudden-death OT & a shootout if needed
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) August 14, 2012

3rd Jersey To Be Unveiled Friday

The Sea Dogs announced today that they will unveil their new third jerseys on Friday at the qplex prior to the team taking on the PEI Rocket in pre-season play.

From the release:

The third jersey will feature a new logo, which takes design cues from the logo of the Saint John Flames, and will be available for purchase at the QPLEX after the unveiling. The new jersey will debut as a game jersey Saturday, September 29 against the Gatineau Olympiques. 

Tickets for Friday’s pre-season game are now being sold through the Sea Dogs’ office as well as at the QPLEX. 

Tickets are $10.00 and still available at the QPLEX or by calling (506) 848-5900, by calling (506) 657-DOGS (3647), by visiting the office, and through the Sea Dogs’ online store by clicking HERE. 

Season ticket holders can get $5.00 tickets for Friday’s game through the Sea Dogs’ office only.

Game time on Friday is 7:30pm (NOTE: we have a countdown clock on the right side of this page). There should be plenty of new faces in the Sea Dogs lineup.

Last month, Sea Dogs president Wayne Long wore the above jersey at a charity event. Today’s release said the logo on the jersey “takes design cues from the logo of the Saint John Flames” and if you enlarge the above photo you can certainly see the similarities.

Canada-Russia Game 3 Tonight

HALIFAX - Team Canada looks to bounce back tonight with a victory over Team Russia in Halifax.

Canada won the first game of the 2012 Canada-Russia Challenge by score of 3-2 on Thursday in Yaroslavl. But on Friday, Canada didn’t have a great showing and fell 6-3, sending the four-game series to Halifax knotted at 1-1.

Game 3 of the exhibition series is tonight at 8pm. TSN’s coverage begins at 7:30pm.

Here are the lines and defense pairings via TSN’s Mark Masters.

Monahan-Strome-Rattie

Huberdeau-Scheifele-Lessio

Hudon-Jenner-Danault

Di Giuseppe/Roy-Sutter-Wilson

Murray-Harrington

Rielly-Murphy

Pelech-Dumba

Ceci

Laurent Brossoit will get the start in goal tonight. It will be his first action of the series.

Not playing tonight: Lagace, Hamilton, Leipsic, Ouellet, Reinhart and Shinkaruk.

Saint John Sea Dogs captain Jonathan Huberdeau didn’t play on Friday. In Thursday’s win he recorded an assist.

For those in the Halifax area, Canada’s practice on Tuesday will be open to the public, according to Metro Halifax. It begins at 10:45am at the Metro Centre.

Windsor Spitfires Aftermath

Here are some articles reacting to Friday’s massive news that saw the Ontario Hockey League severely punish the Windsor Spitfires for breaking player benefit/recruitment rules.

The must-read article comes from Sportsnet’s Patrick King.

Until the exact circumstances are known in regards to Windsor’s violations, every team is wondering if they could be facing similar sanctions. One source noted there were approximately a handful of other investigations ongoing and Friday’s ruling could simply be the tip of the iceberg.

King also made note of the CHL Import Draft which has always had its issues.

The Canadian Hockey League’s import draft, for example, is a running joke amongst league insiders. European players are known to have "cooked deals" in advance of the draft and in some cases, the difference between landing a European player and losing him to another team is a mere $5,000-$10,000 extra, a sum most teams would hardly bat an eye at to secure the player. A player’s agent will use those sums as a barometer and hold the player ransom, so to speak, if a team isn’t willing to meet the level of compensation asked.

At The United States of Hockey, Chris Peters breaks down what Friday’s decision might mean for the never-ending war between the NCAA and the CHL.

Guy Flaming at The Pipeline Show wonders what happens now. What’s next? Who’s next? Could this decision define David Branch’s career?

Windsor Star columnist Bob Duff writes that there has to be a lot of nervous OHL teams right now.

Also at The Windsor Star, fans react to the news.

Yes, this is an OHL issue. But let’s be honest - the QMJHL and WHL are definitely paying attention to all of this.

Photo Credit: TVA Sports