CSS (not the fancy codey kind) midterms...

It may be the beginning of the NHL season, but it's already midterm season for the youngins  And by that you should know I mean draft rankings.

While the Jones/MacKinnon drama rolls on and the Q holds five of the top 10, Nikolas Brouillard, who was all sorts of fantastic on Sunday against Val-d'Or, is listed 148th among North American skaters.

Louis-Philip Guindon, for his part, is twelfth in terms of North American goaltenders. (The only Graham on that list is Charlie from Belleville. Oops.)

It's early yet, there are a lot of games still left to play. Including:

Rimouski: 28-11-1-4, 61 points, 4th in the league, 170 GF, 140 GA, won their last three straight, Peter Trainor is third in league scoring with 30 goals, 37 assists. Their netminder, Philippe Desrosiers, has a GAA that leads all rookies and is seventh overall (2.97), and he has a .905 SV%.

Drummondville: 24-15-2-1, 51 points, 8th in the league, 140 GF, 142 GA, just won 5-2 against Val-d'Or, Verrier still leads the team with 48 points in 42 games, and Guindon is the second-best rookie with a 3.19 GAA and .880 SV%. Domenic Graham is behind him with 3.26 and .872, and the most recent win under his belt.

Head-to-head: The only game opposing the two teams this season was a 7-5 Rimouski win where Verrier and Malouin each scored twice.

From midterms to exams (of a medical nature): Frédéric St-Denis is now among the group lining up to take a physical for his part in the extremely brief training camp currently being held by the Habs. He and Louis Leblanc, Patrick Holland, Michael Blunden, and Michael Bournival are lining up in a scrimmage to be held Thursday at the Bell Centre, along with Gabriel Dumont (among others). Other ex-Volts that got called up to participate in camps include Mike Hoffman and Sean Couturier. Meanwhile, André Bouvet-Morrissette is now in Milwaukee after being called up, and with the Springfield Falcons losing some of their players to training camp, maybe they can finally test Scott Howes and see what he's capable of...

Status quo.

Whoa! Slightly disconcerting alum-news to start the post:

Canadian Derick Brassard today, Tuesday, left Salzburg for Canada. His departure has baffled EC Red Bull Salzburg, given that the 25-year-old forward personally confirmed his intention to stay with the Red Bulls only last Wednesday and had also been notified of the deadline for finalising the squad for the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (last Saturday). In the knowledge that his departure from the club after just one game – last Sunday against Linz – has necessitated the first of three possible exchanges, Derick Brassard has turned his back on the club today, despite contractual obligations and reassurances to the contrary. After the player, who is contracted to the Columbus Blue Jackets, cleared his things from the dressing room on Monday morning without warning, the Red Bulls tried in vain to contact him by telephone. The powers that be at the Salzburg club then contacted Derick Brassard personally to let him know that they were unwilling to let the Canadian go. He was told not to do anything hasty that he might later regret, and he was reminded in no uncertain terms of the contractual situation. Unfortunately, Derick Brassard still flew out of Salzburg this morning. The Red Bulls will be notifying the IIHF of the player's breach of contract and will be seeking legal advice. (redbull.com)

What if he just wanted to go home for Christmas?

Anyway. Flipping that alum-bit for a happier one:

Howes bagged two goals in a 4-3 shootout win at Arizona. Both came on the power play. He leads the circuit in goals with 15-10-25 totals in just 16 [now 17] games, and he also leads with eight power-play goals. Tonight's outburst was his fourth multi-goal game and his eighth multi-point night this season. Also, check this out about the guy who was the Kelly Cup MVP for the Aces in 2011 -- his shooting percentage is a ridiculous 25.9 percent. That's 15 goals on just 58 shots. (adn.com)

In regular news, since I've been asleep on the button lately...

For the gazillionth time: "[Dominic Ricard] is even juggling with the idea of the status quo [for the QMJHL trade period]."

Hahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Ha. Haaaaa.

I went into calculation mode last week and came up with the real deal: On average, he has made seven trades per trade period (Christmastime trade period, that is). The one with the least amount of trades (incidentally, also a "status quo" year) was four, and that was the year Drummondville popped up to win the Jake Allen sweepstakes. (The year with the most trades was, unsurprisingly, the revolving door known as 2007-2008. This is just in the Ricard regime, by the way.)

And for the gazillionth time...: Status quo is immediately revoked. Au revoir, Bryce Milson. The 19 year old was traded to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in return for a third round pick in 2013. He who started the year as team fitness champion with an excellent preseason has not been able to continue on that pace in the same way (it has to be said he wasn't exactly used consistently, either).

Meanwhile, Duhamel left for Team Canada: And Louis Robitaille picked up his first win as head coach against the Quebec Remparts in a shootout. How about that? Boom.

GOALS	1	2	3	OT	SO	Total
QUEBEC	0	0	2	0	0	2
DRUMMONDVILLE	1	0	1	0	1	3

Heroes: Archambault with two goals and Brouillard the elder with the shootout winner.

...And a different kind of status quo remains: With wins against good teams there are usually blowout losses to expansion teams immediately afterwards.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
SHERBROOKE	2	3	1	6
DRUMMONDVILLE	1	0	2	3

Naturally, NATURALLY, Comtois had two of those goals and finished with a game-high +4.

Scorers for Drummondville: Malouin, Caouette, and Brouillard the elder.

But wait! The return of Domenic Graham:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	1	2	3
BAIE-COMEAU	0	1	1	2

...was apparently a good one. Thirty-five saves kind of good.

Heroes: Brouillard the elder again, Caouette again, and Gabriel Vermette.
Silent heroes: The younger Brouillard has a 5-game point streak happening right now.

Tonight is yet another meeting with Gatineau, who have won their last game against Val-d'Or by the score of 3-1.

And the gloves come off.

Weekend wrap-up: Atlantic visits appear to be better than Atlantic roadtrips.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
SAINT JOHN	0	2	0	2
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	2	4	6

This is the first win against Saint John since January 15th, 2011. Also, the first regulation win against them since September 25th, 2010. In either case, the Montreal Junior still existed the last time Drummondville beat Saint John, which should give away enough.

Drummondville: On this scoring sheet we have Archambault, Caouette, Gauthier (2), and M-O Brouillard (2).
Saint John: Goals scored by Huberdeau and Tesink.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
ACADIE-BATHURST	0	2	2	4
DRUMMONDVILLE	4	1	0	5

This game was originally 5-0, but we'll ignore that because:

POWER PLAY
ACADIE-BATHURST	3 / 6
DRUMMONDVILLE	5 / 7

Look at the shiny new power play!

Drummondville: The only goal the Brouillards had no part in was Vermette's game-winning blast from the point. Otherwise they both scored, and Archambault and Verrier had the others.
Bathurst: Lalancette (2), he-who-doesn't-take-penalties (O'Brien), and Stevens.

Graham was in net for both games (!) and made a combined 42 saves out of 48. In the Saint John game, Drummondville outshot their opponents 44-17 and also topped Bathurst in that category, 44-31. Whoever this team is (minus the part about not maintaining a 5-goal lead), I like them.

Fighty time: Check out yesterday's spirited tilt between Alec Jon Banville of Bathurst and the Volts' 16-year old rookie Joey Ratelle:



Ding ding!

Concern for Geoffrion: As you have no doubt heard by now, Blake Geoffrion was the main story of Friday night's game between the Hamilton Bulldogs and Syracuse Crunch.

The NHL club issued a statement Saturday saying the 24-year-old underwent surgery for a depressed skull fracture and is expected to make a full recovery. Geoffrion, playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs in a game held at the Bell Centre, was caught with his head down as he drove along the boards by Syracuse Crunch defenceman Jean-Philippe Côté in the first period. Geoffrion was bleeding and holding his hands to his face when he skated off the ice to go to the dressing room. - TheSpec.com

At last check, he has been moved out of intensive care. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs' Facebook page is still offering fans the chance to send their well-wishes to Blake as he recovers from his injury. Get well soon, Blake!

In what concerns the scoresheet of that game and former Voltigeurs, Ondrej Palat was named second star, picking up two assists in the 4-1 win and posted a strong performance even aside from that. For his part, Gabriel Dumont got a helper on the lone goal by Hamilton.

This week: The CMD plays host to the Gatineau Olympiques on Thursday. Then the Volts make a visit to Boisbriand on Friday. Back home for Chicoutimi on Sunday. Get 'er done!

Alumni?: Quiet weekend, aside from the Hamiltonian/Syracusian aspect of things. Scott(y) Howes got the game-winner in a come-from-behind Allen Americans' win Saturday while Charles Landry scored his first of the season for the Florida Everblades in a losing cause, 7-6 against Gwinnett.

Dread leads to...facefloor

My attitude of pre-game dread was very effective on Friday before running out of magic on Saturday and Sunday.

I really, really dreaded playing Rouyn.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
ROUYN-NORANDA	1	0	1	2
DRUMMONDVILLE	2	1	1	4

Reverse psychology 101! With that, they were served just their fifth loss of the season. Hurrah!

POWER PLAY
ROUYN-NORANDA	1 / 4
DRUMMONDVILLE	2 / 9

A little less hurrah, but still, half the goals came on the power play! Not too shabby.

Drummondville: Brouillard (the elder), Malouin (welcome back), Verrier, Boudens.
Rouyn-Noranda: Mercier and Fournier.

Guindon was in net for this one, stopping 18 of 20. Gusse stopped 19 of 22.

I am so sick of The Circus it's not even funny. I was distracted enough to almost forget about this game, however, which lessened the amount of pre-game dread involved:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
HALIFAX	1	3	1	5
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	0	1	1

With that, three wins were contributed by Drummondville to an almost-franchise record. Ouch. Thankfully Rimouski (and their shootout that was just short of involving the goaltenders shooting on themselves) was around to prevent it going in the record books.

And at least there will be no more games between these two teams this season.

POWER PLAY
HALIFAX	1 / 7
DRUMMONDVILLE	1 / 3

The Volts literally spent over half the game in the box.

Drummondville: Verrier from Brouillard (the not-so-elder).
Halifax: Ryan (2), Frk, Drouin, Ciampini.

Guindon again. 28 saves of a possible 33. Fucale stopped all but one of 15.

I did not dread playing Chicoutimi nearly enough as I should have.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	2	0	2
CHICOUTIMI	1	4	1	6

Drummondville: Ratelle, and l'ex-Saguenéen Vermette.
Chicoutimi: Sylvestre, G. Gagnon (2), Sedlak, Grégoire, Dauphin. Hudon had three very big assists (ie. he  basically created at least two of the goals in question only to have them finished off by others) and Asselin also came out with three helpers.

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	1 / 8
CHICOUTIMI	2 / 4

Urgh!

The Sags not only bust open a seven-game winless streak, but if I heard right on the radio, replacement-goaltender Julio Billia gets his first win in the Q with 26 of 28 possible saves. The Volts shared goalie duties in this one, as Guindon made 22/26 saves and poor Graham made 5/7.

This week: More Atlantic teams. Saint John on Friday, Bathurst on Saturday. I dread Atlantic teams a lot, especially unpredictable middle-of-the-pack ones. You should do the same.

Alum-time: Olivier Donovan had three assists in a 6-4 win by UQTR over Brock. McGill won both their games this weekend, as former Voltigeurs' captain Marc-Olivier Vachon recorded a goal and two assists in a 5-2 win over Waterloo.

Yannick Riendeau had 4 points over the span of this weekend for Stockton, who beat Alaska both Saturday and Sunday after thwacking Bakersfield 6-1. Charles Landry found himself in a fight against Marc-Olivier Vallerand yesterday. André Bouvet-Morrissette's Cyclones beat Philippe Lefebvre's Nailers 2-1 as the former is still in search of his first pro point...

Finally, Sean Couturier now has 10 points in 9 games with the Adirondack Phantoms as he added a goal and two assists in their last game that saw them beat Albany 4-0. He was named the game's second star.

The weekend that was, and not the circus AGAIN?

Thursday:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	2	0	1	3
VAL-D'OR	0	1	1	2

Drummondville: Goals by Archambault, Brouillard (the forward) on a penalty shot, and Verrier. Brouillard (the defenseman) finished with two assists.
Val-d'Or: Goals by Zlobin and Mantha. Zlobin finished with a goal and an assist (second star). With his GWG, Verrier was first star for Drummondville.

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	1 / 6
VAL-D'OR	0 / 3

Meh.

Louis-Philip Guindon made 26 of 28 saves while François Tremblay made 24 of 27. Guindon was the game's third star.

Friday:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	2	2	1	5
ROUYN-NORANDA	2	0	2	4

What?

Drummondville: Hat trick for Torok le Taureau (nickname copyright @Jerome_Berube). Archambault and Caouette with the other goals.
Rouyn-Noranda: Andrighetto, Dea, St-Cyr and Kamaev each had tallies for the home team. Dea added an assist.

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	0/6
ROUYN-NORANDA	1/3

 This makes more sense.

Guindon (that guy again) saved 35 of 39 pucks, third star once more. Torok was obviously first.

Sunday:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
QUÉBEC	1	1	1	3
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	1	1	2

Aww.
Quebec: Shea, Shaw (who assisted as well), Carrier.
Drummondville: Brouillard (the defenseman) and Verrier.

POWER PLAY
QUÉBEC	1 / 4
DRUMMONDVILLE	2 / 7

 Oh, okay.

Guindon (!) made 11 of 14 saves, and was named first star this time. Wait. What?

Also, it was the Pink in the Rink game highlighting October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month:

I have more photos from this game, and a game report.

Next:

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
DRUMMONDVILLE	7-6-0-0
HALIFAX	12-1-0-0

Not these guys again!

Atlantic road swing upcoming (Halifax, Cape Breton, Cape Breton), which means don't forget (if you're reading this from somewhere in Quebec), the games start an hour earlier than usual.

Riendeau in Stockton: Former Voltigeur Yannick Riendeau signed with Stockton of the ECHL, who also once had a Kelly Cup MVP in their midst but let him go...so that he could become the Kelly Cup MVP. Oops.

Speaking of Scotty: He goes by Scotty now, according to my ECHL app, and has gotten off to a good start in the Central Hockey League. Two goals in his first game, and a shootout goal in his second. Also in the Central, Bloomington split their two games and P-O Pelletier was in net for both, making a combined total of 56 saves.

Jake Allen has quite the memories of Drummondville: Apparently the weirdest thing he ever signed was a pizza box, with the pizza still in it. Maybe it was that instead of the flu that resulted in the infamous ice-sickness incident...

Brouillard makes Canada-Russia squad!

The Q announced its roster for the upcoming matchup between Team QMJHL and Team Russia in the 2012 SUBWAY® Super Series. Look carefully and you might find a familiar name (or you already know who it is, since my title spoiled you);

GOALTENDERS
Brassard, Francois (QUE)
Fucale, Zachary (HAL)
Marcoux, Étienne (BLB)

DEFENSEMEN
Murphy, Matt (VDO)
Racine, Jonathan (MON)
Fournier, Dillon (ROU)
Culkin, Ryan (QUE)
Brouillard, Nikolas (DRU)
Ouellet, Xavier (BLB)
Melindy, James (MON)
Oligny, Jimmy (PEI)

FORWARDS
Mantha, Anthony (VDO)
Dea, Jean-Sébastien (ROU)
Hudon, Charles (CHI)
Huberdeau, Jonathan (SNB)
Henley, Samuel (VDO)
Paquette, Cédric (BLB)
Tesink, Ryan (SNB)
Danault, Phillip (VIC)
MacKinnon, Nathan (HAL)
Beauvillier, Francis (RIM)
Drouin, Jonathan (HAL)
Carrier, William (CAP)
Clapperton, Christopher (BLB)
Andrews, Brent (HAL)

Yes, the younger of the two Brouillards has managed to crack the list. Note that it is significantly far from November 5th, so this has the possibility of changing a ton between now and then. If you're superstitious like me, send vibes or even a crane to lift Brouillard from place to place so that he doesn't step on any cracks in the sidewalk.

As for Drummondville: Another Abitibi weekend ahead. Rouyn is stupidly good lately, going 8-2-0-1 and even ahead of Quebec. Note how many guys they have on the roster up there. There probably should be more. Val-d'Or is slightly less well-off, 4-6-0-0, but no less dangerous. They have three guys up there and not for nothing (other than to show off their future draftees).

Shameless promotion: If you are from or are visiting the Montreal area this weekend, come watch Gabriel Dumont and Frédéric St-Denis with the rest of the Bulldogs as they take on the Marlies, this Saturday, at McLean's Pub (1210 Peel) as part of the first All Habs Hockey Party of the season. Or stay home, whatever.

The Abitibi Split (or something that sounds more appetizing)

Wonderful news. It appears Drummondville fixed their power play!

Not at first, though: First they had to lose their home opener to the somewhat surprising (yet irritably so) Huskies, who stormed in from Rouyn-Noranda to score 4 goals to be met with only 2.

That night, the Voltigeurs were not totally shut out with the man-advantage, as both goals were scored on it, but it should be noted that they had a whopping TWELVE opportunities. Rouyn also used special teams for their goals, including a shorty which was the head-desk heard round the 67 train to Toronto where one could find yours truly refreshing the Q app for as long as was legally allowed on the VIA WiFi system.

Sidenote: Apparently I was right to include this Jean-Sébastien Dea character in my All Habs preview. He leads the league with nine goals and four assists in just five games.

On to Val-d'Or: This was a mean one. Olivier Archambault was on the receiving end of a Cédrick Henley hit that resulted in a) a major and misconduct for the latter b) 80% of the game's penalties having to do with both teams not liking each other very much.

It also resulted in power play goals. Guillaume Gauthier got one to tie the game before the end of the first, Archambault showed he was no worse for wear just over a minute later by potting in a goal of his own, Gauthier jumped in again with help from Nikolas Brouillard (who is back from his nasty injury, by the way) and Gabriel Vermette closed it out, again with help from Brouillard and Lukas Balmelli.

Anton Zlobin scored twice for the Foreurs in a losing cause, along with someone called Skyler Spiller, who quite frankly should be added to that Best Hockey Name contest the next time Forecaster or whoever had it last time brings it back up.

Tournée des joueurs: In alum-news, Brasstendresse was reunited last Thursday on Team Montreal as Guillaume Latendresse scored a goal and Derick Brassard probably had at least an assist somewhere (I can't find a boxscore) in a 7-4 win over Team Quebec in the first instalment of La Tournée des Joueurs, the locked-out player initiative featuring a number of NHLers from all over the league. The first game was in Chateauguay and sold out ridiculously fast, so people in St-Hyacinthe and Sherbrooke have probably also snatched up all the available seats for this week's games by now.

I will leave you with this picture as my lunch break comes to an end.

Om nom nom.

W is a favourite letter in the alphabet.

So the Voltigeurs have kicked off opening weekend with two wins, first on Friday with a 4-3 victory against the Memorial Cup-winning Cataractes and then on Sunday as they beat the newest team in the league, the Sherbrooke Phoenix, 2-1.

Things that are cool in light of these wins:

• Forever annoying #theshawi when they actually have things to celebrate by beating them.
• Olivier Archambault keeps passing to people and some of these plays turn into goals. Including one of his own.
• Newcomer Lukas Balmelli's first goal in the league proved to be the game-winner against Sherbrooke.
• Dexter Weber got his first point in the league against #theshawi.
• Domenic Graham got a night off AND Louis-Philip Guindon fared rather impressively in his place in what was his first taste of real QMJHL action yesterday afternoon. Fellow rookie Daniel Audette was unable to score his first goal because of him.

Things we like a little less:

• One-goal games. But unlike last year, so far the Volts seem to be on the right side of them.
• Nikolas Brouillard losing teeth and being unable to finish said Sherbrooke game.
• The power play is 0-for-12. Guy Boucher is somewhere launching baseballs at people's heads with a hockey stick because of this.

Up next: Rouyn Noranda (home opener!). These guys have split their weekend with a 5-3 loss against the Armada and a 2-1 win against Victoriaville. Jean Sébastien Dea and Sven Andrighetto have combined for nine points in those two games.

#voltstrainingcamp

News items of note (thank you, l'Express) that have happened before or as of the start of training camp:

• Nikolas Brouillard was invited to but cut from U-18 camp (Ivan Hlinka). It should be noted he had quite a bit of opposition on the blueline. In the one intersquad game witnessed by yours truly, I thought he performed rather well.
• Four free agents, notably Ontario-born 17 year old defenseman Dexter Weber (!), have been added to the list of 43 camp attendees. Weber, who has drawn comparisons to former Voltigeur Andrew Randazzo, joins Andrew McCann from the Pickering Panthers, a centre aged 19 who collected 30 points last season, 17 year old goaltender Joe Fleschler, a 6'4" New Jersey minor hockey product, and Olivier Roquebrune, an 18 year old right winger recently let go by the Saguenéens.
• One spot in the Volts' offensive crew has been freed as Lucas Venuto has been released from camp after failing his physical. Venuto recorded two goals and five assists in 44 games last season.
  "We had a very clear agreement with Venuto : his physical condition must be excellent upon his arrival to camp. Last year, he encountered difficulties respecting our standards in this matter. We outlined some clear objectives for him to attain during this summer, but as he was far from reaching them, we preferred to let him go." - Dominic Ricard. [1]
• On the opposite side of the fitness spectrum, 19 year old forward Bryce Milson won the title of "fitness champion" for passing his tests with flying colours.



Frédéric St-Denis getting his game face on. Watch out, he has had extensive Guy Boucher-face training. (Photo: obviously from Journal L'Express. View more pictures from the first primetime intersquad game by clicking over here)

• If you used to play for Drummondville and haven't received an invite to participate in this 31st edition of training camp somehow, colour me shocked. The opening of training camp saw former captain Marc-Olivier Vachon, now playing for the McGill Redmen, and Canadiens' prospect Gabriel Dumont take part, and the first batch of intersquad games featured another former wearer of the "C", André Bouvet-Morrissette, and Frédéric St-Denis behind the benches (St-Denis' Reds beat Stilts' Black team 8-2). Today, Guy Boucher is supposedly in town.
• Morning intersquad games are lined up to be three-on-three by turning the ice surface 90 degrees. Regular, properly-facing five-on-five games are slated for primetime. First cuts will take place tomorrow, and the first real pre-season matchup gets underway on Friday against the shiny brand new Sherbrooke Phoenix at 7:30 p.m. at the Centre Marcel Dionne.
• Don't expect a captain nomination anytime soon, or maybe even this season. According to Ricard, there's more of a dynamic group team leadership thing going on right now. (IMO, hopefully it stays that way. After three captains last year it became a little bit of a kerfuffle by the end.)

Back with more soon! (Sooner than three months from now, hopefully.)