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.

#AskBoucher

Look! Former Volts' coach Guy Boucher chatted with fans this morning!

Of course he's multitasking by drawing up plays at the same time. Were you really surprised by that? Honestly.


Entire transcript is here. Some highlights:

1. #AskBoucher how was it to be probably one of the only people to slap shot the 1st pitch at a baseball game? #BoltsAtTheBallpark
   — Michelle Spring (@MichelleSpring6) 3 hours ago 

   @MichelleSpring6 Major relief when it was done, but it was a lot of fun. It was actually a dare from Joe Maddon ^GB #AskBoucher — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) 2 hours ago  

   #AskBoucher if you could pick any nhl player on your team why and who?  — justin leger (@justinleger4) 3 hours ago  

   @justinleger4 The ones I got right now ^GB #AskBoucher — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) 2 hours ago 

   @tblightning We need a sub on my beer league team, can you send someone over? I'm sure someone has some time to kill. #askboucher  — Ol' Man Jesse (@jdreade) 2 hours ago 

   @jdreade I can send assistant coach Marty Raymond and Dan Lacroix and Nigel. They're on their way ^GB #AskBoucher — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) 2 hours ago

Also flustered little ol' me:

1. @TBLightning a few players you've coached are now playing for your alma mater. have you been to any games at mcconnell lately? #askboucher
   — Kathy K (@czechtacular) 2 hours ago 

   @czechtacular I keep up with what's going on but I haven't been to any games lately. Last one I watched was Nat'l Champ game ^GB #AskBoucher — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) 2 hours ago

And the infamous how-you-got-the-scar question:

I'll give you two guesses: either my tough wife or a shark fight. You pick! One of them put me in my place! ^GB #AskBoucher

If I had problems with the 140 character limit (in addition to not keysmashing all over Twitter), I'd assume that he...probably never wants to do this again. Remember that time he took up an entire intermission's worth on VOX with a press conference and they had to cut him off to get back to the game on time? Fun times.

Voltigeurs news: Oh right, there was also a game last night.

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
P.E.I.	1	0	0	1
Drummondville	1	2	2	5

PEI: Marcotte.
Drummondville: Milson (2), Murray, Malouin (2). Alliteration goals for the win (literally).

Guindon made 22 saves. Graham was back as his backup, seemingly recovered from his injuries.

Jérôme Verrier, in addition to picking up two helpers last night, made it onto the Q site. Read about Drummondville's leading scorer (en français) here.

Around the league: It would appear our trading BFFs have a new head coach.

Stephane Leroux@StephRDSJunior

Officiel Danny Dupont est le nouvel entraineur chef du #Titan contrat de 3 ans

Also, Étienne Boutet is apparently the new Glen Metropolit, picking up an assist essentially right after being traded from Rimouski to Gatineau and merely having to cross over one dressing room to suit up for the game.

Black (and red) Friday

Whoa! Where the hell have I been?

Here, for one. Have some teaser shots from the game (not for stealing purposes, obviously):

The rest can be found over at All Habs.

Two nights previous:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	1	0	2	3
BLAINVILLE-BOISBRIAND	1	2	3	6

Drummondville: Archambault (2), Auger.
Blainbriand: Clapperton, Martel (2), Sanche, Roy (2).

This game also featured the loss of Domenic Graham to an undisclosed lower-body injury. (This goalie drama is starting to look a little too Montreal Canadiens to me, especially every time someone quotes Duhamel as saying there is no superior. Okay then.)

The night before that, Drummondville seemed to take into account my warning message about Gatineau. (Just kidding, my mom doesn't even read this blog.)

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

Sixty percent of the Volts' goals were scored on the power play, but I won't disclose the amount of power plays they actually had, just to make it look better. Boom.

Drummondville: Malouin, Gauthier, Archambault (2), Brouillard the elder.
Gatineau: Burke, Chapman.

And now for tonight:

Rimouski: 13-8-1-3, 30 points, 5th in the league, 84 GF, 86 GA, have a one-game winning streak just like Drummondville, and Peter Trainor and Scott Oke (city) each have over 30 points this year. Meanwhile, Carl Hozjan has a GAA of 2.83 with a .911 SV% as his counterpart Philippe Desrosiers has a 3.34 GAA with a .902 SV%.

Drummondville: 13-11-0-0, 26 points, 9th in the league, 74 GF, 82 GA, have won four of their last five games, Verrier has taken the lead in points with 29 in 24 games (Brouillard the elder is suffering from a concussion), and Guindon's stats are now 3.14 GAA and .874 SV%.

Around the league: So Quebec decided to quit hogging three Euros and traded one...for another Euro.

2012-11-21	Rouyn-Noranda	Québec	Kamaev, Denis (1994-03-06)	Rd_2, 2013 (Chi)
	Québec	Rouyn-Noranda	Kucherov, Nikita (1993-06-17)

But there is a method to their madness. Sometimes.

2012-11-21	Québec	Sherbrooke	Kamaev, Denis (1994-03-06)	Rd_1, EURO 2014
	Sherbrooke	Québec		Rd_5, 2013 Rd_1, EURO 2014

Speaking of Patrick, tonight is already his 500th game as head coach. I wonder if his buddy Dutil made him a cake.

All quiet on the Alumni front: Somebody do something! (Namely, can Hamilton win a game sometime this month?) UPEI faces off against UNB, Concordia is at Nipissing (no, I do not have a potty mouth. Not this time, anyway), Ryerson plays UQTR and Toronto and McGill have a Centraide Charity game planned at McConnell Arena tonight. Scott Howes and the Allen Americans have a rematch against the Arizona Sundogs in the CHL, while the ECHL's Florida and Cincy both have games tonight (for you Landry and Bouvet-Morrissette fans). Sean Couturier is in action against Norfolk, Palat and Hoffman face off, and it's a little harder to verify goalie-starts but Jake Allen should at least be within a hundred foot radius of the net as Peoria take on Milwaukee. No Hamilton until Sunday afternoon.

EDIT: Apparently Derick Brassard has signed in Austria, as per Aaron Portzline. His Columbus Blue Jackets just lost the All-Star Game due to the lockout.

Stuck in the middle with you...

Good morning-soon-to-be-afternoon, and here are the current standings in the Q:

Tonight's opponent is Gatineau. They are currently free-falling in the standings, having lost three in a row and seven of their last ten.

Easy pickings? Not necessarily!

In light of this game and what it might mean, I started getting a little nit-picky with the above table and the highlighted number 10 spot, and how it breaks down on either side of the grey line. Some of it is a little disconcerting, if looked at under a certain context. But this is just me being cautious if not somewhat cynical considering the fact that I remember when Gatineau-Drummondville meant a lot more than it does currently, which is important to keep in mind.

Drummondville has won 11 of their 21 games this season. They are at exactly .500 in their last 10. They could fall to .500 overall, should tonight continue a certain trend.

Of the 21 games played, 11 of them have been decided by one goal. With the exception of one 4-3 loss against #theshawi, none of the Volts' losses to teams 11-18 in the standings are part of these 11. In fact, they can even be classified as blowouts. The most recent case was, of course, Chicoutimi (who return to the CMD on Sunday). In other words, while no one says they're going to underestimate a number 16, if the Olympiques even get a hint of the gas pedal at any point during this game, they have good odds of shoving it to the ground, handing the Volts another embarrassment.

Meanwhile...

Eight of the eleven one-goal games have been wins, and while the value of two points is not being questioned, the fact that over half of those eight one-goal games have been wins against teams 11-18 deters a little from the final score in each of them. For example: the 5-4 "win" against Bathurst on Sunday. As for that gas pedal...Drummondville simply let go of that one when they should have been as unforgiving as the Saguenéens et cie.

No need to panic, at least not just yet. The season is barely a quarter of the way through, after all. But to this cautious if not cynical bystander, tonight's matchup is just as crucial as any in March.

Gatineau: 6-12-1-0, 13 points, 16th in the league, 53 GF, 83 GA, lost three in a row, Martin Reway has 20 points in 19 games, Michael Nishi is the main goaltender for that club with a 4.13 GAA and .874 SV%.

Drummondville: 11-10-0-0, 22 points, 10th in the league, 62 GF, 71 GA, two wins in a row, M-O Brouillard still leads with 26 points in 21 games followed by Verrier with 22 points, rookie goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon is getting the start tonight after a two-game absence, he stands at a 3.36 GAA and .872 SV%. For his part, Domenic Graham has a .857 SV% and a 3.23 GAA.

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 Road to Atlantis, or at least Atlantic Canada

A look at the weekend that was for the Drummondville Voltigeurs:

The Circus, Part II, went about as well as part I:

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

Drummondville: Török scored and later assisted on Archambault's 7th of the year. M-O Brouillard had two helpers.
Halifax: Fuhgeddaboudit. Drouin makes his return to the lineup in this game and winds up with 4 points including two goals (one shorthanded), +3 and first star. Some MacKinnon guy scored two goals as well. One of my favourite names in the league (as @EP31 has had the misfortune of witnessing in person those times they played at the Verdun Auditorium), Konrad Abeltshauser, picked up two assists.

The plus side:

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	2 / 5
HALIFAX	2 / 6

Louis-Philip Guindon still managed 27 saves despite the loss. His counterpart, Zachary Fucale, made 16/18 stops.

Enter Graham! (Remember that guy?):

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	2	1	1	4
CAPE BRETON	1	0	0	1

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	1 / 3
CAPE BRETON	0 / 2

Drummondville: With the exception of M-O Brouillard, it was a J night. Jérôme Verrier! Jérémy Auger! Joey Ratelle! (First goal in the Q for the latter.) And hold on to your chairs, as the most assists category of the night was won by ...Archambault.
Cape Breton: Alexandre Lavoie was the lone goal-scorer for the Eagles.

Graham stopped all but one of 17 shots and Alex Bureau was pretty busy with 39 shots, stopping 35.

Deflate that happy-faced balloon: Just when we thought putting Graham in for the second time in 24 hours against the same team wasn't a crazy idea, Cape Breton said "And now, for a taste of your own medicine!"

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	0	1	0	1
CAPE BRETON	1	1	2	4

Womp womp.

POWER PLAY
DRUMMONDVILLE	0 / 3
CAPE BRETON	0 / 1

Drummondville: Matt Boudens gets his first of the year!
Cape Breton: Carrier, Lavoie, Malone, Woodworth. Former Voltigeur Jonathan Oligny got on the scoresheet as well with an assist (and two delay-of-game penalties), finishing +3 on the night.

Domenic Graham made 17 saves on 20 shots, while Philippe Trudeau made 15 on 16.

Friday, the Huskies are in town:
Rouyn-Noranda: 12-3-0-1, 25 points, second in the league behind the Circus, 78 GF, 53 GA, four-game winning streak, J-S Dea and Sven Andrighetto top the league with 31 points each in 16 games, Robin Gusse has a 3.07 GAA with a .887 SV%.

Drummondville: 8-8-0-0, 16 points, 10th in the league, 44 GF, 53 GA, went 1-2 on their Atlantic roadie, M-O Brouillard leads the team with 16 points in as many games followed by Archambault with 15 points, Guindon is the league's best rookie netminder at 3.10 GAA and .877 SV%. Graham has a .858 SV% and a 3.18 GAA.

Head-to-head: Split so far this season (4-2 loss, 5-4 win) with Török's hat trick the freshest memory between the two teams.

Around the league:

Apparently, Étienne Marcoux is Sugar Crisp's latest poster-boy. This reminds me of the good old Gretzky Wheaties days:



Alum-news: It was a losing weekend for most ex-Volts in the AHL, but Sean Couturier picked up assists on both goals in a losing cause against Rochester on Saturday, as well as second star. Moving back to Friday night, both Frédéric St-Denis and Gabriel Dumont scored en route to a 5-4 overtime loss against those pesky Toronto Marlies, and Jake Allen made 32 saves against the Chicago Wolves as Peoria beat them 4-1.

Olivier Fortier has found a home with the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL and scored what is already his third goal of the season as Greenville topped Orlando 6-5 on Sunday. Philippe Lefebvre picked up a goal in a shootout win vs. Reading on Saturday and two assists as Wheeling won 7-3 the night before against those same Royals.

In the CHL, Pier-Olivier Pelletier made 42 saves in a 6-4 win against Wichita on Friday. On the same night, he who now goes by Scotty Howes picked up two goals, both on the power play.

What other HL's am I forgetting? Ah, yes. KHL. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl's Dmitry Kulikov has 3 goals and one assist in 12 games so far this season. And since I'm already in Europe, Tomáš Svoboda has apparently been stopped in his tracks (3G, 5A in 7GP for HC Kometa Brno) with a shoulder injury that will sideline him for another month or so while fellow Czech Tomáš, Zohorna, has nine points, including four goals, in 17 games for HC Pardubice, team of the Hemskys, Krejcis et compagnie.

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.

And so it ends.

It's been so long since Game 4's untimely, tragic end that I've forgotten what I came here to say. My first thought is "well, thank goodness that's over."

Perhaps that's harsh. But no less true. The greatest blessing my first-ever favourite team, the Montreal Canadiens, gave me that day was firing Pierre Gauthier. Not because of the obvious. The overtime loss and therefore four-game sweep of the Drummondville Voltigeurs was not Reason Numero Uno anyone made their way to the Quebec Remparts' post-game press conference. That, of course, was Patrick Roy. Hurrah for overblown speculation sweeping very real embarrassment under the rug!

It's also true because, instead of focusing on what could have been, it gives way to the future. The Domenic Grahams et compagnie have valuable experience to add to their resumes and another fresh crop of prospects and acquisitions (because in my experience I have never known Dominic Ricard to miss the boat during or after trade period) will make their way into the fold. They'll all step up to the plate together and try again.

Together. I'm going to draw from the departing André Bouvet-Morrissette's quote: "Les gars doivent retenir que lorsqu’on est unis, tout devient possible."

Together everything is possible. I hope everyone he's left an impression on (read: an entire population and thensome) in his brief two-year passage takes that message to heart and even tattoos it on for next year and beyond.

Speaking of Stilts, he has apparently attracted a couple of NHL clubs such as the Sharks and the Kings (among a class of others, I'm sure). I've got an eye out for ATO/PTOs, and will certainly pass along the news here and/or Twitter if he finds a home.

Bet you didn't know: David Desharnais' first AHL club was the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who offered him a tryout after Chicoutimi was eliminated six years ago. I think they may regret not signing him to a real deal.

This has not been Photoshopped. He has been able to stand tall before!

Around the league: Saint John (duh), Halifax, Blainville-Boisbriand, Baie-Comeau (eek), Chicoutimi, Rimouski, and #theshawi are the other teams that have moved on. Quebec next takes on the Mooseheads, BLB and Rimouski are facing off, the Mem Cup hosts are up against Chicoutimi and...Baie-Comeau awaits the crushing block. Not to say they don't have momentum, though, which'll throw a wrench in a few predictions.

Dose of mind-f*ckery: Back to that Patrick Roy debacle. TVA Sports spoke to Richard Martel this week, who is looking for his next project. Mix that thought in to the seed of doubt that's been planted surrounding Roy's status...

As much as half of me is shouting all sorts of profanity against the inference that seems hopelessly wrong, the other half is proverbially sitting in the Colisée Pepsi with a jumbo bag of popcorn.


Alum-watch: I can't even write anything mind-blowing here to detract from my obvious sadness that started this post. But for what it's worth, Philippe Lefebvre scored a goal (from Massé!) in a comeback victory by the Bulldogs on Saturday, and Ondrej Palat and Philip-Michael Devos scored in the same game on the same side and were named second and first star respectively, all of which still weirds me out. For his part, Palat has a seven-game point streak happening right now. Oh, and Derick Brassard has gone slightly bonkers pointswise himself (6 in 6 GP) lately and Sean Couturier scored a goal yesterday and added an assist today.