A Plea for Sweater Vests, and Some Other Stuff

There was a distinct lack of this in 2011-12:

Borrowed from @EP31's blog. And no doubt, Journal L'Express.

And it showed.

Regardless of shared theories pertaining to sweater vests, Mario Duhamel will remain a Voltigeur for the next three years. He signed an extension recently, along with Louis Robitaille. In fact, the whole coaching staff is here to stay.

Onto serious business now. Arguments in favour of Duhamel bringing back the sweater vest:

1) President's Cup hangover didn't happen. Sure, Couturier and Palat helped out a little, but it was really the sweater vest. Wins would happen more frequently if he wore it. Check your VOX footage.

2) It gives off the homey grandpa feel without aging the rest of him. In fact, he's just about the youngest-looking coach I've ever seen, which means a lot given the season he's just endured.

3) Original!Coach, Guy Boucher, can have a freakout episode like the best of them. Shades of Richard Martel, sometimes. He can even match ties with suits to a varying degree of success, like Duhamel. But he didn't have the sweater vest. The wave of reminders and/or comparisons to Boucher came to a screeching halt in that department. Which is good, because everyone that comes after him usually wishes there was some sort of buffer zone beforehand. That buffer zone is secretly shaped like a sweater vest...

Around the league: Saint John sneezed yesterday and Etienne Brodeur erased their win-streak. They were bound to mess up at some point, right? But let's not let it happen again because I want a full ten points in my pool.

Also, J-P Mathieu is beasting it up in Rimouski, in case you haven't seen. Someone (non-repulsive) better snatch him up this offseason.

Alum-watch: Most guys are on vacation, and Scott Howes' AHL team was eliminated this week, but his season's not over. He reports to Alaska, who won their opening-round series against Stockton, before they take on the Las Vegas Wranglers. He's last year's ECHL Playoffs' MVP...

(The only sad part about that is that Eric Lampe is going to be on the other side now, which will cease my I love Lamp(e) jokes for the time being.)

You saw what Sean Couturier did in the NHL playoffs recently, no doubt. Wait. No?



Mike Hoffman is also up with the Senators, but hasn't seen any action yet. 

Nanananananananananananananananana playooooooffffs!

They start tonight!

Game 1 : Tonight!, 7:00 p.m., Drummondville @ Québec
Game 2 : Monday, March 26th, 7:00 p.m., Drummondville @ Québec
Game 3 : Tuesday, March 27th, 7:00 p.m., Québec @ Drummondville
Game 4 : Thursday, March 29th, 7:00 p.m., Québec @ Drummondville
Game 5 : Saturday, March 31st, 7:00 p.m., Drummondville @ Québec*
Game 6 : Sunday, April 1st, 7:00 p.m., Québec @ Drummondville*
Game 7 : Tuesday, April 3rd, 7:00 p.m., Drummondville @ Québec*

*if necessary

In news of the depressing variety, the Golden Puck Awards are Voltigeur-less in their entirety, meaning not even a single nominee (though ex-Volts Jonathan Brunelle and Jean-Philippe Mathieu are up for the Marcel Robert, which has to count for something) for the first time that I can actually think of.

(The famous tank-year of 2007-08 won Best Fail and Best Result of Best Fail, if I remember correctly.)

Also, I am left asking myself why exactly the worst power play results in stronger penalty kills. Was it always like this? Habs fans know what I'm talking about (heck, so do Yotes' fans) but this is also reflective of Drummondville, who find themselves with only one team worse than them on the man-advantage and are somehow fourth-most effective league-wide with one LESS guy on the ice.

Anyway.

Around the league: I know I said I wasn't doing predictions, but there's a neat little QMJHL playoff pool over at RDS that made me reconsider. No, I'm not telling you what my answers were (that's cheating! And anyway, you'd also fail). But for the français-challenged, here are the rules:

Before each round, there's the usual pick-your-team-in-each-series-and-how-many-games-it-will-take-them-to-crush-their-opponents challenge. Five points if you get the team, a perfect ten if you get both the team and the amount of games.

Then, pick two forwards, a defenseman, and a goalie to carry you through said round. But, be careful here, because you can't pick the same guys come next round, or for the rest of the playoffs. So you can't really coast through this riding on Hoobadoo's coattails or anything of the like.

Bonus points (10 for each) are awarded to whoever gets the championship team and MVP right. Goals and assists are one point each. Goalies get two points for a win and two extra if it's a shutout. You have until Game 1 starts to get your picks in!

Alum-notes: All I have for you is this:

"I have the choice, either I start crying — which I felt like — or I just look at it as it is ridiculous and you just have to go with it," - Guy Boucher on the growing infirmary otherwise known as the Lightning.

This...can probably be applied to most of this hockey season in general. Sigh.