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.

Comings, goings, and Euro-hoggings

Labrie, we hardly knew ye: Cue some more anger from Philippe Venne's supporters in Drummondville, as two games and a +1 is all she wrote for Ryan Labrie in a Voltigeurs' uniform. It was announced yesterday that Labrie left the team for the waiver wire on an apparent "mutual agreement." Should he not be claimed, he's headed for Vaudreuil Dorion in the LHJAAAQ. Most people who read that article are probably already adamant that that eighth-rounder in 2013 better be the next Derick Brassard.

(Venne has yet to score a point with his new team, who has gone 2-11-1-1 this season, so that's a little understandable.)

Murray moves up: Jordan Murray has a new role with the Voltigeurs. The fourth-leading scorer on the team with 11 points thus far this season is changing up from rearguard to forward. Not only that, he's headed to the first line.

Having scored 44 goals and allowed 53 against, you might say that the offensive needs of the Volts are pretty clear. M-O Brouillard, Jérôme Verrier and Olivier Archambault have shouldered most of that load. While Murray will skate with Brouillard and Jérémie Malouin (if the latter is ready to play), he is expected to continue occupying the point on the power play.

First and last comment on the CHLPA thing: So that's where Hockeyinsiderr disappeared to!

Got Euros?: In this season's instalment of Phrase-Recycling 101: So it would appear that (Sorensen, Kucherov, Grigorenko) has an injured (foot, shoulder, _____). No problem! We've got two other Euros. - the Remparts.

Good Lord. If this is the plan for the rest of the season, Brandon Shea probably won't be the only one walking out on you. Just trade someone and be done with it. Signed, Everyone.

Early morning alum-sighting tomorrow: Fans of ex-Volts blessed with a Friday off can catch the McGill Redmen in action as part of the 2nd annual "Stay in School" Morning Game that will see them face off against York University at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, at McConnell Arena. Three former members of the President's Cup-winning 2009 squad, Vachon, McKiernan and Brunelle, all had a hand in the Redmen's 3-2 overtime win against Queen's last Friday.

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...

So...

Perhaps the fact that I have rescued and started blasting my old Nevermind CD is enough to represent the last two days.

Never mind, indeed.

"Bright" side: looking terrible is something of a trend in the Q lately. Halifax swept Moncton, Cape Breton is in the midst of wondering why they couldn't have switched places with P.E.I., and in the biggest twist, Victoriaville is down 3-0 in the series to Baie-Comeau. (There goes my "that should be an easy 5" prediction). Bathurst is literally the only team who was able to snag a game despite being the ones down in the series. Let's hope they don't end up being the only ones to do so in the entire first round.

BUT IN OTHER NEWS...

PRINCETON, N.J. – Yannick Riendeau of the Reading Royals is the Sher-Wood Hockey ECHL Player of the Week for March 19-25.

The 23-year-old right wing scored three goals, added five assists and was a +9 in three games last week, helping the Royals go 3-0-0 for the week to move into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Riendeau opened the week with an assist in a 3-2 shootout win against Trenton on Friday and then scored two goals and added two assists as part of a +4 effort in a 7-0 victory at Trenton on Saturday. He ended the week with three points (1g-2a) and another +4 rating in a 5-3 win against the Titans on Sunday.

A native of Boucherville, Quebec, Riendeau has 41 points (12g-29a) in 40 games with the Royals this season. He also has tallied six point (3g-3a) in 18 games with Providence of the American Hockey League.

Under contract to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, Riendeau has 89 points (33g-56a) in 100 career games with Reading and has tallied 11 points (4g-7a) in 46 career games AHL games with Providence.

On behalf of Yannick Riendeau, a case of pucks will be donated to a Reading youth hockey organization by Sher-Wood Hockey, the exclusive puck supplier of the ECHL. Since beginning its sponsorship of the award in 2000-01, Sher-Wood Hockey has donated more than 25,000 pucks to youth hockey organizations in ECHL cities.

Should've just made this blog about Volts' alumni, the way this is going: McGill is still off celebrating, Scott Howes had a goal in a 5-4 Bridgeport win, and Dmitry Kulikov was the latest participant in bringing down the Habs (+2, 21:18) after Sean Couturier, also in the "Volts gone too soon" category (1A, 2PIM, 16:55) had his turn on Saturday.

And it's Quebec.

'Sup Remparts?

I don't know how to approach this series. (Or the prospect of the postseason altogether, come to think of it.) I suppose the fact that Drummondville has a winning record against Quebec (3-1) in comparison to

• 0 wins all season against Victoriaville
• outscored by the Tigres 25-14 in those four games
• generally not being liked by Yanick Jean
  
  

...means we (I?) may have to thank our lucky stars that Rimouski let Victo win 4-0 this afternoon.

As imposing as both teams may seem, aside from a couple of minor hiccups, this month hasn't been a total nightmare for Drumm. Certainly finishing on the winning side of things against the division leaders has to be a plus.

That said, I'm not delving into playoff predictions this year. I don't feel like I've seen enough

action (that is the truth actually, this is the first season in seven that I have not been to a single Q regular season game) and generally I just don't like predictions, even if I wasn't terribly shabby last year (only got three winners wrong in total).

But I read something about mullets on one of the players' Twitter accounts. If that turns out to be the playoff hairdo, I may have to up my amount of vodka intake in this series. Not that it won't be stressful enough.

Update for those who cared to know: Stilts did not end up getting his 40th goal of the year, but is no less awesome. At the very least, may this playoff season send him off excellently.

Around the league: Oh, right. The other teams. Drum roll please!


Saint John faces: Cape Breton.
#TheShawi faces: Rouyn-Noranda.
Blainville-Boisbriand faces: Gatineau.
Victoriaville faces: Baie-Comeau.
Halifax faces: Moncton.
Rimouski faces: Val-D'Or.
Chicoutimi faces: Acadie-Bathurst.

Which you probably already knew before getting here, but just in case you forgot, there you go.

Injury scares seem to have a commonality in that they seem to target anyone eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. We all heard how Yakupov went down, how Galchenyuk came back only to go back down, and this weekend the bullseye landed on Marty Frk. The playoffs will reveal what shape the three players will be in, but good Lord. Start wrapping all the others in bubble wrap, pronto.

Update on the unfortunate trash can: it is safe from danger (for now) but still recovering from shock.

Alum-notes: Gabriel Dumont scored two goals against Grand Rapids Saturday night, but unfortunately, Grand Rapids scored five. He was still named second star of the game, however. Dany Massé and Olivier Fortier are still out of the lineup with injuries. Meanwhile, Freddy St-Denis has returned to the farm team cavalry after being scratched against the Isles Saturday night.

He may not be our captain anymore but he is no less fab.





Speaking of former captains, it also turns out that we have not seen the last of UQTR and that they and McGill (and UNB!) will all be participating in the CIS Championships like a fantastic 2009-and-beyond reunion. It all starts this Thursday, March 22nd, as Moncton faces McGill at 1:00 p.m. EST and UQTR battles the host-team UNB at 6:00 EST.