Roundup time!

Friday:

GOALS	1	2	3	Total
DRUMMONDVILLE	2	3	0	5
RIMOUSKI	3	1	3	7

Drummondville: Malouin (2), Boudens, Verrier (2).
Rimouski: Beauvillier, Gauthier, DeLuca, Loiseau (2), Oke, Légaré.

Guindon made 22 saves. Meanwhile, Graham moved off the bench entirely (still bothered by an injury) and Kevin Darveau took the backup spot.

Yesterday:

GOALS 1 2 3 Total DRUMMONDVILLE 1 0 4 5 VICTORIAVILLE 2 0 0 2

Victoriaville: Diaby, Halley.Drummondville: Brouillard the younger, Malouin, Verrier (2), Boudens. Caouette picked up two assists.

Twenty-seven stops made by Guindon this time.

Let's be honest, I literally missed this entire weekend (I feel like yesterday was Friday). You probably know more about these games than I do.

One thing I do know: PEI tomorrow!

PEI: 13-9-2-0, 28 points, 11th in the league, 97 GF, 88 GA, lost seven of their last ten, and the Ben Duffy/Josh Currie duo takes up two-thirds of the top 3 in league scoring (Grigo butted in the middle). Their netminder, Antoine Bibeau, has a GAA that is fourth-best in the league, 2.68, with a .915 SV%.

Drummondville: 14-12-0-0, 28 points, 9th in the league, 84 GF, 91 GA, are now up to W's in five of their last seven games, Verrier is on a tear with four goals in his last two, and Guindon has an 3.33 GAA and .870 SV%.

Head-to-head: Drummondville won both games against the team that will soon be formerly known as the Rocket, 4-2 over a year ago on November 2nd and 4-3 in overtime, two October 16ths ago. The winning goal at that time was scored by Max Villemaire.

Speaking of which: How is that guy doing, you might ask? One might expect the following stat to stand out: PIM. He has only played 5 games for Gwinnett (currently on reserve) and already has 22 minutes spent in that sin-bin.

Sean Couturier scored two goals this weekend and Charles Landry was finally called up to Syracuse only to be AWOL from the statsheet, probably having to settle for just watching the Crunch (and Ondrej Palat) beat both Mike Hoffman's Senators and Raman Hrabarenka's Devils before going on to thump the Worcester Sharks 6-1. Other notables: the only Bulldogs' goal to be scored yesterday was assisted by Gabriel Dumont, Yannick Riendeau scored and added an assist in a 6-3 Stockton win over Bakersfield, both Ryan McKiernan and Marc-Olivier Vachon (from McKiernan and Jonathan Brunelle, no less) scored in a 3-2 shootout win over Toronto, and Rémi Blanchard scored both goals in a 6-2 losing cause to Marc-Antoine Desnoyers (4 assists) and the UNB Varsity Reds yesterday.

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.

So I've missed a lot of things.

First things first, I don't know if you know this, but the Shawinigan Cataractes are this year's Memorial Cup champions.

Good. Just getting that out of the way, it was an extremely pressing subject.

Second, the Sherbrooke Phoenix are the new kids on the block and this week they had their expansion draft. They selected Drummondville's Dominic Talbot-Tassi and Vincent Blanchette, as well as former Voltigeur Alexandre Comtois.

The QMJHL draft was also held this weekend. Without a selection to make until the second round, Joey Ratelle and Jérémy Auger were the first new Drummondville players of the day. Then after waiting three more rounds to speak again, defenseman Mathieu Amyot was selected. Winger Dylan Montcalm, 6'4" defenseman Alex Bilodeau (!), Louis-Philippe Guindon, Xavier Labonté, Gabriel Labbé, Sacha Harmois, Mark Dufour, and Bobby Hall were the Voltigeurs' other selections yesterday.

A few trades were also finalized: Toliver Bergeron of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada was swapped to Drummondville for a ninth round pick next year, Jérôme Raymond went to Bathurst in exchange for 20 year old Jordan Murray, Jérémie Malouin made his way over from Quebec in exchange for two 2012 draft picks (rounds 2 and 4), and the additional pick sent to the Volts in that deal eventually became Joey Ratelle. Finally, Jonathan Oligny became a Cape Breton Screaming Eagle for a 2013 third rounder.

Other things that happened (or didn't):  André Bouvet-Morrissette had an invite to the Canadiens' combine, but eventually signed a contract with the Nashville organization.

Charles Landry was part of the Kelly Cup winning Florida Everblades team....

...and yesterday Ondrej Palat won the Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals. (With Landry technically as part of the roster. Double-champion!)

In the classroom, Ryan McKiernan, Jonathan Brunelle, and even Antoine Tardif were all recognized at the Guy Lafleur Awards of Excellence and Merit last week. McKiernan in particular got 6 A's for his 3.65 GPA ...and suddenly I feel ten times more awful as a student than I ever did.

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.