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Post by hal on Sept 6, 2009 8:59:54 GMT -4
We are less than a Week Away from the start of the Regular Season . I thought it would be interesting to get some discussion on what you guys see unfolding this year . Who's thinking Title ? Where you see your Favorites finishing ? etc .... Saint John in the Atlantic and Rouyn Noranda should be favorites should they not ? Moncton and Cape Breton along with Val D'or and Quebec chasing very closely . I personally never count out Gatineau although losing Benoit Groulx has got to have some sort of lasting effect and PEI have to step up some year ..............don't they ? Perhaps Lala and Deer who are a hell of a lot more knowlegable then I am can throw their two cents in and get this thread rolling right up until the Season Openers !
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f1sh
Blue-Chip Prospect
Posts: 463
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Post by f1sh on Sept 6, 2009 9:38:28 GMT -4
Quebec is the preseason favorite. 3 horse race in the East. CB has the best goalie, SJ has the best offence, Moncton has the best D, should be a very entertaining battle for playoff positions.
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Post by hal on Sept 6, 2009 9:42:22 GMT -4
Saint John has a pretty good Dee also ............Cape Breton's looks pretty good too . Who are Saint John and Moncton's Goalies this year ? Riopel might be back right ?
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Post by Deer on Sept 6, 2009 9:58:04 GMT -4
Saint John has a pretty good Dee also ............Cape Breton's looks pretty good too . Who are Saint John and Moncton's Goalies this year ? Riopel might be back right ? There's maybe a 1% chance Riopel would be back - he was drafted by Philly and has nothing really left to prove in junior. The Wildcats will go with 17-year-old sophomore Louis Domingue in net. He didn't see that much action last year, so it remains to be seen how he'll handle the #1 load, but he was great on Canada's gold medal team at the U-18 Ivan Hlinka tournament. Saint John is going with Karel St-Laurent in net - he backed up Robert Mayer last year. Another unproven starter. Moncton's top-four D is almost unfair. Pairings of Mark Barberio-Brandon Gormley, and David Savard-Simon Jodoin. Gonna be tough to even get to goaltender Domingue with that defence. Moncton may have to be considered the favourite in our division, especially if Russian superstar forward Kirill Kabanov ends up making the trip across the pond. PEI has a great top six forward corps - on paper. PEI has proven over the years that on paper, and on the ice, are totally different things. But for what it's worth, their top two lines should consist of: Benjamin Casavant, Ben Duffy, Chris Doyle, Samson Mahbod, Joel Champagne, Jarred Struthers. That's pretty powerful. Add in dmen Jordon Southorn (attitude issues big factor there of course though) and JP Mathieu and that's a pretty sweet powerplay too - on paper. With Saint John it's a matter of how they rebound from last season's horrible embarrassment. And if they get to keep one or both of Nicholas Petersen and Mike Hoffman. Seems Petersen has a better chance of staying in the Q as a 20 than Hoffman. Quebec has a really good squad as Roy seems intent on putting a contender on the ice almost every year. Up front they have Kelsey Tessier, Danick Paquette, Dmitri Kugryshev, David Gilbert, Ryan Bourque (Ray's son), Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault - that's pretty deep. On D they're led by the awesome pairing of Mikael Tam/Samuel Groulx, along with Patrick Cusack. In net they have a potential star in Peter Delmas, although he had a horrific season last year in Lewiston. I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't taken a close enough look at most of the teams around the league to know how most other teams stack up, and who else might contend. Anyone else want to shed some light? As for us, I figure we'll be a top 5-6 team again this year with at least 40 wins for the 5th time in 6 years. We'll be one of the bigger teams in the league, but hopefully we haven't lost too much speed compared to last year. Our D is among the best (although still lacking a proven powerplay quarterback type), and we have nothing to worry about in net with Roy/Holden, but I wonder if our forward depth is enough to truly contend? As for the playoffs, we seem to be having trouble getting past the second round in recent years - will this trend continue this year, or will we find our way into at least the final four?
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f1sh
Blue-Chip Prospect
Posts: 463
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Post by f1sh on Sept 6, 2009 10:02:54 GMT -4
Saint John has a pretty good Dee also ............Cape Breton's looks pretty good too . Who are Saint John and Moncton's Goalies this year ? Riopel might be back right ? SJ has a good top 2 on D, then they have some question marks. They'll likely look to improve their top 4 at Xmas if challenging for top spot. They have 20 YO Gelinas(ex PEI and Gatineau) and St-Laurent sharing duties, might look to improve there too unless one of them takes the reigns. Their offence will be explosive, especially if one or both their 20s show up. Riopel is long gone. Louis Boileau-Domingue is Moncton's 17 YO starter, he played for Canada at the Hlinka tournament where they easily won gold. Promising future but remains to be seen how he handles the #1 job in the Q. Has a gold plated top 4 in front of him and a good defensive system. Kabanov should really help their offence, their top level guys haven't been very explosive the last few years. CB has a great goaltender, solid top 4 which likely ranks second in the division but the question marks are up front. Losing those 3 20 YO forwards is going to hurt. Whereas Moncton and SJ have brought in top level Euros on offence, CB only has 1 player and the jury is still out on what he'll bring. Eagles need some top 6 help if they hope to contend.
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Post by Jack Bauer on Sept 6, 2009 13:25:29 GMT -4
I think we have a 4 horse race in this division. Most are assuming PEI will be the team to fall behind the other 3 based on their history but on paper they're right there with the rest.
If Kabanov gets though the last hurdle to get on the ice then Moncton is the league favorite without question. Not only will they have the most talent on the ice but they probably have the most organization depth to make the big moves to fix any weakness at Christmas.
SJ has their Euro's locked up but still need Peterson and Hoffman to get sent back for all their pieces to fall into place. It'll be interesting to see how management handles things if they get their top end 20yr olds back. If they don't then I see them ending up a lot like last year, as a good team but not good enough to handle the top teams.
I think our D is right there among the best in the league behind Moncton and we all know what Roy can do. Our issues are scoring wise up front. A great year from Adam is important to any success(40-40-80 type of year) and if we want to win then adding another top forward will be a must. Other then MacNeil I dont think we have another 30 goal threat among the bunch but if we can get 4 or 5 guys chipping in 15-20 then we should be in good shape.
In Quebec I think the Remparts as well as Gatineau look solid entering the season. Drummondville and Shawinigan will take a step back but won't be push overs.
Rimouski has no depth, but enough top end talent to have no issues with their rebuilding plan as usual. There's rumors that Cormier is already going to end up in RN and you know Caron will be on the move to a contender as well.
Victo and Val d'Or look weak on paper and Rouyn should be another of those middle of the pack clubs in my opinion. I also can't say I expect much out of Chicoutimi or Baie-Comeau but we see so little of those teams that it's hard to tell looking at paper how they'll actually do and more importantly how they stack up compared to the other weaker looking teams like Lewiston, Bathurst, and Halifax.
But as far as the Eagles are concerned, by Christmas time we'll have a good idea whether this is a "go big or go home" type of year. I still think it's too early to say one way or another what will happen but barring any shocks at the NHL camps we should be looking at a very solid first half and more importantly, in my opinion, a VERY entertaining team that has a little bit of everything.
Bring on the regular season!
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Post by Captain Obvious on Sept 6, 2009 13:46:32 GMT -4
St.John should score a lot of goals if both Euros come as advertised and Hoffman and Petersen are back, but their defense after Sauve-Despres is very unproven as is their goaltending(Gelinas is proven but only as a subpar #1 or good backup, if Petersen and Hoffman are back he'll cost them Leduc to keep around).
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Post by looneytunes on Sept 7, 2009 11:17:45 GMT -4
Should be a great season as always! Our division will be very interesting to watch this year as Saint John, Moncton & CB look to be pretty even. IMO PEI will finish 4th in the Atlanctic this year but with much improved results from last year.
The Remparts will be a powerhouse this season. I think that they will finish top 3 in the league. Delmas' numbers should be 2x better this season as A) He has a much better D helping him ( Well a much better team for that matter) & B) All average goalies that go to the Remparts will become awesome. & Delmas is a bit above average. Just look at the likes of Lavigne & Desfossés.
Gatinau should be a consistent team as always. I do not know of anymore teams that will be contending but there are probably many that I have missed. There will also proabably be a team that will surprise us all and be a top 5 team.
It should be great watching the games with the new Jumbotron. Can’t wait until Friday!!
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Post by bois on Sept 8, 2009 9:14:03 GMT -4
It's a great year to be a fan of the Atlantic Division this year... as we have IMO 4 very good hockey teams in CB,SJ,Mctn and PEI and I think both Bathurst and Halifax have elements to make them competitive and entertaining to watch as well....
the downside to that is that 2 very good teams will be gone in the first round of the playoffs (unless we end up with a crossover garbage team from Quebec somehow)
I think Moncton will be very strong but I wouldn't classify them as league favorites just yet.. mostly because they will have so many tough games within the division this year... and I'm not willing to annoint Kabanov some offensive wizard as a 17 year old Euro... especially considering he will not have top end offensive linemates unless Moncton makes a big trade IMO
Quebec definitely are the favorites on paper and will play enough weaker opposition on a regular basis that they should be able to pull away pointswise from whomever is the Atlantic frontrunner at the end
other teams that might contend... I don't really see anybody that stands out but surely someone will surprise.. if Rouyn gets Ostapchuk back and lands Cormier... who is in net for them this year?.. maybe
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Post by christopher on Sept 8, 2009 16:09:51 GMT -4
My experience with the Eagles (and remember, I don't have alot) is that they have a great showing all year and then bow out in the playoffs. This has happened the last 3 years (which are the years I've been most into the team).
Is this going to happen again this year? How do we make sure this doesn't happen?
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Post by elementz on Sept 8, 2009 18:12:52 GMT -4
Yes. You can't.
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Post by EagleFan2009 on Sept 8, 2009 19:25:58 GMT -4
I think it's a bit too early to predict. It all depends on alot of things at this point. If Mario doesn't pull the trigger at xmas, we will do the same as last year. If he adds another sniper, this team looks pretty solid.
Moncton of course has the best d going in but a 17 year old goalie is a question mark.
Saint John's 20's are question marks.
I am going to wait and see before i decide before i make any predictions. Just hoping Bernard keeps his head in the game and doesn't tear this team apart.
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Post by christopher on Sept 8, 2009 19:45:23 GMT -4
Well, I'm a Habs fan so I'm used to disappointment. Haha. I would, however, LOVE to see the Eagles take it all. The atmosphere would be amazing.
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Post by SteveUL on Sept 9, 2009 9:16:33 GMT -4
Well, I'm a Habs fan so I'm used to disappointment. Haha. I would, however, LOVE to see the Eagles take it all. The atmosphere would be amazing. Thats funny ... in my lifetime the habs have won more stanley cups than anybody else ... no disappointment there at all.
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Post by christopher on Sept 9, 2009 9:37:45 GMT -4
Well, I'm a Habs fan so I'm used to disappointment. Haha. I would, however, LOVE to see the Eagles take it all. The atmosphere would be amazing. Thats funny ... in my lifetime the habs have won more stanley cups than anybody else ... no disappointment there at all. Truth. BUT, our last cup was WELL over a decade ago. And in recent years, when we looked like we had a condending team, we've bowed out in the first or second round. Regarless, that's a whole other topic/issue.
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