Post by dogcatcher on Aug 21, 2007 6:05:42 GMT -4
A DOG-EAT-DOG WORLD
QMJHL training camp Some players use their fistic talents to help get noticed during pre-season
Andrew Mcgilligan
Telegraph-Journal
Published Tuesday August 21st, 2007
Appeared on page B12
SAINT JOHN - It was an odd day at Saint John Sea Dogs training camp on Monday.
During the team's first intra-squad game, tough guy Brett Gallant showed some slick moves with the puck while two other players were the ones fighting for a job.
Clifford Mugford, the Sea Dogs 10th-round pick in the 2007 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft, and Anthony Pisano, who played last season with the Oswego Admirals of the Ontario Junior A Hockey League, dropped the gloves at centre ice. Pisano seemed to get the better of Mugford, landing the first and only big blow of the fight.
Love it or hate it, fighting is part of the game and in training camp it can be one way for a young player to separate himself from the pack.
"It can be a good way to get noticed," Pisano said. "To show your toughness and physical presence, and if that's what I've got to do, then I'll do it."
Gallant, no stranger to an on-ice altercation, said during his first training camp it was something he did to get noticed.
"The first (camp) I went out there and fought, fought, fought," he said.
Gallant won't be dropping the gloves at training camp this year as the team has a rule that no veterans are allowed to fight. Gallant and teammate Mike Thomas got into a dust-up over the summer at a hockey camp, but don't seem to be eyeing a rematch due to the rules of the team and the fact they're playing on the same squad during camp.
Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu said the veteran rule is in place because those players have nothing to prove by fighting before the season starts.
"We know who can and who can't," Beaulieu said. "If recruits want to fight, that's up to them. We just want to make sure a 20-year-old isn't fighting a 16-year-old."
As for the tough guy position on a hockey club, Beaulieu said it takes all kinds of players to round out a team.
"Every player has a role to fill and we're always looking for guys like that because we have some skill players and sometimes they need protection," he said.
A tough way to make a team, but for one of Monday's combatants, Mugford, it comes with the territory.
"I'm sort of a crash and bash player," he said in his thick Newfoundland accent. "So I have no problems, no problems at all with dropping the gloves and having a few whacks at each other."
While some fights might be planned before the players take the ice, both combatants insist otherwise.
"He was going out to fight me, but he took a while to go after me so I went after him," Pisano said.
"It was a pretty good little scrap there, but I didn't expect it," Mugford said. "I gave him a little hit in the corner. He didn't really like it and asked me if I wanted to go and I said, 'yeah'."
The Sea Dogs will hold two more inter-squad games today. The first will take place at 9:30 a.m. with the second game beginning at 2 p.m.
OLD FOE: Jean-Claude Sawyer, a resident of Saint John, former Cape Breton Screaming Eagle and pro player with the Chicago Blackhawks organization patrolled the blue-line on Monday for Team White during the Sea Dogs intra-squad game. Beaulieu said inviting a pro player out for a skate is something positive for the players.
"It brings up the level of play," Beaulieu said. "Even in London we had the pros skate with the guys."
Team White won the game 10-4.
TRADES: The Quebec Remparts made two trades over the weekend. Quebec acquired forward Joshua Desmarais from the Shawinigan Cataractes for a fourth-round pick in the 2008 QMJHL entry draft. Desmarais had two goals and two assists in 51 contests with the Cataractes last season.
The Remparts also sent goaltender Adrien Lemay to the Victoriaville Tigres for a 10th-round selection in next year's entry draft.
CUTS: The Acadie-Bathurst Titan cut four players from training camp on Monday, including defenceman Ryan Ferguson of Tracadie-Sheila, forwards Patrick Lanteigne of St-Cecille and Pier-Paul Landry of Maltempec and and Matthew Szostak of Montreal.
QMJHL training camp Some players use their fistic talents to help get noticed during pre-season
Andrew Mcgilligan
Telegraph-Journal
Published Tuesday August 21st, 2007
Appeared on page B12
SAINT JOHN - It was an odd day at Saint John Sea Dogs training camp on Monday.
During the team's first intra-squad game, tough guy Brett Gallant showed some slick moves with the puck while two other players were the ones fighting for a job.
Clifford Mugford, the Sea Dogs 10th-round pick in the 2007 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft, and Anthony Pisano, who played last season with the Oswego Admirals of the Ontario Junior A Hockey League, dropped the gloves at centre ice. Pisano seemed to get the better of Mugford, landing the first and only big blow of the fight.
Love it or hate it, fighting is part of the game and in training camp it can be one way for a young player to separate himself from the pack.
"It can be a good way to get noticed," Pisano said. "To show your toughness and physical presence, and if that's what I've got to do, then I'll do it."
Gallant, no stranger to an on-ice altercation, said during his first training camp it was something he did to get noticed.
"The first (camp) I went out there and fought, fought, fought," he said.
Gallant won't be dropping the gloves at training camp this year as the team has a rule that no veterans are allowed to fight. Gallant and teammate Mike Thomas got into a dust-up over the summer at a hockey camp, but don't seem to be eyeing a rematch due to the rules of the team and the fact they're playing on the same squad during camp.
Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu said the veteran rule is in place because those players have nothing to prove by fighting before the season starts.
"We know who can and who can't," Beaulieu said. "If recruits want to fight, that's up to them. We just want to make sure a 20-year-old isn't fighting a 16-year-old."
As for the tough guy position on a hockey club, Beaulieu said it takes all kinds of players to round out a team.
"Every player has a role to fill and we're always looking for guys like that because we have some skill players and sometimes they need protection," he said.
A tough way to make a team, but for one of Monday's combatants, Mugford, it comes with the territory.
"I'm sort of a crash and bash player," he said in his thick Newfoundland accent. "So I have no problems, no problems at all with dropping the gloves and having a few whacks at each other."
While some fights might be planned before the players take the ice, both combatants insist otherwise.
"He was going out to fight me, but he took a while to go after me so I went after him," Pisano said.
"It was a pretty good little scrap there, but I didn't expect it," Mugford said. "I gave him a little hit in the corner. He didn't really like it and asked me if I wanted to go and I said, 'yeah'."
The Sea Dogs will hold two more inter-squad games today. The first will take place at 9:30 a.m. with the second game beginning at 2 p.m.
OLD FOE: Jean-Claude Sawyer, a resident of Saint John, former Cape Breton Screaming Eagle and pro player with the Chicago Blackhawks organization patrolled the blue-line on Monday for Team White during the Sea Dogs intra-squad game. Beaulieu said inviting a pro player out for a skate is something positive for the players.
"It brings up the level of play," Beaulieu said. "Even in London we had the pros skate with the guys."
Team White won the game 10-4.
TRADES: The Quebec Remparts made two trades over the weekend. Quebec acquired forward Joshua Desmarais from the Shawinigan Cataractes for a fourth-round pick in the 2008 QMJHL entry draft. Desmarais had two goals and two assists in 51 contests with the Cataractes last season.
The Remparts also sent goaltender Adrien Lemay to the Victoriaville Tigres for a 10th-round selection in next year's entry draft.
CUTS: The Acadie-Bathurst Titan cut four players from training camp on Monday, including defenceman Ryan Ferguson of Tracadie-Sheila, forwards Patrick Lanteigne of St-Cecille and Pier-Paul Landry of Maltempec and and Matthew Szostak of Montreal.