»

August 31, 2009

First Game of the Season is Costly

From this morning's Ottawa Sun:

By BRUCE GARRIOCH, PATRICK KENNEDY, Sun Media

KINGSTON — Gloucester’s Corey Cowick, the Ottawa 67’s and the Ottawa Senators all suffered a blow in Kingston Sunday.

Cowick, a 67’s winger and sixth-round Senators pick (160th overall) in this year’s draft, injured his right shoulder on the first shift of the 67’s first pre-season game, a 5-2 loss to Frontenacs at the K-Rock Centre.

Cowick, who was hurt on a hit by Frontenacs centre Nathan Moon, was to attend Senators rookie camp this Saturday.

There was no timetable on the return of the 20-year-old Cowick, who had 34 goals and 60 points last season. Indications are it didn’t look good.

What did look good was the debut performance of 67’s first-round pick Cody Ceci.

“We’re giving him time to adjust, but clearly he is a very good player,” coach Chris Byrne — also making his 67’s debut in the top job behind the bench — said of the 15-year-old defenceman.

Goalie Chris Perugini started for the 67’s, playing two periods and leaving with the score 2-2. Perugini arrived in camp as the clear-cut No. 1 after Adam Courchaine was dealt to the Sarnia Sting in the off-season.

Charles Sarault, Moon, Ethan Werek, Erik Gudbranson and James Marsden scored for the Frontenacs. The last three came in the third period on Paul Dorsey, who was facing his former team.

Thomas Nesbitt and Ryan Martindale replied for the 67’s as legendary former coach Brian Kilrea took in the proceedings from a private booth alongside long-time counterpart and pal Larry Mavety. Both are now GMs for their respective clubs.

*********************************

That's the second time Corey's NHL ambitions have been sidelined by a shoulder injury. Hope he recovers soon.

August 30, 2009

Woo-Hoo! It's Hockey Season Again!

This has been a loooong summer - bad, wet weather (and this sudden cold spell) and a long time without hockey. NHL fans were treated to a pretty exciting playoff season, regardless of what team you normally cheer for with the SCF being the best round (as it should be). Major Junior fans were also entertained by the amazing run of the Windsor Spitfires during the Memorial Cup. Talk about living on the edge. (I was in Edmonton for a family event and sneaked away to catch the third period of the final game - I think they have forgiven me.)

Since then, we have had drafts, the Dany Heatley and Patrick Kane dramas (both good examples of what not to do - kids please pay attention), the U18 in Europe (congrats to Tyler Toffoli and Team Canada) and camps for Olympics hockey hopefuls.

Those are just to pass the time until....Hockey Starts Again!!

The 67s had their camp this past week and concluded their last scrimmage before making the big cuts and heading out on the road for their first pre-season game (Kingston today).

So, I checked out the final scrimmage of camp to see what I could see.

This was the final opportunity for players to make a case for making the team. It was, for the most part, a pretty sloppy affair but that could be expected after three days of camp that included 5 scrimmages that were open to the public.

According to lineup sheet available from a Booster Club rep, there were 39 players (18 on Team Black and 21 on Team White). Despite being sloppy, there still was some intensity. The refs let them play and the boys took advantage of it. There were hits, slashes, holds and interference from the rookies and veterans alike. The coaches wanted to see their teams play competitively for the full 60 minutes (running clock).

I took a lot of pictures, thanks to the coaches for letting me behind the benches (well, actually right on the bench) to take pictures. But, this being the first time seeing the new players and watching the scrimmage through my view finder, I can't put names to most of the new faces. I did concentrate on the two imports: Matias Sointu and Petr Mrazek and their pictures are below.

Random Thoughts

  • Tyler Cuma looked good. If he returns to the club after the Wild camp, it will be great to see him back and improved.
  • While technically eligible to return, as expected, Logan Couture was not at camp.
  • Matias is not a big player but seemed to be in the middle of things when he had the chance. He has what I would call a distinctive skating style - compact is the best word I can come up with. He will be hard to miss when you see him.
  • Team Black won 5 - 1. They pretty much dominated the entire scrimmage.
  • It looks like a few players got bigger over the summer.
  • Cooper Rush (what a great sports name!!) is a tall lad - 6'7" at the tender age of 16. I think he may still be learning to control all those appendages - the messages have a long way to travel from his motor cortex to his feet.
  • Articles in the Ottawa Sun: Chris Perugini and
    Tyler Cuma and Riley Sonnenburg
  • Julien Demers heads off to San Jose camp at the end of next week.
  • Danny Battochio was at the scrimmage. He has graduated from university (St. FX) has signed on with the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League. But before he checks in there, he will take up the invitation from the Peoria Rivermen of the AHL (St. Louis Blues affiliate). We'll catch up more with Danny later this year.
  • The Ottawa 67s first home pre-season game is against the Gatineau Olympiques Friday at the Civic Centre with a return engagement on Sunday in "The Bob" (great atmosphere). These will your only chances (barring a Mem Cup match up) to see Tye McGinn play against his old team (no hard feelings I'm sure).


Pictures:


Czech import goalie Ptre Mrazek


Finnish forward import, Matias Sointu scoring on a great breakaway


The imports, one-on-one.


Matias Sointu.


Welcome back everyone. Let the season begin!!

August 15, 2009

Canada Gets Gold!

It sounds like an easy win for Team Canada for the gold medal. Here's the story from TSN.

Here's Hockey Canada's summary (which is probably where TSN crafted their story).

Sorry I don't have anything more to offer but there is no coverage from Canada. Maybe one year (next year?) I'll just have to time my European trip to coincide with the tournament.

Congrats Team Canada!!

August 13, 2009

And It's On to the Gold Round for Canada

Tyler Toffoli scored a goal and had two assists as Canada shut out the host Czech Republic 9 - 0 today in the final game in the preliminary round. If I have my numbers correct, Tyler Toffoli had the highest points on Team Canada with 3 goals and 5 assists with Tyler Seguin coming in second with 2 goals and 4 assists followed by John McFarland with 3 goals and 2 assists. These three OHLers scored 8 of the total 18 goals scored by Team Canada in the preliminary round.

Canada (3-0) will play Russia (3-0) for gold on Saturday at 11:00 ET.

Here's the link to Hockey Canada.

And here's TSN's coverage.

Bring home the gold boys!!

August 12, 2009

Toffoli with the GWG in Canada's 6 - 3 win over Switzerland

Another preliminary round win for Canada with a 6 - 3 win over Switzerland. Tyler Toffoli notched the game winning goal on the powerplay in addition to an earlier assist.

Here's the game sheet from the Hockey Canada site (their game summary had not been posted at the time of this posting - I suspect they are awaiting translation).

Here's the article from TSN.

Keep going Canada!!

August 11, 2009

3-Point game for Tyler Toffoli as Canada wins 3 - 2 over Sweden

From the Hockey Canada site:

CANADA USES POWER PLAY TO TOP SWEDEN IN HLINKA OPENER

BRECLAV, Czech Republic – It wasn’t as smooth as its pre-tournament victories, but win No. 1 is in the books for Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team at the 2009 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka.

The Canadians scored twice on the power play and once more just four seconds after the end of a man advantage as they scored a tight 3-2 win over Sweden in the tournament opener for both on Tuesday.

Tyler Toffoli (Scarborough, Ont./Ottawa, OHL), Tyler Seguin (Brampton, Ont./Plymouth, OHL) and Brandon Gormley (Murray River, P.E.I./Moncton, QMJHL) all scored once and added an assist for Canada, while captain John McFarland (Richmond Hill, Ont./Sudbury, OHL) pitched in with two assists. It was another six points for Canada’s top line, which combined for 11 in the final pre-tournament win over Slovakia on Sunday.

After outscoring the United States and Slovakia by a combined 13-2 in its exhibition wins, Canada found itself trailing on Monday after Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring for the Swedes just past the game’s six-minute mark.

But the Canadian offence found its rhythm in the second frame, as Gormley and Toffoli put the Canadians ahead for the first time in the game.
After Victor Berglind pulled the Swedes even on a power play in the first minute of the final period, Seguin cashed in on a Canadian man advantage, set up by McFarland and Toffoli as the all-Ontario threesome continued to run roughshod over international competition.

The game belonged to the goaltenders, as Canadian netminder Calvin Pickard (Winnipeg, Man./Seattle, WHL) and Swedish counterpart Jonas Gustafsson both made more than 30 saves. Canada held a 39-36 advantage in shots on goal.

The Canadians return to the ice in Breclav on Wednesday when they face Switzerland in the second of three preliminary round games (9:30 a.m. ET).

August 09, 2009

Canada 7 - 1 Over Slovakia in Exhibition

It looks like Tyler is having a decent tournament, in the exhibition rounds anyway. He's on the top line on the U-18 team and they did some major damage today. Here's the full report from Hockey Canada.

Tyler also had an assist in Canada's 6 - 1 win over the U.S in a penalty-filled pre-tournament game. The game report is here.

The team travels to Breclav CZE for their opening game against Sweden on Tuesday at 9:30am Eastern.

Go Team Canada!

August 04, 2009

Tyler Toffoli Named to the U18 Roster

Tyler Toffoli has been named to the 2009-2010 National Men's U18 Team. The full roster is here.

The OHL has placed 10 players on the 22 man roster, including Ottawa natives Erik Gudbranson and Ryan Spooner.

With pre-tournament games scheduled for August 7th and 9th, I guess they will be off to the Czech Repulblic pretty soon.

Good luck Tyelr and team - bring home the gold!