Friday, April 27, 2018

Herd Word: Mooseheads Part Ways with Coach

Photo - Moose website
MIDGLEY
It was announced on Wednesday morning that the Halifax Mooseheads have let go of their head coach, Jim Midgley. The move comes after a pretty successful regular season but, for most, a disappointing post-season. Midgley was named as the team's bench boss last summer proceeding the announcement that Andre Tourigny was leaving to be closer to his family. Jim led the Herd to a 43-18-6-1 record in 2017-18 which was good enough for 4th in the league in a season where some figured they would be more in the middle of the pack at the end of the year. Halifax was swept in the second round by the Charlottetown Islanders after defeating the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the 1st round. Midgley, who is from Townsend, Ontario, was assistant coach for six years under Tourigny and previously Dom Ducharme.

"This was a very hard decision that we had to make but we feel it is the right move for the team moving forward. I want to thank Jim for all of his hard work and commitment to the organization," said General Manager Cam Russell.

It was also announced that the assistant coaches will remain with the team while the search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

Good luck to Jim Midgley in his future career.

U18 WORLDS
Jared McIsaac and Raphael Lavoie's season is over now after Team Canada was knocked out of the U18 World Championships earlier this week in the tournament's quarter-final. Despite a good tournament by both of the Mooseheads sophomores, the two 18 year olds couldn't help Canada improve on their 5th place finish from last year's competition. The red and white went a perfect 3-0 in the round robin games but were unable to solve the Czech Republic goaltending more than once, losing the game 2-1 on Thursday. Individually, Lavoie continued his hot play with the Herd and scored five goals in 5 games during the tournament and was a plus-6 while McIsaac had 1 goal, 3 points and was a plus-5. Jared was named one of Team Canada's top 3 players for the whole tournament while Raphael was awarded player of the game in the club's first match.

INJURIES
Bumps and bruises are apart of the world of hockey and during the playoffs most players fight through them and still compete while trying to hunt down the Stanley Cup. However, for the players who have their season cut short because they were defeated in the first or second round of the post-season, sometimes their injuries can prohibit them from representing their countries in the annual IIHF World Championships. This is the case for two former Moose forwards, Jakub Voracek and Nico Hischier. Their respective NHL teams announced that the two men will not got the 2018 tournament. New Jersey tweeted that Hischier had played with a chronic left wrist/hand injury the entire season.

Get better soon boys.

Photo - Abeltshauser's Facebook page
ABELTSHAUSER
Konrad Abeltshauser is a champion once again. The 25 year old has found success on a really good EHC Munchen team that has now won the DEL championship for three straight years. EHC was ranked first in the German league after the regular season with a record of 30-11-6-5 for 107 points. The team than defeated the Fischtown Penguins and Adler Manheim in the playoffs on their way to the finals where they met Eisbaren Berlin. Abeltshauser and the Red Bulls won the 7 game series 4-3. Konrad, who played defense for Halifax from 2009 to 2013, scored the Munchen's first goal of Game 7 and finished the post-season with three goals and 8 points in the playoffs. He had 3 goals and 18 points during the regular season.

Congratulations to Konrad and the Red Bulls on another championship season!

DUCHARME
Big news for former head coach Dom Ducharme. The Joliette, QC native has made the big leagues after the Montreal Canadiens announced that they have hired Ducharme as an assistant coach. Dom coached your Halifax Mooseheads for 5 years and won the President's Cup with the team in 2013 before deciding it was best to go back home and coached the Drummondville Voltigeurs from 2016-2018.

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