Top Herd

The regular season is over, I will be awarding my overall Top herd player award. This season I asked you, my readers to vote who you thought should get the award and the poll has closed.

 

And the winner is....

 

 

 

 

Benoit-Olivier Groulx

18 year old sophomore Benoit-Olivier Groulx was another case of where his stats were better in his second year in the QMJHL than his rookie season. The Gatineau, QC native almost doubled his points total, scoring 28 goals during 2017-18 and 55 points while also improving on his plus/minus to +9.

Here is the list of my Top Herd that I have done this season. I didn't name one every game.
Sep 30  Acadie-Bathurst - Filip Zadina
Oct 1     Charlottetown - Blade Mann-Dixon
Oct 6     Quebec - Blade Mann-Dixon
Oct 8     Blainville - Arnaud Durandeau
Oct 14   Cape Breton - Justin Barron
Oct 17   Moncton - Otto Somppi
Oct 29   Charlottetown - Benoit-Olivier Groulx
Nov 9    Baie-Comeau - Ben Higgins
Nov 11  Sherbrooke - Raphael Lavoie
Nov 18  Cape Breton - Jared McIsaac
Nov 21  Moncton - Arnaud Durandeau
Dec 1    Rouyn-Noranda - Raphael Lavoie
Dec 2    Val-d'Or - Alexis Gravel
Dec 15  Acadie-Bathurst - Patty Kyte
Dec 16  Cape Breton - Alexis Gravel
Dec 28  Charlottetown - Jake Ryczek
Dec 30  Cape Breton - Xavier Parent
Jan 11  Charlottetown = Filip Zadina
Jan 19  Cape Breton - Otto Somppi
Jan 27  Saint John - Maxime Fortier
Jan 28  Saint John - Benoit-Olivier Groulx
Feb 3    Acadie-Bathurst - Blade Mann-DIxon
Feb 11  Shawinigan - Maxime Fortier
Feb 16  Moncton - Benoit-Olivier Groulx
Feb 19  Rimouski - Arnaud Durandeau
Feb 24  Gatineau - Alexis Gravel
Mar 14  Saint John - Joel Bishop
Mar 16  Moncton - Connor Moynihan

Here are the final poll results 
Benoit-Olivier Groulx - 43.33%, Other - 30%, Otto Somppi - 23.33%, Blade Mann-Dixon - 3.33%, Arnaud Durandeau - 0%, Alexis Gravel - 0%

Where are the Mooseheads drafting?

In just over a week, team personnel across the QMJHL will descend on Shawinigan, QC for the annual draft. After a pretty good season, the Halifax Mooseheads will have to wait for a little while to make their pick however because of a trade, they won't have to wait for as long as their position in the regular season would of had them wait.

Lots of trades have given the Moose more picks than they've had for the last couple years. Cam Russell will go up to the podium 18 times unless more trades happen on draft day.

Here is where Halifax will be drafting as of today:
Round 1 - 12th overall (Rouyn-Noranda)
Round 1 - 16th overall
Round 2 - 34th overall
Round 3 - 43rd overall (Cape Breton)
Round 3 - 52nd overall
Round 4 - 66th overall (Rouyn-Noranda)
Round 5 - 80th overall (Gatineau)
Round 5 - 88th overall
Round 6 - 106th overall
Round 7 - 124th overall
Round 8 - 130th overall (Chicoutimi)
Round 8 - 142nd overall
Round 9 - 158th overall (Drummondville)
Round 9 - 160th overall
Round 11 - 196th overall
Round 12 - 214th overall
Round 13 - 232nd overall
Round 14 - 250th overall

Check back on June 2 for a full recap of the Herd’s draft. Follow @HFXMooseheads on Twitter during the draft for live coverage.

Herd Start Season on Road Again

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced the 2018-19 regular season schedule this evening.

I say this every year but once again your Halifax Mooseheads are starting the new season on the road when they open the regular season on September 21 against the Saint John Sea Dogs at 7pm. They'll hope to start the season off right but will have to do it away from home, with 15 straight away games to begin the year. Opening weekend will conclude with a visit to the island and a match against the Charlottetown Islanders the next night.

Other highlights from the schedule:

• Moose Country is going have a long time to wait to see the team back at Scotiabank Centre with their home opener not being until October 27. Halifax will welcome their provincial rivals, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles for a Saturday 7pm puck drop.
• Before that, the Herd will have their first Quebec road trip when they visit Quebec, Chicoutimi and Baie-Comeau from October 3-6.
• The first 3 games in 3 nights sequence will be October 19-21 with trips to the Victoriaville Tigres, Sherbrooke Phoenix and Drummondville Voltigeurs.
• Cape Breton will be back at the Scotiabank Centre on New Year's Eve after Halifax won the Hurley Cup last year. I'm sure the home and home will be the Battle of Nova Scotia events. Both matches have 2pm starts.
• The Mooseheads longest home stand is 6 games from November 9-25.
• The regular season will end with 3 home games and the finale is March 16 versus Charlottetown at 4pm.

Halifax has yet to announce their pre-season schedule or the dates of the annual events.

#TBT: President's Cup champions

Five years ago on this day, your Halifax Mooseheads won their first President's Cup in franchise history. The Mooseheads were playing in the final against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar who was coached by the Herd's new hire, Eric Veilleux. Halifax won the series 4-1 and were able to win the trophy on home ice.

Stephen MacAulay
Photo - Montreal Gazette

I was one of the unfortunate ones to not be able to witness the game at the Metro Centre that night May 10, 2013 but I did watch it with probably a thousand other people in Grand Parade Square.

Veteran Stephen MacAulay, a native of Halifax who the Moose traded for in the middle of the season, scored the first and last goal of Game 5. Halifax got off to a good start, pulling out to a 3-0 lead after the first period in that deciding match before winning the game 5-1. Goals were scored by Stefan Fournier, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin as well. It couldn't have ended much better for the fans of Moose Country and the team. Goaltender Zach Fucale made 34 saves to pick up the victory.

The Mooseheads rolled through the 2012-13 regular season, finishing the year with a 58-6-3-1 record and were very close to going through the playoffs undefeated but I guess they wanted to win the President's Cup on home ice. The team had one blemish losing to the Drakkar in Game 3 of the championship series. Below you'll find the scores of the series:

May 3 Drakkar 0 at Mooseheads 4
May 4 Drakkar 3 at Mooseheads 4
May 7 Mooseheads 1 at Drakkar 3
May 8 Mooseheads 7 at Drakkar 4
May 10 Drakkar 1 at Mooseheads 5

Check out the highlights below of Game 5

The team went on to the Memorial Cup tournament in Saskatoon and defeated the Portland Winterhawks in the final game to become national champs as well.

Check out my recap from that night here. You can find more on the final game here.

Hopefully we get to see this celebration again in 2019.

Another New Coach

Photo - Mooseheads website

The Halifax Mooseheads announced the appointment of their new head coach this morning. Eric Veilleux has been named the Herd's 11th bench boss in franchise history.

Veilleux has experience coaching in the QMJHL as he was the head coach of the Shawinigan Cataractes for 5 and a half years between 2006 and 2012. The 46 year old finished his career with the Cats by leading them to a home ice Memorial Cup championship in 2012. He then moved on to coach the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, who played in the President's Cup finals both years he was there in 2012-13 and 2013-14. For the past two seasons, Eric has coached the AHL's San Antonio Rampage.

"I am very grateful for this opportunity. Knowing the high standards the Mooseheads have always had and just to get the call from them expressing their interest was an honour for me," Veilleux said in a press release.

Halifax announced last week that coach Jim Midgley was fired after finishing the season with a 43-18-6-1 record and a 4th place finish but with the Mooseheads hosting the Memorial Cup in 2019, the stakes are very high and clearly the team brass felt Midgley wouldn't be able to do the job. Hiring a coach with 347 wins in 9 Q seasons and has AHL experience as well should be a big benefit to the Herd.

"We're excited to have a coach of Eric's quality and background behind our bench next season. We feel this experience and past success is paramount for our team success moving forward," GM Cam Russell stated.

Welcome to the team Coach Veilleux!

League Final Set

It’s that time of year again when two teams play for the title of league champion. After a dominating season that saw the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada pick up 50 wins and be a top the QMJHL regular season standings no one is surprised that the club is in the finals while Acadie-Bathurt Titan really aren't a surprise either to be in this series.

The Halifax Mooseheads had a former player in the final four but was eliminated last week. Mathieu Charlebois and the Victoriaville Tigres were kicked out of the playoffs by Bathurst in four games on Wednesday evening. In the other series, Blainville had a tougher time to get through the third round defeating the Charlottetown Islanders in 7 games with their three loses being in overtime.

So the Armada and Titan will fight for the chance to represent the QMJHL in the 2018 Memorial Cup. For Blainville-Boisbriand, this is the second trip to the fourth round of the playoffs in consecutive years. For Acadie Bathurst, it is their fourth trip to the finals in their franchise history.

Check out the schedule below:
Game 1  Friday May 5 at 8pm  Acadie Bathurst vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
Game 2  Saturday May 6 at 8pm  Acadie Bathurst vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
Game 3  Tuesday May 8 at 7:30pm Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Acadie Bathurst
Game 4  Wednesday May 9 at 7:30pm Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Acadie Bathurst
*Game 5  Friday May 11 at 8pm  Acadie Bathurst vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
*Game 6  Sunday May 13 at 4pm Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Acadie Bathurst
*Game 7  Tuesday May 15 at 8pm  Acadie Bathurst vs. Blainville-Boisbriand

All times Atlantic
* if necessary