The 2021-22 QMJHL regular season begins this evening with the defending champion Victoriaville Tigres hosting the Shawinigan Cataractes at 8 p.m. Atlantic time.
Last week, the Canadian Hockey League announced that the 2021 CIBC Canada Russia Series will not be played given the ongoing challenges presented by the global pandemic. Details regarding the 2022 event will be announced at a later. This kind of sucks as it would've been nice to see if a couple of Halifax Mooseheads players were invited. We'll have to wait now most likely until December to see if Zachary L'Heureux and Elliot Desnoyers or any other guys will participate in Team Canada's world junior camp.
Three of the four current Mooseheads players that were invited to NHL main camps have been reassigned back to the junior club earlier this week. Bobby Orr and Cameron Whynot were released from the Carolina Hurricanes and Calgary Flames respectively on Saturday meanwhile Zachary L'Heureux got sent down by the Nashville Predators on Monday. From the Herd's preview for the home opener, L'Heureux is currently day-to-day with an upper body injury suffered at Predators camp last week. He is also due to serve the remaining three games of a four-game suspension to start the year after receiving the sentence on April 13th of last season.
James Swan and Attilio Biasca will be out to start the season after both players suffered hand injuries during training camp and remain on the sideline indefinitely with a mid-to-late October return timeframe. Halifax is hopeful that they will have forwards Jordan Dumais and Vincent Gauthier in the lineup when puck drops tomorrow night after they both received injuries as well.
Welcome back Moose Country! The Halifax Mooseheads have been permitted by the Nova Scotian government to host games at full capacity once again. Proof of full vaccination will be required meanwhile masks will still be mandatory for the immediate future. Check out the video the team put out to hype up fans.
Even though our Halifax Mooseheads failed to make the CHL Top 10 pre-season rankings, which were released today, I thought I would share the list anyways. There are four QMJHL teams who got ranked with two of them coming from the Maritimes division. Another Maritime club is in the honourable mentions (London Knights, Charlottetown Islanders, Brandon Wheat Kings).
Now let's get to the previews from other media personnel.
- Sportsnet has one question for every team in the Quebec league.
- Junior hockey is finally getting back to normal after the pandemic wiped out the 2020 post-season for all 3 leagues under the CHL and the Ontario Hockey League lost it's entire 2020-21 season.
- CBC Sports' Rob Pizzo and CHL play-by-play man Victor Findlay try to preview the season below.
- Saltwire's Willy Palov, who has been covering the Halifax Mooseheads for years, has shared his thoughts on how good the Herd will be this year.
- Most analysts have Halifax finishing the regular season 4th in the Maritimes division including Stephane Leroux from RDS and Palov from Saltwire
Yes it's going to be another different season but I am really excited to get back to cheering for the boys and hopefully it will be much more normal year. With a number of the Mooseheads' leading scorers returning and being a year older, Halifax should have an offensive team and could make some waves in what will be a tough Maritime division. Go Moose Go! See you Saturday Moose Country.
Photos - QMJHL, Mooseheads & CHL websites
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