PREVIEW - The 2021-22 regular season begins tonight as our Halifax Mooseheads meet their provincial rivals, the Cape Breton Eagles with game time being 7 p.m. in Sydney. It's been quite a while since I last wrote a game preview and it's good to be back. The biggest question going into this year is will the QMJHL actually get to complete a full 68 game season? Both Halifax and Cape Breton will be playing in a very tough Maritimes division with any one of Charlottetown, Bathurst and Saint John being among the frontrunners to win the league championship in May. The Mooseheads should be competitive as many predict the team to finish 4th in the division while Willy Palov of the Chronicle Herald actually thinks they'll get home ice advantage in the playoffs by finishing 8th in the league. Cape Breton meanwhile is in the beginning of a rebuild but just like any other year, don't count them out. 19-year-old Ivan Ivan is back for the Eagles after missing out of the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic and the travel restrictions that were in place. He was able to score 22 points in 62 games as a rookie two years ago, evenly split between goals and assists and he'll look to improve on that. Halifax will be without a couple of their top scorers from last year with Elliot Desnoyers still at Philadelphia Flyers camp and Zachary L'Heureux suspended for the first three games. The Herd dominated their provincial rivals during the exhibition schedule winning 3 of 4 pre-season games, outscoring the Eagles 17-10.
Game coverage
TV: Eastlink | Radio: News 95.7 | Live: @HFXMooseheads | Post-game: Moose Country
Overall records
Mooseheads: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points (t-1st in Maritimes division, t-3rd overall)
Eagles: 0-0-0-0 = 0 points (t-1st in Maritimes division, t-3rd overall)
Head-to-head
Halifax was 10-4-2-0 against the Eagles last season while Cape Breton had a 6-9-1-0 record versus the Mooseheads. The last game between the two teams during the 2020-21 regular season was April 2 with Halifax picking up a 7-2 home win as Zachary L'Heureux recorded 2 goals and 2 assists.
Last games
Cape Breton is coming off a 4-2 road victory over the Charlottetown Islanders on September 18. Rookie Kian Bell and Romain Rodzinski picked up a goal and an assist to lead the Eagles.
Halifax finished the pre-season with a 3-2 shootout loss on Scotiabank Centre ice to the Saint John Sea Dogs on September 24. Markus Vidicek led the team with a goal and an assist and Brady James made 38 saves in the Mooseheads defeat.
Not playing - James Swan (injured), Zachary L'Heureux (suspended), Attilio Biasca (injured), Elliot Desnoyers (NHL camp)
Out of town
Titan vs. Wildcats - 7:00 p.m.
Sea Dogs vs. Islanders - 7:00 p.m.
Remparts vs. Oceanic - 8:00 p.m.
Huskies vs. Phoenix - 8:00 p.m.
Foreurs vs. Voltigeurs - 8:00 p.m.
Sagueneens vs. Drakkar - 8:30 p.m.
Armada vs. Olympiques - 8:30 p.m.
Cataractes vs. Tigres - 8:30 p.m.
After the buzzer
Halifax and Cape Breton will head back to Moose Country for the Mooseheads home opener tomorrow night. Game time is 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment