Herd Word

This week has started off quite well for players associated with our Halifax Mooseheads. Here are some stories to end the month of October. 

LAVOIE

Former Herd forward Raphael Lavoie was named the AHL Player of the Week on Monday. The 23-year-old record four goals and six points in 3 games for the period ending October 29, 2023. His great week helped the Bakersfield Condors to three straight victories. According to the release; 'he recorded a game-high eight shots on goal and assisted on the winning goal early in the third period of the Condors' 4-1 victory at Tucson' on Friday evening. Lavoie leads Bakersfield in scoring with seven points through five games so far this season. 

Photo - AHL website

Congrats to Raphael and keep it going for the rest of the year. 

Photo - QMJHL website

TEAM OF THE WEEK
Veterans Markus Vidicek and Jordan Dumais were named to the QMJHL's Team of the Week yesterday. Vidicek recorded 4 goals and nine points while recording a +4 in the Mooseheads three games last week. Dumais continued to be hot as he collected 8 more points and was a +7 during the week. 

Vidicek's performance also landed him on the CHL's Team of the Week. 

EHLERS
Halifax Mooseheads alumni Nikolaj Ehlers hit a milestone during the Winnipeg Jets game against the NY Rangers last night. The 27-year-old scored a goal in the match which was his 400th NHL career point. Ehlers has played 532 regular season games recording 178 goals and 222 assists now. Congrats to Nikolaj on the accomplishment. 

CHL TOP 10
On Tuesday, the Canadian Hockey League announced the top 10 rankings and our Mooseheads found themselves in the #1 spot after going 2-1 during the week. You can find the full Top 10 below

1. Halifax Mooseheads (10-4-1-0)   last week: 2
2. Moose Jaw Warriors (10-6-0-0)   last week: 7 
3. Prince George Cougars (10-4-0-0   last week: 4
4. Portland Winterhawks (8-4-0-0)   last week: 1
5. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (8-3-1-3)   last week: 6
6. London Knights (7-4-0-1)   last week: 5

7. Saskatoon Blades (8-5-0-0)   last week: 3

8. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (12-2-2-0)   last week: 10
9. Mississauga Steelheads (10-3-0-0)   last week: 8
10. Moncton Wildcats (11-3-1-0)   last week: n/a

Photo - AMH Photography

ROUSSEAU GOAL
In case you missed it, Halifax net-minder Mathis Rousseau scored the first goalie goal in franchise history on October 20 in a 6-4 victory over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at home. The goal made it onto TSN's The Best feature the next morning and was shown on Sportsnet Central too I believe. It was a very exciting event and as someone who has missed many of them by our Mooseheads, I was super excited to be in the audience for the historic moment. I loved seeing how happy all the boys were for him and the big smile Mathis had on his face. 

Video of the goal below

THIS WEEK

It should be quite a week in Moose Country as the Mooseheads will play three games at the Scotiabank Centre. Halifax will host the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Wednesday, the Rimouski Oceanic on Friday and the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Saturday. All games are 7pm puck drops. Saturday's match will be the annual Mooseheads Fight Cancer event so the team should be wearing special purple jerseys. 

Former Moose Starts Quest for the Cup

The National Hockey League regular season is now over and the playoffs begin tonight with three games on tap. With 16 teams making it to the post-season, there are bound to be a few former Halifax Mooseheads players that will be fighting for the Stanley Cup. Six alumni are on teams participating in this year's playoffs and while none of them will play against each other in the first round, hopefully a few will in subsequent rounds.

The New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche were bit of a surprise to make the playoffs especially the Avs who finished last in the league last season. Nathan MacKinnon played a huge part in Colorado's return to the post-season, producing his best season so far in his short career and leading the team in scoring. MacKinnon ended the regular season 5th in league scoring with 97 points in 74 games. The Avalanche will play the President's Trophy winning Nashville Predators in the opening round and will need Kid Mack to keep producing if they have any chance of defeating the Preds. Nico Hischier on the other hand, had a pretty good rookie season and was second in team scoring on the Devils. New Jersey will play the Eastern Conference regular season champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Halifax native Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins will be taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 1. Marchand finished the season on top of the Bruins leaderboard with 85 points. Alum Jakub Voracek has his best season as well in terms of points, recording 85 in 2017-18 for the Philadelphia Flyers who will matchup against their interstate rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This series begins tonight at 8pm ET on CBC.

In the West, Nikolaj Ehlers and the Winnipeg Jets take on the Minnesota Wild, a series that starts to tonight at 8pm ET on Sportsnet. Ehlers was able to score more goals this season than his previous two and was third in team scoring. The other matchup will be a battle of California as Timo Meier and the San Jose Sharks taking on the Anaheim Ducks. 2017-18 saw Meier play almost every game during the regular season, missing only one game.

Good luck to all six players and their teams as they battle for the chance to raise the Stanley Cup in two months time. Congrats to all them as well on excellent seasons. Check out their finals stats below.

                                                 G     A   Pts   +/-    PIM
Jakub Voracek              PHI     20   65   85   +10    50
Nikolaj Ehlers                WPG  29   31   60   +14    26
Brad Marchand             BOS   34   51   85   +25    63
Nico Hischier                 NJ      20   32   52   +10    26
Timo Meier                    SJ      21   15   36    +2     51
Nathan MacKinnon       COL   39   58   97    +11   55

Herd Word

EHLERS
Well congratulations are in order for one former Halifax Moosehead. Nikolaj Ehlers, 21, was signed to an extension on Wednesday by the Winnipeg Jets, the team announced. Ehlers is going into his third NHL season with the Jets and this will be the last year in his entry level contract. Over the course of two years in the professional leagues, Nik has 102 points in 154 games played, which includes 40 goals. The Aalborg, Denmark native was awarded a 7 year contract extension worth 42 million dollars.

Nik and the Jets start the 2017-18 season tonight hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs.
https://twitter.com/NHLJets/status/915613944802398216

CSS RATINGS
With the National Hockey League regular season about to begin, the Central Scouting Services announced their players to watch this year. On the list are four Halifax Mooseheads players currently on the team. Each player is given a rating; A is for players projected to go in the first round, while 2nd and 3rd rounders projected players are rated B and C ratings are those young men projected to go in the 4th rounds or later. There are 4 QMJHL players, Joe Veleno of the Saint John Sea Dogs and our own Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Jared McIsaac and Filip Zadina. Herd goaltender Alexis Gravel is among 10 Q players with a B rating.

For the full list click here.

TOP 10 RANKINGS
This evening, the Canadian Hockey League and BMO released the second regular season top 10 rankings. Halifax stayed in the top ten while a few teams made big jumps in the rankings after starting their seasons 4-0-0-0.

Week 2's CHL Top 10
1. Victoriaville Tigres (4-0-0-0) last week: 2
2. Owen Sound Attack (2-0-0-1) last week: 3
3. Moose Jaw Warriors (4-0-0-0) last week: -
4. Quebec Remparts (4-0-0-0) last week: -
5. Victoria Royals (4-0-0-0) last week: -
6. Portland Winterhawks (2-1-0-0) last week: 4
7. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada (2-1-0-0) last week: 5
8. Kelowna Rockets (2-0-0-1) last week: 7
9. Halifax Mooseheads (4-1-0-0) last week: 8
10. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (3-1-1-0) last week: 10

Honourable mention: Flint Firebirds (3-0-0-0), Swift Current Broncos (3-0-0-0), Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (4-1-0-0)

OPENING NIGHT DEBUTS

Photo - Mooseheads website

A few alumni will be making debuts this week. There are 3 former players set to make their opening night debut when the NHL season begins on Wednesday. While all three have already made their NHL debut, none have been on the opening night roster for their respective teams. Timo Meier will start the season tonight when the San Jose Sharks host the Philadelphia Flyers. Meier had the unfortunate situtian last year when he got mono and had to rehab with the AHL's Barracuda. It was also announced earlier this week that Martin Frk and Mackenzie Weegar, who both helped the Moose win a Memorial Cup in 2013, have made their big clubs after spending the majority of 2016-17 in the American Hockey League. Frk had a strong pre-season with the Detroit Red Wings and will open up the season with the Wings on his birthday tomorrow when they host the Minnesota Wild. Weegar will have to wait a little longer to make his opening night debut as the Florida Panthers travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning on Friday. Good luck to all 3 guys this year, Moose Country will be cheering you on hoping you stay in the NHL all year long.

UPCOMING GAMES
Your Halifax Mooseheads continue their homestand this weekend when they play their first games against Quebec teams. The undefeated Quebec Remparts come to town on Friday evening for t-shirt night, a match that can also be seen on Eastlink. On Sunday, Halifax will host the Blainville-Boisbraind Armada in another afternoon game. I'll have tweets from both games and be sure to follow on Instagram as well for pictures and videos.

NHL DRAFT: Ehlers drafted in top 10

The 2014 National Hockey League entry draft was this weekend in Philadelphia...

• For the first time since 2006, a defenseman was drafted first overall. Aaron Ekblad of the Barrie Colts was drafted by the lottery winner Florida Panthers. 
• Nikolaj Ehlers of your Moose got drafted 9th overall by the Winnipeg Jets. He was the only Quebec League player to be drafted in the 1st round on Friday. 
• A total of 17 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League players were selected, about half of the amount of players that were drafted last year.
• Mason McDonald, of Halifax, was the first goaltender to be drafted. The Charlottetown Islander was picked 34th overall by the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
• Danny Moynihan and Matt Murphy were the other Herd players that were ranked but neither got drafted. This is the second year in a row that Murphy has been passed in the draft. 
• The 2015 draft will be held in Sunrise by the Florida Panthers.