Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 1:49 pm
If you live in Southeastern New Brunswick, there's certainly plenty of good reasons to proudly grow attached to this edition of the Moncton Wildcats.
First overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at 52-15-0-3 and only the second Atlantic club to capture the President Cup.
No. 1 in the final Canadian Hockey League rankings. Twenty-two franchise records, including most points and most wins.
And while compiling a Moncton feel-good list for this season, there's something else you should know. The Wildcats are enjoying their finest hour ever and they have a strong homegrown element with 11 Maritimers on their 24-man roster.
"I think it's a proud endorsement for how much hockey has improved in the Maritimes," said Moncton associate coach Danny Flynn. "I think that Maritime kids are getting more exposure due to having major junior in all four Atlantic provinces so that's helped.
"It's a credit to the development programs in local minor hockey associations that we're producing more and more top quality players in the Maritimes. Volunteers put a lot of time into minor hockey and they're doing a good job.
"I think that you shouldn't always judge the success of your minor hockey program by the number of top-end players you produce because minor hockey should be for everybody. Your grass-roots programs and your house league programs should have their focus as well."
Moncton will play its first game in the 2006 Memorial Cup against the Western Hockey League champion Vancouver Giants tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Royale Moncton Coliseum.
The Wildcats had a 16-5 record in the playoffs en route to capturing their first QMJHL championship. The only other Atlantic club to ever hoist the President Cup was the 1998-99 Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
"I'm a proud Maritimer and I think it's a nice statement that you can win the Quebec league and go to the Memorial Cup with 11 Maritime players on your team," said Flynn, a native of Dartmouth, N.S.
"I know when we played Halifax in Round 2 if you took the Maritimers off both teams and put them together you would have a very highly competitive major junior team. It certainly speaks well of our grass-roots programs and what a great job people are doing in minor hockey development."
Six Nova Scotians and five New Brunswickers make up the 11 Maritimers on Moncton's roster. The pack is rounded out by six players from Quebec, two each from Ontario, Latvia and the United States and one from Saskatchewan.
"I think it's good not only for us, but for the young kids coming up in the region," said Wildcats defenceman Luc Bourdon, a Shippagan native who was a first-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks in the 2005 National Hockey League draft.
"Hopefully, we're making a path and building the road for the next generation of young hockey players in the Maritimes. Maybe we can give the kids in minor hockey some hope that they can play major junior, too."
Wildcats center Christian Gaudet was an 11th round pick in the 2003 QMJHL draft. He made the team as a longshot and now the third-year veteran from Memramcook proudly wears the `C' as captain.
"Some of the Maritimers on this team weren't expected to make it," he said. "You look at guys like (Josh) Hepditch and (Chris) Morehouse, people who had to work hard to make it this far. I think it shows a lot of character.
"It shows that Maritimers can get the job done also in major junior. I know when I got drafted it was hard to get noticed because our midget AAA league isn't as good as Quebec midget AAA."
Moncton took a dramatically different route in building its QMJHL champion. This team isn't primarily a group of veterans who have grown up together over multiple seasons.
The Wildcats have just nine returnees and 15 newcomers on their roster. This includes 10 newcomers who had no QMJHL experience before this season.
The Wildcats have just nine of their own draft picks on this team. They've built this club quickly with trades, the draft and free agents since last April when Ted Nolan was hired as head coach and director of hockey operations.
The Wildcats were No. 1 defensively and No. 2 offensively in the QMJHL this season. They have the best blueline in the league, a solid veteran goaltender in Josh Tordjman and good offensive depth with seven 20-goal scorers and eight 50-point producers.
"We try to focus on the details," said Gaudet. "Good defence is going to create good offence. We don't really open up the game like other teams do. We try to minimize the other team's scoring chances and attack smartly when we have the chance."
The Wildcats scored 161 more goals than they allowed against in the regular season. That's the biggest differential in the CHL.
Center Philippe Dupuis (32-76-108 in 56 games) and left winger Stephane Goulet (51-42-93 in 67 games) were the club's top two scorers. Keith Yandle (25-59-84 in 66 games) was the highest scoring defenceman in the CHL.
"We try to play what we call a pro style game," said Flynn. "We want the guys to be safe, smart and responsible defensively, but we don't want to take away their creativity. If the opportunity is there to attack, we encourage them to do so.
"The no red line increased the opportunities to attack. The obstruction rules increased the opportunities to attack. It's all about making good decisions in terms of when to go with the puck and when to play it safe."
How much does Moncton know about Vancouver, its first opponent in the 2006 Memorial Cup?
"I've talked to three or four really good hockey people across the country and they all said they're a very strong team," said Flynn. "We know their coaching is outstanding.
"We know they've got a physical team and a real good blueline. People said they were clearly the best team in the west. We're going to have our hands full, but you wouldn't expect to have it any other way in a tournament of champions.
"There's four very good teams here and any one of them can win it. It's going to be which team makes the best decisions under pressure and which team brings its best game with a little luck thrown in there as well."
