Last night the new rules came to play early on. It was tough for me to tell on the kneeing call on Danick Paquette because I watched the game on Telus. Just reading the thoughts from Maineiacs fans and Ed Harding, they didn’t like the call. Fans say it was incidental contact, even though Paquette was looking to check the guy.
What has me wandering is why did David Savard get the game misconduct? All he did was defend a teammate. Coming into the game he just had 46 career penalty minutes. This is his third season. He’ll be suspended now because instigated a fight which shouldn’t been called because of the player that he dropped the gloves with. Danick knew a Moncton player would come to the defense of Matt Eagles.
Hopefully the QMJHL smartens up soon because these rules will hurt them in the long run. The Rimouski Oceanic and the second QMJHL club will be at a serious disadvantage at the Memorial Cup. I watched the highlights of the Windsor Spitfires-London Knights game from last night. They both have heavyweights that will drop the gloves. Both teams could be in Rimouski to represent the Ontario Hockey League. The Western Hockey League prides itself on physical play.
Onto the game itself, Nicola Riopel is a very good goalie. He’s showing why he was a first round selection in the 2005 QMJHL Draft. It has taken a couple of seasons to get this point but in his defense, he was on some weak teams. Last year he was pretty good on a team that only won 21 games.
Moncton’s powerplay looked very good last night. They know how to move the puck around. In the first period, I thought Brandon Gormley was a little tentative on shooting the puck. He made the safe play by passing the puck to a teammate. When he did fire the puck, it came out of a cannon. He will be a good one for the next few years in the QMJHL.
Lewiston is still is rusty on the offense. Right now there’s no go to guy that they can count on. Maybe that will change when Maxime Gratchev returns from New York Islanders camp. Still this team will need someone else also. Will it be Danick Paquette? Who knows because the way Paquette plays. You don’t to put the pressure on the young guys right away.
How about the special teams? The penalty kill looked good in the first but the Wildcats had a field day when the Maineiacs went down two men. Tom Michalik took a stupid penalty and Sean Stagles also committed a penalty. That turned the game around. What if one penalty was called? It would be a different game and I believe it wouldn’t take the wind out of the Maineiacs sails.
It will be interesting how this team bounces back on Sunday against the Victoriaville Tigres.
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