After returning home from a successful two-win trip to Newfoundland, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles face a stiff challenge tonight against the hottest team in the QMJHL, the PEI Rocket, in the form of a rare Monday night home game.
PEI has been the most improved team in the league from the first half of the season to the second, and are absolutely scorching hot right now; they're 11-1-1-1 in their last fourteen hockey games. They're a deep and talented club at all positions, with especially impressive depth at forward. They will be missing top goal scorer David Laliberte (back on the Island recovering from a hip injury), but we will still have to contend with red hot players like Guillaume Doucet, Geoff Walker, Martin Latal, and Sydney's own Brett Morrison. All of these guys have really been piling up the points lately, and Walker and Morrison have had a lot of success against the Eagles already this season.
This is the eighth and final meeting between the two division rivals this season. The Eagles may hold a 5-2 lead in the season series, but do not be fooled at all by this deceiving stat; most of those games were played in the first half of the season, when the Rocket was just an ordinary hockey club. In the second half, PEI has been one of the very best teams in the league, and looks to enter the playoffs as a solid darkhorse contender.
Speaking of playoffs, there is a reasonably good chance that tonight's game could be a preview of an eventual playoff series. The Eagles currently sit in second place in the East Division standings, and the Rocket sit in third. If the two teams finish the season in those positions, and if they both advance past the playoffs' first round, there is a very good chance they could have a second round date with each other. Tonight will be a great chance to see how the two teams match up against each other.
The big question for the Eagles, winners of both games in Newfoundland last week despite a badly flu-stricken squad, is what their lineup will look like tonight. Have any of the guys who sat out with the flu in Newfoundland recovered enough to play tonight? Have any of the guys who played through the flu on Friday gotten worse? Has the virus spread further still throughout the team, afflicting even more players? Word on tonight's lineup should be available shortly after the conclusion of this morning's practice. It sure would be nice to be able to add James Sheppard back into the lineup, after he missed both games in St. John's. As well, one thing that is pretty much for sure is that Scott Brannon will finally be reinserted into the lineup after missing about a month with a concussion. Once again, any flu-related lineup news will be posted as soon as it is made available after practice.
On the other side of the ice, it was mentioned earlier that the Rocket will be missing top goal scorer Laliberte (44 goals on the season), and they'll also be missing two excellent 16-year-old players in centre Chris Doyle (16 goals) and defenceman Jordon Southorn. Both of those youngsters are away at the Canada Games, representing their respective provinces of PEI and Quebec.
Ondrej Pavelec and Antoine Lafleur should be your goaltenders of record tonight. Also, don't forget that it's a Season Ticket Redemption Night, so any unused season tickets from earlier in the season may be used towards tonight's game!
It's a really good challenge for the Eagles tonight, facing the league's hottest team, and as said before, it could also be a great chance to see how we measure up against a very possible playoff opponent.
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Speaking of the Canada Games, tune in to TSN today at 3:30 PM AST to watch Screaming Eagles prospect Evan Watts and Team Nova Scotia take on Team Quebec. Two former Eagle prospects are also going to be playing in this game; Mark Barberio of the Moncton Wildcats is on Team Quebec and Matthew Stoddard of the Saint John Sea Dogs is on Team Nova Scotia.
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Don't look now, but the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles currently have the best GAA in the league. All season, the Lewiston MAINEiacs have led in the goals against department by a healthy margin, but the Screaming Eagles have been tightening up defensively and narrowing the gap over the past couple of months. Now, the Eagles have 178 goals against on the season, just two more than Lewiston's 176. The Eagles have played one more game, giving them a goals-against-per-game average of 2.87. Lewiston's GAA is 2.89. If this trend continues, maybe we can see the Eagles pass Lewiston over these final few games of the season for the top goals against in the league.
The additions of Luc Bourdon and Beau Prokopetz to the Eagles' blueline have certainly helped towards this end, as has the much-improved play of goaltender Ondrej Pavelec since he returned from the World Juniors. The fact that Lewiston has been missing #1 goaltender Jonathan Bernier for the past month has also been a factor in Cape Breton narrowing the gap on the MAINEiacs in the race for the best goals against in the league.
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To follow up with a lineup report:
- As expected, Scott Brannon does return to the lineup tonight.
- Jonathan Laberge remains out for sure, and Oskars Bartulis is also very doubtful.
- JC Gauthier and Etienne Breton will attempt a return to the lineup tonight after missing Friday night's game with the flu.
- James Sheppard will return to the lineup tonight after missing both Newfoundland games with the flu.
It should be a very interesting game this evening. According to "inside the nest", there doesn't appear to be any new cases of the flu in the lineup. It will be great to have Brannon back, although it may take a bit for him to get back to his pre-concussion performance. And Sheppard will hopefully take up from where he left off before coming down with the flu. McIlveen seems back on course, and it's great that Fergus is feeling better, despite the efforts of the Fog Devils! And, although missed, the absence of Laberge and Bartulis can be worked around, as long as we don't lose a 2nd forward/faceoff specialist in Gauthier, and a 2nd stronge D in Breton! What should be interesting is the meeting of last week's TELUS offensive player (Geoff Walker,PEI) and defensive player (Ondrej Pavelec - CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!). The game has all the fixins' of a barn burner! Hopefully, Centre 200 will be filled and we can cheer our Eagles on to a victory! GO EAGLES GO!
This flu thing was most likely affecting the play of our boys against both Saint John teams the previous weekend.
The team has plenty of concerns to consider: first place, GAA, GF, flu, injury, play-offs etc. Just do the best you are capealbe off but most importantly: ENJOY YOURSELVES out there. Have some fun!
I hope all of the eagles are feeling better for the games on Friday and Saturday.It will be very nice to see 2 teams that we haven't seen yet this year.
Good luck boys on the weekend.
I was also wondering why the Eagles organization did not have the annual skills comp. this year? Will they hold it at seasons end? As a 5 year season ticket holder,my family really enjoyed the skills comp.
GO EAGLES GO!!!
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