A day (or five) late, but the Memorial Cup field is set after the Saint John Sea Dogs captured the QMJHL title. The Owen Sound Attack also captured the OHL title over the Memorial Cup host Mississauga St. Michael's Majors with a thrilling game seven overtime victory, but both those teams had already booked their appearance in the Cup.
It raises a question though - host teams which don't win their leagues are often derided as having gotten into the tournament through the "back door" instead of by winning their league like the other three entries do. In the case of Mississauga though, they got about as close as it is possible to get without actually winning - overtime of game seven of the finals. Since Mississauga is pretty clearly equally deserving of being OHL champs as Owen Sound is, I wonder if the "back door" taunts will take a break for this year.
The Memorial Cup gets underway tomorrow night with Saint John against Mississauga.
A few WHL roster notes now:
- Swift Current has released '92 defenceman Ryan Aasman and '93 forward Brandon Bruce. Aasman was the 8th overall pick in the 2007 bantam draft but has not lived up to those expectations during WHL stops in Prince Albert, Seattle, and Swift Current. Many of you may remember the sad news when Aasman's father passed away from cancer just days before the start of Aasman's 16 year old season in 08-09.
- Kelowna has released their two imports, '91 forward Andreas Stene and '92 forward Gal Koren. Stene probably wasn't coming back as an overager next year anyway and Koren was hardly used this year so the Rockets are probably hoping for better luck with a new import. Or perhaps in the wake of Kootenay winning the WHL with zero imports, we'll see more teams willing to go with one or zero imports rather than using roster spots on marginal players.
- and not a WHL roster note (YET) but '92 forward Max Gardiner has left the University of Minnesota after one year. Unhappy about his playing time, Gardiner told the Gophers he was going to play junior hockey next season. He could be talking about the USHL, but it's more likely in my opinion that he is headed for the WHL and the Tri-City Americans, who own his WHL rights. Gardiner was a third round pick of the St. Louis Blues in the 2010 NHL draft and would add a big offensive threat down the middle to an Americans lineup which is losing some big scorers like Reddick and Ashton.
8 comments:
Vancouver pretty much did the same thing (as Mississauga) against Medicine Hat. An extremely close series with double overtime in seven games and they received many "back door" jokes and taunts. So I wouldn't expect those comments to subside any if at all.
FYI ... not a single american born player in the 2011 Mem Cup this year and only five euros according the rosters... Kootenay of course has none, while Owen Sound has only one. Both Saint John and Mississauga each have two...
Is LA going to sign Linden Vey... they seem to be signing everyone else and now the Ducks have signed his linemate - Emerson Etem...
I hope that Mississauga treats Owen Sound better than the Vancouver Giants treated the MH Tigers back in 07 at the mem cup. What a disgrace the Giants were! Experienced it first hand...they wouldn't even let the Tigers have their mascot in the building for the Championship game...and the Tigers were supposed to be the home team! Teams are more inclined however to have a league championship than a round robin tournament win anyways!
I agree... Vancouver were not gracious hosts to the Tigers... funny part was the WHL head office sided with all the Giants requests... and none of the Tigers!
oh well... the Tigers still got the WHL Championship! No asterick beside any of the Tigers mem cup wins!
buffalo signs mcnabb... he is going to be good!
Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. We all know the Tigers players would happily trade that WHL title for a Memorial Cup ring.
No asterisk beside tigers mem cup wins because that town ain't capable of hosting. Also you think that skanky mascot was gonna help the tigers win? Maybe he could have wiped the tears from that baby Dorsetts eyes though.
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