Looks like we are leading way the for the Memorial Cup. I am more of a Millrats fan than a SeaDogs but regardless would be good for the city.
SAINT JOHN - If there was ever a question of which of the four bid cities for the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup is best positioned to meet the 'hockey operations' criteria, it was answered loud and clear on Wednesday night at the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
Nathan Beaulieu, left, was one of four members of the Saint John Sea Dogs playing in the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto Wednesday night.
The Saint John Sea Dogs, Halifax Mooseheads, Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Shawinigan Cataractes have all submitted bids in hopes of landing next year's national major junior championship.
In order to host, however, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has laid out a list of criteria that all cities will be graded on.
Among the list is hockey operations, which translates to how competitive your team will be a year down the road when the championship rolls around. The reason is simple: the league does not want to be embarrassed by having a weak team as a representative.
The QMJHL has four scouts - two in Quebec and two in the Maritimes - who help rate the teams.
On Wednesday night, as the country watched, the Sea Dogs made a strong case for themselves without so much as a whimper from the other three bid cities.
Saint John had four players - Jonathan Huberdeau, Nathan Beaulieu, Zack Phillips and Tomas Jurco - dress for the game and all but Jurco scored goals. Huberdeau and Phillips also had an assist each in the 7-1 victory for Team Orr over Team Cherry.
"Awesome," said Saint John's majority owner Scott McCain, who attended the game before joining the Sea Dogs on Thursday for their three-game road trip through Quebec, beginning tonight in Baie-Comeau.
"Think about it, we had four guys in the game, that's 10 per cent of all the players in the game. They made the organization and whole city proud."
No players from Shawinigan, Halifax or Cape Breton were even selected to play in the game, which was a showcase of 17- and 18-year-old players eligible for the 2011 NHL draft.
"Saint John had to be mentioned at least 100 times on national TV (Wednesday) night," Mayor Ivan Court said. "That's a tribute to the city of Saint John and the quality of people and the ownership that realize that Saint John is a city worthy of hosting major events."
While Jurco, who was the only Sea Dog on Team Cherry, didn't get his name on the scoresheet, he had plenty of chances and also added to his YouTube celebrity by wowing the audience with an unbelievable performance in the skills competition in the breakaway challenge earlier in the week.
All four players will be back in Saint John next year, along with the majority of other players on the roster, including five others who have also been ranked among the top skaters in North America by NHL Central Scouting.
"I think it shows we have a very qualified team both this year and next but we're not taking anything for granted," McCain said.
The other criteria include the organizing committee, logistics, finance, the host facility; sanctioned Memorial Cup events such as banquets, golf tournament, etc., and corporate sponsorship, sales and marketing.
The site selection committee will offer grades after visiting each city. Saint John will welcome the five-member committee on Feb. 9. The members include committee president Gérald Janneteau, former president and general manager of RDS; Bernard Valcourt, a lawyer and former provincial Progressive Conservative Party leader from St. Quentin, N.B., former MLA and former federal cabinet minister; Michel Côté, president of the QMJHL Hall of Fame selection committee and former QMJHL team owner; Robert Basque, a lawyer with the firm Forbes Roth Basque; and Vincent Damphousse, a former player with the Laval Voisins/Titan and former National Hockey League star.
For some reason, the league keeps the importance of each criteria confidential - even though all the teams know how they are scored. The Sea Dogs weren't about to spill the beans for fear that it would be frowned upon by the league.
However, common sense suggests that a city's infrastructure, which includes hotels and their proximity to the host venue, the host facility itself and how competitive a team is would be among the more important factors in a bid.
NOTES
Former Sea Dogs coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu - Nathan's father - was interviewed during a break in the action in the second period. Currently the assistant coach of the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, he said the only advice he gave his son was to relax and play the game the way he knows how ... While Huberdeau, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Murphy and Beaulieu received plenty of praise during the broadcast, Phillips also had an outstanding game, working well with Nugent-Hopkins ... Huberdeau not only showed offensive skills during the game but also displayed his feistiness by playing physical. One neutral-zone collision with Murphy likely made the Dogs' coaching staff gasp. Huberdeau was slow to get up but when he did get to his feet, he jumped back in the play and threw a hit ... Bathurst's Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs is ranked second among North American skaters for the NHL draft but, by his own admission, only had a so-so game ... Beaulieu's only hiccup came when he was tripped up inside the offensive zone which led to a 3-on-1 the other way. He showed great hustle in getting back, however, and no damage was done ... Former Saint John Flames trainer Brian Miller, now with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL, got some facetime helping mend the bloody mouth of Murphy in the third ... Former UNB coach and NHL GM-turned analyst Doug MacLean made mention of the Sea Dogs during one segment when he said, "I thought it was the great coaching of Gerard Gallant (why the Sea Dogs are ranked No. 1 in the country) but it's the talent (on the ice)." Be sure that it was a friendly jab from one Summerside product to another.
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Thanks for posting.
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