QUEBEC CITY P.Q. – The month of August signified the return of junior hockey for most hockey fans around the QMJHL. In Quebec, 39 players reported to Patrick Roy’s Quebec Remparts on Sunday August 16th. The fans who came to see their favorites players were anxious to watch one in particular. Ryan Bourque, the youngest son of former star defenseman Raymond Bourque, who played mostly with Boston Bruins before ending his career by helping the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup. Right from the first intra squad game, the young left winger showed signs of his abilities by making some great plays. Playing with Kelsey Tessier and Danick Hudon-Paquette, the 5’ 9″, 165 pounder demonstrated to the public that he is a great stickhandler, good skater and great vision on the ice. Before players stepped on the ice for their first training session, the organization announced a trade on August 10th involving two other teams. The Victoriaville Tigres sent Maxime Gravel to Quebec for forward Mathieu Loisel and a sixth round pick in 2010. Than Victoriaville sent Loisel and a six round pick in 2011 to Rimouski for a fourth round pick in 2011. The players stepped on the ice playing two intra squad games a day from Tuesday through Thursday. Unfortunately, training camp means can mean getting bad news for some players. Some of them learned that their adventure with the Remparts ended by not making the cut. Goaltender Samuel Ouellet was the only one who saw his dream end before the teams first pre-season games on Saturday and Sunday against the Rimouski Oceanic. Besides number one netminder Peter Dalmas who did not practice with the team due to a minor injury, three others were left to battle for the back up goaltender position: Jimmy Appleby (a 2009 first selection), Jean-Philippe Gagnon and Eric Bourdon were still in the picture. After the first five days of camp, the team left for La Pocatiere, a suburban town from Quebec for their first pre-season game against a real opponent. The players tried to impress the coaching staff playing against each other, a first real test for rookies who were trying to earn their place with the team. Besides the final score, a 4-1 win on Saturday night, Marc-Olivier Vallerand (with two goals), Mikael Tam and Julien Corriveau were the goal scorers for Quebec. Marc-Olivier Pelletier got the only goal of the night for Rimouski. Head coach Patrick Roy seemed happy about what he saw from several players noticing great performances from Martin Levebvre, Jason Rajotte, Binjamin Martin and Jeremie Belanger. Martin and Belanger saw time killing penalties did a great job. Other players earning praise from head coach Roy were goaltender Jean-Philippe Gagnon and Eric Bourdon. “We have seen good things overall in this first game, the guys we saw tonight were the same guys we’ve seen since the beginning of training camp. I liked the work of Martin Levebvre, Jason Rajotte. The work we did in the penalty killing situation. We completed our checks. Guys like Mathieu Lavallee did great job.” When talking about Benjamin Martin and Jeremie Belanger, their work while on one and even two man disadvantage, Roy noticed their efforts. “I really like what they gave us tonight. It was a great opportunity for them. What I like the most is the great job Belanger did on face-offs. I felt comfortable sending him to win important face-offs.” Jean-Philippe Gagnon (the starter) and Eric Bourdon did a real good job allowing only one goal on Saturday earning recognition of their head coach. “I have to say is that both were great, they stayed calmed, and protected their net very well even if they weren’t too busy (18 shots). They seem very confident in front of their net.” The return match on Sunday night in Val Belair, Quebec won again this time by the score of 4-2. It was a better game for the Quebec considering that the fact Remparts had more regular players in their line up. The game had greater importance for the rookies who looked to earn the right to play make an impression in hopes of staying with the team. The game marked the first chance fans had to see the younger Bourque play in a real game. His line, along with Kelsey Tessier and Danick Hudon-Paquette, played very well together. Tessier scoring two goals, Bourque ended with a goal and two assists while Paquette had one assist and a fight 16 seconds into the first period against Nicolas Samoluk. Jonathan Lavoie and Danny Chiasson had both goals for Rimouski. Quebec fans had the chance to see what possibly will by first two lines of the 2009-10 teams. With Ryan Bourque, Kelsey Tessier and Danick Paquette as possible first line and Maxime Gravel, David Gilbert and Dmitry Kugryshev as the second line, It will be interesting to see who will be the last two lines. A possible third line might regroup Julien Corriveau, John Audy-Marchessault, and Dominic Savoie. Depending on who will grab the fourth line positions, Rempart fans could expect to see a very well representated team when the puck drops for the first regular season game. On Sunday nights game, several players received some bad news after the game. Goaltender Eric Bourdon, forwards Guillaume Donovan, Mathieu Lavallee, Maxime Turcotte, and defensemen Sebastien Turcotte, and Alexandre Bolduc saw their adventure with the team ended. With six players leaving, the Quebec team still has 27 players, with eight players about to leave for NHL training camp. Roy would like to keep around 24 players when the season begins. After the game, Patrick Roy confirmed a trade with Lewiston. The MAINEiacs sent Danny Coulombe to the Remparts. In return Quebec sent a 2010 fifth round pick. “We looked for a defenseman who was able to play the role of a sixth or seventh defenseman with us. We didn’t have enough defensemen.” said Roy. Roy admitted after the game that “the most difficult news was to give goaltender Eric Bourdon. Like I explained to Eric, we would like to have the same kind of relationship we had last year with Jean-Philippe Gagnon. It wasn’t easy for Jean-Philippe to be sent down last year but we kept a contact with him last year and we want the same kind of contact with Eric.” “It’s also tough to give the news to a guy like Donovan who is 19 who had a good training camp. We have guys like Corriveau, who we would like to use at center. We still have rookies like Martin (Benjamin), Power (Charles), Belanger (Jeremie) who we like to keep near the team, but like I told them, it will be up them to fight and earn the ice time.” Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.