[neilhoskins77]

Sunday 8th September 2019
Today we're away from home again, headed into Nova Scotia to face the Cape Breton Eagles at the 200 Centre in Sydney, another of our Divisional rivals. After claiming the win last time out in New Brunswick, we stick with Michael Welsh in goal. An early powerplay opportunity didn't find a breakthrough, but six shots in that two minutes spell had me hopeful for what was to come. Unfortunately, what was to come was us conceding twice in three minutes late in the period, as despite being well behind on the shot count, Jérémy Langlois netted with a tip, before Ivan Ivan scored on the man advantage with only seconds remaining on Brendon Clavelle's tripping minor. Thirty seconds later we had found a way through, Patrick LeBlanc scored his third goal of the pre-season in the final minute of the opening period.

I was confident we would sort out this wrong in the second period, but Jarrett Baker scored his first goal of the pre season with nearly three minutes played of the second period. Cédric Desruisseaux quickly got us back to within one, but when David Doucet scored just after the midway point, I'd had enough, and pulled Welsh out of the game and replaced him with Zachary Bouthillier, with Welsh conceding four goals on 24 shots for an 83.3% save percentage, which is never going to cut it. Bouthillier steadied the ship, and the scoreboard for the remainder of the 2nd, and we would go into the third two goals down.

After a heavy shot advantage earlier in the game, the count was now level, but we were hitting our stride. With a bit of confidence in the goalie behind them, the D started to make their impact up the ice. Xavier Bernard picked up a secondary assist on a Kevin Gursoy goal just eleven seconds into the final period, and then on the powerplay, Oscar Plandowski matched him when Nikita Alexandrov netted his first of the exhibitions with 12:59 remaining on the clock. With just under four minutes to go, Desruisseaux found the net again, and I was planning who would be on the ice when we were finishing them off with an empty netter. Prematurely as it turned out, as Drew Johnston took a tripping penalty less than 20 seconds later, and with under ten seconds of it run down, Brooklyn Kalmikov fired home from the point to even things up at five. Overtime beckoned, and we would manage only one shot in the extra five minute session, despite having a powerplay chance for the last eighty seconds of it. Into a shootout for the second successive game, Bouthillier stoning Derek Gentile, while Brett Budgell produced a move to score. Mathias Laferrière and Thomas Casey swapped markers, and when Bouthillier made another stop, this time from Shaun Miller, we had a second successive shootout success, this one recorded as a 6-5 win!

Pre-Season Record :- 2-1-0

Another road win makes me a very happy Coach. But my attempt to improve our sniper options with a frankly cheap and maybe even derisory trade offer to Rimouski Océanic was not surprisingly rejected out of hand. I go back to the table, though it's more in abject hope than any kind of expectation. We are absolutely trying to rob them to be honest, this is an improved offer though. The aim here is really just to get them to the table to establish how much it's going to cost us. An offer has also been made to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, a much more square deal that will address their need for a left winger, and provide us with a good young right wing that we can push right into our lineup if they see the deal the way we do.

Monday 9th September 2019
Tonight we play our final pre-season game. Or at least, our final pre-season game that isn't against Saint John Sea Dogs, who we'll face off with three times in four nights later this week. We're back at the Eastlink Centre, with the visitors the Western Conference side, Gatineau Olympiques. We have some new line combinations for this one to try and work out some kinks, and Zachary Bouthillier is back starting in the nets.

None of that looked too clever when we went behind with only nine seconds on the clock, Matthew Grouchy netting the rebound after Yevgeni Kashnikov's shot was kicked aside. Things looked like going downhill further when Pat LeBlanc took a trip to the box for interference, but with that minor due to expire, Noah Laaouan connected with a shorthanded shot to bring us level, the D'man's first goal of the pre-season. But Xavier Bernard took a tripping penalty midway through the stanza, and Grouchy scored again, with Métis Roelens netting four minutes later at even strength to leave us 3-1 down after one period, with both sides on 12 shots, and Bouthillier looking a bit shaky.

The second period showed a huge improvement for both goalie and skaters though. Bouthillier stopped all seven shots on net in the middle period, as both teams constantly ruined their own powerplay chances by taking penalties of their own quickly. 5 on 5, we were doing nicely, and Cole Edwards netted from Cédric Desruisseaux with his second helper of the night, and Nikita Alexandrov with his fourth of the pre-season. When Mathieu Bizier took a tripping minor late on in the period, we finally hit the PP bullseye, Brendon Clavelle making the most of his promotion to the special teams unit, with LeBlanc picking up a fifth assist of the exhibition games. 3-3 going into the third period.

We'd outshot Gatineau during that middle period, but it was too much to ask for that it would last. Kashnikov found the net himself eight minutes into the third, only to see Edwards net a second of the night to level the game again, Desruisseaux claiming another assist to make it a three point night. Alexandre Pellerin scored with Grouchy claiming one of the assists to join Cédric on a three point night with eight minutes remaining on the clock. With a minute left on the clock, we managed to get Bouthillier off the ice and pin Gatineau into their zone. Now we just needed the chance to fall, and it did. Unfortunately, it would fall for D'man Zac Arsenault, who sent it through the crowd and wide, and we have to take a 5-4 defeat. On the plus side, we were dominant in the face off circle, and we showed some improved intensity to outhit the visitors.

Pre-Season Record :- 2-2-0