The Concordia Stingers dropped their season opener 2-0 to the Carleton Ravens on Friday night, but the loss is the least of their worries.
“Hockey’s an emotional sport. Everyone wants to win,” said rookie forward Tyler Hylland. “Sometimes tempers boil over but it’s nothing personal. It’s just the competitive spirit.”
The Stingers are a young team – that’s no surprise to anyone. That inexperience caused some pregame nerves for some of the players, said Hylland, and the Stingers quickly found themselves down 1-0 halfway through the first period.
“It’s fun to get the jitters out of the first U Sports game, you never know what to expect,” said Hylland. “Obviously its not the result we were looking for tonight but it’s the first game, we’re going to learn and get better. We have the tools in the room to be a competitive team.”
Right from the get-go in the second period, the Ravens came out flying and quickly extended their lead to two nothing off the stick of Cody Caron, who ripped a slap shot past Marc-Antoine Turcotte. Turcotte was the main reason the Stingers only ended up losing.
After that, the emotions took over and plays started getting out of hand. The tipping point for the Stingers came when Captain Philippe Sanche took an elbow to the face, which made him sit out of the game for a while.
Three quarters of the way through the second period, first-year Stingers player Nico Blachman and Darian Skeoch of the Ravens dropped the gloves. Both players got match penalties and are subject to an automatic one game suspension for fighting in a no-fighting league.
In the third period, Liam Murphy, yet another newcomer for the Stingers, took a checking from behind penalty that gave his teammates a tall order of killing off the five-minute major penalty. One of the few bright spots of the night was on that penalty kill; Chase Harwell had one of the best shifts of his Stingers career.
“We need that kill. We’re down two, we gotta bear down,” said Harwell. “The team did a really good, a lot of communication between the players. In terms of penalty killing, I think we did really well.”
Unfortunately for Concordia, that was not the end of the drama as right before the final buzzer. Veteran third-year defence man Carl Neill slashed a Carleton Raven in the leg, resulting in a game misconduct and a one-game suspension for his actions.
The Stingers now look ahead to tonight when they face McGill in the first of three meetings this season. Puck drop is at 7:30pm at the Ed Meagher arena where the Stingers hope to put this game and its hostilities behind them.
The Stingers finished the regular season with a 15-11-2 record.
Last year’s season did not end the way the Concordia Stingers had thought it would. The Queen’s Gaels swept the Stingers in the first round of the OUA playoffs after a hard-fought regular season.
On top of the early playoff exit, former captain Philippe Hudon played his last game with the team after five seasons.
Enter Philippe Sanche, who was chosen by head coach Marc-André Element to be the captain of his team for the 2019-20 season.
“It’s a big honour for me,” said Sanche. “Being the captain after [Philippe] Hudon, [Olivier] Hinse, it’s huge.”
Marc-André Element said he took some time over the summer to come to the decision to slap the C on Sanche’s jersey. However, Element feels that the Stingers’ leadership group is one of their main strong points heading into the new campaign, with Carl Neill and Alexandre Gosselin serving as assistant captains.
“We have an amazing leadership group, chemistry and players,” said Element. “There’s going to be an adjustment [for some], but they’ll figure it out pretty fast that we can’t take any nights off in this league.”
While Sanche adjusts to the role of captain, new recruits will have to adjust to a new team, league and even city; four of the new wave of players from the Stingers are from out of province. However, Sanche believes they are already being integrated into the team nicely.
Neill, who led the team in points last year and is now entering his third year, also expressed how his off-ice role has changed into more of a mentor-like figure for the new and young team.
“There’s a lot of young guys coming in and I’m just trying to get them adjusted to the atmosphere,” said Neill. “The quicker the team meshes together, the more success we’ll have so it’s about showing them the ins and outs [on and off the ice.]”
The Stingers have a good mindset heading into this season. They know where their strengths lie, what needs to be improved on, and what they can build off of. One of the areas of improvement that needed to be addressed was size.
The OUA is a very physical conference. Last season, the average height and weight of a Stingers player was 5’11 and 187lbs, which ranked 18th and 15th, respectively, among the 20 teams in the conference. To address that, the average height and weight of the nine new recruits listed on eliteprospects.com, is 6’1 and 198 lbs.
“We’re more [well rounded] this year,” said Sanche. “Last year we played really fast but struggled against bigger teams. This year we will be more physical and be able to better protect ourselves.”
Along with Philippe Hudon, other notable departures on the offensive side of the squad are left-winger Charles-Éric Légaré and center Hugo Roy. Those are some big shoes to fill as they accounted for over 30 per cent of the team’s scoring.
Sanche will be a big part of filling in these big shoes. Sanche has always been one of the team’s main goal scorers, lighting the lamp 38 times in his three seasons as a Stinger.
While the team did recruit Jeff de Wit and Alexander Katerinakis, among others, who have shown their ability to add scoring, they know that they will need a greater contribution from their defence; from players like Carl Neill, Bradley Lalonde, and newcomer Gabriel Bilodeau.
“We have a lot of offensive defensemen, so we need to feed our offence from the D-squad,” said Element.
The team knows what they are getting from Carl Neill in terms of scoring; in his two seasons as a Stinger he’s averaged 32 points. There are two players of interest, however, when it comes to getting offence from the back end.
Bradley Lalonde had an excellent rookie season, scoring five goals and 16 assists. He showed off his cannon of a shot, which will play a big role should the Stingers want to repeat having the fourth-best power play in the OUA.
Gabriel Bilodeau is a name that is very intriguing as he’s shown scoring prowess at the junior level; now he must translate that to the more mature U Sports game.
“[The new guys] need to figure out what type of player they are,” said Neill. “It’s a big step from junior – adjusting to the speed and pace. The quicker they do that is how fast we’ll find success this season.”
The Stingers men’s hockey team will see their first preseason game action on Sept. 18 on the road against the Université de Québec à Trois Rivières Patriotes.
Élément was contacted a few months ago by the Canadiens to organize the event. He said he then decided to create a U SPORTS all-star team with the Quebec teams of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) to give the Canadiens a good challenge.
“I think it’s a really good thing for the promotion of our league and the three university programs in Quebec,” Élément said. “It’s a great opportunity for them to be seen. The number one priority is to show people that university hockey in Quebec is a good level of hockey, which is something people may not really know.”
Élément announced to his Stingers players their nominations to the U SPORTS all-star team when they came back to Concordia after summer vacation. One of those players, forward Philippe Sanche, said this game will help players gain experience.
“There are players [on the team] who want to play at a professional level after, either in Europe, here, or in other leagues,” Sanche said. “We can also compare with players drafted or invited to professional camps. I think it will [help] us to compare ourselves to them, know what we need to work on or understand what they did to receive an invitation.”
Sanche said even if today’s game isn’t part of the OUA regular season, the best for the players is to play as if it were.
“If you want to go to the next level, you need to be yourself, play how you can play and show what you’re capable of,” Sanche said. “It’s a game like [any] other. You should not put yourself under too much pressure and try to do too much because that’s when you’re going to look bad.”
Defenceman Carl Neill, another of the seven Stingers on the team, said it will be interesting to be in a team with players he normally faces during the season.
“We know a bit of their tendencies and what kind of players they are, but it’s going to be really interesting given [our rivalries],” Neill said. “I’m sure we’ll put all of this aside for the game, but once the season starts, there will be no more love.”
Rivals or not, knowing a bit of each other should be a good thing for today, as the team’s only practice for the game was held yesterday. However, Élément said he and the players will be fine, as it’s not the first time they have had to deal with such situations.
“We’ll get to know each other quickly for the time of a game,” Élément said. “Yet, they’re all players we know, as we play against them [during the season]. I even tried to recruit some of them before they went into other programs. It will be fun.”
The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team added forward Emmy Fecteau to their roster this past summer. Fecteau joined the Stingers after winning three consecutive RSEQ championships with the Limoilou Titans in the RSEQ collegiate league.
Fecteau decided to be a Stinger after visiting Concordia and the team’s facilities with her family this summer. The forward said she immediately felt good during her visit.
“I thought the team was great,” Fecteau said. “The coaching staff is very impressive here, and the group of players seemed very welcoming. They seemed to have a lot of fun. That’s what really convinced me to come here.”
Stingers head coach Julie Chu said the team is fortunate to add Fecteau to its roster. She described the Saint-Odilon native as not only a great hockey player, but also a great person and dedicated student-athlete.
“She’s someone who definitely loves to compete and loves to win, and those are characteristics of a champion,” Chu said. “She’s willing to learn, work hard and put in that consistent effort every day in order to achieve that. I think she will have a really big impact on us offensively as she continues to develop as an all-around player.”
Chu said the opportunity Fecteau had being in a winning culture with the Titans definitely helped her to gain experience.
“She grew a lot during that time, going from her first to third year where she became captain,” Chu said. “The success is obviously something she’ll continue to bring with her. That’s also the fun part with our players, which is sharing together everything that we’ve gone through.”
Fecteau may have already practiced with the Stingers but will have to wait until Sept. 13 to play her first game at the university level. Chu is confident Fecteau will adapt well from collegiate to university hockey, as she said there is always an adjustment period.
“I’m not going to put any additional pressure on her to make sure she has to score and be a huge role for us,” Chu said. “What we ask all of our players is to come and be a great teammate, to be involved and have a team-first [attitude]. We know Fecteau has a great character, and will be able to contribute to our team’s culture.”
Earlier this month, Fecteau was named to Canada’s National Women’s Development Team to represent Canada in a three-game series against the United States. The forward said it was an amazing experience.
“I shed some tears when I knew I was named to the team,” Fecteau said. “The group of girls was really nice. It was fun to play with the best players in the competition. I [was obviously proud] to play with the Canadian team. It was incredible.”
Chu, who played at the international level several times and won Olympic Games and IIHF World Women’s Championships medals, said it’s “one of the greatest honours” to play for someone’s country.
“Even those who get an opportunity to go to a camp, but maybe not make an official team, that experience itself is valuable because you’re surrounded by elite athletes who understand what it takes to be at the highest level,” Chu said. “Every experience we get is something that helps us grow and develop as people and hopefully become better.”
Chu gave credit to Fecteau for her nomination to Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, as only 24 players were selected to the team.
“Fecteau did an incredible job,” Chu said. “She did not just work this summer, but she earned the right for the invitation with her last year [with the Titans]. She’s been doing a great job with her summer training to be prepared for the opportunity. I was really excited she was able to earn a spot in the roster, and knowing that she’s a huge and awesome ambassador for our team as well.”
Fecteau said she is looking forward to this season. She described herself as a hard-working player with good vision, and she hopes to help the Stingers to have success in the quest of many titles.
“I can’t wait to play with the Stingers,” Fecteau said. “I hope I can bring the winning touch [to] Concordia. I’m looking forward to playing with that group of players here. I hope we’ll have a good season and win a lot of championships.”
Montreal company Sportlogiq teams up with NHL for new technology
At the 1996 NHL All-Star Game in Boston, Fox and the NHL introduced a puck tracking system that superimposed glowing lights around the puck. When a player’s shot was strong, it glowed red; if it was weaker, it would be blue. Fans didn’t like it, and when Fox lost its NHL rights after the 1997-98 season, the glowing puck died with it.
Over twenty years later, the league reintroduced its new player tracking system at the 2019 All-Star Game. Next season, NHL fans will get to see these player tracking systems implemented in broadcasts for the first time, and a company from Montreal will help release the new technology.
Sportlogiq currently works with 27 NHL teams to track player movements on the ice. Their system uses an algorithm that tracks players through broadcast cameras, but the NHL will place sensors on players’ equipment and pucks.
“Player tracking includes where a player is on the ice, how fast they’re skating, and everything else to what they’re doing on the ice,” said Christopher Boucher, Sportlogiq’s VP Sports Development, Analytics & Hockey Operations. “What’s tracked is location of all players and every puck possession event that occurs. This allows us to have information on players and teams.”
Although Boucher couldn’t go into more detail, Sportlogiq will be providing the optical solution for the NHL’s puck and player tracking technology next season. During the broadcast, fans will receive extra information about what’s happening on the ice.
“This can benefit fans in a few ways because, at the broadcast level, there will be more insights, such as the speed of players or speed of a shot,” Boucher said. “Then there will be more interesting stuff in terms of analytics. While a team is on the ice, we will be able to show the strength of one team over the other with a little widget on the screen.”
Like anything new, Boucher warns there will be pushback from fans, the same way Fox’s glowing puck was cast aside. The NHL and its broadcasters will go through a trial and error period next season to determine what fans prefer.
“There are broadcasters who have tried some stuff, and we’ve been involved too,” Boucher said. “That’s going to continue, and when they find something fans enjoy, they’ll run with it.”
Boucher added that younger fans will be more willing to accept the new technology, and that’s who they have to gear their product towards.
“I don’t think [the pushback] is a question of mentality, but a question of being able to process more information more quickly,” Boucher added. “My kids, as an example, they don’t just watch TV. They have the TV, their phone, and YouTube on. Younger kids can process more information a bit better, so they’ll have an appetite for it.”
Although advanced stats are on the rise, fans still prefer talking about the simple stats, such as goals and assists. But Boucher sees a future where fans talk about these advanced stats too.
“Obviously, the goals and assists, and [Connor] McDavid beating guys one-on-one will always be the more important story,” Boucher said. “But once [player tracking systems] are there and digestible on screen, then people are going to start talking about it. It’s going to take some time.”
Sports Editor Nicholas Di Giovanni gives his take on his latest in sports with his weekly Colour Commentary
Canadiens exceeding expectations as they continue to push for playoffs
Coming into this season, the Montreal Canadiens were projected to be near the bottom of the league. After trading their two best goal scorers, Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk, everyone wondered where the offence would come from. Yet, the Habs are fighting for a playoff spot in the final stretch of the season.
A few weeks ago, it was a four-team race between the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Canadiens for the two wild card spots. Three of these teams are in the Metropolitan Division, meaning the third seed in the division is up for grabs. One of these teams will have to miss the playoffs.
With the Penguins and Hurricanes surging up the standings, Montreal and Columbus are competing for the final spot. Columbus currently holds the tiebreaker, which is overtime and regulation wins, so Montreal needs to surpass Columbus’s point total.
Montreal still has games against Carolina and Columbus to gain ground, but the Metropolitan teams aren’t making it easier for Montreal to squeeze in. Over the last month of the season, the Metro teams played each other at least once, leaving a possibility for them to hurt each other. However, Montreal has failed multiple times to win games, and take advantage of other teams’ losses.
With a handful of games left, is it worth it for the Habs to be in the playoffs? They have more points than Columbus, but have a more difficult schedule. If they make the playoffs, they would face-off against the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.
The odds of Montreal beating Tampa Bay in a series are slim. Is it worth being eliminated in the first round and getting a first-round draft pick between 16th and 19th overall? Or is it better to miss the playoffs for a better draft pick?
As nice as it would be to make the playoffs, the team has come a long way since the beginning of the year, making it a successful Habs season no matter the result.
If they miss the playoffs and don’t win the lottery, they would have the 15th pick. In the current format, any team can win the top three picks. Montreal would have a one per cent chance at the number one pick and a 3.3 per cent chance at a top-three pick, according to Tankathon.
Whether in the playoffs or not, Montreal is a young and tough team to play against, and will only get better with young talent knocking on the NHL’s door.
Sports Editor Nicholas Di Giovanni gives his take on his latest in sports with his weekly Colour Commentary
Canadiens goalie record-setting win is another accomplishment in great career
I remember the first time I watched Carey Price on TV; Canada was playing the United States at the 2007 World Junior Championships, and the semi-final game went to a shootout. The shootout lasted seven rounds but Price made three huge saves, including the last on Peter Mueller, to send Canada to the final, which they won. I remember thinking, “Wow, this guy is a Montreal Canadiens prospect.”
Fast forward 12 years, and Price is more than just a Montreal Canadiens player. On March 5, he tied Jacques Plante for most wins in franchise history, with 314. In a franchise that’s been around for 110 years, with its many legends and all-time greats, Price is now number one for wins.
Although Price has often been criticized, Canadiens fans of this generation are so lucky to have him. I don’t think we truly appreciate just how good Price is.
With a career 314-220-67 record, Price also has a career .918 save percentage and 2.47 goals-against average (GAA). Since becoming the Canadiens’s full-time starter in 2010-11, he’s only had two seasons with a GAA higher than 2.50: 2.59 in 2012-13, when he played 39 games, and 3.11 last season when the Canadiens finished third to last in the league.
We definitely can’t forget about Price’s 44-win 2014-15 season, in which he had a career-best 1.96 GAA, which is just mind-blowing. It’s a no-brainer that he won the Hart Trophy as the league’s best player that year.
There is one thing missing from Price’s trophy cabinet, and that’s a Stanley Cup. Pessimistic fans will be quick to criticize Price’s career with the Canadiens for this reason, since Plante and Ken Dryden won six, while Patrick Roy won two with the Habs and two more with the Colorado Avalanche.
However, these Hall of Fame goalies had Hall of Fame players in front of them. Price doesn’t, except for a potential Hall of Famer in Shea Weber—who’s only been with the Habs since 2016. Plante played on the 1950s dynasty team, which included 12 Hall of Fame members from Jean Beliveau to Maurice Richard. Dryden’s team in the 1970s had 11 members in the Hall of Fame.
It’s a shame Price couldn’t have played on better Canadiens teams. They came close in 2014, as he carried them to the Conference Final before getting injured. This season, he’s helped carry the Habs past expectations as they continue to fight for a spot in the playoffs. We can only hope this young team will improve and Carey Price will finally win his Stanley Cup.
Katherine Purchase was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia at 9 years old. Photo by Hannah Ewen.
Goalie Katherine Purchase kept positive during concussion recovery
Concordia Stingers women’s hockey goalie Katherine Purchase earned a shutout in her first start this regular season on Jan. 13 against the Carleton Ravens. Purchase missed the first half of the season due to a concussion, and felt relieved when she was able to play hockey again.
“It’s pretty frustrating [to recover from a concussion], especially when it’s your first one,” Purchase said. “There are a lot of ups and downs, and it’s not really a steady comeback […]. Some days, I would feel really good and the next, terrible, so it would be discouraging. I just had to keep believing I was going to get better.”
The fifth-year goalie suffered the concussion while at a training camp with the Canadian national team in Dawson Creek, B.C. in September. In an exhibition game against a men’s Junior B team, an opposing player collided with her, with his leg hitting her head.
While Purchase was recovering from the head injury, she was also diagnosed with mononucleosis, but ultimately the concussion was what kept her out of action for so long. “The toughest thing was to not be around the team at all, and I went a whole month without seeing them,” Purchase said. “Especially with all the rookies this year, I wanted to get to know those new girls.”
Purchase won her first RSEQ championship last season and is aiming for a second. Photo by Hannah Ewen.
The accounting student also had to stay away from school for a while, but returned in November and passed her classes last semester. When she returned to the ice, Purchase said she couldn’t put the emotions she felt into words. “It felt like I had to relearn how to play hockey, because I hadn’t been on in so long,” she said.
Purchase hadn’t played for the Stingers since winning bronze at nationals last March, and returned to action at the Theresa Humes Tournament in December. After allowing six goals in a losing effort to the Syracuse Orange on Dec. 30, Purchase said it helped shake the dust off and get back to her usual skill level.
In the team’s first regular-season game of 2019 against the McGill Martlets, Purchase replaced Alice Philbert, who allowed five goals in the third period, and she’s played every game since. With Purchase as the starter, the Stingers have a 5-0-1 record, while she has a 1.28 goals-against average and .948 save percentage. She’s helped the Stingers climb into second place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), and the fifth-year just wants to keep winning.
“Knowing that I’ve missed a lot of time and that our team is trying to get some momentum going into the playoffs, I don’t think there’s time to think about anything else,” Purchase said. “Everytime you step onto the ice, you’re trying to go for a win and nothing else matters. [Playing] has kind of helped block out all the noise that creeps into your head.”
Purchase and the Stingers are focused on one thing, and that’s to defend their RSEQ championship and have success at nationals. “We still have a very talented team and we have the ability to win a national championship, so that’s always the expectation in this program,” she said, adding that she’s well-rested after missing the first few months of the season.
For a second consecutive year, Purchase was voted co-captain, along with Devon Thompson, by her teammates. Goalies can’t wear the ‘C’ on their jersey but, despite this, head coach Julie Chu praises Purchase for her vocal leadership on and off the ice.
“We’re always emphasizing communication as much as we can, and it’s not just our forwards with the forwards, the defencemen with the other defencemen, but everyone involved, including the goalies,” Chu told The Concordian in an interview in October. “Katherine is really understanding that role.”
Thompson, the only one to have played alongside Purchase for five seasons, also told The Concordian in November that her goalie is a big leader. “People think that because she’s a goalie, she sticks to herself, but she’s always had a really big voice in the locker room,” Thompson said.
This is Purchase’s last season with the Stingers, and she said it feels surreal that her journey at Concordia is coming to an end. She will be moving to Toronto in May to complete her Chartered Professional Accountant courses, and has a job lined up for September. Toronto has two teams in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, the Markham Thunder and Toronto Furies. At the moment, Purchase isn’t sure if she will be able to play professionally while working a full-time job.
The goalie said she’s enjoyed the family culture the Stingers have developed, and how she’s gotten along well with her teammates throughout the years.
“I’m going to miss Julie and Mike [McGrath, an assistant coach] so, so, so much, and just that feeling of coming to practice in an environment where everyone supports you and wants the best for you,” Purchase said.
“I really can’t complain about my time here,” she added. “If someone gave me the chance to redo everything over again, I wouldn’t take it because I would be scared to mess up. I wouldn’t want to be at any other school in Canada or the U.S., I can’t believe how lucky I am that I ended up here.”
The women’s hockey team won their first championship since 2005 last season. Archive photo by Mackenzie Lad.
After two championships last year, sports teams aim to continue winning
It’s back-to-school season, but for sports fans, this also means the Concordia Stingers teams are back in action. The Concordian previews the 2018-19 season.
The Stingers had a 3-4 record last season and lost in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-final to the Université de Montréal Carabins. A lot has changed for this team since they last played in early November. Rookie head coach Brad Collinson leads the charge for the football program, and he’s already facing some challenges with veterans leaving.
Quarterback Trenton Miller graduated from Concordia and is currently playing in Germany. Linebacker Mickael Côté and fullback Tanner Green were both drafted in the Canadian Football League (CFL), while running back Jean-Guy Rimpel left the team.
Adam Vance will have to take over as quarterback, but luckily for him, he will have Vince Alessandrini, Jarryd Taylor and James Tyrrell back as the top receivers.
It will be a learning year for Collinson and his team.
The men’s rugby team is keeping most of their players after winning the title. Archive photo by Alex Hutchins.
The men’s rugby team will look to repeat their RSEQ championship from last season. Craig Beemer should have most of his players returning, as Andreas Krawczyk was the only fifth-year player on the team last season.
This is Beemer’s third season as head coach and he’s brought in a lot of recruits since he took over. The team’s leaders, such as Charles Debove, Moritz Wittmann and Lucas Hotton all have at least two seasons left to play.
The Stingers went undefeated in RSEQ play a year ago, and it won’t be a surprise if they repeat it.
The women’s team didn’t share the same success as the men’s team, finishing the season with a 4-3 record and losing in the semi-final. But that wasn’t the biggest loss they took heading into this season, as veterans Alex Tessier and Frédérique Rajotte both graduated from the team.
Rajotte won the Stingers female athlete of the year award in April, and was named the U Sports top women’s rugby player last season. Both Tessier and Rajotte played a big part in bringing the Stingers to four straight RSEQ finals from 2013 to 2016.
It’s going to be a big hole to fill to replace them, but expect last season’s rookie of the year, Shawna Brayton, to step up.
This year both the men and women’s soccer teams will see a big change, as Greg Sutton will coach both programs. Sutton has been the head coach of the men’s team since 2013.
The men’s team had a 3-8-1 record last season and failed to make the playoffs. Rookie forward Simon Malaborsa was a bright spot, scoring six goals. Besides captain Olivier Georges having graduated, most of the team should stay on.
On the women’s side, they had a 3-7-4 record last year and also missed the playoffs. Captain Laura Lamontagne is leaving, but the team recruited Kathleen Hilaro, who is the captain of semi-pro AS Blainville to potentially replace her in the midfield.
Defender Imane Chebel could be a player to watch this season. She had a strong first season with the Stingers and played with the Algerian national team last spring.
The women’s hockey team also won a RSEQ championship last season, and much like the men’s rugby team, their core stars are staying this year. Defenceman and captain Marie-Joëlle Allard graduated but leading scorers Claudia Dubois, Audrey Belzile, Lidia Fillion and Sophie Gagnon are all still with the Stingers.
Third-years Stéphanie Lalancette and Brigitte Laganière both had break-out seasons last year and will look to continue their strong play. No recruits have been announced, but the Stingers said Lauriane Rougeau will return as an assistant coach after taking a year off to play in the Olympics.
Even though they finished third in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) last year, the Stingers will have a new-look men’s hockey team.
U Sports MVP Anthony Beauregard played professionally with the Laval Rocket at the end of last season. His linemate, and second-highest scorer on the team, Massimo Carozza, signed to play in Italy.
Without their stars, Élement recruited 12 new players, including forward Colin Grannary from the NCAA. Élement will need second-year defenceman Carl Neill to really lead the charge, and he has to hope some of the recruits can replace Carozza and Beauregard’s goal-scoring.
It wasn’t a season to remember for the women’s basketball team as they finished last in the RSEQ with a 4-12 record. Guard Jazlin Barker graduated and the Stingers should benefit from three fifth-year players this year with Aurélie d’Anjou Drouin, Marvia Dean and Ashley Moss.
One bright spot last season was forward Coralie Dumont, who was named RSEQ rookie of the year and made the U Sports all-rookie team. She finished the season averaging 11.1 points/game, 6.9 rebounds/game, and had a team-high 39.8 field-goal percentage.
After losing in the RSEQ final against the McGill Redmen, the Stingers also lost graduating star forward Ken Beaulieu. Beaulieu was a dunking machine and will be hard to replace.
They still have point guard Ricardo Monge, guard Adrian Armstrong and forward Olivier Simon. Simon should see more playing time with Beaulieu gone. The Stingers played three preseason games and had eight new recruits on the roster, so expect to see a young team.
Long-time head coach Victor Zilberman led the Stingers to a team silver at U Sports nationals in 2018. Francis Carter won gold and was named as the U Sports MVP, as well as the Stingers male athlete of the year. Fifth-year Vincent De Marinis has left the Stingers to pursue an Olympic dream.
The women’s team should have a strong year with nationals bronze-medalists Jade Dufour, Laurence Beauregard and Amanda Savard all set to return.
Seven years after the infamous incident, hits to the head have decreased
On March 8, 2011, Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty lay motionless on the Bell Centre ice, as 21,000 fans in the arena and thousands more watching on television looked on in shock.
Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara slammed Pacioretty head-first into a metal stanchion separating the two benches, fracturing then-22-year-old Pacioretty’s fourth cervical vertebra and giving him a concussion. Even though Chara received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for interference, the National Hockey League (NHL) did not discipline Chara any further.
Following the league’s announcement not to suspend Chara—who went on to win the Stanley Cup that year, while Pacioretty didn’t play again for the rest of the season—many people began to question the NHL’s commitment to player safety. Just two days after the incident, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “I am very concerned about the growing number of very serious injuries […] I don’t think that’s good for the game, and I think the league’s got to take a serious look at that for its own sake,” according to the CBC.
At the turn of the decade, the NHL was not a safe league for players. Former Bruins forward Marc Savard suffered a concussion when Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins hit him with a blind-side shoulder-to-head hit on March 7, 2010. Cooke was not suspended, while Savard missed the rest of the regular season and 23 games to start the 2010-11 season. Savard’s career ended when he suffered another concussion in January 2011.
Also in January 2011, superstar Sidney Crosby was a victim of a shoulder-to-head hit from David Steckel. Four days later, he received a hit-from-behind from Victor Hedman. Crosby missed the remaining 41 games of the season, and only played 22 games the following season.
The reaction to the Pacioretty-Chara incident was a culmination of multiple serious head injuries in the NHL. Fans and league sponsors had seen enough. According to the Toronto Star, Air Canada wrote a letter threatening to remove sponsorship, “unless the NHL takes immediate action with serious suspension to the players in question to curtail these life-threatening injuries.”
Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson was the first executive in the NHL who tried to implement action.
“Our organization believes that the players’ safety in hockey has become a major concern, and that this situation has reached a point of urgency,” Molson wrote in an open letter to fans on March 10, 2011. “Players’ safety in hockey must become the ultimate priority and the situation must be addressed immediately.”
Molson and the NHL implemented change soon after. Before the 2011-12 season, every arena in the league installed rounded glass near the benches, removing all stanchions like the one Pacioretty hit. At the Bell Centre, there used to be a pane of glass separating the benches, connected to glass on top of the boards. The corner of the two panes of glass was where Pacioretty got hit, and both panes were removed at the end of the season.
The NHL’s department of player safety started giving stricter suspensions for hits to the head, with 13 illegal head contact suspensions ranging from three to 25 games in the 2011-12 season. In the 2013-14 season, there were 14 head contact suspensions lasting between two and 10 games, with nine in 2014-15, seven in 2015-16 and five last season.
In October 2016, the NHL also implemented a concussion protocol. An independent spotter watches games and notifies the officials if a player is showing concussion-like symptoms. The player is then removed from the game to undergo an evaluation, and cannot return to play unless he passes the evaluation.
In the seven years since the Chara hit on Pacioretty, player safety in the NHL has changed quite a bit, and for the better. Sometimes, there has to be some bad before the good.
The importance of sports analytics were on full display at this year’s JMSM conference
Advanced statistics and hockey analytics were a hot topic at the John Molson Sports Business conference held on Nov. 4 at Hotel Bonaventure.
A panel, titled “Grit and Character: The Evolution of Analytics,” was moderated by Concordia journalism graduate Salim Valji, and featured four guests well-versed in the sports analytics world.
Panelists included Sportsnet writer Dimitri Filipovic; TSN, Sportsnet and Vice Sports contributor Andrew Berkshire; Stathletes co-founder Meghan Chayka; and hockey analyst Mike Kelly.
The talk began with each panelist discussing how hockey analytics have changed over the last few years. In the past, goals, assists and plus/minus were ways to track whether or not a player was performing well. However, new statistical measurements, such as Corsi, Fenwick and PDO, have created new ways to gauge a player’s effectiveness on the ice. Corsi and Fenwick are similar, as both measure how many shots a player takes in relation to everyone else on the ice, while PDO keeps track of a team’s shooting and save percentage.
However, one of the challenges with advanced stats is properly recording what is happening.
“A lot of it is going to come down to video player tracking,” Filipovic said. “Zone entries and loose pucks aren’t something we can quantify right now.”
Due to advanced stats being relatively new, the panelists said players don’t have much respect for advanced analytics. Valji referenced an article in which Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said he can’t judge a player based on a pie chart.
Berkshire added that stats like Corsi can make people “roll their eyes,” but that doesn’t mean they should be dismissed. Filipovic agreed, saying a team’s management should care about the new analytics.
“You want to look at it from a manager and coach level,” he said. “Why bring it to the players if they don’t care that much?”
For players to understand their own advanced stats, Chayka suggested the use of visual elements be emphasized rather than the actual numbers.
“Heatmaps and visual maps of the ice are great for showing players their performance,” Chayka said. “You have to know your audience.”
The panel then talked about how a player’s grit and character is different from their stats. Kelly brought up former Ottawa Senators forward Chris Neil, and how he isn’t an effective player on the ice, with 112 career goals in 1028 games, but his grit, character and presence in the locker room helped the Senators win games.
Chayka and Berkshire disagreed, with Chayka stating that because the Senators didn’t win the Stanley Cup with Neil on the team, it doesn’t matter that much. Berkshire added: “If character and leadership actually mattered that much, the Habs wouldn’t be terrible right now.”
The panel ended with each member giving some advice to students on how to make it in the industry and how to be effective at delivering analytics to an audience that might not otherwise know what you’re talking about.
“Make what you’re doing as relatable as possible to those consuming the information,” Kelly said. “The ones who are the most successful are the ones who text you at 10 p.m. with fresh ideas.”
Marie-Joëlle Allard was voted captain by her teammates this season after Tracy-Ann Lavigne graduated. Photo by Brianna Thicke.
Marie-Joëlle and Audrey-Anne Allard push each other to be better everyday
There’s a saying in hockey that your teammates become your family. But for two players on the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, that’s already the case.
Sisters Marie-Joëlle and Audrey-Anne Allard have been playing hockey together since CEGEP, when they played for the Titans du Cégep Limoilou in Quebec City.
“We’ve been playing with each other for a while, so it’s not that different at the university level,” Marie-Joëlle said. “But it’s nice to have someone you’re close with.”
“It’s fun to have someone on the team that you can have confidence in,” Audrey-Anne added.
Both Marie-Joëlle, a fifth-year player, and Audrey-Anne, a third-year, play defence. Even though Marie-Joëlle plays on the right side and Audrey-Anne on the left, they don’t play on the same pairing.
“We don’t have the same style of play,” Audrey-Anne said. “She’s more offensive, and I’m more defensive.”
The Allard sisters are from Victoriaville, where their parents and younger brother still live. Nonetheless, their parents and grandparents come to Concordia to watch their games. Marie-Joëlle said having both sisters on the team keeps their family on edge during games.
Audrey-Anne (pictured) and Marie-Joelle both play defence but don’t play on the same pairing for the Concordia Stingers. Photo by Brianna Thicke.
“My mom says, ‘I always have one girl on the ice, so I’m always stressed,’” Audrey-Anne added with a laugh.
The sisters have been living in an apartment together ever since Audrey-Anne came to Concordia in 2015. Marie-Joëlle is 25 and Audrey-Anne is 23, but they’re only 15 months apart.
“We are sisters, but we are also two good friends,” Audrey-Anne said. Even though they live together in Montreal during the school year and in Victoriaville during the summer, Audrey-Anne said it isn’t a challenge to be with each other all the time. “It’s just easier. We are always pushing each other [to be better],” she said.
Marie-Joëlle added: “For sure sometimes we have our little moments where we need to be alone, but we get along pretty good.”
Head coach Julie Chu said Marie-Joëlle and Audrey-Anne are great teammates, and she sees how the sisters encourage each other on the ice.
“It’s great when you have two sisters that are able to play hockey at the elite level,” Chu said. “It’s a really special thing. It’s a testament to how hard they work, and how hard they push each other to be better.”
The Allard sisters are helping turn the Stingers into a winning team on the ice. When Marie-Joëlle first joined the Stingers for the 2013-14 season, they went 5-15-0. By the time Audrey-Anne started playing for the team, the Stingers were winning more often, and even went to the national championship last year.
Even though the team finished with a 10-9-1 record last season, they upset the second-place Université de Montréal Carabins in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-final. They won the best-of-three series with 6-2 and 3-2 wins, with both Marie-Joëlle and Audrey-Anne picking up an assist in game one. The sisters agreed that winning the playoff series, which was the first time the Stingers won a playoff series since 2005, was the best moment they shared together at Concordia.
“The energy [on the team] was so high,” Marie-Joëlle said.
“When we won, we were just excited and we wanted to just give [each other] a big hug,” Audrey-Anne added. “We were proud of each other.”
The Allard sisters want to continue that winning pedigree with the Stingers this season. Audrey-Anne said she thinks they can win the national championship this season, but Marie-Joëlle said the team needs to have a one-game-at-a-time mentality in order to win. But she added that it’s great to see how much the team has improved since she started.
“It’s amazing to see the girls getting better every single week,” Marie-Joëlle said. “It’s something I’m proud of, because I was there at the beginning when the girls weren’t really great. So it’s been a big change, but an impressive one. On and off the ice has been amazing, and I just want to keep building on that.”
Audrey-Anne gets exhilarated just by watching her teammates play. “When I’m on the bench, I get so excited to see my teammates doing plays that last year they couldn’t do,” she said.
Marie-Joëlle was voted team captain by her teammates this season after Tracy-Ann Lavigne graduated last season.
“Anyone has the ability to be a leader, but MJ has shown in her five years how she’s been able to be an impact player on our team, and her teammates honoured her in that way,” coach Chu said.
Marie-Joëlle said being named captain doesn’t change the way she interacts with her teammates or how she plays on the ice.
“To have a letter on your jersey or not, it means the same thing—you’re part of the team,” she said. “Just having the C this year means I have to be a good example for my teammates. It’s good to have a little recognition from your teammates, but it doesn’t change anything.”
Audrey-Anne said she is proud of her big sister. “It just proves that she sets a good example and has good leadership for us.”
