Long Beach 2005-06

[montreal]

Stays in the system in a way, but Shasby goes and signs with the Aces, the Ice Dogs biggest rival last season.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Seems the Habs cut him adrift but he wants to stay close to home.

[Bob]

montreal said:

Stays in the system in a way, but Shasby goes and signs with the Aces, the Ice Dogs biggest rival last season.

The Aces won't have Scott Gomez this year and that will hurt.

Personally, I would like to see Montreal use Long Beach a little more as a place for those undrafted over-age juniors to develop.

They had Steeve Villeneuve last year and he turned out to be a fairly solid addition. Will he be given a shot in Hamiltion this year?

[NWTHabsFan]

bob said:

Personally, I would like to see Montreal use Long Beach a little more as a place for those undrafted over-age juniors to develop.

They had Steeve Villeneuve last year and he turned out to be a fairly solid addition. Will he be given a shot in Hamiltion this year?

Long Beach has added 4 NCAA grads and two CHL grads already this off season. One was a teammate of Chips in PA, and one was a teammate of Aubin and Halak in Lewiston. Maybe not so coincidental after all.

Methinks that Montreal will be watching these kids closely around Hamilton training camp time and throughout the year if injuries occur in Hamilton.

I also think that Montreal will be using Long Beach for some of its younger prospects, including some potential tryouts coming to camp like Marcotte and Bisaillon (assuming they have good rookie camps), who are coming off promising CHL careers. They sent five players there last season.

Long Beach was in the top three of the ECHL for most of the past season, and Malcolm Cameron seems to be an excellent manager and coach, so it is a great place for our younger and/or less experienced prospects to get lots of development time and ice time.

[legaspesien]

montreal said:

Stays in the system in a way

Dan

do the ice doggs have any kind of affiliation with Buffalo because down there( Gaspé) by the 20/08 my brother talk to him and he kind of had a agrement with the sabers

[montreal]

Villeneuve has resigned with Long Beach, but I don't expect him to play for Hamilton unless they get hit with the injury bug.


Bisaillon is only 18 so he will have to go back to Val D'Or. I hope they sign him, good offensive D man.

Buffalo does not have any affilation with Long Beach that I know of. It's very common to see other teams prospects on a team that they aren't affliated with. Right now it's very early in the season for the ECHL, so the signings don't mean much in that next month things could change a lot since some players will end up in AHL camps and if they do well the ECHL teams might never see them. One guy this could happen to is Luke Fritshaw who has been signed by Long Beach but has been invited to the panthers rookie camp, so if he plays well, Long Beach may never see Fritshaw. Perhaps this will be the case with Larrivee as well, since he showed he can play at a high level in the ECHL. His coach even said he was one of the teams MVP's this year and imo one of the better players on Long Beach, he's improved his game and is playing more physical then in the past. I had hoped he would get a shot in Hamilton on the 3rd-4th line and PK, but Gainey had other plans.


Out of the Long Beach guys I don't know if any would get a shot with Hamilton outside of injuries, but I would keep an eye on Jon Foster, was a guy I hoped we would take a look at. Drummond is another but his size could be a problem, tough to say. I'm interested to see what happens with Rosa, Cardarelli, and Kenady, all guys I would hope are back in Long Beach cause if Hamilton needed to call up someone these guys would be interesting to see up there. Rosa has some impressive offensive skills, Joe Card is big and strong with some offensive skills and Kenady is a good all round player.

[Bob]

Doesn't Rosa belong to the Dallas organizatin?

[montreal]

bob said:

Doesn't Rosa belong to the Dallas organizatin?

nope, he was not signed and became a UFA. He's not under contract for any team right now, and I'd expect some AHL team to be very interested in him since he was one of the top rookies in the league.

[Bob]

montreal said:

bob said:

Doesn't Rosa belong to the Dallas organizatin?

nope, he was not signed and became a UFA. He's not under contract for any team right now, and I'd expect some AHL team to be very interested in him since he was one of the top rookies in the league.

Then I am all for giving him a shot at the Bulldogs!

[NWTHabsFan]

montreal said:

bob said:

Doesn't Rosa belong to the Dallas organizatin?

nope, he was not signed and became a UFA. He's not under contract for any team right now, and I'd expect some AHL team to be very interested in him since he was one of the top rookies in the league.

Rosa had a great year for Long Beach in his first year out of college. I would also hope the Dogs try to get him to camp for a looksie.

[NWTHabsFan]

bob said:

Personally, I would like to see Montreal use Long Beach a little more as a place for those undrafted over-age juniors to develop.

They had Steeve Villeneuve last year and he turned out to be a fairly solid addition. Will he be given a shot in Hamiltion this year?

Bob, a fairly good sign that they want to place more importance on Long Beach and strengthen the ties is the fact that they have invited Long Beach head coach and Director of Hockey Ops, Malcolm Cameron, to the rookie camp/tourney next week. This was confirmed in the Long Beach press release announcing the renewal of the affiliation agreement with the Habs/Dogs.

[montreal]

Rosa resigns with Long Beach, but gets an invite to the Preds main camp.

Long Beach also sign Mac Faulkner after playing four years in the ECAC for Clarkson. He is headed to the Sens rookie camp.

[NWTHabsFan]

Long Beach signs 25 year old goalie Greg Hewitt, who played for Elmira in the UHL () last season and played the season before that for Coach Malcolm Cameron.

Huet injured, Danis in Montreal, Halak (likely) in Hamilton along with an Oiler goalie, this may mean that Michaud and Hewitt will split the duties in Long Beach. Things could get very crowded in net on the West Coast once Halak gets moved down.

www.icedogs.com/fullstory.php?id=246

[SchoonerGuy]

I see tough guy Jimmy Bonneau was sent down to Long Beach. I suppose with Vandermeer in Hamilton there was no room for Bonneau.

[NWTHabsFan]

schoonerguy said:

I see tough guy Jimmy Bonneau was sent down to Long Beach. I suppose with Vandermeer in Hamilton there was no room for Bonneau.

He is only 20 as well, so getting more ice time down with Long Beach should help him develop rather than riding the pines in Hamilton. From what I saw at the rookie camp, he seems to have improved his overall hockey sense and skating from early reports after he was drafted. Long Beach should have a good young team with lots of recent grads from both the CHL and NCAA, so it should be a good environment for Bing Bang Bonneau to learn the pro game. He also won't have to fight every time either as last year's QMJHL penalty leader, Sheldon Wenzell who played with Halak in Lewiston, is also there as well.

[NWTHabsFan]

The Ice Dogs dropped their fourth straight as they lost their home opener last night 5-2. This is not the start for Malcolm Cameron's troops that they expected, given that the Hockey News had them pegged to finish second in the ECHL and to battle Florida for the Kelly Cup. Early going yet, and this is a very young team, so still lots of time to get their collective act together. Habs' prospects of interest who will be with the Ice Dogs this season include Urquhart, Halak, Bonneau and Sanford, with ex-prospect Christian Larrivee also playing and doing quite well as he had one of the two Long Beach goals last night and is among the team leader in points in this young season.

Halak has only played just over 8 minutes in those first four games as he came in relief last weekend when regular starter Greg Hewitt was getting shelled by Idaho. I caught parts of that game on the NHL Network last night and he looked okay, despite playing 4 minutes one man down due to a double minor. He gave up one goal, but the team in front of him were not playing with much jump at that point as he came in at the end of a game that was pretty well out of reach.

Urquhart did not get lots of ice time, but he sure has a great wrist shot and some decent size. If Coach Cameron can ever light that fire in his pants and get him to crash and bang and go into traffic, then he could start to justify why he was chosen 40th overall in a really deep and talented draft in 2003. He just turned 21, and may be a late bloomer, but with only one game in the AHL to show so far in a season and a bit, he apparently isn't showing much to the coaches just yet.

[NWTHabsFan]

Urquhart has a good game last night as the Ice Dogs get their first win in 5 tries. Cory had a two point night, with 1g 1a. Sanford had an assist and ex-prospect Larrivee scored another. Halak watched from the bench as he backed up Hewitt again.

[NWTHabsFan]

Long Beach won 5-0 last night for a second straight win. Halak gets the shutout for his first pro start. He wasn't playing last week due to a slight groin tweak (the injury of the season everywhere it would appear). Urquhart had his second straight two point night with one of each, and Larrivee had a nice three points and leads the Ice Dogs with 9pts in 6 games. Urquhart has moved up to third in team scoring, which is really good to see.

[NWTHabsFan]

Ice Doggies win last night against Idaho, beating them for their first loss of the season. A small pinch of revenge, as Idaho took three in a row from Long Beach to start the season. This was the third straight win for Long Beach as they are starting to gel and play to their potential.

Larrivee had another goal, and Halak was good in his start, but bad news is that he had to leave early in the third due to an injury. Not sure if he will be out long, but another decent game after coming off a shutout in his first pro start. Urquhart's streak of two goal games stops at two.

[NWTHabsFan]

Doggies won again on Wednesday, with Urquhart and Sanford picking up assists on a 5-4 shoot out win. Larrivee had two points and now leads the team with 12 pts after 9 games (the next closest player has six points). Doggies finally get their record back to the .500 mark and will look to move over it for the first time this season with their tilts coming up this weekend.

[NWTHabsFan]

Ice Dogs snap a three game winless skid with a win this morning (the game started at 10:30 am - how different is that?). Urquhart gets a goal, Larrivee gets two more points, and Bonneau drops the mitts. Bonneau got his first pro point with a helper on Saturday night in a losing cause. Michaud is down in Long Beach and played his only ECHL game so far on Saturday night as well. With Huet in Hamilton and with Halak injured, this move makes a lot of sense. We shall see what all transpires once Huet is ready for the big time again, and if and when Danis returns to get the lion's share of starts in Steeltown.

[montreal]

Halak with another SO, his 2nd this year. He leads Long Beach in SO's despite playing in only 8 games. He's won 5 of those 8 games with an impressive 1.74 gaa and a damn impressive save % of .939


Urquhart with a goal, (11th) and now moves up to tied for 4th in goals for LB. the rookie goldie with 18 (he's going to the All Stars as well) and Larrivee with 15. Urquhart is now 5th on the team in pts and 2nd in game winning goals with 3. He's also even on the season when half the team are minus players. And he's still shooting the puck a lot, with 117 shots.

Bonneau still leads the team im pims with 84 and he's one of the top plus minus players with a +3 but has not picked up any pts in a couple weeks.

Long Beach is 2nd in their divison with a big game friday night against the first placed team fresno who are starting to run away with 1st.

If Hamilton doesn't make the playoffs, and it's looking like they won't, as they are 13 pts back of the 4th spot and just can't put together a string of wins, at least Long Beach looks like they will make it so perhaps they could send a few guys like Benoit, Lemieux, Lapierre which would be a good experience for them.

[montreal]

Long Beach with a big win last night 4-3 over Fresno who they are trailing for 1st place. They are now 8 pts back, so it was a must win for the most part cause they didn't want to be 13 pts back. So it's great to see that they went with Halak in nets. I listened to the game and he did very well from the sound of it. If he continues to put up these kind of numbers for a few more games, he will have enough games played to be ranked in the league stats, which if he can continue to put up these numbers would place him around the top of the league in save % and gaa. something he's used to after dominating the Slovak junior league with unreal stats that saw him spend time in the Elite league at 18 as well as being one of the top goalies in the Q last year imo.

Halak has won 6 of his 9 games, with a 6-2-1-1 record. A gaa of 1.87 and a save % of .935 with 2 shutouts in 544 minutes of play.

Urquhart has also picked it up of late, with 2 assists last night. 26 pts in 36 games and he's a plus player although just barely and he's 3rd on the team in shots with 119.

Bonneau still looking for a goal, leads the team in pims with 90.

Michaud hasn't seen any action in some time. Halak gets the most starts and Hewitt has seen a couple but the team has been on a nice roll since Halak came back from injury, winning at least 4 in a row against some good teams.

[NWTHabsFan]

The Ice Dogs had their 9 game win streak snapped mid week with a loss, but rebounded with two big wins against a tough Las Vegas team this weekend. Good news is that Cory Urquhart seems to be picking up his play and ended up with three points in the last two games to move into a tie for third overall in team scoring. I haven't watched any of his play online or on TV of late, but his increased production is promising. He definitely has not had the pro start in a year and a half with the organization, so let's hope he is another slow starter like a few of our previous prospects. Him finally getting a starting spot on the Bulldogs would be a good start. He likely will have to add a physical element to his game to make it to the next level.

[NWTHabsFan]

Baby Dogs win again with another good performance by some of our lesser known prospects. Halak gets another win with a 45 save performance last night to match his shutout earlier this week. Cory Urquhart nets two points and is now third on the team in points. Good to see him start to find his offensive game as he definitely got his pro game off to a slow start. He is still a long, long way from the NHL, but baby steps for this big centre who had a decent QMJHL stint.

[montreal]

LB ties record,

For most road wins in a row with 10. They just won an impressive 3-1 victory. Halak with the W, 27 shots 26 saves. Urquhart with an assist.

Long Beach is on fire! They just won 6th in a row, all on the road I believe. In their last 20 games they have won 15. Team played really well but took way too many penalties. Although the ref was trigger happy calling stuff left and right. Dogs must have had 8 or more penalties called against them.

What's impressive is that they are winning without two of their top offensive players in last years runner up rookie of the year, Marco Rosa who has been injured since being sent down from the Preds AHL team. And Ash Goldie who until this injury was the teams leading goal scorer and the rookie was named to the ECHL All Stars after a solid career with Michigan St in the NCAA.

Halak was great, very good stickhandling, really showed off his stickhandling on the PK. In an interview in between periods on the roadrunners tv the Long Beach coach said Halak is the best goalie prospect he's worked with at this level in his career of 12 years. Says he has ice in his veins, just doesn't get rattled by anything. Very calm in net and poised for such a young player (youngest on the team )

Urquhart looked good, seems to have improved over last year. I've listened to several games but this is the first Long Beach game I've watched this year. I swear I thought I even saw him throw an elbow. He was shooting the puck a lot especially on the PP, athough many shots were going wide. He was parked in the high slot on the PP. Funny but he was also on the PK which is something I don't recall seeing him do last year. Should be interesting to see what he does next season in his final contract year.

Bonneau I didn't notice too much, with so many penalties he didn't seem to play too much.

Villeneuve who was invited to camp in the past and in his 2nd year was an All Star replacement, played a ton in all situations. He's stepped up his game a good bit.

Too bad we let Larrivee go, he played a very strong game, got the game winner on the PP from a nice pass by McAslan with Urquhart getting the 2nd assist. Larrivee also could have scored the empty net goal but in 2 on 0 about 12 inches from the wide open goal he gave it to Aikins for the easy goal. If he had this kind of season last year I can't see him not being resigned. I thought he was really good last year and would be in Hamilton this year on the 3rd or 4th line but being one of the top scorers in the ECHL doesn't mean he can do it at the AHL. Still he's shown a lot of improvement in his game. Like how he's using his size to his advantage now, and getting a little more involved physically.

Also I found it very interesting, when Coach Cameron was being interviewed he stated that he's hoping his team can pick up a defensemen for the playoffs cause he feels they are set with their forwards when asked what he thinks the team needs for a long playoff run. He then said he feels like his group of forwards are very strong once they get the two injured forwards back plus he said that Hamilton will be sending two unnamed forwards. I am wondering who that could be and how he could know this already since there's still a very small chance that the Dogs can make the playoffs. I got to think it would be two of Lemieux, Lambert, Lapierre. But I'm surprised they wouldn't send Sanford or Benoit.

[montreal]

Long Beach clinches playoff spot, 2nd year in a row they will be in the playoffs, both as Hab/Hamilton affilates. They are missing Halak, but since Hamilton might miss the playoffs I assume they will get him and maybe some other guys like Sanford, Benoit, or Lemieux.

[Habit]

montreal said:

Long Beach clinches playoff spot, 2nd year in a row they will be in the playoffs, both as Hab/Hamilton affilates. They are missing Halak, but since Hamilton might miss the playoffs I assume they will get him and maybe some other guys like Sanford, Benoit, or Lemieux.

With the Habs picking up Abasher (going to have to learn how to spell that) Danis will be droping down to the farm again thus displacing Halak back to the IceDogs.

[NWTHabsFan]

Ice Dogs won a couple on the weekend, so they are looking to ride some positive momentum over the next few weeks as they head into the playoffs. Cory Urquhart had a great game on Sunday getting a natural hat-trick, as he has turned it up a notch after another slow start to his second pro season. He now has 40 points in 54 games, good for fourth on his team. Michael Lambert also has been good since his return from Hamilton with 12 points in 10 games so far. Ex-prospect Christian Larrivee still leads the team in points. Olivier Michaud was the odd man out in Hamilton with Halak stealing the show in Hamilton and with Danis now returning to the Dogs, but he was no worse for wear earning a big win on his returning debut.

[Bob]

Cory Urquart has increased his points total over last year by almost 50% and has nearly triple the penalty minutes he had last year. Has anyone seen him play more than occasionally this year? If so, does he look more involved than last year.