Granted, it’s less than a month into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) season, but trends are starting to take shape and the Charlottetown Islanders appear to be the team to beat in the Maritimes Division.
Charlottetown travels to Bathurst, N.B., today to meet the upstart Acadie-Bathurst Titan, which should tell us if the Titan are for real or not.
Islanders’ speedsters Thomas Casey and Cédric Desruisseaux entered the week among the top five in scoring. Goaltender Colten Ellis, a Cape Bretoner, is already a favourite here and is among the leaders in goals-against average and save percentage.
Island natives Chad Arsenault, Bennett MacArthur, Cole Larkin and Zach Bigger continue to perform beyond expectations with the Titan.
Arsenault entered the week tied with Ellis in wins with five while MacArthur already has six goals. Defenceman Larkin led the league with a plus-12 while Bigger has drawn the attention of NHL’s Central Scouting.
Book
Serge Savard has a new book out called Forever Canadien.
In it, Serge outlines the background and role he played in the hiring of Montreal GM Marc Bergevin. Ever respective of Savard’s reputation and opinion, owner Geoff Molson asked Serge to approve the hire and he did after a long dinner involving the three individuals.
Molson missed the boat in not retaining Savard to plot Montreal’s future and the organization has paid the price.
The Habs would have missed the playoffs last year had it not been for the play-in series implemented due to the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) pandemic.
It would have been the fourth time in the last five seasons the Canadiens have not qualified for the post-season.
Their key players Carey Price and Shea Weber are 33 and 35, respectively, and maybe their best years are in the past.
Baseball
Head coaches and general managers of professional sports teams should now realize that seeing with one’s own eyes is a far more reliable in decision-making than depending on the computer or analytics.
Never was that statement more evident than in the recently-completed World Series.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash should have been able to understand his pitcher, Blake Snell, had the L.A. Dodgers hitters eating out of his hands and that staying with him after 73 pitches was the proper course of action.
Instead, Cash opted to change pitchers going with a reliever who Dodgers hitters had roughed up throughout this series.
Taking Snell out cost the Rays Game 6 and maybe the World Series and it was the most glaring blunder in recent World Series history.
It was also the most damaging in a long string of analytics-related decisions that should force coaches and managers to minimize their value in professional sports.
Harness racing
Today’s 13-dash harness racing card in Charlottetown gets underway at 12:30 p.m., and the card features the $20,000 Maritime Breeders Final for three-year-old colts and fillies.
The $2,750 top class is interesting as the top mare Dreamfair Zenfire steps up to meet the likes of Mick Dundee and the syndicate wonder Cowboy Logic.
A week ago at Mohawk, the Doug MacPhee-bred mare So Much More knocked off the $36,000 preferred class, including the boys, in 1:50:1 for driver James MacDonald, pushing the mare’s earnings past the $500,000 mark. There’s no preferred class tonight, only a $32,000 fillies and mares and she’s not in to go.
At Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland earlier this week, Half Cut handled the $7,000 class in 1:54:2, his first win of the campaign.
If you like to buy tickets on P.E.I., drivers at up-country tracks Tuesday would have been a profitable night. Jason Ryan won the $10,500 feature with Ben Hollingsworth’s Lively Rocket in 1:55:3, Austin Sorrie drove a pair of winners while Drew Neill won the $6,200 class with Ballparkfrank (what a hunch bet with the World Series on the screen).
Maritimers Colin Kelly and Jonathan Drury also drove winners.
This corner sends along best wishes to Lloyd Palmer, the former deputy minister of agriculture, who is recovering nicely in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and that’s according to his daughter, Meredith.
Lloyd was a prominent breeder with the Greenwood nursery, which produced horses like stakes winners Beauty Greenwood and Dancer Greenwood, owned by Dr. Don Ling.
Lloyd is the brother of the late great announcer and radio personality Ingham Palmer.
Rodney Clarke, of the famous Rodney's Oyster Bar in Toronto and in Western Canada, is now a regular at the city track with his old pal Bill Hogg.
Rodney's dad owned the top trotter Lady Lakeburn, who raced in the 1960s invitationals with The Sheik, Avalon Worthy, Stormy Song, Fedoran, Poplar Flash and others.
Pigskin picks
I called Arizona to beat Seattle last week and they did. Here’s a look at this week’s games.
- San Francisco 49ers (4-3) at Seattle Seahawks (5-1) – The Seahawks are 3.5-point home favourites this week and the 49ers are coming off a drubbing of New England. The Seahawks haven’t beaten a .500 club yet. The Prophet says take the points and bet San Fran.
- L.A. Rams (5-2) at Miami Dolphins (3-3) – The Rams looked great in beating the Chicago Bears on Monday night. The Dolphins picked a poor time to replace crafty QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, especially against a tough Rams defensive club led by Aaron Donald. Rookie left-handed QB Tua Tagovailoa will get a thumping here.
- New England Patriots (2-4) at Buffalo Bills (5-2) – The Patriots and Bills gave poor performances Sunday, especially New England losing 33-6 at home to San Fran. The Bills struggled in winning 18-10 over the woeful New York Jets. The Bills would love nothing better than to bury the Patriots and they will.
- Pittsburgh Steelers (6-0) at Baltimore Ravens (5-1) – The Ravens are coming off a bye week and are 4.5-point home favourites against the unbeaten Steelers. That’s too many points, I’ll take the points and bet Pittsburgh.
- New Orleans Saints (4-2) at Chicago Bears (5-2) – The Bears have a solid defence but don’t score enough to beat good teams. The Saints with QB Dree Brees are a good team, Saints win outright.
Fred MacDonald's column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].