The QMJHL’s Maritime Division is beginning to look a lot like the NHL’s
Southeast Division with it’s top team playing below .500 yet still winning.
With the 2000-2001 season winding down, the Halifax Mooseheads have been
somewhat of a disappointment for long-term fans. The folks who have watched
the likes of Alex Tanguay, Ramzi Abid, Brandon Reid and Jody Shelley must
feel like parents in a way. They’ve watched their sons grow and blossom and
become draftees into the pros. Now they’re gone.
In sociology, one would consider this the Empty Nest years with the kids
having grown up and moved away. In their absence, we’ve even had a Memorial
Cup hosted in Halifax last year. Once the hoopla had ended, it grew quiet.
Tanguay is now among the NHL’s elite as a member of the Colorado Avalanche
(of course he is, we didn’t have any doubts) and Jody Shelley has managed to
sign with the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets. Not bad.
So the question on every Mooseheads’ fan’s mind is this: Who is going to be
the next Tanguay or Abid?
Two young men who have had an impact on the team are eligible for this
year’s entry draft and are expected to be picked within the first four
rounds. Netminder Pascal Leclaire is touted as the number one goalie
prospect of the Canadian Juniors while a six-foot four-inch Slovak named
Milan Jurcina is likely going to find himself grabbed within the third or
fourth round.
It’s no big secret that the Mooseheads are in a rebuilding phase but it
seems like everyone around Halifax is sitting patiently and waiting for
something–anything exciting to happen.
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