Alumni In The Pros - September 2009

There's a nice photo of Ray Sawada on NHL.com in an article about the 2009 NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City. Although the photo is not captioned, I believe it was taken last year when Sawada captained the Dallas Stars prospects team that won the tournament.

[www.nhl.com]

An interview with Craig Brush, GM and president of the Florida Everblades about the future of his team and of Florida hockey in general.

David Harding
An interview with Craig Brush, GM and president of the Florida Everblades about the future of his team and of Florida hockey in general.

Knowing how much the economy in that part of Florida tanked, this gives me a tiny bit more confidence that our tournament is around to stay. I wish the Everblades all the luck in staying fiscally healthy.

Not sure where to put this but USCHO is saying that Shaun Hannah resigned as Sacred Heart's coach. I wonder where he's headed.....or if he's hanging up the skates. The timing seems a bit close to the upcoming season. Shaun Hannah Resigns

mea culpa. barlow signed with idaho steelheads of the echl, not florida everblades.

[www.ecachockey.com]

Matt Moulson has a power play goal tonight for the Islanders.

jkahn
Matt Moulson has a power play goal tonight for the Islanders.

Matt just scored another PPG.

Matt has impressed his new head coach.

I've had to listen on the interweb radio (couldn't find any legit or pirated feeds), but Bitz and O'Byrne are playing against each other in tonight's BOS-MTL exhibition game. Sounds like they had a nice battle at the boards.

Matt Moulson had another goal (his team-leading third of the pre-season) in the Islanders' 3-1 win over the Oilers tonight.

[www.cbc.ca]

NHL: Home Ice on XM/Sirius already has a regular bit for Moulson (opening a cold one).

Moulson playing right wing with Tavares on MSG Plus right now. Yann Danis in net for New Jersey and Colgate's Cory Murphy also in the lineup.

Go Devils though.

I can't root for the Islanders but Moulson can score all he wants on Yann...

Moulson scored a PPG, set up by John Tavares.

Mark McCutcheon demoted by the Sabres to Portland:

link

Tony Romano was also demoted by the Islanders:
[www.newsday.com]

I started following Justin Bourne's blog a few months ago. He is the son of former Islander Bob Bourne and had a short lived career in minor league hockey. He now has a blog and writes hockey articles for several publications, and they are very entertaining and insightful (IMHO). Anyways, today's blog is about a tryout Matt Moulson had in Jrs. and maybe(?) had something to do with Matt coming to Cornell.

Matt Moulson Jr. hockey story

pfibiger
Tony Romano was also demoted by the Islanders:
[www.newsday.com]

Ditto Ryan Vesce by the Sharks:
sharks.nhl.com

That's crazy.

All in all, it seemed to work out pretty well for Matt...He got much national attention in Spring 2005, and he seems to be doing well on the Islanders this pre-season. And, playing with Tavares, who looks more promising than another season in Los Angeles.

Sharks' head coach Todd McLellan had rave reviews for Douglas Murray.

cbuckser
Sharks' head coach Todd McLellan had rave reviews for Douglas Murray.

There's a cottage industry on XM radio talking about how good he is.

Must still be the pre-season...........Douglas has 2 goals and an assist and is +4 after 2 periods versus the Duckies.

and still 9 minutes left in the game.

RatushnyFan
Must still be the pre-season...........Douglas has 2 goals and an assist and is +4 after 2 periods versus the Duckies.

Make that 3 goals, an assist, +5 with no PP time. And at some point midway through the game he already had 4 hits and 4 blocked shots.

pfibiger

RatushnyFan
Must still be the pre-season...........Douglas has 2 goals and an assist and is +4 after 2 periods versus the Duckies.

Make that 3 goals, an assist, +5 with no PP time. And at some point midway through the game he already had 4 hits and 4 blocked shots.

There's gotta be a hat-throwing emoticon somewhere...

[www.greenwichtime.com]

I saw this posted over on USCHO. I don't recall it being posted here, but it may have been.

Byron Bitz and Matt Moulson both survived the final roster cuts made by the Bruins and Islanders, and will be in the lineup for their respective teams' season openers.

sah67
Byron Bitz and Matt Moulson both survived the final roster cuts made by the Bruins and Islanders, and will be in the lineup for their respective teams' season openers.

Speaking of which, those of you with Versus can watch Bitz in the Bruins' opener tonight @ 7.

oceanst41

sah67
Byron Bitz and Matt Moulson both survived the final roster cuts made by the Bruins and Islanders, and will be in the lineup for their respective teams' season openers.

Speaking of which, those of you with Versus can watch Bitz in the Bruins' opener tonight @ 7.

Those of you with only NESN can grumble. And go to a bar, I guess. Hrpmh.

And hopefully, NHL Centre Ice will have me covered....

redice
And hopefully, NHL Centre Ice will have me covered....

Nope, NHL center ice does not cover nationally televised games, so unless you have Versus you won't see it.

What line is Bitz on? He's earmarked as a fixture on the 4th line?

Ryan O'Byrne also survived the last round of cuts and will start the year in Montreal.

Ray Sawada was one of the last players sent down by Dallas to play for their AHL team.

RatushnyFan
What line is Bitz on? He's earmarked as a fixture on the 4th line?

Pretty much. He'll play with Shawn Thornton and Steve Begin to start the season, with Vlady Sobotka waiting down in Providence to step in for injuries or poor play.

By all accounts the coaching staff loves him. Julien has said early this year that the fans have yet to see Bitz's full potential. He also showed some preseason chemistry with Sobotka, adding a little offensive potential to the 4th line. The homer in me thinks it looks like one of the best 4th/grinder lines in the NHL (full of great roll player if you will ).

ftyuv

oceanst41

sah67
Byron Bitz and Matt Moulson both survived the final roster cuts made by the Bruins and Islanders, and will be in the lineup for their respective teams' season openers.

Speaking of which, those of you with Versus can watch Bitz in the Bruins' opener tonight @ 7.

Those of you with only NESN can grumble. And go to a bar, I guess. Hrpmh.

And those of us who had Versus until losing it September 1st can really grumble. Damn you, DirecTV!

pfibiger
Ryan O'Byrne also survived the last round of cuts and will start the year in Montreal.

Ray Sawada was one of the last players sent down by Dallas to play for their AHL team.

O'Byrne is expected to be the 7th dman on the Habs, so we'll see how much he actually gets to play. Haven't heard much about what Jacques Martin thinks of him.

O'Byrne is playing tonight, although the first I've noticed him is just now in an after the whistle scrum so he probably isn't getting too many minutes.

Bitz, in the right spot at the right time, took a nice feed from Marc Savard between the dots. Made Theodore make a nice right pad save.

Jacob '06
O'Byrne is playing tonight, although the first I've noticed him is just now in an after the whistle scrum so he probably isn't getting too many minutes.

Yeah, it's good to be wrong. He just crushed Poni.

Did Time Warner (NYC) drop Versus HD?

Jordan 04
Did Time Warner (NYC) drop Versus HD?

Nope, it moved to channel 481

I didn't see the whole game, but I saw part of the Sharks game on Versus and it looked like Doug had a bit of a rough night. I'm sure they'll get it together, there's a lot of talent on the team.

I saw most of the Caps/Bruins, I'm sure that Bitz will get more minutes per game over time. Caps looked good, I think they've improved with the addition of Morrison and Knuble.

I thought the most interesting news yesterday was the Devils parting ways with Shanahan. I think that Lou would cut his own kid if he was on the borderline, it's not personal it's just business. It's probably a good decision but it had to be difficult to deliver the news.

RatushnyFan
I thought the most interesting news yesterday was the Devils parting ways with Shanahan. I think that Lou would cut his own kid if he was on the borderline, it's not personal it's just business. It's probably a good decision but it had to be difficult to deliver the news.

heard on WFAN this morning, that Shanahan was told by Lemaire that he wouldn't be within the top 9 forwards and that it was a mutual decision.

Markov is now out 3-4 months, so O'Byrne will be getting a lot more playing time than expected.

RatushnyFan
Not sure where to put this but USCHO is saying that Shaun Hannah resigned as Sacred Heart's coach. I wonder where he's headed.....or if he's hanging up the skates. The timing seems a bit close to the upcoming season. Shaun Hannah Resigns

Yale assistant C.J. Marottolo gets the head coaching job at Sacred Heart. He was at Yale for 13 seasons.

[www.uscho.com]