Islanders Down Moose in Shootout Thriller.

The Halifax Mooseheads almost spoiled the home opener for the Charlottetown Islanders. Veteran goalie Eric Brassard turned in a 36 save performance, but it wasn't enough to take down the victorious Islanders. Daryl MacCallum made 37 saves in what can best be described as a goaltending duel.

Oliver Cooper got the Eastlink Centre crowd rocking as he tallied Charlottetown's first regular season goal at 6:42 of the first period. At 15:14 Halifax Mooseheads rookie Ilya Putintsev answered on the Powerplay for the Moose roofing one top shelf over MacCallum. Some believe that Putintsev may have enjoyed his celebration of that goal a little too much--But who wouldn't celebrate their first career Quebec League goal. Filip Rydstrom would respond quickly for the Islanders, putting them up 2-1 after one frame.

At 6:30 of the second period it was Otto Somppi's turn to record his first career Q goal, Again on the Powerplay.  Vince Watt would add another goal at 11:08 to give the Mooseheads a 3-2 lead heading into the final stanza.

In the third, the Islanders would waste no time tying this contest. Mitchell Balmas scored on the Powerplay at the 56 second mark. The teams would end regulation deadlocked at 3 goals a side.

From there it was on to the brand new 3-on-3 Overtime with the Islanders dominating most of the fast-paced play but Eric Brassard was up to the task stopping quite a few breakaways on his net.

In the shootout, MacCallum secured the victory for the Islanders, stopping Danny Moynihan, Otto Somppi, and Ilya Putintsev. Chris Chaddock scored the eventual game winner on the Islanders first shootout attempt.

The 3 stars for last night's contest were 3) Otto Somppi 2) Luc Deschenes 1) Darryl MacCallum.

Notes:
-Max Fortier had 3 assists for Halifax. Otto Somppi had a goal and 2 assists, and Ilya Putintsev had a goal and an assist.

-The Halifax Mooseheads were without Timo Meier (SJ) Cavan Fitzgerald (SJ) and Cody Donaghey (TOR) who are away attending NHL camps.

-The Mooseheads went 2/7 on the Power play.

The Halifax Mooseheads head to Harbour Station tonight to take on highly touted Saint John rookie Joe Veleno and the Sea Dogs. Puckdrop at 7 pm.

Thursday Thoughts: Maritimes Division

Tonight, another QMJHL season begins in Rimouski as the Oceanic take on Shawinigan. Before the puck officially drops, I thought I'd make some predictions for the standings of the Maritimes division at the end of this season.

1. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
The Eagles are poised to make a run for the top of the Maritimes division. Veteran netminder Alexandre Belanger was a solid pick-up for the team and I expect big seasons from both Maxim Lazerev and Evgeny Svechnikov. Loik Leveille will help out the blue line as well.

2. Charlottetown Islanders
The Islanders are stacked with veteran talent. With one of the best goalies in the league in Mason McDonald backstopping an attack up front led by Daniel Sprong and Filip Chlapik. I expect a deep run in the playoffs for Charlottetown.

3. Saint John Sea Dogs
The Sea Dogs really impressed me last season. They came out of nowhere and played very well last season. This year, they have the first player to ever be granted exceptional status in Joe Veleno. Add Luke Green and Jakub Zboril on defense and the Sea Dogs are poised to battle for the top of the Maritimes division.

4. Moncton Wildcats
Just because I have the Wildcats in fourth doesn't mean they couldn't surprise and finish higher. They have the Q point leader in Conor Garland, however the loss of Ivan Barbashev will be a big void for the Wildcats to fill.

5. Halifax Mooseheads
It's a rebuilding year for the Moose. A winless pre-season albeit it is pre-season was an indication this could be a tough year in Moose Country. Timo Meier and Danny Moynihan will lead the offensive front. Eric Brassard will be leaned on to make some huge saves with a younger D core in front of him. On offense for the rookies I think Ilya Putintsev and Otto Somppi will impress this season.

6, Acadie-Bathurst Titan
The Titan like the Mooseheads have several rookies up front and on defense. They're also in rebuild mode. These two standing positions could be interchangeable with the Mooseheads.

It will be an interesting season in the Maritimes Division this year.

The Halifax Mooseheads open up the 2015-2016 schedule tomorrow night at 7pm at Eastlink Centre vs the Charlottetown Islanders.

The Next Captain

With the Halifax Mooseheads finalizing their roster on Wednesday, all the debate as to who will stay and who will be cut can now be settled. Now that we know who will be on the roster, Cam Russell and company face yet another captaincy decision this season. Last season, Ryan Falkenham was named captain of the team, but unfortunately an ongoing hip issue has made Falkenham decide to leave the Mooseheads this season.

That leaves the captaincy vacant once again. I believe it is between 2 candidates this year. Let's get to it:

1. THE FRONT RUNNER- DANNY MOYNIHAN

The native of Windham, New Hampshire is entering his third season with the Halifax Mooseheads. He put up career high numbers in his sophomore season as a Moosehead, tallying 33 goals and 37 points for a total of 70 points in the regular season; and 9 goals and 11 assists for a total of 20 points this past post-season. Receiving captaincy would be a credit to Moynihan's numbers last season, also he will be expected to carry most of the offensive load with 6 rookies up front this season, he and Timo Meier will be looked on to provide the brunt of the offence.

2.KELLY BENT 

Kelly Bent is entering his 20-year old season. He is a Halifax native. In the past the Mooseheads have used an enforcer/agitator in the captaincy role in Trey Lewis. Bent tallied 2 goals and 9 assists for a total of 11 points in his first season as a Halifax Moosehead last season, More notably for Bent's play style he tallied 160 penalty minutes. In the playoffs Bent had 2 goals and 2 assists with a total of 26 Penalty minutes. I consider Bent an outside shot at being named captain, being a local guy, it may be possible that the Organization continues to go that route, as they had done with Ryan Falkenham last season. 

Those are my two captaincy picks for the Halifax Mooseheads for the 2015-2016 season. Feel free to tweet your choices to @HerdwellHerald. The Halifax Mooseheads will face the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles back at the Halifax Forum on September 3rd looking for their first pre-season win in their final pre-season game. Puck drop is 7 p.m. The regular season starts 2 weeks from tonight in Charlottetown.  Photo credits to the Halifax Mooseheads website, and Kelly Bent's twitter. 

Mooseheads Roster Finalized.

Yesterday, The Halifax Mooseheads finalized their 24-man roster for the upcoming season. The roster contains 2 rookies on defence and 6 on forward.Rookies are noted with an asterisk beside their name. The following will be your 2015-2016 Halifax Mooseheads:

Name	Position	Hometown	Height-Weight	Date of Birth
1-Eric Brassard	Goaltender	Longueil, QC	6’01” 188	1995-05-05
40-Kevin Resop	Goaltender	St. Petersburg, FL	6’03” 199	1997-04-03
2-Cooper Jones*	Defencemen	Bridgewater, MA	5’08” 164	1998-06-09
3-Walter Flower*	Defencemen	Lunenburg, NS	6’01” 163	1999-05-07
4- Dom Argento	Defencemen	Montreal, QC	6’03” 206	1998-02-02
5-Cavan Fitzgerald	Defencemen	Boston, MA	6’00” 191	1996-08-23
9-JS Taillefer	Defencemen	Les Coteaux, QC	6’00” 194	1997-02-25
11-Morgan Nauss	Defencemen	Hammonds Plains, NS	5’11” 187	1998-04-20
26-Taylor Ford	Defencemen	St-Lazare QC	6’01” 193	1997-05-14
81- Cody Donaghey	Defencemen	St. John’s, NL	6’01” 191	1996-05-10
12-Danny Moynihan	Forward	Windham, NH	6’00” 197	1995-12-08
16- Vince Watt	Forward	Pointe-Claire, QC	5’11” 203	1996-02-27
17-Brett Crossley	Forward	Cole Harbour, NS	5’11” 164	1998-01-03
21-Arnaud Durandeau*	Forward	Beaconsfield, QC	5’11” 177	1999-01-14
28-Dominik Blain-Dupuis*	Forward	Gatineau, QC	5’10” 178	1998-04-08
32-Andrew Shewfelt	Forward	Lake Loon, NS	5’10” 182	1996-06-01
34-Kelly Bent	Forward	Halifax, NS	6’00” 204	1995-02-02
41-Maxime Fortier	Forward	Lachine, QC	5’10” 176	1997-12-15
51-Barrett Dachyshyn*	Forward	Halifax, NS	6’02” 174	1998-10-05
53-Ilya Putintsev*	Forward	Moscow, Russia	5’07” 157	1998-01-08
61-Joel Bishop*	Forward	St John’s, NL	5’09” 179	1999-05-07
71- Connor Moynihan	Forward	Windham, NH	6’04” 214	1997-07-20
89-Otto Somppi*	Forward	Helsinki, Finland	6’01” 181	1998-01-12
96-Timo Meier	Forward	Herisau, Switzerland	6’01” 208	1996-10-08

A Word About Depression...

I'm going to preface this post by saying it has absolutely nothing to do with the hockey blog. This is just the easiest way for me to post about something that I really need to get off my chest and out there. It's the most personal that you'll ever see me get.

What I'm going to write about is anxiety and depression. The duo that can really knock you on your ass quickly.

As a child, Anxiety was always there. Always. I couldn't go into a primary classroom without having mom by my side for my whole first year. She'd leave I'd cry. I didn't shake that until the first grade. But all throughout my schooling career I'd obsess over the little things. There's not going to be enough seats for me on the bus was a big one. I'd stress about it all morning. Sometimes having to get a drive to school because I simply couldn't will myself to ride the bus.

That's really as far as I'm going to dive into my childhood. But transitions were always hard from me. going from grade 9 after being in a primary to grade 9 school to high school was a massive step for me to take. I didn't really start to feel depression until late grade 11 and then early grade 12. I'd lie in bed for weeks. I just couldn't get out. In that time I'd shut off my cell phone and cut off all communication with anyone and just stare at the ceiling and spend endless hours crying. It was brutal. In my senior year, my grandfather passed away. That set me into months of depression leading to my first time being on medication for it. I got through it though. I graduated high school with a heart containing his ashes in my pocket. He'll always be my driving force as I go through life.

Anyway, the real personal stuff comes now.  After seeking some counselling, having to drop out of community college for the first time because I couldn't deal with the homework stress, or just the stress of being in a classroom in general; I turned to self-harm. I was enshrouded in darkness. In 2013 of all years. The years the Red Sox and Mooseheads each won championships. It should've been the happiest time of my life but I sat in an emergency room the night that the Mooseheads played the Memorial Cup Final. I don't know what had come over me but I wanted to end my life. I didn't think I could carry on without my grandfather. I wanted to jump off the 6th floor balcony. I was all but done.

That was when I turned to a knife and used it to scar up my arms. You can see pictures of the damage if you dug far back into my instagram posts. I'm not going to attach pictures here. I regret it now, as those are permanent scars and they won't just go away. But now I look at them and think of how far I've come since I hit what I call rock bottom.

As I sit here writing this, I'm still battling anxiety and I probably always will. I've sat on the phone with mental health crisis teams and they have helped me. I also sought private counselling that's helped me grow immensely into the man that I am today. After going through  a few different sets of Medications I found one that worked, and when it ran out, I made the recent decision to not have it filled. It's not that medications don't help, it's that I finally felt like I had enough support to help me deal with everything.

The trip to Toronto was also great just because it showed I can do things I didn't think possible and I can conquer this illness and it will lead to better days. There's people that are genuinely happy that I'm still on this Earth. I didn't feel that as briefly as 2 years ago. I feel like I'm surrounded with love now. It's great.

That doesn't stop the anxiety though. As I write this today I had to tell my employer about why I had to be relieved early just Sunday night, and am missing work today. But the work site I was at needed to change and it has. I think things will start looking up from here and I'll be able to battle through the anxiety and soldier on.

To all of you who supported me thank you. To all those who need support don't be afraid to talk to anyone. Life is worth living. I learned that. You can too. Mental illness is something we all need to understand and stand in front of it and not let it swallow us. I like to look at it as a temporary sickness. We're not weak, we're not crazy, we're just having a rough time that will eventually pass. Maybe we just need to change something in our lives. Happiness can be found in any dark day. Just hold on.

I'm going to add the number for the Nova Scotia mobile mental health crisis team:
Tel: 902-429-8167
Toll Free: 1-888-429-8167Use it if you need to. They will help. Just remember things like suicide are a permanent "fix" to a temporary issue. Never feel alone. Never.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Herd Make Some Tough Decisions Following a Losing Start to the Pre-season.

It's Training camp. With that in mind, you have to make some tough decisions as an organization. Early Monday, the Halifax Mooseheads made their first round of cuts; following 2 losses one a close shootout contest to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, and they other a tough 5-1 Loss to the Moncton Wildcats at the Red Ball Internet Centre.

14 Players were cut, most notably among them 2 of the teams 20 year olds. Brandon Vuic, and Sam Leblanc Were released from training camp.

Vuic, a native of Waterdown Ontario, played 69 games over 2 seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads. He put up 5 goals and 3 assists over 2 seasons, compiling 175 PIM. He also played 24 playoff games as a member of the Mooseheads, scoring twice and totally 44 penalty minutes. Vuic was more known for his ability to use his fists, than he was his goal scoring ability. I'm not going to touch too much on this but the organization had to move on from Vuic, due to reasons a simple google search will tell you.

Sam Leblanc of Moncton New Brunswick, played 2 seasons with the Moose. He appeared in 2 games in 2012-2013. Leblanc played a total of 95 games, putting up 10 goals and 13 assists, as well as 82 penalty minutes. He also appeared in 17 playoff games, scoring 1 goal and getting an assist.  He put up 20 penalty minutes.

With these decisions being made the Halifax Mooseheads 20 year old situation has been solved. Kelly Bent, Danny Moynihan, and Eric Brassard will be the 20 year olds. The Mooseheads will be looking for their first pre-season win on Saturday, when they face-off against the Charlottetown Islanders at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre in Truro. Puck drop is 7 p.m.

Here is a look at the first round of cuts from training camp:

SAM LEBLANC	1995-05-21	5'11" 171	Moncton, NB
BRANDON VUIC	1995-07-06	6'04" 215	Waterdown, ON
RYAN MACDONALD	1999-05-18	5'09" 157	Middle Sackville, NS
BLAKE FUDGE	1998-07-17	6'01" 178	Conception Bay South, NL
TRISTAN TARDIF	1997-12-01	6'00" 173	Trois-Rivieres, QC
MARC-OLIVIER GILBERT	1999-09-26	5'11" 162	La Prairie, QC
DREW PACKMAN	1997-05-05	6'00" 197	Halifax, NS
GABRIEL VANIER	1998-03-29	6'01" 189	Boisbriand, QC
JOSH FITZGERALD	1996-03-12	6'00" 188	Gander, NL
NICHOLAS GIBSON	1996-02-10	6'01" 182	Halifax, NS
JORDAN LEPAGE	1999-07-05	6'00" 167	Rimouski, QC
KIRKLIN ALLEN	1999-04-03	5'11" 224	Stillwater Lake, NS
RYAN HUESTIS	1997-02-28	6'00" 151	Wellington, NS
J-P BRAIS	1996-05-07	5'10" 189	Valleyfield, QC

Putintsev, Bent, shine in Mooseheads Intrasquad finale.

It was a fast-paced Friday afternoon at Cole Harbour Place as the Mooseheads closed out their intrasquad training camp match-ups. Team Green skated to a 4-3 victory over team Red, their first win of the intrasquad games.

Standing out for Team Green was Halifax native Kelly Bent. Bent beat JP Brais with a wrist shot from just inside the hash marks, for his first tally and then he tipped in a Walter Flower slap shot past Kevin Resop;  for the game winning goal. Bent continues to battle with Sam LeBlanc and Brandon Vuic for the available 20 year old roster spots.  

Standing out for Team Red was newcomer Ilya Putintsev. He notched 2 goals, and showed off some impressive moves as Team Red fell just short of a victory. The Russian-American has been one of the most followed prospects in the off-season and he may just become a fan favorite down the line.

The Mooseheads open up their pre-season schedule with the Battle of Nova Scotia tomorrow night at the Halifax Forum. Puck drop at 7pm.

Notes:
-16 year old forward Dallas Farrell of Stratford PEI voluntarily left Mooseheads Camp today. He was selected by the Herd in the 11th round of the 2015 QMJHL Draft.\

-Otto Somppi and Cody Donaghey have yet to arrive at Training Camp. Somppi is participating in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament, while Donaghey has just arrived in Halifax after having some car issues in Newfoundland.