Mooseheads Stars Await the Call
Today will be day for some of the Halifax Mooseheads. Hockey Canada will announce the roster for its World Junior selection camp. Unfortunately, the NHL lockout will undoubtedly squeeze out some great junior talent.
Nathan MacKinnon was a fairly safe bet to make the team this year after he generated consideration last year, despite not being invited. MacKinnon is still pretty certain to be invited to the selection camp, but with potential NHL-ready talent like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (EDM), Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA), Ryan Strome (NYI), Mark Scheifele (WIN), and more available, the forward corps is getting pretty filled already.
TSN had preliminary roster speculation that featured MacKinnon as the 13th forward, while TSN Insider Bob McKenzie says he could challenge for a top six spot by shifting to RW. However unlikely, with stiff competition there is the slight possibility that if there is no scoring line spot available, MacKinnon gets left out in place of more experienced role players for the third and fourth line.
This is more of reality for his Moosehead teammate Jonathan Drouin, who has been climbing up the draft rankings all season and with his stellar first half has made some start wondering how close he is to MacKinnon. Hockey Canada always gives the advantage to older players that have typically been drafted, but in any normal year Drouin would have at least have been in consideration for a spot. But sadly, it is unlikely he even gets a sniff this year. Maybe he’ll get an invite to camp, but even that might be a long shot as the team brass will only have limited time to assess what they have and will focus on more known commodities.
While it even rarer for underage goaltenders to get into the conversation for the annual Christmas tournament Zachary Fucale has also impressed enough that in a normal year he could have garnered some interest. That’s all it would ever be, is interest but still worth noting.
Good luck to Nate, and would certainly be great to see Drouin get a chance to showcase his skill at least. If by chance both are snubbed, I’d feel bad for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Last year, after not getting invited to the selection camp, Mathan MacKinnon posted 5 goals on the Quebec Rempart. Just sayin’!
Some Good KarMO
It’s that time of year once again to see how pathetic of a moustache I can grow in 30 days; it’s Movember!
I was tempted to keep the couple days growth I already had and give myself a bit of a headstart. But that just wouldn’t be in keeping with the spirit of the campaign. I didn’t want to incur any bad karmo.
For those that may not know, Movember is a charitable campaign that encourages men to grow moustaches for the month of November to raise money for prostate cancer. Think of it as the Run for the Cure is to breast cancer as Movember is to prostate cancer. Mo for the Cure.
If you would like to donate to Movember or participate go to the Highly Touted Mo-Page.
Cabot Cliffs is Set to Go Ahead
View from behind the future second hole of Cabot Cliffs
This is great news for Inverness County, Cape Breton. Work to bring a golf course to the area has been ongoing for years and there had been a number of failed attempts over that time. Cabot Links has been a great addition to the Cape Breton golf landscape and has garnered international attention for its beautifully traditional links design, rarely seen outside of the UK.
Here’s an excerpt from the Golf Digest piece:
from Where’s Matty G? Golf Digest blog
Mike Keiser made it official on a flight from Nova Scotia to Chicago last Thursday: There will be a second course at Cabot Links, the Cape Breton Island resort he co-owns with Ben Cowan-Dewar, and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw will design it.
With rough plans on the empty middle seat between them, Keiser, in the aisle, and Coore, on the window, discussed the routing of Cabot Cliffs, a 200-acre course to be built on a 600-acre piece of land a few miles north of Cabot Links, which opened to solid reviews in June. The owner of Bandon Dunes and the builders of Bandon Trails and Bandon Preserve have the “dilemma” of a lot of options, but one thing was sure: This is happening.
They’ve cleared the land that will hold the 18th green and a nearby clubhouse, both of which will overlook the Atlantic Ocean. Some small political and land-acquisition hurdles remain, but with the cooperation of the Canadian government (which is keenly interested in tourism and jobs), Keiser’s financial support and record of success, Cowan-Dewar’s determination and Coore/Crenshaw’s reputation, don’t be surprised if there’s preview play by the end of 2014. “Today, every issue has a solution,” says Keiser, 68, who believes it takes at least two courses for a resort to be considered a true golf destination.
As he told Coore when they deplaned in Chicago, “I think we’re on to something big here.”
Highly Touted’s Big Day Downtown
I know. I know. I know. I haven’t been here very often. So imagine my surprise when I realized it was time once again for the Halifax Downtown Business Commission’s Big Day Downtown event. I had such a great time last year. I got my Converse Chuck Taylor’s, a Nathan MacKinnon numbered T-shirt and went to a Mooseheads’ game last year.
So this year when I heard I was going to be getting $100 bucks to spend at any downtown businesses, I was stoked and had an idea of what I wanted to do. But hold it! This year they put a twist on the event. Each blogger was going to be paired with another blogger and you would have to show off your downtown to your partner.
I got partnered with Katie Tower who blogs about lifestyle and design at katietower.ca. We have of a bit of different twist on things, but that might have made for a great match.
Better duo: me and Katie or MacKinnon and Drouin? Probably too close to call.
I figured it would be great if I baptized Katie in the sports scene of Halifax. Cool thing is, I also got to add to what I started last year. I used my first purchase to get Katie the same MacKinnon shirt I got last, and I decided to compliment my shirt with a red Jonathan Drouin shirt. Read more…
Senior Baseball Finals Set
Okay, it’s been too long. I get it. I admittedly took a summer hiatus, but I can of no better reason to get back on the blog than with the Nova Scotia Senior League Finals about to get underway.
The first round of the Senior League finished up with the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry sweeping the Halifax Pelham Canadians 3-0 in the best-of-five series while the Kentville Wildcats dispatched the Sydney Sooners 3-1 in the other series.
The Dry and Wildcats will kick-off the finals in Kentville Friday, September 14th @ 7:30 with Game 2 back in Dartmouth Saturday evening at 7:00. Kentville took the regular season series 5-2 over Dartmouth, but that could be decpetive. Five of the seven games were decided by only one run.
Also the NSSBL gave out some hardware Read more…
Raptors to Hold Training Camp in Halifax
CBC News is reporting that the Toronto Raptors will hold their 2012 training camp in Halifax.
There has been no official word from the team on whether this is true or not, but it would be in keeping with comments from Raptors GM, Bryan Colangelo. Colangelo mentioned traveling to Halifax to scout a potential location for training camp on Sportsnet Radio The Fan a couple of weeks ago.
According to the report, the October training camp would take place largely at the Canada Games Centre with the potential for an inter-squad game to be played at the larger Metro Centre for fans to attend.
Colangelo is apparently going to be making the announcement official in Halifax on Thursday. Stay tuned for more.
Been Too Long: Summer Sports Round-Up
I have not been on the blog for a loooooong time. The biggest reason is the fact that there is a new Highly Touted prospect in my farm system. We have begun his development for multiple sports already. While he has shown promising skills in most of the majors sports (hockey, baseball, soccer, etc.), he has demonstrated a prodigious aptitude toward Jai Alai. Not bad for a month old.
While I am doing more work in the areas of player development, I need to get back to the blog. So here’s some of the things going on in the local sports scene: Read more…
