According to his Twitter, Antoine Houde-Caron is no longer with the V-Reds. Apparently he graduated at X-Mas and is now in grad school at Concordia and part of the Stingers. Where he is now doing graduate studies I wonder if that means he can start playing right away with them (like when you transfer after the season such as Pridham/Swan/Cuddihy/etc.), or if he has to sit out until next X-Mas....never remember a situation where a player transfers mid-season to go to grad school.
I had a feeling something might have been up and it wasn't simply a case of him taking a while to recover from his injury. Maybe UNB can find some kind of loophole in the roster cap rules for a unique situation like this and they can have Duffy take his place haha.
I do wonder though if the coaching staff knew this was a possibility going into the season, kind of crappy that this happens the first year of the roster cap and they won't be able to fill his spot.
In terms of the game tonight, a few thoughts:
- Nice bounce back game from Lavigne, who has had a couple tough games recently.
- I noticed they had Halley and Maillet out there with Culligan for one shift in the first period and Halley was about an inch from getting a breakaway. I am surprised they haven't tried that combination more often (might have been the first time, actually) as Halley seems like he is more of a first line guy than Critchlow, who I think is better suited for the 3rd line. It seems to make too much sense to flip those two.
- I also noticed Nesbitt out there killing a penalty, if ever so briefly. First time in 3 years I think I have seen that.
- I think I would sit Maclise for a bit and give Willick some more time. Maclise hasn't really done much and Willick brings above average face-off skills and penalty killing (which would be good to give top line guys like Culligan/MacNeil/Maillet, who also kill penalties, a rest).
- It has been nice to see the PP become effective again this season after a few frustrating years.
- The defensive zone play is still frustrating to watch though...too many turnovers on seemingly simple plays in their own zone has eventually led to a penalty or a goal way too often this year.