Stephane- Pro Hockey in France year 5! (already?)

The New Windsor Poet Laureate is......

2011-11-30T11:05:00.001+01:00

Today I am taking the time to write about my dad, Marty Gervais, who was just named Windsor's Poet Laureate!!! Great job dad! The link is posted below

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Marty+Gervais+named+Windsor+poet+laureate/5780418/story.html

The way I understand this honour is that my dad was pretty much just named Captain of the city of Windsor. He will now be called upon to lead and represent our city with courage, fearlessness and a great competitive edge.... How will he do this you ask? By the power and force of.......... POEMS!!!!

I am not entirely sure what approach he will take for this, as he has a long decorated career of poems, some inspired by the Catholic Church, some inspired by hockey or boxing, but don't be surprised if he catches everyone off guard with a quick Haiku!

Though most of us will be expecting his poems to be presented in a "Ballad"- written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most "Ballads" are suitable for singing, and with my dad's extensive experience in the school choir as a young boy and the weekly Sunday mass he attends, this style is the heavy favourite moving forward.

We mustn't rule out an "Epic" a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero. It will be difficult for him not to write about his hero, former Detroit Tiger Reno Bertoia. Who was also the inspiration for my dad's novel titled RENO, which was nominated for the international Three-Day Novel Writing contest.

Though every great warrior/superhero has a weakness. For superman it was Kryptonite, for the Green Lantern it was the colour yellow and for my dad it is math. That is why it will be very unlikely that he represents our great City of Windsor with a "Ghazal." This fearsome poem is made up like an odd numbered chain of couplets, where each couplet is an independent poem. The "Ghazal" has a refrain of one to three words that repeat, and an inline rhyme that precedes the refrain.
Lines 1 and 2, then every second line, has this refrain and inline rhyme, and the last couplet should refer to the authors pen-name... The rhyming scheme is AA bA cA dA eA etc.

See, there is just too much math and too many rules to obey for my dad, who was instrumental in helping us with our History or English homework, but just dreadful when it came to math. Hence, the reason I was enrolled (against my own will) in KUMON math, summer 97.

Expect some "Free Verse" poetry to be tossed into the mix, allowing my dad to parade freely, like a dog running around on a farm. Speaking of dogs, this particular form of expression was used by Ezra Pound, who our late Scottish Terrier "Ezra" was named after.

There you have it sports fans, new Captain, Marty (dad) Gervais and what you may or may not hear from him ;)

In closing, I honour my father with a Haiku

With no leadership
Father appointed the Throne
Windsor Poet Laureate

Tweets and Blogs

2011-11-18T15:36:00.001+01:00

Since the recent surge in Twitter, I must admit that blogging has taken a backseat. In fact, blogging has pretty much lost its seat. Especially after my girlfriend bought me the new iPhone, I have been on that thing all the time, mostly Tweeting.

Then I received an email today from someone telling me how much they enjoyed my blog, and since I have time to write, I figured it would be a nice break from watching Sons of Anarchy ;)

Where are we at? We just fresh off of a break in our schedule, we will take on 1st place Chamonix tomorrow night at home. I am very excited to get back to game action, this week off has seemed like an eternity. Though it has done some good, I feel more energized on the ice now, the practices are fun and the morale of the group is high. We have to make the most of that because in the game of hockey, morale can change in a heartbeat.

I might check out the GET Vosges Basketball game after ours. Hoping to arrive there after coming off a great win by our boys and celebrating with a few cold beverages in the stands!

On an unrelated note, I took advantage of our week off from practice to get my mind moving on some ideas. With lots of free time here in France and my passion for training and working out, I have been bouncing some ideas around, perhaps leading to my own Training/Fitness Website. The spin on this? It would be geared for the French population.

It is still in the works, it allows me to have other goals outside of hockey and it might even help with my game on the ice. For the first time in years, my entire day is NOT filled with thoughts about hockey.

Thanks for reading and if you want to follow my Tweets, you might enjoy it. Lots of pictures!!!
@Gervz15

Still nice to Win

2011-10-05T15:44:00.001+02:00

We have now won 3 games in a row. Sounds great for a 26 game regular season but two of those wins are actually Coupe de la Ligue games against Strasbourg, who for some reason do not seem very interested in competing in that Cup. Both times they have left their star goaltender on the bench and turned to their backup. Usually a backup goalie in France does not see much action all season, except for when a game is out of reach (winning or losing).

If they are only focused on the regular season, this tactic of resting their #1 goalie seems to be working, with lopsided wins in Grenoble and at home vs. Morzine. As for us, with our slow start, we want to win any game we can, build confidence and bring that into our regular season games.

That is just what happened when we got our first win against Strasbourg a week ago Tuesday. With a huge weight lifted off our backs, we carried that momentum into Saturday's home game and beat Amiens 3-1. So now with another win under our belts last night in Coupe de la Ligue, we will head to Rouen on Saturday with a bit more confidence. We will need it as most of us recall the 17-4 loss we suffered last year in their building. That just doesn't happen in hockey?

On a personal note, after a tough game at home against Amiens, I had a bit of a groin strain, so the coach wanted to keep me off the ice for a few days to heal up and prepare for Saturday. I was still planning on playing last night in Strasbourg but with Saturday's game in Rouen being a league game, he decided to keep me out. I plan on practicing tonight to see how it feels and hopefully by the weekend I will be 100%.

In the meantime, I have been spending more time on my Twitter account @Gervz15 and even more time watching the Detroit Tigers try and take down the powerful Yankees. Just like what we will attempt to do against Rouen, take them down.

Go Tigers

A Different Fate

2011-09-26T14:51:00.000+02:00

Do you ever look at a certain situation and wish it had turned out differently? I'm sure we all experience this on a regular basis. The key is trying not to dwell on it too much, forget about it and move on. Well our loss the other night to Gap is still stinging. It wasn't one of those close games that just happened to go the other way on a fluke play. This was a game where we were not into from the beginning.

We got scored on 12 seconds into the game, then a few shifts later and that was pretty much all she wrote! We ended up losing 7-3 and just feeling like shit. For a while we had been struggling to score goals, but for even longer we have been struggling to keep them out of our net. Every game we are allowing around 6 goals. Mostly on our own mistakes, turnovers, giveaways and countless 2 on 1s or breakaways.

How can we stop the bleeding? Well indirectly I believe that if we score the first goal and play some of the game with a lead, our defensive instincts will kick in. I am hoping that Tuesday's home game against Strasbourg can be that game.

I am not sure what tonight's practice has in store for us, but considering the way we played on the road Saturday night, I am thinking it will involve.........skating? Bag skate or not, we are all just eager to get back on the ice and put our loss to Gap behind us and start focusing on our game tomorrow.

It feels like we are in a slump right now but to be in a slump, you have to have previously been at a higher point, from which you have dropped down from...... So far our highest point was beating a Division 1 team, so we can't really call this being in a slump. Our team is too strong for this to continue, we will prevail, we will battle our way out of this and we will surprise everybody when we pull out a huge victory on an unsuspecting opponent.

Let's get things started the right way with a win tomorrow night in Coupe de la Ligue action, then follow it up with another one Saturday night. It is not going to be pretty, but we will get this done!!!

We're Back

2011-09-19T16:40:00.000+02:00

Ok everyone, we are back in action, now in Pro Hockey France year 5!!!!

This is incredible how fast these years have gone by, I can't believe I am already in my 5th year of Professional hockey or should I say 5th year living the dream!

So let's get right to it, we played our Home Opener last Saturday at our new rink here in Epinal, the building was packed, it was a great atmosphere, but......we lost 6-1. Ya, so on the hockey side of things, our team is a little behind in our preparations, we didn't get started until August 16th and with the new rink, there were a few technical things that interfered. No excuses though.

We have another game at home tomorrow against Dijon in Coupe de la Ligue action. I feel that this game can be a stepping stone for us and a game that can give us some much needed confidence as we head to Marseille on Saturday to take on Gap. They are currently playing out of the new rink in Marseille because of renovations being done at their home rink in Gap.

Instead of yoga this morning, we took advantage of some free ice and had a practice. I think the more we hit the ice, the better right now. We really need to start executing and getting sharp out there. More crisp passes, better decisions and scoring on our opportunities. This will all come and everyone is working towards making this happen, so with a solid game tomorrow night, it should send us on the right pathway!

Thanks for reading, check back soon

The Lighter Side

2011-03-28T22:13:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, firstly I would just like to thank everyone for the great feedback I got from my previous entry "The Dream." For those of you who took a few minutes of your time to read it then send me emails, I read everyone of them and really appreciate your stories too!

Ok, so what have I been doing at the start of this off season? Well I am going to change things up today and not talk about hockey at all. Usually I am giving details on a previous game or talking about how bad some of the rinks are in France or pouring out an emotional blog about how much I love being a hockey player....Here I go again talking about hockey......Stop!

Ok, today I am going to write about what I did this weekend

Alright, so Friday morning I woke up and the first thing I did was check tsn.ca to see the Habs got destroyed by the Bruins 7-0, very upsetting news.... Look how pathetic I am, I can't avoid hockey, it is my driving force, I have no control over what I am typing....

Right, ok so Friday night my lovely French girlfriend Marion and I went to see a few of her cousins in Mulhouse about 85km away, but this includes many little towns and lots of 50km/hour speed limits, so it took a little while to get there. Once we arrived, we were greeted with the standard kiss on each cheek. I threw out a right hand for a manly handshake but was told in French "We are not gay, you are family." Ok so kiss away! After the uncomfortable arrival, I was given a beer and quickly felt more relaxed :) We had a great night, we made Flammenkuche which is a specialty from the Alsace region where we were and resembles a pizza but with no tomoato sauce and made on a wrap. The key ingredients were the cream and the onions ;) After eating a few of those, the night was winding down and I stayed up with Marion's two cousins Philippe and Renaud to taste some of his Armagnac, which is a type of Brandy from the Southwest of France and distilled from wine and aged in oak barrels.

That lasted until close to 5am. Then we woke up to fresh croissants and baguettes. The North American inside me was craving bacon and eggs but "when in Rome" right?

The next night we had a costume party for Marion's friend Marie. This had been planned for over a month now and Marion was putting the pressure on me to get my act together and come up with a costume. She was an 80s aerobics instructor and I was Elvis.

We both had a great time this weekend and taking advantage of it now is key because during the season and even late in the off season, this abuse on my body can't be the best LOL! I forgot how much I love Pringles though.

I hope everyone likes the picture of Marion and I, out of the 25 people there, we were easily in the top 5 best costumes, but that's what years of celebrating Halloween in North American does for you!

The Dream

2011-03-22T14:05:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago my dad sent me an email titled "The Dream." At first I was not sure what it was but as soon as I opened the attached picture it was clear. I had not seen these drawing in so long and had basically forgotten about it....

In my father's office at the University of Windsor, hangs a framed drawing I did back in around 1993, the same year the Canadiens won the cup! Back then, I was very much into drawing hockey players, especially goalies. I would always start with either their mask or their blocker and go from there. But one day in front of Hockey Night in Canada I drew something different.

What I drew was actually a description of what I did every night; I would dream I was a Pro hockey player, scoring goals, winning championships etc...

I think every young kid who has a passion for hockey dreams of being a professional hockey player at some point in their life and for me it was no different. Growing up with an older brother playing travel hockey and a father who worshiped Maurice Rocket Richard, it was from about the age of 3 that I wanted to be a hockey player for a living. It just seemed like the perfect job, so from that point on I dreamt of just playing hockey. It wasn't that I wanted to avoid working in the real world from 9-5, it was just that I loved hockey and that is all I wanted to do.

Over the years that followed, nobody would have predicted that I would be earning my living as a professional hockey player, not even my brothers, especially my brothers hahaha. The fact is, I was not very good. Though the year I drew that picture I was actually voted "Most Exciting Player" for my league. What league you ask? Tier II house league in Windsor.

I was cut from AAA (obviously), then cut from A, then assigned to a team in Teir I house league. I played 1 game and was then cut from that and dropped down to the lowest possible level for my age, anything lower I would have been playing in a road hockey league. But I did win "most exciting." :)

So to fast track, I finally made a travel team, then got a bit better, I made a junior hockey team, was drafted to the OHL in the14th round, 293rd overall (at least I was drafted right?) Then I played up and down with Jr. B and the OHL, until settling in at the University of British Columbia for 4 years. Faced with many different challenges, my dream was still clear.

Seeing this drawing now is pretty cool. It is like I could see the future back then around the age of 11. Wearing the number 88 in the drawing was most likely for Eric Lindros, my favourite player at the time. Though some may contest that I wore number 88 because unconsciously I knew that I would be playing Pro Hockey in Epinal, France where the city postal code is 88 000 or perhaps it is because my French girlfriend who is from Epinal was born in '88???

This is my 4th season in France and my 3rd in Epinal. The French league is nowhere close to the NHL but it is a good league in Europe and just perfect for me. The feeling really sets in when I am asked what I do for a living....Occupation: Pro Hockey Player!
That is just how I envisioned things as a young boy in Windsor, Ontario watching Hockey Night in Canada.

The dream lives on....

Season is over, now what/where?

2011-03-07T09:29:00.000+01:00

Well, another season has come and gone, this one was probably one to forget, at least on a personal note. With the complications after the operation this summer, I did not start playing until late November, and for the next two months I was playing on 1 leg. It was a tough season but I wanted to contribute in whatever way I could and though I was not at 100% until the end of January, it was still important to be out there with the guys to battle each night.

With the playoff format for the first round best of 3 series starting on the road for the higher seeded team, it does not really give you that "home ice advantage" that you get in the second round (first 2 games at home). So we started off in Strasbourg and lost the first game 4-1, then came home for games Friday and Saturday. After trailing 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd period of Friday's game, we made a dramatic comeback to win 3-2 with just over a minute left to play.

The same could not be said for Saturday night, where we quickly went down 2 goals in the first period. Then with 2 minutes left in the first period, the referees decided to stop the game to repair a hole in the ice. Flash back a few weeks ago, our game was canceled before the 3rd period due to a huge hole in the ice, and it was replayed in the Alpes. After sitting in the dressing room for almost two hours, we were told that we would be continuing the game. We started around 10:30pm and the game ended around midnight with a 2-0 loss.

There were not too many scoring chances after starting up the game again, most guys were hungry and mentally shut off after the near two hour delay.

Now that we are done, it is time to think about next season. What kind of adventure will I be embarking on for 2011-2012?

I wanted to give an update and next time I will recap my return to Briancon for our last regular season game.

Pedal to the Metal!

2011-02-16T15:09:00.000+01:00

The break is finally coming to an end soon. We get back to action on Friday night at home, against Grenoble after a 2 week break in the schedule. Everyone is looking forward to getting back into game action but with 4 games in just over a week, I'm sure the fatigue factor will be setting in quickly.

Normally we only play 1 or 2 games per week in France, but for some reason, we play Friday, Sunday, Tuesday and then Saturday to close out the season. With playoffs starting 2 days later on the Tuesday. I am not sure why the schedule is set up this way, as teams get used to playing 1 or 2 games per week, then when the playoffs hit, we could play 5 games in a week.

Either way, it is going to be an exciting month at full speed! The best part about this would be to get into a good rhythm and just ride that momentum through the playoffs. We have a very good team and if we can stay healthy and play our best, we will be a very dangerous team to face in a 5 game series.

Stay tuned.....

Allons Enfants de la Patrie....

2011-01-19T15:07:00.000+01:00

Allons Enfants de la Patrie.....Le jour de gloire est arrivé....

That is the first part of the Marseillaise (French National Anthem), so it is fitting to start off this blog post with that because last Friday I received my French Passport! It was a very exciting day because since being informed that I have become a French citizen on June 22nd 2010, I have been waiting patiently for my official documents.

Back to la Marseillaise.... I felt it was important to learn the French anthem so on my flight over to France with my girlfriend Marion, we spent a good part of our 12 hour flight from Vancouver singing together. Line after line it would go until Marion was just so exhausted with the sound of my voice, she put on her headphones and watched a movie as I continued writing out the lines in the song and going over it again and again.

By the time we landed in Paris (and for the next 3 weeks) that is the only song I had in my head.

When I received that call from La Mairie on Friday morning that my passport had arrived, I simply said "J'arrive!" (I'm on my way)

When I arrived, there was nobody there so I went right in, signed a few documents, they took my fingerprints because this is a Biometric passport, then it was official! Right after that, being in the French spirit, I went to my favourite Boulangerie where they have the best "pain au chocolat" in the world and amazing "croissants" too. After grabbing 2 of each, I parked the car in the Centre Ville and walked up to the Castle. From the top of the Castle you can see the entire city of Epinal, so I sat up there and took 45 minutes to just appreciate my French Nationality and eat my treats from la boulangerie. During that time, I just looked back upon my arrival in France and thought about how far I had come and how many people helped me get to this day. It was almost 4 years earlier that I sat in that very spot thinking "holy crap, I am in France playing hockey....what an adventure"

It feels real now that I have my actual documentation, but the day I get to use my passport in the European Union line at the airport is that day that I believe it will really sink in. No more big long lineups hahaha.

I have the Greatest Job in the World!!!!

2011-01-10T16:51:00.000+01:00

I have the greatest job in the world! I really do!

I am a professional hockey player :) It just seems so simple to say this and it isn't anything new or a surprise the just arrived on Christmas morning. I am in my 4th season of Pro Hockey in France and I feel that over these years, at times, I may have taken things for granted or maybe been just a bit too serious or emotionally invested. Don't get me wrong, I do take hockey very seriously, but getting too emotionally upset about a mistake in a game or being injured or the coach not playing you on the power play...etc... If that stuff starts creeping into your everyday life and getting you down, then it is time to remember how lucky we really are with hockey being our passion and also our job.

Over the course of my first season in France I was just living in the moment, picking out all the cool differences France had from Canada, keeping a journal and planning trips to Munich, Paris and Dublin. The hockey was going great, and that was just a bonus. I did not really consider myself as a professional, because I was barely getting paid and did not even sign a real contract. In fact, it was agreed that I would work part time to earn my salary and they would give me 200 euro/month for food. At the time I was also applying for Teacher's Education, a 1-year program that started in September. My dream was always to play pro hockey, and I was doing it, but being a teacher was something I was interested in doing for a career also, mostly because of the holidays and summer vacation!

My coach in Epinal at the time was Shawn Allard. He was a very good motivator and a great coach who got the best out of his players. Once our season ended, he started to assemble next year's team. He was selling me on playing another season and putting Teacher's Education on hold, as it was something I could do when hockey was finished. Shawn pushed the right buttons and knew my passion for the game and my fierce competitiveness were much too strong to walk away from hockey to become a teacher. Without even waiting to see if I was accepted into the Teaching Programs, I signed for another season with Epinal. Later that summer I was accepted to the University of Toronto, which I confidently had to turn down.

The day I considered myself a pro hockey player was a warm day in March of 2008 as a posed in a picture for the paper at La Capitainerie restaurant, having just signed my first "real" pro hockey contract. It was not huge money but it was a real salary for a real job.......A Professional Hockey Player.

Still that summer I was back in Vancouver working as a Strength Coach for the Hockey Camps at Twist Conditioning like I had done the 2 summers before. I would get my workouts in after 6pm when the work day was finished with (my roommate/co-worker/work out partner/party buddy) Casey Bartzen, who was also playing hockey in Europe. Working at Twist is awesome, but also very tiring when seriously preparing for a hockey season. Though with such a positive work environment and so much energy in the gym, I was getting really pumped up for the season in France and looking forward to starting my "real job."

Once I arrived in France again, I could not help but to feel such gratitude for my life. I was living the dream! I remember going to sleep at night and staring at my Canadian flag on the wall, thinking just how lucky I was in my life. It was not a 9-5pm job, it was hockey, it was my passion and they were going to pay me to for it too? Wow! I could not even sleep at night, I was so excited, as my dream was being realized.

That year was amazing in so many ways. I was not as much of a tourist anymore, though my trip to Amsterdam in November to see my great friend Adam Spinarsky was pretty awesome! In October I met Marion and we have been together now for over 2 years, my team finished 6th out of 14 teams, our best finish in history, I was the top scoring defenseman in the league and I signed with the top team Briancon for the next season!

The reason I feel so compelled to write about this today is because a few times over the last few years I think I forgot just how lucky I am to have a career playing the game I love. A game I began playing in the Met Hospital parking lot across the street from my old house on Alsace in Windsor. The same game that I learned at Lanspeary Park Outdoor rink where my dad would bring ovaltine in a silver thermos to keep warm. Thinking about that now, I don't think that would be the best thing to stay hydrated eh dad? I still have a huge bump on the side of my head from when I collided with my older brother Andre at Lanspeary.

This is such a dream, to be able to live in Europe, play hockey at a high level where the team provides you with an apartment, a car, equipment, gym membership and a good salary. If you stand back and look at this deal, it is a "dream job." Not to mention all of the amazing people you meet along the way on this adventure.... the incredible fans in Epinal and Briancon who are so welcoming and passionate.

Just today some mail arrived that was forwarded from Briancon to my address here in Epinal and inside the package was a note from the young mail man who was a big fan of Briancon hockey saying "Hey Steph, Happy New year and good luck for the rest of the season. Nico." Incredible!

So in a way, this blog serves as a reminder to myself, when things are not playing out exactly how we want them to, take a step back for a minute and realize just how lucky I am to have this wonderful life. I admit, this year has been very difficult with my injury and staying positive has been tough at times but something happened today that made me think "Ok, I am playing hockey for a living, I have my dream job, injuries are part of it, coaches make decisions I may not agree with, but how can I be negative or bumbed out when so many people are in jobs that they hate." Just this past May, I was at my brother Andre's house and his next door neighbour Mark was over. It was the off-season and a few of my friends were going out to party, so I was bugging them to come with me. Mark apparently had to work the next day and replied "Sorry I have to work tomorrow, when do you work next, September?" Hahahahaha, "ok, you got me Mark, haha"

My typical day involves waking up at 8:30 or 9am, making some breakfast, then hitting the gym for a workout, maybe even a sauna ;) Then home for lunch (today was a salmon salad with tomatoes, onions and avocados), read a bit (Bob Probert's book: Tough Guy) or play PS3 (NHL 11) with my Finnish roommate Timo. Then go to the Wellington for a hot chocolate, maybe go to some stores in town, head home for a snack (eggs), play a little guitar, then go to practice at night. The best part is coming home to my beautiful French girlfriend Marion! She usually has dinner ready too! Then we watch some TV together and go to bed! Game days are a bit different but that would be just a regular day in Epinal.

I owe so much to the game of hockey, I am so grateful for the people I have met and the relationships I have built. Coming to France was the greatest decision of my life. I now have a great hockey career that I will continue playing for years to come, I have learned to speak French fluently, won La Coupe de France Championship in Paris, have an amazing French girlfriend Marion, learned to play the guitar and harmonica, play hockey in front of amazing fans in a city I love, Epinal. And to top it all off, I have even been granted French Citizenship! My passport will arrive in a few weeks! Wow!

I love when my family comes to visit me so we can share this amazing experience together. I wish they could come more often, the simplest things like having traditional French meals together are just so fun. I LOVE the food in France!!!! We live right across the street from the grocery store (Géant Casino) so it works out perfectly!

So many more things I could add..... The Mauffrey family has been a huge help and a big reason I stayed in France after my first year, and Marion's family has been amazing too. I am so grateful for this opportunity in life and I promise not to take anything for granted the rest of the way on this adventure. I will be in the moment and enjoy every minute of it because being a hockey player
.....IS THE GREATEST JOB IN THE WORLD!!!!!

Home and Home

2010-12-08T14:43:00.000+01:00

We have 1 more game before the break for the holidays and it will be at home against my old team Briancon. The next morning I will be taking the train at 6:59am and flying back to Canada to spend a week with my family and celebrate our own little Christmas together before boarding a plane on December 20th to come back for a week of practice leading up to the game in Dijon on the 26th.

With less games on our schedule since being eliminated from La Coupe de la Ligue and La Coupe de France, we have changed our weekly routine a bit. Since we are currently only playing 1 game per week, our coach feels that we are on the ice too much, so we have replaced a few on ice practices with some dry land workouts. Monday we hit the ice for practice, Tuesday we go to "Le Stadium" for a bike workout, Wednesday we have a weights circuit and yoga session, then Thursday/Friday we are back on the ice to prepare for Saturday night game action!

This is our first week incorporating this planning and with our first bike session last night, the 12 sprints at 1minute were very tough (or as tough as you make it) but today I feel refreshed and ready to hit the weights...and yoga :)

On an unrelated note, the landlord for our house here in Epinal just showed up and has been complaining non stop about the stairs being dirty. Well we are very sorry, but it has been snowing and raining for the past two weeks lady! Shoes get dirty with 4 people living in this house, relax.

Update, she is now washing the stairs herself haha!

Well I better go help her

St. Gervais this weekend

2010-12-02T18:11:00.000+01:00

Don't be alarmed by the title of this blog, I am by no mean predicting an outstanding performance that would warrant the title of "Saint." I am simply stating that we will be traveling to the city/village of St. Gervais for our game against Mont Blanc on Friday. In fact, if I recall correctly, I think I was booed a few years ago when I played there, for taking a cheap shot at one of their players. So for the last half of the game they kept whistling when I touched the puck and yelling my name ;) I will try for a strong effort tomorrow night though and put those boo birds to rest!

My mother already told me that I need to buy her a souvenir when I get there, anything that says "St. Gervais." I was thinking...ok, like a t-shirt? She proposed a plate. I will do my best to find you a nice plate mom.

Well I am off to the train station to pick up Marion, as we have an hour before my practice to go to her favourite store in the world "Comptoir des Cotonniers" as they have a big sale of 20% today! Does it make that much of a difference if there is 20% of 300 euro???

Only kidding, ok I better get ready to go!

Win, Loss, Win

2010-11-29T15:36:00.001+01:00

Since the last posting, we have played 3 more games. We started off in Grenoble a little over a week ago in a game that we were all pretty excited to play in. Mainly because of their great rink and fans ( as I posted in the previous blog). So we arrived in Grenoble ready to rock and played a decent 1st period coming out tied 0-0. Our second period was our best as we started capitalizing on our chances and getting a few bounces to go our way.

Goals by Kuuluvainen, Petrak and Hagelberg gave us a solid 3-0 advantage as we headed into the dressing room after the 2nd period. As we began the 3rd period, something did not feel right, our team is still learning how to win and at times we lack confidence when leading against better teams. Playing a bit tentative, we allowed Grenoble back into the game. After they inched closer with their 2nd goal, we knew we had to relax and conserve our 1 goal lead.

Finally Kuuluvainen scored into the empty net and the victory was sealed 4-2! Not sure how long it has been, but something like 30 years since Epinal has won in Grenoble.

Our next game however, was not so great. We traveled 2 days later to Morzine to battle the Penguins in Coupe de France action. Not sure if it was fatigue or lack of mental preparation, but we struggled defensively in this game, giving up an early lead and eventually trailing 5-1 at one point in the 2nd period. Personally, this was a tough game for me (my knee) having played a tough game in Grenoble only a few days before and another long road trip....ya, it was not feeling too strong. Though I did manage to get up back on the board with a 2nd period goal to narrow the gap to 5-2, the closest we came was 5-3 and 6-4, eventually losing 8-4 as we were eliminated from La Coupe de France.

It was upsetting to be eliminated, considering what I was a part of in Briancon last season being the Coupe de France Champions. Had we beaten Morzine, we would have had a great chance at making an appearance in Paris Bercy.

On Saturday we squared off at home against 1st place Angers. This was my first home game of the season and I was very eager to play in front of the Epinal fans! Though I have played a few games now, I am still trying to get back to 100%. It may take a little while but I am starting to feel a bit better every single game.

On Friday morning I did a quick interview in Epinal for Images Plus (Vosges Television) and talked about the importance of playing again at home and how we enjoy battling against the top teams when they come to town.

http://www.vosgestelevision.tv/emission.php?id=17

So preparing for the game, after practice on Friday Marion and I went to her parents house for a pasta dinner. It is nice to change the scenery sometimes and hanging out with her Family is fun too. We stayed and watched television there and around 11pm we were pretty tired so we decided to just sleep there and head back home tomorrow after a good night sleep. Before going to bed I said to Marion "you realize that if we win tomorrow, we are going to have to sleep over at your parents house before every game right?"

Our game against Angers started off ok, we had a few power play chances with no success. I am working hard to try and earn my spot on the top pp unit, but for now I am on the 2nd unit. A few bad bounces put us down 2-0 but late in the 1st period, after Guillaume Chassard broke his stick on the power play, I jumped over the boards and soon after, received a pass for a one-timer slap shot that found its way to the back of the net. I was very happy to get us on the board with roughly 20seconds left in the 1st period. What a great feeling it was to be able to score in front of our great fans too!

The second period for us was pretty rough, we took way too many penalties and at one point trailed 5-2. Some great work by our top players like Jan Plch and Michal Petrak got us back within a goal and we started the 3rd period down 5-4 and shorthanded. We killed off Angers' man advantage and another goal by Petrak tied it at 5-5. Loic Lacasse shut the door for the rest of the evening and made some key saves to keep the score tied.

Once we made it to Overtime, our fans and team felt as though we had already won. They were all standing and applauding our courageous comeback. We were set to play a 10 minute OT 4 on 4 and memories from our last OT win vs. Rouen at home were in everybody's minds.

Since we only have a head coach and no assistant coaches on the bench with us, we usually just roll the defense pairs along, but to start the period, we never know who is up after the starters. This time on the bench, I sat there with my partner Jan Hagelberg and there was also Peter Slovak and Guillaume Papelier. Who was up next???

Nobody wanted to ask the coach either, then Papelier said " Coach Peter wants to know who is up next?" hahaha but he did not hear us. So I proposed paper-rock-scissors, but did Slovak said ok, but he did not want to do it, so he told me to play with Papelier. Finally I just said, ok forget it, we are going next :) Mainly because our two best players were up on forward (Plch and Petrak) and I had a good feeling we were going to score.

I jumped over the boards just as Jan Plch picked up the puck around our blue line, he stormed down the ice with 3 Angers players focused on him. When I saw this, I jumped up into the play to support Jan, as Petrak was just stepping onto the ice. He drove hard to the net and put a shot on the Angers goalie (and fellow Windsorite) Peter Aubry. The puck fell into the feet of his defenseman near the crease, seeing the loose puck, I poked at it with a backhand and saw it slowly cross the line.

Epinal Wins!!!

Here is a temporary link with some highlights from the game:

http://www.vosgestelevision.tv/emission.php?id=1#

What a great comeback by our team in this game and a great way to respond after being eliminated from La Coupe de France. We still have lots of work to do, especially being disciplined, as we are currently the league leaders in penalty minutes.

Next game in Mont Blanc on Friday night as we head back to the Alpes and must be ready to play right from the start. It is great to beat the top teams but it is the victories against the teams lower in the standings that separates us from the pack.

Since the game is on Friday, we will all be here for the St. Nicolas in Epinal :)

EP-EP-EPINAL!!!!

Preparing for Grenoble

2010-11-18T12:04:00.002+01:00

After the team was given a week off during a break in the schedule, we resumed practice Monday night. With our coach still in Canada spending some much needed time with his family and set to return tonight, we had our assistant coach Féfé running practices.

There has not been much talk about our upcoming game this Saturday in Grenoble, but we all know it will be a great night for hockey. Having to play in our makeshift arena here in Epinal all year, we are excited when we get the chance to travel to Grenoble where they have a real pro hockey rink and loud fans. The end result in the past has not been in our favour but I am hoping that will change this season, as we have a strong team and are also coming off our first road win of the season in Caen.

We are all looking forward to getting back to game action after having some time off and if we are to play on the road, Grenoble is a great place to get started. To put things into perspective, they even have a media room, and send a man wearing a suit down to our dressing room as they request to speak with a certain player. He then takes you up the stairs into their media room where various radio and television stations, along with internet sites interview while you stand in front of a big sign covered with Grenoble's hockey team sponsors.

During the week leading up to a game, I try not to think too much about specifics in the game but in the back of my mind I know that everything I am doing that week is to get my mind and my body primed and ready for Saturday night. This means, getting a good night sleep every night, getting to the gym everyday for a workout, bike session or even just a stretch and also nutritionally trying to eat the right foods and fuel up properly everyday. The food part can be challenging here in France because a nice Raclette or Tartiflette may not be the most nutritional meal to have when preparing for a game, but man it sure is good. If I am going to have that for dinner, I try to get that in early in the week :) Though my all-time favourite Tartiflette experience was after winning a big road game in Villard de Lans. The Tartiflette with a glass of wine and a big road victory was such a great reward for a hard week of practice, long bus trip and being somewhat strict nutritionally.

The keyword was "somewhat" because with a love for Cheese and food in general, I would be doing myself a disfavour if I did not enjoy these great French dishes a little bit.

Some of my top 5 favourite meals to eat during the week leading up to a game include:

Salmon Salad
Homeade Beef Burgers
Mushroom/Feta Omelette
Spaghetti and Meat sauce
Oatmeal "Protein" Pancakes

Honorable Mention**** (Mom's Egg Muffin)

The reason "Mom's Egg Muffin" did not make it into the top 5 is strictly due to a Geographical Disadvantage. Though last winter she found a way to overcome this by making a whole bunch of egg muffins during her visit to Briancon, then freezing them prior to her departure, ensuring that I had Egg Muffin reserves for about a month.

Mom's Egg Muffin
- This is pretty much the same system using by McDonalds with their Egg McMuffin. For as long as I can remember, this has been my mom's go-to breakfast meal for her 4 kids over the last 40 years. If you are reading this mom, and I do not properly explain this, please feel free to write it in the comment box after. Ok, so she cracks the eggs in the pan and has a few going at the same time, while it is cooking she gets the cheese and meat ready, along with the English muffins. A key manoeuvre and one that must not be ignored is the puncturing of the egg yolk. I have seen this many times from imitation Egg Muffins, where the yolk is not punctured prior and the results are disastrous, as the first bite sends egg yolk flying into the air, on to your high school uniform clothes or simply all over your hands.
Note: when you only have one pair of uniform pants for High School, getting egg yolk on them only a few minutes before leaving for school could prove to be a drawback.

Ok, back to the procedure. So she punctures the egg....during this time the meat-which could be ham, Canadian Bacon etc-is heated in a different pan, while the English Muffin cooks briefly in the toaster. Once these three elements are completed, she sits the egg on the muffing, followed by the meat, then the cheese, and closes it off with the other muffin on top. Not finished yet..... After the Egg Muffin is in its entirety, she puts it in the pan to grill the muffin a bit more but more importantly, to melt the cheese!

Do not confuse this with "Mom's grilled cheese" where she somehow finds a way to burn the toast time after time, as I hear her scrapping away the charcoal toast, trying to mask the its defeated appearance before serving it to me. With Mom's Egg Muffins, I believe she has a success rate of 100%, with a runny tally of.......... ok, well say she makes on average, 4 egg muffins/week x 52weeks= 208 Now with my sister turning 41 in January, lets say she started making them when my sister was three years old... so 208 x 38= 7,904

Mom has a current success rate of 100% and 7,904 consecutive perfect Egg Muffins. Great job!

Ok, I guess I will talk about "Andre's Oatmeal Protein Pancakes" next time, though they do not have the Wayne Gretzky-like experience/success of the Egg Muffins, they certainly to have the potential to be the "Next One" in the new BHL (Breakfast Hot List)

I'm Back!

2010-11-10T16:58:00.002+01:00

The long wait is over! I made my return to game action last Saturday, in our first road victory of the season 5-4 over Caen. It was a pretty long road trip as we departed Epinal at 7am, and still managed to arrive late in Caen, which cut the off ice warm up a bit short before taking the ice.

I don't think I have been this nervous for a game since.... well I am not sure exactly, but I was pretty nervous. It was more of just not knowing what to expect and not wanted to get embarrassed out there. After all, I had not played a game since last March.

Things went pretty well, I played a regular shift out there for the entire game, paired up with Jan Hagelberg, while also eating up lots of PK time. Since it was my first game back, the coach did not want to give me too much responsibility and chose not to put me on the power play. So hopefully next game (Nov. 20th @ Grenoble) he will feel confident enough to have me out there.

I almost did not play this game, and it was not because of health reasons. I had be having problems with my skates for the last few weeks as my rivets keep falling out in my right skate. As France is not a hockey hotbed, their are a little bit behind the times in skate repairs and will several failed attempts to hold my skates together, we finally took our chances on the local "cordonnier" (shoemaker). The timing was not perfect as I was already at the rink preparing for practice when I found out the rink guy's final attempt failed, so our trainer said he would call his "cordonnier" to see if he would open up his shop for us to take a stab at fixing my skates. He agreed and off I went, 20minutes before our practice started. We spent about half an hour there and after drilling 5 huge.....( rivets of some sort) into my skates, we returned back to the rink. I had the last 15 minutes of practice to test out the skates and decide if I was going to play or not the next day.

The skates held up fine and I boarded the bus the next morning. Now with a break in the schedule, I am trying to break in my new skates so I don't have to deal with these problems again. I should mention, I have been walking around the apartment all day with the skates laced up on my feet. True story.

must write something......

2010-10-28T17:04:00.004+02:00

The only new exciting news in that past 12 days is that my mom was here in France! Oh it was also my 28th Birthday, and the first since I turned 20, that my mom was here for :) But other than that, nothing else really going on here. After writing those two lines above, I realize that I should have posted something before.... though at the time I guess I was just caught up in the moment.

Since I wont be seeing my family at Christmas time either, my mom arrived with not only birthday presents, but also some Christmas presents too. Last year she spent over $200 just sending them to Briancon. So this year, since she does her Christmas shopping like 4 months ahead of time anyways, she just decided to bring the presents with her. Then she wrapped them while I was at practice.

During her stay, we had a game in Morzine and though I thought I would be playing at the time she booked her flight, I still was not quite ready to go yet. So instead of driving up into the Alpes for the game, my mom and Marion went to Gerardmer for the day, while I accompanied my team for the game. Since our head coach was suspended, he asked me to run the Defense, to allow Féfé to concentrate solely on the forwards. This was actually pretty fun, I felt like I was in the game and he had me matching lines too, so I was constantly paying attention to the line changes and who was coming on the ice from their side. This sure beat sitting in the stands again. In the end, we lost 3-2 in OT, so we still got 1 point and were satisfied to head back to Epinal with it.

My mom left Epinal yesterday and drove to Frankfurt, where she spent the night before flying into Toronto today. She should be landing pretty soon too. If I know my mom, she would have arrived at the airport very early to ensure getting a great seat on the plane. This could be an Exit row, Bulkhead or at worst an aisle, all in that order. The reason Bulkhead ranks #2 is because the arm rests don't lift up, where as the exit row has the best of both worlds with the movable arm rest and comfy leg room.

Emergency Exit Row Seats. My mom's first choice :)

This Saturday we play Amiens at home. I would love to play in this contest, as I can no longer take watching the games without being able to have some effect on them. I am also getting tired of saying that my leg is getting better.. yada yada yada..... It is getting better, stronger, muscular etc... We have 2 practices before this game, I would love for tonight to be the night where the coach says "Ok, you look strong enough, you are skating well, you are in the lineup for Saturday." Wishful thinking, but you never know....... ;)

I think I see the light....

2010-10-16T10:58:00.005+02:00

I do not want to get to ahead of myself here, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel (of recovery). This week I had planned on suiting up in full hockey gear and jumping into a few drills in practice. I wanted to start this on Monday, but for some reason when I went into my hockey bag, my jockstrap and garter belt were missing??? Honestly, who would steal that?

Anyways, so on Monday I skated in my "twist conditioning" track suit again and skated around in between drills. Tuesday there was a game, so I did not skate, then Wednesday was the big day...full equipment for the first time since I tried to practice in August, but basically since July. So with a new jockstrap, I got dressed, excited/nervous as I wondered how this would go. By the time I was fully dressed, I realized that I had no helmet. Our helmets were taken after Tuesday's game to get the new sponsors put on them. So there I am, in full hockey gear, all I wanted to do was get out there on the ice, this how been since August, and I sit there with no helmet. Not to be defeated this easily, I go search for a helmet and come accross an old white CCM helmet with a visor. We all know you don't put a visor on these old CCM buckets, though a few names do ring a bell... Guy Carbonneau, Stephan Lebeau from the 93 Habs Cup winning team!

Stephan Lebeau sporting the CCM Helmet with a visor

Where was I? Oh ya, so I find this helmet, give it a quick rinse as it smelled of Ricard, and head out onto the ice. So I am happy to be out there, but still do not feel complete just yet with this foreign bucket on my head, reeking of French Alcohol.

All things aside, I step out onto the ice and feel.......heavy. I felt so heavy, my knee felt ok, but I felt so amazingly slow. My roommate Loic Lacasse (goalie) just received his new pads, so he was out there too. Our feelings were parallel. He felt bulky and slow, as he was not only testing out new pads, blocker and trapper, but also a new chest protector (I think he refers to it as Plastron in Quebecois). All in all, the first day was a success and a necessary step to making regular appearances on the ice for practice. And just as I suspected, Thursday I had my new helmet, covered in sponsorships from a heating company to a night club, and with a small modification made to my shin pads, I felt pretty good, taking part in all but the contact drills. To bring it up a notch, last night was even better, as was present in all drills, of course a step behind, but I felt good enough to handle some 2 on 1 drills, breakouts and regroups.

With this weekend off from the ice, I will make sure to get my bike sprints in at the gym and a few workouts, to ensure that come Monday evening, I am going to be even stronger!

Before signing off here, on an unrelated note, I must acknowledge my very talented and gifted father Marty Gervais. Last night in Windsor, Ontario my father received an honorary Doctorate from Assumption University. My Dad, who I now refer to as Dr. Dad, is an instructor at the University of Windsor, he is a newspaper columnist, the founded Black Moss Press, a publishing firm and an avid hockey fan. He loves the Montreal Canadiens, Epinal Dauphins (Me) , Chicago Hitmen (brother Gabe's team) and Team Orange (older brother Andre's beer league team).

I am totally kidding about Andre's team, in a recent post I wrote how Andre played pro hockey, so he is a good player ;)

Though, "Dr. Dad" does share his passion of hockey with his 3 sons, he is known more for his writing and poetry. Below is a poem my father wrote while he was in the hospital when I was playing junior hockey in Canada for the Leamington Flyers. I love you dad, congratulations!!!

The Angel At My Bedside

for Stéphane

The pain tightens in my gut

I can’t sleep

my eyes are shut

I hear someone stir

believe it’s the man

in the bed across the room

stare into the darkness—

A dark figure looms

tall and lean poised

at the foot of my bed

Is this the angel of death?

I muse, but look closer

Make out red stitching

on a black jacket

Notice the letters Flyers

my 6 ft. son hovering

over my bed, whispering

something before placing

a cold puck into my right hand —

“A hat trick tonight, dad!”

I smile and place the puck

on the pillow beside me

and fall into a dream

of a boyhood in a city

up north when my body

moved with strength

and readiness on the ice

or so I believed

and believe now

again

poem from Taking My Blood

http://web.mac.com/martygervaisis/Site/Marty_Gervais,_Writer.html

Back on the ice

2010-10-06T16:27:00.003+02:00

Since returning on Friday night from Capbreton, I have been on the ice 3 times now. Each time feeling better than the day before. I was not really sure what to expect when I laced up my skates for the first time in months and stepped out onto the ice, but I quickly realized that I could skate again! The last time I had even attempted, was the team's first practice of the season and I had so much pain in my knee that I could not even push off or take a stride. Now I can skate comfortably with no pain, but it will still be about a week before I attempt the quick changes of direction and body contact that our great sport of hockey demands.

This week I have only been skating with a track suit on, just to make sure I can get full movements and range of motion and will continue this way until the weekend, though next week I hope to feel strong enough to get all the gear on and start taking part in our team practices.

It feels amazing to be back with the team again and since I am not playing, I got a membership at the local gym in town for the next 3 months, to ensure that my conditioning is the best it can be. This will include strength training workouts and exercises to focus on getting the muscle back in my leg, but mainly the bike sprints is where I can replicate the work the guys are doing during the games.

The return will be soon, I can feel it.......

Departure from the CERS

2010-09-30T21:36:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow morning I am leaving the CERS in Capbreton and taking the train back to Epinal. Well technically, I am taking the train from Bayonne to Bordeaux, then from Bordeaux to Lorraine TGV, where Marion will eagerly pick me up and we will return back to Epinal together!

I am pretty excited to head home, it has been a long 3 weeks here, and though I remained motivated the entire stay with the heavy workload, I am really looking forward to getting home and back onto the ice with the team. The doctors want me to take more time to continue reinforcing my leg, but they did agree to allow me to skate and see how that feels. My hope is to get on the ice tomorrow night for practice with the team, not take part in the drills just yet but just skate and shoot the puck a bit, then progress a bit each time and be ready to play soon.

The biggest thing I will miss from the CERS is the food! At lunch today I spoke with the Chef to see if he would let me know what the ingredients are in the amazing salad dressing. He retreated to the kitchen and printed me off a copy of the recipe right away, I was so pumped. A very nice gesture from this Chef that knows all 150 patients by name, which is amazing because they all come and go every 3-4 weeks.

Another thing I will miss is seeing the Rugby men in full team uniform. I will clarify.... Being in the south west of France, Rugby is the primary sport here, so obviously there are many Rugby players here at the CERS with injuries. What gets me though is that some of them come into physio or the gym in their full team uniform, all the way down to their high striped socks. I am not criticizing, but you just don't see that, not in any other sport. Just imagine if I was sitting on the physio table or riding the bike with my shoulder pads, jersey and skates??? Ok, that was a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

All in all, this was a great experience, I met some really nice people here but most importantly my knee is way better than it was when I arrived. Now I will be able to rejoin the team, start skating and know that my return will be a few weeks away!

Sorry Mom, No Internet

2010-09-27T20:39:00.003+02:00

Listen mother, I had no internet ok! I finally got internet again this morning, as the boutique here at the CERS was closed all weekend. It costs $10 for a week of internet or $40 for a month. Since I am only here for 3 weeks, I have had to renew the internet now twice. Though last Friday I forgot and ended up with no internet all weekend. After taking a temporary break from the computer (Friday) because I was up late on Thursday night watching NHL highlights and videos, I indirectly was punishing myself by not going on the computer all day Friday. Then I totally forgot to renew! Ok mom, there is the explanation, sorry :)

So, a lot has happened in this past week, I have moved on to some new machines to strengthen my quads and hamstrings while also taking on AQUA GYM!!! If someone is reading this out loud to some eager listeners, it may sound as though I have begun a wrestling career against a vicious super hero named Aqua Jim, but in fact it is only a workout in the pool, to simulate running and changes of directions.

I have also been attacking the Spin Bikes (Velo for our French readers) every other day so I can have my conditioning up to speed for when I get back on the ice with the team!

With only 3 days left of work before I get on the train and head back to Epinal, I am starting running and movement outside tomorrow, as well as meeting with the Doctor to set up a plan for when I return to Epinal. I sure am hoping these next 3 days go smoothly, as I am anticipating a return to the ice upon arrival. Suiting up for a game is still unclear but at least at this point I believe my knee is strong enough and stable to begin skating, then hopefully lead into changes of direction, followed by contact and some games!!!! I am so excited to get back out there and just be around the rink everyday. After all, it is my job, and I love my job!!!

Another positive thing is that while I was away, the workers came to the house and finished the kitchen, so I will be heading home to a nicely renovated kitchen. Remember how much I love to eat! Almost as much as I love hockey.

Marion is back to school now too, she is just starting her 2nd week now in Nancy for Law school. Yup, not just a pretty face ;) It will be great to see her too, and considering I did not have internet, it made it a bit complicated this weekend to talk since we had planned to talk on Skype. Though now that I have it, she has informed me that she can't find her camera anyways hahaha! (I hope she is finding it as I write this :) )

Well......what else is there to say now.... my team got 1 point on the weekend, losing in a shootout. That's better than we did in the home opener, losing 1-0, getting scored on in the last 7 seconds of the game. I sure am eager to get back and help out as much as I can, I have made huge progress in these past few weeks, the return of #15 is coming!!!

Happy Birthday Andre!

2010-09-19T10:45:00.003+02:00

Having only had a half day yesterday, the afternoon seemed pretty lonely. Marion had just left with her friends to go back to Epinal, and since it was Saturday, I only had treatment and a workout in the morning.

Still with the half day, I did all my leg exercises, spent an hour in the pool working out and had a test on the spin bike. Since the doctor is happy with my progression, he had me start with bike workouts a bit early. So yesterday morning at 930am was my bike test to see how hard they can push me in terms of my heart rate. I was pretty excited to get to work and was dripping with sweat by the time the 25 minutes were up. Every 3 minutes I had to increase the tension and also increase my speed. We worked my heart rate up to around 175 beats per minute. Not my max heart rate but a rate I could still maintain for 3 minutes. The biggest positive was that I had no knee pain during this.

After lunch, I had the afternoon off, I iced my knee a few times to make sure it didn't swell up from all the work I was doing, then spent an hour or so watching some Entourage episodes on the computer. I also spoke with my older brother Andre a few times on skype during the day. It was a pretty exciting day for him and the kids as it was Julien and Sebastien's first hockey practice of the year! So they were bouncing off the walls all day and driving Andre crazy. I told him to try and remember what it was like on a Saturday morning when he was little and the hockey season was just beginning. Maybe Andre was just wanted to celebrate his 36th birthday a day early and wanted all of the attention???

My evening was designated to watching the live scoreboard of my team who was playing their home opener in Epinal against Villard de lans. I have to admit, this was very difficult to watch, knowing that I can't do anything to help them. It was 0-0 most of the game, then a few penalties were called in the last few minutes, leaving us short handed 4-3, resulting in Villard scoring with 7 seconds left. I swore so loud that I could probably have been heard all the way up to the 4th floor. Had I been in Thionville, all of the old people would have been woken up by this, but on a Saturday night here in Capbreton, nobody is sleeping.

I wrote a few paragraphs of this blog, then I had reserved a time to swim today so I am just getting back from that now. I got a pair of goggles today, and it was so much easier to swim lengths with those on. It was quite refreshing getting some physical activity today and then tonight I have 1.5 hours of recovery. This includes sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, cold tub, massage etc... I am not exactly sure of how this will all work, I will have to write about that tomorrow, but I sure am looking forward to it!

As I mentioned briefly above, today is Andre's 36th birthday! I have spoken with him on skype 3-4 times over the last 2 days since he got a computer with a camera and I have tried to prepare him for this big day! He really isn't that old, our captain and best player Jan Plch just turned 36 and I think if Andre were still playing hockey, he could be just as good. They are both left handed playmakers with very good vision and can score. Both also use very big curves, as Andre was known for his Paul Coffey pattern. Now he is passing that knowledge and experience on to his two boys Julien and Sebastien.

Though Julien is right handed like his two uncles (Gabe and Myself) and Sebastien left handed, he may need our help to teach Julien some tricks of the trade, but as I write this......if I recall correctly, in Andre's glory days of confidence and swagger, he once claimed he was better than I was right handed, and would show off his skills in our parent's basement. So he is probably best suited for teaching both of his boys the game, even if it takes 4-5 hours of hockey in the basement on his day off, on a Saturday morning! Good luck brother, love ya, and have a great birthday!

Anti Gravity, Biodex and Ice- The recipe for success

2010-09-15T17:37:00.004+02:00

Ok finally some time to breathe! These last 3 days here in Capbreton have been super busy, but pretty amazing at the same time. I have done pretty much the same routine since Monday, with slight modifications each day as I progress. So to jump right into it, I will break down the day!

730am- Nurse enters room to take blood pressure/give pills/wake you up!

730-830- Breakfast. Consisting of yogurts, cereal, bread, jam, orange juice, and a selection of bananas, oranges, apples and kiwis

830-945- Physio. Mostly exercises to work on strengthening my entire left leg. I begin riding the bike for 10 minutes. Then I get into this Anti-Gravity Machine, so cool. So I put on this spandex short that has a huge waist with a zipper. Then I stand in this AG machine, I zip the big shorts to the machine to prevent air from getting in, then it sucks out all of the oxygen down by my legs. So basically all you can see if just my upper body. The idea is too keep good walking mechanics, while not over stressing the joints, so using only 50% of my body weight. Today I used 70% though, so I am progressing! As soon as I get out of the machine, my legs feel so heavy, I have to walk around a while to feel normal again.

Then when my legs don't feel like they are 200lbs each, I do some hamstring exercises, followed by some leg press, glutes and single leg holds. Mostly ranging from 6 sets x 15 reps, or some in static mode

10-11am- I quickly head up to my room to put on my bathrobe and grab my towel before heading down to the pool. Once I have showered, I get in right away and start doing lengths, being careful not to put too much torque on my knee while swimming. The first day I almost puked after 8 full lengths of the pool in my front crawl mode! I think that last time I did this type of swimming I was working towards my orange badge at Kennedy High School's swimming lessons. Oh how my mother was so proud (too bad I failed the red badge because I couldn't dive).

After the lengths and catching my breath, I spend 10 minutes on the under water stationary bike, so cool! And another 10 minutes on this other under water stepper/stair master sort of thing. Then it's half time and I switch pools, going from the cold one (not too cold) to the hot one (fairly hot). In the hot pool, I have 5 laps to do against the current, with all these jets that are just forcing water in the opposite direction. It reminds me of the days living on Alsace with our family's above ground pool, when all the kids would start swimming in a circle, all in the same direction to get the water flowing that way, then all of the sudden we would stop and try to swim the opposite way against he current. Ya, it is like that :)

11-12pm- Working in the gym with the personal trainer. This is pretty fun here, I get to work upper body with strength training and core as well. Very important part of the day because when I leave here I want to be ready to play and having this hour each day ensures I will stay in top shape! Since I wont be doing bike sprints until next week, they have me doing the hand sprints. It is like a bike except you pedal with your arms. So I have a heart rate monitor strapped on to my chest and there I go, same idea as the stationary bike but with your arms. A bit more tiring though I think. Other than that, we are working on speed and power, since the season is starting and I did the strength training all summer to work up to this point.

12-130pm- LUNCH- so so so good. Since we are all high performance athletes here, and having a dietitian on staff, we are provided with some amazing/well balanced meals! Each day for lunch and dinner, we have the choice of Fish or Meat. I even had duck the other day! We start off with some sort of salad. Tonight we have Soja, Tomato, Avocado, Sesame, Vinaigrette Basilic Salad to start, followed by some fish in a curry sauce and Fromage Blanc with raspberry sauce. Pretty excited, and also very hungry after that detailed explanation.

2-230pm- Back to physio, complete another round of some of the exercises before heading upstairs for some electrodes.

230-3pm- Compex. Here, I sit in a room full of other athletes. It is exactly like a classroom at school, not even kidding, we sit in the same desks. There is a "teacher" or electrode technician would gets us set up for the half hour and we all sit quietly with this machine goes to work on our muscles. The only difference from school is that there is a TV that plays Rugby or Soccer matches. So we just blast our muscles, trying to get everything firing properly again.

3pm-5pm- Back to physio, here I do another round of the exercises, a bit more treadmill work, where I am currently only doing a fast walking pace. It is pretty cool though, as they have two treadmills facing each other and a mirror placed in the middle that shows only your legs. So if someone is facing you on the other treadmill, you can see their upper body, but it looks like they have your legs because of the image in the mirror. Did not work so well with the 6'8 African French basketball player though.

Today I progressed to the Biodex Machine. This is the one that is hooked up to a computer, that measures your strength and power output, while you provide the resistance in both the concentric and eccentric phases of the leg extension. Though I do not have full range in this yet, it was a good sign that I could do it, as I was not able to do it on Saturday when we last tried it.

Then to finish off, I was allowed to bring my hockey stick down and work on my stick handling while in a single leg hold position. Yesterday I did this exercise with a partner, as we tossed a ball back and forth while holding on a single leg, so I asked if I could do the same exercise, except with stickhandling my "Swedish Stickhandling Ball." So dripping with sweat, I ended the day of work with that. What a day!

5pm- Snack time! We have a choice of fresh fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, kiwis) and yogurt!

7pm- Dinner time! See above for detailed description of tonight menu

Also I forgot to mention, I am constantly icing my knee during the day, this is just to avoid any swelling. Though I am staying in my limits and not working through any knee pain, the workload itself could affect it. So they encourage us to ice about 4-5 times per day.

On another note, my team back in Epinal battled hard last night and pulled out a win on the road in Dijon 4-3 in the first game of Coupe de la Ligue. Keep it up boys! I will be back to help as soon as I can!

Capbreton

2010-09-11T08:28:00.002+02:00

It was an early departure for Capbreton on Friday morning. I went to bed for two hours, before jumping in the car at 2am with Marion and a few of her friends to make the 10 hour trip to the opposite corner of France in the South West. I had spent 4 days in Thionville getting treatment before my place opened up in Capbreton. This place is reserved specifically for Professional athletes and supposed to be the best rehabilitation centre in all of France. Since arriving, I can tell you that the food is the best!

There is a set menu that we were given for the week with a few options at each meal. Fish or Meat. And this stuff is goooooood!

Though the food has been great so far, the big appeal (other than the results and quick return to game action) is the Ocean. This place is right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, with surfers everywhere. Looks great, too bad we are not allowed to go in the water if we are here for treatment.

http://www.cers.org/cap/

I can live with that, as long as when I leave this place I will be 100% healthy and ready to rock on the ice. It has been tough but I know this is the best place to be and I have the best people working to get me back to the top.

And surprising enough for France......they even work on Saturdays :) Ok, off to see my physio!!!

Another day of Productivity

2010-09-07T19:53:00.002+02:00

It is almost 8pm now, I just finished a few games of Foosball after dinner, or "Baby Foot" as they call it in France. I suck, let's just leave it at that. Had it been bubble hockey, then we would have a totally different story. Wow I am too competitive. At least that was the impression my teammate/ 70 year old man gave me when I yelled at him for not playing good enough defense.

Alright, moving on. So this morning I was up and ready to rock at 5am, when the nurse came for a blood sample. I could hear her going from room to room. As much as I hoped this unwanted visitor would pass by my room by mistake, she eventually came knocking at 6am. I said "why do I need a blood test, I am here to strengthen my knee." Apparently it is just protocol.....

So with breakfast at 8am, I knew it would not be bacon and eggs or anything like that, though I was hoping for something other than a baguette and jam, but that is exactly what it was. Fine no problem, I was shocked when I was 8 years old at the French breakfast, but now, it was just wishful thinking for something different. Maybe tomorrow?

Apparently every Tuesday there is a meeting at 9am, so my first activity of the day started at 11am with the strength training for my leg. They had me all hooked up to a machine with a computer, it was really cool, the only problem was that there was a bit too much discomfort in the movements that were to be performed, so that will have to wait for another day. But we did work on some static holds for 40 seconds with about 45lbs, and those were very good for my quad muscles.

From there was lunch, no highlights to speak of, so at 1pm I was in the pool, performing most of the same movements I did yesterday, except this time there was some resistance attached to my ankle. This was ok, and as soon as I was finish I went right back to the gym again, for some more extensive quad training for 1 hour. Then finally finishing off with physio at then end of the day, where I was hooked up to some electric stimulation, connected to a computer showing my strength output. On the screen there was a pattern that showed where I had to control my leg contraction. Starting off at 40%, then moving up to 65%, up to 100% then back to 65% and 45%, forcing me to control every movement, and connect neurally.

Since the treatment ends at 4pm, I retreated to my room for a couple of hours and read a book my parents got me, though it was not the book I had requested ;)

The doctor stopped by, as they do on all Tuesdays, and wanted to see how things were progressing. I was pretty happy with this part, because it shows that they are staying on top of things. Then it was dinner time, we were having soup, roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Not really much else to say, the roast beef was looking a bit weird, kind of greenish, I did not eat it as I was a bit worried about getting sick or some sort of disease. Though this one old man insisted it was fine. For some reason I did not trust his judgment, and I promise, it had nothing to do with him having only one leg.

I started writing this entry a few hours ago, but the France vs. Bosnia soccer game was on, so I watched it with one of the other guys here, as he invited me to have a drink and watch the game. By that I was assuming just some orange juice or coke or something, since we do not have many options for drinks here. Then he pulls out this bottle of whiskey that his girlfriend brought him. hahaha

Bedtime, tomorrow will be my longest/best day!

Start of year 4

2010-09-06T20:44:00.005+02:00

Hello again everyone, my excuse for not writing is that I take the summer off from blogging/I get lazy and forget. So to get started here in year 4 of my adventure in France, I am currently getting some therapy done on my knee.

This summer I had my knee scoped to clean up some meniscus and since then I have had a couple set backs in my battle back to 100%. I was feeling really good at one point this summer after about 10 weeks post op, so I went pretty hard on the ice, which resulted in some unwanted swelling, forcing me to take a step back from training and resulting in loss of muscle mass in the quad. As much as I tried to get back to training, the more it would swell up.

So let's fast forward to today, I have been in France for just over a month and after seeing the surgeon a few times, with no real improvement in his tactics, we have taken it to the next level. I am in Metz at a rehabilitation centre, where I get 2 hours/day of physio, 2 hours/day of strength training and 1 hour/day of under water training. Not to mention 3 meals a day and my own room with tv and internet (where I lie as we speak).
Note: this is not all athletes here, we have many people fresh off operations, so that includes many old people too :)

Since I am all alone here in the evening, I guess I could even keep a daily log of what we are doing here to get me back on the ice as soon as possible. And include to my Canadian readers, some of the differences we have here in France, as opposed to what we might see back home.

6:00am- Alarm goes off to wake up in Epinal.
6:30am- drive to Thionville with Marion and her dad (in his BMW)
6:31am- I fall asleep
8:20am- Arrive at ADAPT and check into my room

too much detail???? Ok I will cut it a bit shorter and get to the interesting stuff

9am- Nurse arrives, takes my MRIs and a history of what has been done so far and gathers all info to relay to the Dr. and physios
10am- See Doctor (though the doc I am supposed to see is not here? Kind of typical in France during vacation time, but it doesn't get less frustrating)
11am- First physio treatment, assessment and Electric stimulation to try to get my quad muscles firing again.
12pm- Lunch
1pm- In the pool, wearing a tight swim suit, I start off doing squats while balancing on a board under water, then progress to single leg knee drives up/down, then leg cycles, adduction/abduction, finishing with leg cycles again a walking laps for a cool down. Time of work was about 45 minutes non stop.
2pm- Strength training, today was just to measure where I was at with weights before performing the whole circuit tomorrow. This session focuses mainly on upper body, while the morning session will focus on strengthening my legs.
3pm- More physio assessments and tests, followed by some diagonal leg raises with manual resistance from the physio. This will strengthen the adductors/abductors as well as the quads, while keeping the leg in the extended position
4pm- Ice for the knee and I had a little snack in my room and spent time with Marion before dinner.
6pm- dinner

Well that turned out to be longer than expected....... But now that day 1 is over, day 2 and so on will have less of a lead up and I can just log the stuff I did, that way it will mentally reinforce the work I do as well! And to keep my readers interested I will have to include some funny stories or just odd occurrences.

So today, let me think...... Well at every meal, the entire centre eats at the same time and we are all assigned a seat at a table, with the same people everyday. The the meal arrives it is on a platter, so we do not have our individual plates of food. I arrived a bit late because I was still getting some treatment on my knee and the nurse shows me to my seat. (As I mentioned above, there are lots of old people here.) To my amazement, the room is 75% old people, with an average age of probably 70 (exaggerating), so my table has one guy my age and the rest around 70+. One guy was missing a leg.

Ok, so I had no idea what to expect, is everyone depressed here and we all just eat in silence? After all, the guy next to me has no leg.... So I sit down, I say hello, my accent sticks out like a sore thumb, but also serves as a great ice breaker and before I knew it, the whole table was talking. I did not always understand what they were saying because the woman in the wheelchair across from me spoke very softly and with an Alsace accent (German-like). The food was ok, there was rice, roast beef, Greek salad and bread, and the huge advantage to eating with these nice old people, was that they barely eat at all!!! So I cleaned up the plate of roast beef at lunch time and gladly took the elderly lady's steak at dinner time.

It turned out to be a good day, the one man at the table who is delivered an egg carton full of pills said "we are not going to start crying, everybody here is sad. We are going to have a good time." While continuing to speak, he stops and starts winking an a woman from the other table. He was convinced she was just starring at him, turns out she was checking out the menu, which was located, directly above his head.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T13:29:00.004+02:00

On Thursday afternoon I took a flight from Paris to Detroit, mainly because the month of May carries great importance (for my mom). We have mother's day, which is always a big deal in our family, which usually entails the whole gang heading for a big mother's day brunch at the Tunnel B.B.Q. Restaurant. We are actually leaving in a few hours to go there! Then it is my mom's birthday on the 25th of May, so being here in Canada at my home in Windsor this month in a way makes up for the 9 months I spend in France each year.

The NHL playoffs also make it a good time to be home, too bad Montreal lost last night, but I am confident they can rebound in game 6 at home to even the series. Spending time with my two brothers and my father while watching the Habs play is a pretty special time.

Since being back, my brother Gabe and I have been playing quite a bit of NHL 10 on Playstation, we always find time to get a few games in, something we have done together since the SEGA days of NHL hockey games.

In terms of my own hockey, the future is not clear at the moment, normally I would like to have everything sorted out but it just seems that this year will take a bit longer. I will keep everyone posted and I will try to keep my attention on this blog and try to update as much as I can!

On a sad note, our family dog Coco passed away during the afternoon just before I got home on Thursday. I did not get to see her but am happy to think about all the time I spent with her last summer! I miss you Coco.

Put me in Coach!!!

2010-04-01T14:39:00.004+02:00

We just arrived back from Angers a few hours ago from our 2 games in the best of 5 series. We are currently tied 2-2 with the 5th game set for Saturday night in Briancon. Having been sidelined since the early moments of Game 2 vs. Strasbourg, I have desperately been working to try to get back in the lineup.

The first time I tried to practice was on Thursday, the day before the series opened against Angers. I did not last long and made an early exit to the showers. I tried again Monday morning, to see if my ankle was strong enough to at least make the road trip to Angers, in case of emergency. Since Monday it has progressively been getting better and in the morning skate yesterday I felt about 75%, but having won the night before, the coach decided to keep the same lineup and to give me a few more days of valuable rest.

Unfortunately for us, we lost last night, and Angers forced a 5th game. So with a few extra days for this ligament to heal, I will be in the lineup on Saturday night. Not sure how "Pain-Free" I will be, but this is the playoffs, and I have to help my team win this very important game. Depending on how things go these next two days, I could end up only playing on the power play, where we have struggled to get goals, especially last night where we went 0 for 6. Not saying that I will make the difference, but this is usually the strong point in my game and I am hoping to provide some good scoring chances for us with shots from the blue line.

Watching my team go to battle over these last 2 weeks has been very hard to handle, knowing that I could do nothing more than cheer them on from the stands. To feel even closer to the action, I even did some commentating on the Alpes 1 radio station, while trying to send some positive energy to my teammates!

After the game, I told my coach: "Next game I am playing, no matter what." I have to be out there with them, going to battle, playing hurt and making sacrifices. We have been together since August 10th and I will be with them the rest of the way from now on!

Coach, I'm going in!!!

No excuses....

2010-03-19T12:27:00.003+01:00

So I have completely neglected my blog over this last month....ah ya I have no excuses. So let's fast forward here. Our team ended up finishing tied for 1st in the league standings. The top 4 teams don't play the 1st round of playoffs, and our 2nd round started on Tuesday against Strasbourg. We beat them fairly easily 5-1. Then we had game 2 the next night, both at home and also won 5-3.

In this game though, I was injured in the first few seconds of my first shift. The puck was chipped behind me at our blue line, as I was skating to retrieve it, one of the Strasbourg players hooked me and guided me for about 3 meters before running me into the boards. Ok no problem, I did not have the puck and maybe he could have called a hooking penalty but it was not really too crazy or violent. The problem was when all my weight came down on my right leg and my skate got stuck in the ice behind me and twisting until "POP!!!" I got up and felt very weak in my ankle, then I took a stride and could not even stand on it anymore. As I was making my way to our bench, I noticed a Strasbourg player wide open in front of the net, so I limped a bit before diving in front of his shot. I am not sure how, but the puck was chipped out of our zone, and I hopped on 1 foot to our bench.

After all of the examinations over the last few days, it looks like the Anterior Talofibular Ligament is stretched, but luckily not torn. So for the moment I have a soft cast on and the doctor said to keep it for 2 weeks. I however, am hoping I can at least make it back on Friday for game 1 of the semi finals (pending on our 3rd victory against Strasbourg). I would like to help the team anyways I can and perhaps that means playing only on the power play, 5 minutes per game at the most I would think.

I feel so helpless with my teammates in Strasbourg set for battle tonight, I want so badly to be on the ice with them going to war.

On another note, my mom is arriving today. It was planned that Marion would go pick her up in Torino as I should be away finishing off the quarter finals, but since I am here I will accompany her. I am excited to see my mom, it has been since September that I last saw her. Of course she is bringing me some presents, but it is mostly stuff that I can't find here in France. So she is all loaded up with Protein Powder, Greens Plus, Gatorade etc.... Everything to help me stay strong and healthy. Basically everything is always hockey related. Maybe next time I should ask for some books or something?

Well from here on in, I am trying to stay positive and mentally heal my ankle. I picture it being strong and healthy and I visualize myself on the ice doing movements with power and force. This has been a difficult season with many injuries and a sickness that causes me to lose 15lbs, but I think experiencing all of these problems will have better prepared me to deal with such issues if they arise again. Being positive during this time is the most important thing I can do!

Coupe de France Champions!!!!

2010-02-13T14:03:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone, I know it has been over a week since we won the Coupe de France in Paris. And yes, most of you already know all about it, but for the small percentage who are unaware and just stumbling on my blog by mistake, I will give a little recap.

So since qualifying for the Final in early January after beating Strasbourg, we had a date with Rouen in Paris for January 31st at 3pm. To tell you how big this game is, my dad even flew in just for the game from Windsor, Ontario. As he sat among the 13,359 fans, he was able to see a battle between 2 of the best teams in France. Also if you would like to read his version of the events check out his article in the Windsor Star Newspaper from a few days ago.

http://www.windsorstar.com/sports/young+hockey+dream+comes+true/2539524/story.html

Now, for my story of the encounter. So on the Friday night in Briancon, only 2 days before the big final, we just so happened to have a league game against this very same Rouen team. With a 3-1 lead in the third period, somehow we let them climb back into the game to tie it. With Overtime solving nothing, we entered the shootout. We shot first and after the first 3 shooters, we were tied 1-1. Then the order reversed after the first 3, with Rouen shooting first. Carl Malette ripped a shot over the glove of our goaltender Ramon Sopko giving Rouen the edge and needing only a save from International French star goalie Fabrice L'Henry to seel the victory. So who shot for us.....I did. So trying not to think about the fact that if I missed the game was over, everybody would be starring at me and we would lose that much needed confidence heading into Sunday's Final, also marking the 4th straight time we would have lost to them this season. So I somehow cleared those thoughts, skated pretty fast in my approach in ripped a shot 5 hole. I would say a low risk/high reward shot, ranking pretty low for style points. So now it was 2-2, then they score again to make it 3-2. Our Finnish sniper Joni Lindlof is facing the same situation I was in, and he delivers under the pressure to tie it 3-3. After a Rouen miss, F.P. Guenette sniped top corner and the victory was ours.

I strongly believe that this victory gave us a huge edge heading into the final. We knew now that we could beat them, we outplayed them in that game and found a way to win in the shootout. Now, we grabbed a meal in the dressing room and already had our bags prepared for Paris as the bus would take us directly to Paris Bercy after our game. We drove all through the night and arrived around 10am the next morning. We unpacked our equipment and hung it up at the rink, got our player passes, allowing us entry in and out of the Paris Omnisport rink and proceeded to the hotel. We had a meal, then some free time to check out Paris a little bit, the Champs Elysées, L'Arc de Triomphe and La Tour Eiffel before our practice later that afternoon.

The next day most of the guys were up around 8am for breakfast, followed by a team dynamic warm up in the hotel. We had brunch then it was off to the rink. I am not sure how the other guys were feeling but I was loving this. I tried to stay in the moment the whole time and not to get too caught up in wondering who was going to win and being afraid of failure. I just wanted to cherish every second of this experience and enjoy it. Who knows when you will ever get another chance to play in front of 14,000 people again?

The game was strong from start to finish, they scored midway through the first period but we equalized later on in the second. We took the play to them a bit more, put 39 shots on their goalie to their 28, had more legs and more scoring chances. Don't get me wrong, they played well too and were very dangerous on the attack but in that game, on that day, I believe the better team won. Hats off to Rouen, the first 3 games of the season we played against them, they pretty much dominated us and had us on our heals with their offensive rushes and counter attacks, but with these back to back games, we could see they were trying to do a bit too much, sometimes taking close to 2 minute shifts in an attempt capitalize offensively. Whereas we were rolling with 25-30 second shifts and felt relatively fresh from start to finish.

So we enter a shootout for the second straight game. Rouen shoots first. The first two shooters for each team miss. Rouen's 3rd shooter Carl Malette, who scored on a wrist shot in the top right corner on 2 days earlier, attempts the same move and is robbed by his former teammate Ramon Sopko. Now for our 3rd shooter, we turn to Edo Terglav. Our Captain and heart and soul, who's knee was injured a week earlier in Morzine. But this was the Final of the Coupe de France and Edo was going to do whatever he could to play! In this game he attempted to play and only lasted the first 10 minutes of the game before taking a low hit to that same knee. Ironically, the low hit, which was 100% a deliberate attempt to take out Edo's injured knee, was delivered by the same Rouen player who hit me from behind back in December. Is this a coincidence, or is the character and intentions of this player starting to show its true colours??????

Getting back to our 3rd shooter....So if Edo scores Briancon will win its first title in the team's 70 something year history. He approaches slowly, and everyone is wondering, if he can even skate? As he hits the top of the circles, he picks up speed, which throws the goalie off a bit with the timing and his failed poke check, leaves Edo on his backhand with an open net. He deposits the puck and goes running down the ice. He can't even feel his legs as the ice is littered with equipment, gloves and helmets are tossed into the air as our celebration begins!!!!!

This blog is getting long here..... To sum things up, this was the greatest game I have ever been a part of. Not since winning the Wayne Gretzky Pee Wee Travel "A" Tournament in Brantford, Ontario have I ever had a chance to call myself a Champion. More importantly, be part of a Championship team! I was very happy to have been able to share this experience with my dad, as he was also there in Brantford 15 years ago when I was last part of a winning team.

We had a parade in the town a few days after and raised the banner last Saturday but the hype is starting to calm down a bit now. We have already played 2 league game since (winning 6-0 and 6-1) and have 5 more games left before the playoffs. So we have a few more events with sponsors and stuff but after that, this Coupe de France Championship will be just a fond memory, as we prepare for our next objective: Ligue Magnus Playoff Championship!!!!

Win/Lose Game

2010-01-26T14:16:00.004+01:00

It seems as though our team is really starting to gel at the right time. With another win and a strong defensive game, we are peaking at the right time with the Coupe de France less than a week away. We took down Morzine 4-2 on Saturday night, but may have lost our Captain Edo Terglav for a long period of time.

Early in the first period Edo made a pass and proceeded to skate a few strides, then out of nowhere took a violent hip check to knees. The worst part is that Edo had passed the puck about 3 seconds earlier and was totally unsuspecting as he was attacked low from the side. Having just jumped onto the ice on a line change, and seeing our captain lay motionless on the ice, I skated towards the scrum of players and was the first to reach the ever cowardly Morzine player. Instead of standing up for himself, he panicked and scurried behind the net for protection. By the time I got a hold of him, the rest of his teammates were there to protect him. Had this been in North America, there certainly would have been a fight, but in France you could get a 2 games suspension and fined 150 euros. So unfortunately, you have players on the ice second guessing themselves, wondering if the punishment would fit the crime. After the game Edo being pretty upset asked only that the Morzine player hit him straight on instead of going after his knees. Even if it was a late hit.

There is a video below of the hit, so instead of taking my word for it, you can see it for yourself

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbz1gr_faute-de-nicolas-daoust-et-debut-de_sport

We had a 5 minute power play, I was in the box with a coincidental minor for roughing and by the time we had a whistle, there was 1:30 left in our advantage. We ended up scoring with about 15 seconds left, then again about 5 minutes later on another power play.

News on our captain right now is unclear, we have a big game Friday at home before we leave for Paris Bercy to play the final of La Coupe de France.

Return to Action- Mentally and Physically

2010-01-23T10:54:00.004+01:00

Just finished up a bowl of Oatmeal after our 9am morning skate today and as I look out my 4th floor window, I see clear blue skies. In Briancon we get about 300 days of sun and as the year has gone on, I think I have been taking it for granted a bit. So from now on I will appreciate every sunny day we have here! What a great day for hockey we have as well. I am making my return back to the lineup after missing 5 games with a shoulder injury. We will be leaving for Morzine in 2 hours, a place where I have had some success in the past. In 2 games there, I have tallied 3 goals 1 assist (including the Shootout winner last year). Hopefully that trend will continue tonight as we face a pretty good team.

Over the last 3 1/2 weeks, though being hampered by my shoulder injury, I have been trying to do as much as possible to get my mind clear and my body ready for my return. I was on the ice immediately, just skating and avoiding pucks because the urge to fire some shots was just too strong. My focus was my skating, position specific movements and especially conditioning. It is tough to replicate game situations and keep your body in game shape during an injury but being on the ice everyday was a priority to make the transition back to the games a bit smoother.

Right from the start I was in the gym either riding the bike or doing unilateral training. Focusing on one side and trying to keep my strength on my good side, rather than lose strength in both due to the injury. Also, research shows that during unilateral training, there is an 8-10% strength transfer to the contralateral side. Any edge I could get I was going to take it! Plyometrics and speed training were also a focus and I actually feel a bit better on the ice right now in terms of acceleration and changes of direction.

Any hockey player will agree that watching your team play while you are unable to help them on the ice is one of the hardest things to do. You just want to be out there so badly to help your team compete and win. To deal with this tension and frustration, I began meditating. My mom has been telling me for years to try to meditate a little be each day, just to clear your mind and keep you in the present moment. Sometimes when things come from your mother, no matter what it is, you are just a little bit resistant to comply. It was as if she was telling me to clean my room. So, until about 2 weeks ago, I put it off and never listened to her. Since I have started meditation, I have found it to be helpful with dealing with stress and to avoid the constant clutter of thoughts in my head. For hockey players, the last thing you want to do is to be thinking on the ice. We want to be reactive. Even during practices this past week, I have seen a difference in my game and decision making. This may be due to the physical work I have been putting in, but I believe that it is the mind that separates two players with equal amounts of skill and work ethic. As hockey is just as much mental as it is physical, training the mind/body to work as one can only have a strong correlation in your game.

Also during this time, I took advantage of gaining my weight back. If you are unaware, early in October I became really sick with an intestinal infection. After being in the hospital 3 times in 2 days, I lost 15lbs (7kg). Since hockey is a demanding sport, trying to gain back that weight during the season is virtually impossible. With my normal playing weight being 200lbs (91kg), the highest I got back to was about 187lbs (85kg). Some people didn't even recognize me when I went back to Epinal during our December break. However, with less calories being expended during these 3 1/2 weeks, I continued eating the way I do (Constantly) and also started taking a weight gainer to see if I could put some mass back on. So what are the results????

I am tipping the scales right now at 195lbs (88.5kg). We are getting closer but I am happy with that!

I am excited to be back in action and looking forward to coming back even stronger than I was before. Mentally and Physically.

Stay tuned for the results tomorrow!!!!

Coupe de France, Theo Fleury and Positive Energy!!!

2010-01-06T21:32:00.003+01:00

We made it one step closer to the Coupe de France last night with our win over Strasbourg in the Alsace region 5-2. This was the second straight game I did not play as I am nursing a shoulder injury that occurred in our league game in Amiens a week ago. I had scored to tie it 2-2 then right at the end of the period I took a crosscheck high in my back and it really messed up my shoulder. X-rays were good, and all the tests ruled out any muscle damage. So for the time being I am still in quite a bit of pain and still cannot shoot the puck yet.

So last night with our huge semi final game in Strasbourg, I jumped at the opportunity to join my teammates on the road, in any capacity I could help. Turns out we did not have any ice time in the morning for game day practice, so I was able to help out by setting up a workout for the team, comprised of ladders, hurdles and agility slats. This was a replacement for the practice so I had to make that clear because some of the guys do not enjoy our Speed Agility Quickness (SAQ) training, but it was imperative that we get our muscles activated and firing, while getting a good sweat in the process (as we would, had we skated).

Just as I was getting on the bus later that day as we headed to the rink as a team, I was told that I would be doing the "colour commentating" on the radio for our game. I thought, "well, I have done it twice before in University, and had lots of fun with it, but that was in English." I agreed anyways and served as the special guest commentator on Alpes 1. It was pretty funny actually because they did not have a set system where one would do the "play-by-play" and the other do the "commentary," so the whole game they both sort of just battled their way for control of the microphone, while I just laughed and waited for them to ask me questions. They were getting so negative, and started criticizing some of our players as we trailed 2-1, I finally had to step in and say something. Though it was all in French, I will paraphrase "Ok, well I think it is about time with shift away from this negative energy here and start giving our team some positive vibes and the support we need to win this game."

We scored 2 quick goals to take the lead 3-2. So it was all positive energy right? For sure :)

Whatever, I think I helped our team in the best way I could since I could not play, I got them ready with a workout in the morning, then I defended the players they were criticizing on the radio, then the surge of positive energy from myself/the radio guys, plus all of our listeners on Alpes 1. Positive energy is very powerful. Ok, maybe I am stretching it a little bit here haha, but whatever, just let me believe that I helped my team because being injured and watching without being able to help the guys on the ice, has to be one of the toughest things in hockey. Needless to say, the evening was interesting being on the radio, in a way it took my mind off of the final outcome desired and made me focus more on the process of getting there. And it was in FRENCH!!!

Usually I get a few movies on my iPod touch before a long road trip, and this trip was no different, I had 3 new flicks and was armed to go. However, I also brought along with me one of my Christmas presents that my mom sent over. It was Theo Fleury's new book "Playing with Fire." I started reading Monday night on the bus as we departed for Strasbourg, but then I could not put the damn book down! I rarely read books but this was just took a hold of me. Then as the day was getting stressful leading up to the game, I kept going strong and crushed 265 pages over the 24 hours. I have only about 30 pages left. Shocking, reading can actually be very fun and keeps your mind active.

Alrighty, so we are going to the Finals of the Coupe de France in a single elimination game against Rouen to be played in Paris Bercy in front of an estimated 13,000 people. I was a spectator the last two seasons there and I feel that will give me an advantage now as a player. What an opportunity this is, I am so excited and will be just living in the moment every step of the way. No nerves, no stress, I am just going to absorb all of this great experience and have fun with it. But I think we have the secret weapon..........shhhhhhhhh........... positive energy ;)

Noel Noel La la la la la

2009-12-24T15:43:00.002+01:00

As Christmas dinner approaches in a few hours, I have found some time to sneak in a quick blog and hopefully if I write fast enough, a quick nap. I am pretty tired after our 5-1 win over Amiens last night in Coupe de France 1/4 finals. Usually after a game, I have a hard time falling asleep right away, and since I have subscribed to ESPN360, I have been staying up late watching NHL games live on my computer. Last night I took in the first two periods of the Montreal/Carolina game, where I was happy to fall asleep with the Canadiens leading 5-1.

I think part of the reason after my games I can't fall asleep immediately is because mentally I am wide awake from the game and all the hype and energy it takes to be mentally alert at all times, but also because of the pre game nap. Generally I like to relax and have a little snooze, I do not set out 2 hours, 12 minutes and 36 seconds or anything superstitious like that. Though I do like to have my pasta around 1pm, then relax in bed. I usually watch hockey highlights on TSN or NHL.com for a while, then try to fall asleep. Sometimes I am so excited for the game, all I can think about is what I am going to do on the ice, how I am going to help our team win. That, however, is not the best strategy, because thinking too much can often be a negative thing. Hockey is very much a game of read a react situations and very instinctive, there is simply no time to think and calculate, it must be automatic. Visualization I do encourage, or imagery. Which entails running through situations in your head exactly how they would happen and seeing yourself perform them with 100% execution. That way, when that same situation arises in the game, there is not thinking involved, you simply react because in your mind, you have repeated many times over again with fluidity and precision.

As for our game last night, the big story was our penalty kill. With the game tied 1-1 nearing the end of the first period, we found ourselves down 2 men on some pretty weak calls. The shocking part for us however, was that after being down 2 men, we managed to take another penalty 3 seconds later. Then another penalty 20 seconds after that, followed by our coach, who was obviously pissed off, receiving another 2 minutes for a harmless hand gesture (which I must clarify, was not the middle finger). So for over 4 minutes we were short handed 5 on 3 and I forgot to mention, 3 of our defensemen were in the penalty box. In Epinal I was always on for the penalty kill in 5 on 4 or 5 on 3 situations but in Briancon, with many solid defensive defensemen that we have, I usually am conserved on the bench for the power play and even strength.

With about 2 minutes left to kill, I find myself racing out onto the ice to replace one of our defensemen. I was so excited and so determined to kill this off, because I knew it would give us so much energy and confidence. They took possession in our zone early but forced a bad pass which I swooped in on and dumped down the ice to kill some time. They came back into our zone and moved it around a bit, the puck went out to the point and I raced into the lane and blocked the shot off my ankle. The puck went down low, back up to the top again and as I was hurting in pain, I jumped into the shooting lane again for another blocked shot. Man this was getting exciting, I was having so much fun blocking shots, I started thinking that being a defensive defenseman could give the same pleasures as scoring goals! Anyways, the puck gets dumped back out, I make a line change and the kill is completed shortly after. Wow, that was awesome, sorry for rambling on there. What a momentum shift that was though!!!

Ok, less detail to sum up the rest of the game. We scored twice in the 2nd to make it 3-1, then again twice in the 3rd to win the game 5-1. We now head to the semi-finals in Strasbourg on Jan 5th, with the winner earning a berth to Paris, Bercy to play in the finals of La Coupe de France on Jan 31st. It is going to be a tough game, but we are going to be ready.

This is getting exciting :)

Game in Dijon

2009-12-18T22:29:00.002+01:00

I would have written a few days ago but it our team had some time off for a few days so it was nice to get a mental break from everything. But before the break, we had a game in Dijon. Usually we leave the night before the game, sleep in the bus, have a practice in the morning and get hotel rooms for a pre game nap before our match. This time we left in the morning at 9:30am, stopped on the highway to eat, then continued on to Dijon where we arrived with enough time to go for a walk into the city to wake up the legs.

The game started off very well for us, as we got a goal in the first few minutes of the game. I dumped the puck cross corner so Damien Raux could pick it up with some speed, he made a quick pass to Joni Lindlof in the slot and his shot bounced off of Edo Terglav and through the goalie's legs. Joni said he was going stick side and was pretty sure it was going in, then it his Edo's leg and went 5-hole. Either way, it was a big goal to get us on the board.

The next shift out, our North American style of chipping pucks out supporting the puck worked to our advantage as Terglav chipped the puck past the pinching Dijon defender to a streaking Lindlof. Seeing this I jumped up into the play to make it a 3 on 2 with Raux. Lindlof hit me with a pass in the slot and I one timed it 5-hole to put us up 2-0.

I believe what sealed the game for us was when Marc-Andre Bernier scored our 3rd goal shorthanded on a 2 on 1. He came down the right side and with his lethal shot, ripped it blocker side (Jarome Iginla style). We eventually went up 5-0 before winning 7-3 in a game that was sealed in the first period.

The Dijon game is an example of what we have to do against the weaker teams in our league. We know Dijon can be a dangerous team and if we have a slow start and give up a few goals early, that will give them lots of confidence and a belief they can win. But if we can get a few goals early, we should be able to break their spirits and be in command the rest of the way through. Our team has gotten into trouble this year by allowing weaker teams to stay in the game longer and keep us from scoring goals.

We have been working on it in practice and hopefully it was start paying off and the goals will be coming in bunches. It can only start happening at the right time, with La Coupe de France in our sights.

I can stomach it!

2009-12-11T17:01:00.002+01:00

Well, after two days of practice, I am feeling pretty good. I was told by the doctor not to be back on the ice for 8 days but yesterday I just wanted to see how things felt on the ice so I laced up the skates and had the intention of only doing a few drills. As the practice went on, I felt decent and continued for the rest of the practice. Today was even better, less pain in my stomach and I pushed it a bit more in the drills. At times I forgot I was even coming off such a rough hit from Tuesday night.

So with Dijon in our sights tomorrow night, I will be on the bus in the morning as we will play our last game, before the league breaks for the National teams to get together. As soon as I found out that there was no serious damage to my insides, I was pretty determined to be in the lineup for the game on Saturday. Especially important will be some of my friends from Epinal making the 2 hour road trip to watch the game. Hopefully I will be in better form than I was in early October when I returned to "Les Vosges" after suffering a severe gastro! Just to note, I still have not gained back all of the 7kg I lost from that illness. I usually play at 90kg or 200lbs, but I am still hovering around 86kg since then.

On another note, who saw the Habs/Pens game last night? Man, did Montreal ever get robbed. The ref blew the whistle while the puck was in the crease and just as Scott Gomez scored, claiming that Fleury had it covered. I thought French refs were bad.....kidding (just in case you guys are reading).

I used to just watch all of the highlights on TSN every morning to get the scoop on the NHL, but last week I decided to subscribe to ESPN360 online. This gives me every single NHL game, live and on demand, so I can watch it anytime I want. The best part about it though, it is in HIGH DEFINITION. After our home games, I usually can't get to sleep right away, so I take advantage of watching Hockey Night in Canada with Don Cherry. It makes me feel closer to home. But ya this is great, in the last week I think I have watched about 25 games.

Little off track there, woops. So to sum things up...... I am feeling good, I have been practicing, I will play tomorrow, then watch NHL games all week!!!

Ca va aller!

2009-12-09T19:57:00.004+01:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything and even when I do it seems to be maybe twice a month so I am going to make a big effort to blog more regularly. I will try to write a resume from our games and maybe add another blog during the week at some point as well.

I know many of you are concerned with what happened in the game last night against Rouen. We lost.

Oh ya, and I was taken off the ice on a stretcher.

Yes it is true and at the time it seemed very bad but I can assure everyone that I will be fine and that is was a big scare but it is a good thing that I have abs of steel.

To explain a bit in detail, last night we were playing in the semi-finals of Coupe de la Ligue against Rouen. In the third period down a few goals, we decided to pull our goalie with about 7 minutes to play. We had a faceoff in the offensive zone, but quickly lost possession and the puck was flipped high in the air and began heading for our empty net. Noticing that I was the last guy back, I turned and started skating back to get the puck before it crossed the goal line. I arrived just in time to pull the puck away and I turned into the corner but as I was turning, the puck traveled through the goal crease and the mount of snow next to the post. I lost control of the puck and had to reach back behind the net to get it. As I was changing direction, I lost my balance (so they tell me) and was hit from behind.

My head hit the glass very hard, but the worst part was the immediate pain in my stomach and the fact that I could not breathe whatsoever. For a second I think I lost consciousness after hitting my head but I quickly realized the pain and tore my helmet off as I was gasping for air. I believe it was the top hand on my stick that was driven into my stomach as I was crunched on the boards and I am not sure how much time passed before the medical staff got to the ice but it was probably long enough for a television timeout (if the game were televised). By the time the doctor arrived I had started to find my breath but could not speak to explain the pain I felt, I just held my stomach with my hands. I remember very vividly the doctor's face being within 1 cm of mine, as he told me to breathe easily. I was struggling and now that I think about it, I probably just did not want to breathe in his face, I can't imagine what my breath smelled like from 1cm away.

The medical staff came out with a stretcher and the crowd was whistling like crazy. I saw the stretcher to my left and was adamant on not wanting to go off the ice on a stretcher. I pushed it away with my left hand, but as the doctor's nose hairs grazed against my pale face, he told me this was non negotiable and that I could have hemorrhaging in my intestines and if I got up it could be very dangerous. This doc was tough, if his power wasn't displayed by forcing me onto that stretcher, him going face to face with my dragon breath really showed courage!

As I was being placed on the stretcher, a few of our guys came by and gave me a tap, I remember seeing Carl Malette from Rouen come over as well with some encouraging words just before I was taken to the dressing room. At the time, I could not really digest ( no pun intended) what was happening and the magnitude of it all, but I do believe I heard our crowd chanting "Enculé" as I left the ice. Feel free to hit the Translator on that one. Pretty sure it was directed at the guy who hit me.

I know there were many things written on the internet about what happened and that is why I am trying to clear it up. So for the record, I was NOT transported by helicopter to the hospital in Grenoble. Well from the state I was in, maybe I was, but they must have got me back to Briancon pretty fast. So I think I arrived by ambulance and they quickly did an ultrasound to check for hemorrhaging, which was negative. But in this case negative is a positive. So no internal bleeding, alright, good sign. I might have a bit of a cracked rib issue but I can deal with that.

So after two different ultrasounds and 2 x-rays, there is nothing extremely serious to be concerned with. Good thing for Twist Conditioning and all of that Core Strengthening I have done over the years to help protect my insides! For now I am taking it easy, I still have pain in my stomach and intestines and my abs are pretty seized up for the time being, but I am going to take things slow and just be thankful that it was not worse than this.

As for the culprit, well I am not going to be putting a bounty on his head, I will not even mention his name. I still have not seen the video of the hit so I do not know exactly what happened. I know hockey is a fast sport and sometimes these kinds of things result. Apparently he claimed he did nothing wrong on the ice as my teammates defended me. My only issue is that you take responsibility for your actions. I don't believe he intended to hurt me and had I been facing him it would have been a completely legal check. But the fact of the matter is, he hit me square from behind. I like a good physical game and believe that hitting is a big part of the game of hockey, but injuries occur when we are careless and checking from behind is where we must pay close attention.

Special thanks to Damien Raux who stayed at the hospital for a few hours after the game and was nice enough to stay up until 5am watching the Habs/Sens NHL game with me (Go Habs Go!) And also Bernard Rouillard who is always there for the players and their families.

Ca va aller!!! I'll be back soon :)

Team Identity

2009-11-23T19:17:00.003+01:00

Well, the month of November has been flying by us here. Tomorrow we are in the 1/8 of Coupe de France action in Villard. Normally we should be the heavy favourites entering the game but with our recent track record of letting the weaker teams stay in the game, more and more teams have hope against us. Last Saturday in Gap is a prime example. This team is much weaker than us and have played in Division 1 the past two seasons. They have a few good players but the most dangerous is that they believe they can beat us. It was so close this time that we only tied it up with 1:40 left in the game, before winning in a shootout.

This has already happened a few times this year and still never costing us a loss, but I believe that last Saturday was a real wake up call and we should see a powerful Briancon team hit the ice tomorrow, winning battles, driving the net hard and just simply outworking the other team. That is our game plan. With our talent, if we start beating teams by work ethic and not just skill, we will be a very dangerous team.

On a side note, Team World lost today's Soccer match vs. Team France. The score was uncertain as the French team, most likely inspired by Thierry Henry's blatant hand ball against Ireland last week, turned a blind eye to many offsides and hand balls of their own as they cruised to a one sided victory.

On a personal note and on going head to head battle, I scored early to make it 2-1 on French goaltender Damien Raux :)

Ultimate Frisbee

2009-11-08T20:51:00.004+01:00

While we are still waiting for a few of our teammates to get back from their National teams and after 5 days off, we were back in the gym and back on the ice Friday. With 2 training sessions per day for Friday and Saturday we had a day off today and rejoin again tomorrow morning at 9am. As the team's strength and conditioning coach, I am in charge of organizing and running our teams workouts. Since we have been working so hard in the last two days, instead of the scheduled Core Circuit planned in the gym, I think I am going to change things up with a game of Ultimate Frisbee.

This is a very common sport in Vancouver and though I lived there for 5 years, by no means does that give me the title of an experienced player. I believe I played only a handful of times with my Human Kinetics classes, but I am familiar with the rules and will be happy to explain them tomorrow morning in both French and English with my teammates. This will be a nice change of pace for our team, give us a good workout and keep that competitive nature going as we face Chamonix in the 1/4 of the Coupe de la Ligue on Wednesday.

Not sure what the teams are going to be for tomorrow yet but for our soccer games we have usually done France vs. The World. If this is the case, France will be missing Damien Raux who is representing his country but Team World will take a big hit missing the leadership and work ethic from Victor Szelig and Edo Terglav, who are away with Team Hungary and Team Slovenia respectively.

This is all weather dependent as we did have some snow fall today in the Alpes. Stay Tuned!!!