My First Day in Epinal (aug 16th, 2007)

At this time I would like to thank everyone that I have come into contact with over the past two seasons in Epinal. When I first arrived on August 16th, 2007, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was at the train station in Paris, speaking broken french and trying to buy a ticket to Epinal. I bought a first class ticket and ended up sitting in 2nd class, having no idea to check the car number or anything. As I lugged around two giant hockey bags, a back pack and my hockey sticks, I barely made it on the train.

Being from another country, we hear that the people in France are all snobs and very unhelpful in situations like that, but I have to say that is totally false. As I struggled to get on the train with all of my stuff, a very nice man helped me out and we got talking (in English). He spoke very well and ended up being from Epinal. As he saw how much I struggled and knowing that I had to switch trains in Nancy (where he had his car parked), he offered to give me a ride to Epinal and get me to the rink in time for practice. I am not sure if I would have made it without him, it was almost as if he was sent from God. Funny I say that, because he name was Mr. Dieudonné. Which means "God Given."

As he got me to the rink, I had now been travelling for roughly 24hours straight as I flew in from Vancouver. From there I was in the good hands of Thibaut, who is now a good friend of mine. He took my bags, escorted me to the dressing room as the players were going out for practice. Coming down the stairs was my new coach Shawn Allard, the first thing he says "Hey nice to meet you, get your hockey gear on!" I was thinking that he couldn't be serious I was travelling for a full day, with flights, trains and cars! I was on the ice 10mins later.

After the practice I went with my new roommates, the Finns! At this time however, we were living in a vacation home in Aydoilles about 20mins away. We get there and I have no bedroom, nor do I have a bed. Then a tiny mattress shows up for me and I find a cozy spot on the floor for the next two weeks. The reason for this was because we had 10 guys living in the house at the time.

I put my bags away quickly then was taken back into the city to eat at the Capitainerie, finally my first meal, I was so hungry. Unable to understand 3/4 of the menu, I noticed "poulet." CHICKEN!!!!! Yes I'll take it. It was pretty good, so I was going to give the waitress a good tip but apparently the tip is already included in the prices here in France? Even better :)

With a time zone change from Vancouver to France being 9 hours, I was pretty messed up but if you end up travelling for a full day without sleeping and surviving off a bunch of Snickers Bars, you should have no trouble sleeping that first night!

After that everything started to fall into place, I got a bedroom finally when Petrak found his own place, a few of the young guys moved out and then our tournament gave me a taste of Pro Hockey with 3 games in 3 days. So I was right into the swing of things quickly and I have not missed a step since then, taking my job as a professional hockey player very serious and living everyday being grateful that I can go to work knowing that I love my job!

Epinal gave me my start and for that I am extremely thankful and will never forget my first day of pro hockey in France!

Verbal Agreement Reached

It seems lots of information has been swirling around as of late, some accurate and some far fetched. Either way I am very flattered as people have been announcing my signing with many different teams in France. It feels good to be wanted :)

To update everyone, an agreement has been reached with one of the top teams in Ligue Magnus and though it has not been made official yet by signing the contract, everything will be official this weekend. I look forward to sharing more details in a few days. Thank you everyone for your support during this time, especially the very understanding Epinal fans!!!

My Habs are done :(

Well it was a pretty disappointing season for my Montreal Canadiens. I managed to see only one playoff game this year, as I set my alarm for 2am last Saturday night, but saw them go down 4-1 in the 2nd period before turning it off.

I am still here in Epinal, reason for me watching the NHL playoffs at 2am, and I should be for another week or two as things have been heating up lately for next year. I still am unsure where I will be lacing up my skates next season but one thing is for sure, it will be in France :)

Now we just have to wait and find out where???

Congrats to Ilpo!

I just wanted to send a big congrats to Ilpo Salmivirta who has recently signed with Rouen! What a huge accomplishment. Ilpo and I both started in Epinal 2 seasons ago and going through all the ups and downs with him here in France has be a pleasure. One of 5 roomates of mine last year, and not getting much sleep because he was rocking out to Iron Maiden on his guitar, I have to say the memories are all great. If there was one thing I would change, it would have him put his blueberry yogurt containers in the garbage and his spoon in the sink haha kidding.

On a more serious note, this is a great opportunity for a great player and I with Ilpo the best of luck!!!

Update with no updates

It's not because I don't care, I do! It is just that I have been waiting to write something that would really knock everybody's socks off, a big shocking blog post that everyone has been waiting for. Where will I be playing next season?

At this point that is still uncertain, there has not been as much activity as some may think, but I will not lie, there has been some talks with teams, including Epinal. Have other teams made offers? Perhaps. Have I signed a contract for next season yet? No.

Big getaway tomorrow as I will travel to Paris with my "chérie" and visit the sights that I last saw at the age of 12, when I was pulled away from my basketball tournament in Grade 8. Leaving the gym saying "sorry everyone, I HAVE to go to Paris with my parents."

I'm sure I will appreciate it much much more this time around!

Season 2 in France done!

Well I have taken some days to reflect since our elimination last Friday, and I have to say that despite losing three straight games to Rouen in the 2nd round of playoffs, we are all happy with our season. As a team we finished 6th out of 14 teams, our best finish in team history, and we also won a playoff series against Chamonix. Nobody expected us to beat a big club like Rouen in the playoffs, but it would have been nice to have stolen a game from them. Maybe if I had not hit the post late in the 2nd period of game 3 as we were trailing 1-0, things would have been different???

Not only were we happy with our season as a team, a few players stood out this year with outstanding individual seasons. My close friend and former roommate here in Epinal, the Finnish Sniper, Ilpo Salmivirta had a very dominate year burring 18 goals in 18 games. Our captain Jan Plch had a career high 52 points and Jan Simko found his form and with his lightning speed was able to record 836 breakaways this season, hahaha ok not really a stat and slightly exaggerated, but he did manage 13 goals and provide with exciting end to end rushes every game.

For me I am happy with my season, most of my individual goals were achieved, as I led all defensemen in points and goals and was named first team all star. Now it is contract time though. I have a meeting with our president this weekend in which we will open up negotiations and contract talks for next season.

Well, not much news here, the season is over, we have been saying our goodbyes this past week and everyone is interested to see what will happen with our team, who will come back, who will coach, and who will find some big contracts elsewhere???

2nd Round vs Rouen

We did it! We eliminated Chamonix to take the best of 3 first round series 2 games to 1. Now a date with Rouen awaits us as we travel there tomorrow morning for games Tuesday and Wednesday night. I thought I had seen it all here in France until after the victory against Chamonix, when Guillaume Chassard informed our players that we were going to honour Chamonix as they skated off the ice by forming 2 parallel lines facing each other and have the Chamonix players skate through us as they exited the ice. Kind of weird but we went with it, and the opposing to was shown respect from our fans as well with loud cheers as they left the ice for the last time this season.

Now our focus is on one of the most offensive powered teams in the league, Rouen. Driven by a mostly Canadian offensive and complemented equally with their Finnish contingent on defense, this Rouen team are the reigning playoffs champions from only 1 year ago. Having beaten them twice this season, once in Rouen in league play, and once at home in a Coupe de la Ligue match up, we know the task is not impossible.

Our keys will have to start with staying out of the penalty box and playing as much 5 on 5 hockey as possible. Also, we do not want to trade scoring chances with them as they seem to capitalize on any errors a team will make, resulting more often than not with a puck in the back of the net.

With 2 wins in a row and our offense rolling smoothly, if we can continue improving our play on defense, we will be looking for nothing less than a split in the series as we come home to play on Friday and Saturday night. In the playoffs momentum can be a very dangerous factor and since Rouen has not played a game in over a week, we will try to get a good start against them and try to keep the momentum going throughout the series.