stallions2004

The THAAAQ-2 will allow all the teams to play both tourneys..... that's a start of having 1 strong league in my opinion.

My predictions; -in 2 yrs you will see a LEAAAQ 3.0! -The THAAAQ & THAAAQ1 will combine to form only 1 THAAAQ. -Some teams will beg to come back to the THAAAQ from the LEAAAQ X.0! -The most elite tourney will still be the Meltdown.

What a joke.... next year it'll be 3.0!!! Bonne chance and remember that the THAAAQ doesn't allow any player that plays for a team in the LEAAAQ (now 2.0) to play for a team in the THAAAQ. Bonne chance but I highly suggest for players to play for a team that plays in the THAAAQ as the competition is much better and there are more choices of tourneys. You are wasting your time if you aren't playing in the THAAAQ.

Very interesting comments and I don't think I can fully disagree with anything AL2003 is saying. If I can further add to the discussion, if we use the famous ''playing other sports help develop other skills and different ways of seeing things''..... wouldn't you want to teach kids both puck control & dumping and chasing at the same time in order to brighten their minds? Also, are you not developing a bad habit if you only tell them to not dump the puck the same way many parents tell their elite kids to not pass to anyone in Novice?

AL2003 I agree with your comments 100%. For sure if you cannot skate then there is no point in learning to stickhandle. My 2 kids have done Turcotte Stickhandling and my oldest improved his stickhandling tremendously the first time he did it because his skating fundamentals were there, however my youngest didn't have all his skating fundamentals down yet so he didn't progress very much. At the end of the day stickhandling teaches kids to be more comfortable with the puck. Dumping and chasing is a game strategy/philosophy to help win hockey games. The basic principle is to give the puck to the other team deep in their zone to use your teams skating skills to put pressure on the puck handler to force mistakes and turnovers (deep in their zone). Like it or not you are using one of the most important skills in hockey which is skating & aggressivenes, but you also need to be able to do something with the puck when you have it on your stick. NHL teams play this strategy all the time and it's part of the game. At the end of the day, the skills you need to work on are more serebral such making quick hockey decisions with the puck. If you have the puck on your stick more than 2-3 seconds then you will never be an NHL player. The most important skill in hockey in my opinion is being able to make a quick accurate pass to your teammate in order to create time and space!

Daniel, one can only hope about getting another Brick license in Quebec ; ) I've always said that a little competition never hurt anyone!

Carey, the 2003's NEVER won the KOTR's, it was the 2004's that won it last year. But this posting is about the tournois de la releve and not the KOTR.

The 2004 KOTR Team were not allowed to enter this tourney in the 2003 level unforetunately because there was a team that threatened to withdraw because they felt we were to strong. What does that tell you about the level of this tourney?

Caillou, first off the Stallions have not ''brainwashed'' anyone and secondly this is not a ''Stallions'' initiative to control the Brick coaches or team selection as there are people from other organizations & teams involved besides the 'Stallions''. The only thing you got right in your uneducated post was that the owner of the Brick license (Rick Rusk) for the Ice Storm controls the selection process for both the players and coaches in Quebec (which I've mentioned a few times I believe). That being said, the initiative we are undertaking is to unite the best 2004's together to have them train & play together once a week to develop chemistry and team skills so that once the eventual team is selected the 2014 Brick team will have a fighting chance to win the tourney. Further to your comments, I know personally fo my son and a few others are planning on staying at home if this team doesn't have a fighting chance to win. Finally, the only way the ''Stallions'' have any shot at controlling the Brick process is if they were ever to be awarded a Brick license for a 2nd team in Quebec which I don't think will ever happen. Now please get over your jealousy of the Stallions.

Pour les coaches des entrainements on a déja un engagement d'une des meilleurs entraineur pour travaillé le timing des passes... donc Gaston Gingras et d'apres moi une des meilleurs jeunes coach des gardiens en Marco Raimondo. Marco travail avec nos gardiens depuis les 3 dernieres année et fait une job écoeurante. Le coach de l'équipe Brick officielle est pas décidé et va seulement etre décidé par les dirigeants du Brick.... mais je peux pratiquement vous dire que ca ne va pas etre un coach parentale. A mon avis le meilleur coach presentement disponible sera entre Gaston Gingras et Denis Chalifoux.

Misterhockeyfan, je ne suis pas d'accord avec votre opinion sur les défenseurs. A mon avis il y a 3 défenseur élite, apres il y a un autre 4-6 défenseurs environ au meme niveau mais qui a un petit gap entre les 3 premiers. Apres ca le gap a mon avis drop un peut avec les autres défenseurs. Il y a aussi 1 des top 3 qui va peut etre aller joué comme avant alors il y a bcp de changement et opportunité qui va ce faire certainement. On va regardé tous les joueurs et de les données du temp a progressé durant l'hiver.

Sur invitation seulement. J'ai déja une liste composé de 13 défenseurs, 29 avants, et 3 gardiens. La premiere semaine ou 2 va surement etre une sorte de session de tryouts dépendant du nombre de jeune qui vont etre intéresser.

Ray, tu as certainement raison. On a déja bcp de bon joueur sur notre liste a bien survaiyer. Et comme mentioner, la session de training que j'organise les dimanches matin va etre extremement critique pour ceux qui veulent faire parti de l'équipe Brick a mon avis. Ca va vraiment permettre a tous les joueurs de créer leur place et de montrer qu'est ce qui son capable de faire versus les meilleurs des meilleurs de la cuvée 2004.

Lucic, shouldn't you be enjoying the Italian sunshine & lolita's or something : ) For the forwards we will see how the additions to the team changes things. I know that during our past season, the Stallions 2004 more often than not dominated possesion in the offensive zone but had trouble sometimes scoring as most of the oppositions would simply protect the box with 5 players so it was hard getting quality shots through. I'm sure also as the year goes on, kids will be getting stronger and that will help their shots from the point be quicker and stronger....

Bien résumé Daniel........ Some more comments on the 2004's; 1- They have a very strong defensive core. This core has loads of experience playing in high pressure packed games. They have also played together for over 2 yrs, some even playing with body contact together in Boston 3 summers ago. They have good size and skill and just need to sometimes play better positioning and learn to move the puck a touch better. Defense wins Championships and the 2004's are built from the back out! 2- The Goalies are very strong technically and have put in a lot of hard work. They have gone through some tough times but have learned how to deal with the past mistakes. They have really matured in the past year. 3- The forwards on the KOTR team have skills, grit, and most importantly character. They are not all the superstars of their team so some have learned to play specific roles and to pass the puck. I see the forwards as being the biggest area where this team needs to improve as many are still getting used to playing the wing versus center. However, this team is loaded with character players that understand how to step it up when they are down or not playing well. Their biggest strength to me is that they simply win the battles against the boards.... now they just need to understand how to use the D's more in the offensive zone.... and then vice versa the D's need to understand how to get the puck to the forwards to get the best possible chances to put the puck in the net.

Yankee46..... tres bien dit et bravo a toi.

Lucic, I cannot disagree with you on the coaching as you witnessed the ''experience'' first hand. However, the one thing to me that is quite obvious is that naming the coach only 2-3 months before and not having any practices (with the exception of a few hours the week before the tourney) it's almost impossible for the coach to get to know the players. The entire process of the Quebec Brick team done by the Ice Storm has many holes in it in my opinion.

AL2003, I agree with some of your comments but one of the advantages that the 2004's have over the 2003's is that 90-95% of the top talent is in the Montreal area or at a maximum of 1.5 hours away. From my understanding with the 2003's, it was more 70-30%. Therefore, I think with the 2004's it's a totally different approach that we can take. Further, although the individual skills with the 2003's might be stronger than the 2004's (in my opinion of course), I believe the team game is stronger so we need to continue building on it because to have success at the Brick you absolutely need to have strong passing skills, positioning & kids need to play their roles. We absolutely do not want any individual coming before the team because if that is the case you are almost guaranteed to lose. With the 2004's I don't want to follow past teams and only start in April, I want to take this to another level and set the bar at the top. I personally am never content with being average. Average is a close to the bottom as it is to the top!!!

The team put together for the KOTR tourney is a private team. This is NOT the chosen Brick team. The official Brick team will be chosen at a later date by the owner(s) of the the Brick license in Quebec. Instead of hating everyone & everything that this team represents, try taking it with a grain of salt and encouraging them EVEN if your son/daughter is not part of it. Many of the best 2004's have come together and I will be organizing a once a week training session every Sunday morning (the best 18 forwards & 8 defense & 3-4 goalies). The invitations for the tryouts for this training session will be sent via email within the next 2-3 weeks so if you think your son/daughter belongs on that list, please send me an email at bvidicek@yahoo.com The goal is that the eventual Brick team will be chosen from this Elite group and that chemistry and team play will be developed during this session. The sessions are planned for Sundays from 6:30-8:00 am at Complexe Guimond and we are looking for some sort of a commitment from the top players & their parents even if they live a couple of hours away. Like I've said in the past, if my son is selected (and many of the top 204 players agree with this sentiment) the 2004's are not going to Edmonton to win only 1 or 2 games, we are going there to be very competitive as part of the experience is being successful. Even if the kids from this session do not make the Brick team, they are guaranteed to get much better.

I don't feel it's appropriate to name kids on a blog that made a team at 6-7 yrs old. But I can tell you that some players that were selected from very good teams didn't want to commit to going. That being said, the talent & skill level that were at the tryout camp was incredible to watch and the team that was selected is very skilled and I cannot wait to get them practicing & playing together. Having gone through this process with the 2004's two years ago I can say it's a very fun experience for the parents, coaches, and more importantly the kids! The competition in Toronto is bar none the top level competition in North America at this age group.

Maskoutain2003, these practices are not team practices but more training session run by a paid trainer so it's totally allowed and we are not breaking any hockey QC rules. They are just like any other power skating clinics that you pay for during the year. If you don't agree with it for whatever reason that's totally your choice as nobody is forcing you or anyone else to do them. As for winning the Brick at all cost.... well that's again your opinion. My opinion is that if I'm going to spend over $7000, I want to make sure that I go there to have a chance at winning it to enhance the experience and to do something that no other Quebec Brick team has ever done. Everyone in the past have sat on the sidelines and waited for the Brick organizers to do something.... the results have been obvious. The Stallions organization is trying to take the bull by the horns a little bit and trying a different approach. If you think the talent is there to make another team I highly encourage you to take the bull by the horns yourself and put a 2nd team together. My opinion is that there is a big drop in talent after the top 20-26 kids are chosen, especially at the defense position. However I do agree with you that the 2004 crop is very talented compared to other provinces and regions.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Kidhockey, if you are referring to the 2003 Brick team you might want to be aware that the are considered to be the best players from Eastern Canada & Quebec that were chosen by the Brick owners. Our KOTR team was not chosen by those same people. The reality of the situation is that our region is at a disadvantage because they don't play or practice together all year like those other teams. That being said, the 2004's will learn from their past mistakes and we are currently setting up a 1.5 hour practice every Sunday morning (6:30-8:00 am) at Complex Guimond (big ice) starting in September to April of the best 20-26 players born in 2004 to help prepare for the eventual Brick tryouts. If you think you son/daughter belongs in that group despite not being chosen as part of this KOTR team, please email me at bvidicek@yahoo.com Bengi

Comme gérant de l'équipe KOTR, I would be more then happy to organize an exhibition game against the best of the rest in Quebec. All I would need is someone to organize this other team. I personally encourage someone to take this step as I'm sure it would be good for everyone to see how good the KOTR team really is.

Je peux vous dire que le gardien des Bulldogs est tres bon absolument et a été considéré mais d'apres l'opinion du commité de sélection le gardien du Ice Storm a été l'histoire du tournoi au Meltdown aucun doute et a bien mérité ca place sur l'équipe. Oublié pas que beaucoup peut changé juste qu'au camp officielle du Brick alors laché pas de travaillé et de progresser les jeunes 2004!

Keep hiding behind your alias OP : ) Even though I think I know exactly who you are.