My Saturday afternoon was spent on the campus of Deerfield Academy to watch the Big Green take on incoming recruit Mike Pereira and Avon Old Farms. While not huge, Pereira has good size at 5’11, 180lbs. He plays bigger than that though because he’s such a good skater. Not only does he posses great speed, which was shown numerous times in the game, but he’s extremely strong on his skates. There were very few times that Deerfield was able to knock him onto the ice without resorting to penalties, and that’s impressive considering they have a couple of 6’5″ guys on defense. Potentially he could be a force in front of the net and in the corners as he’ll be so tough to push off the puck.
He had very good vision of the ice on both offense and defense. I was happy to see him on the first penalty killing unit which hopefully means he could be an asset on defense. I didn’t see too much physical play for him but there was an instance early on where he completely levelled a Deerfield player along the boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
Offensively he certainly lived up to everything I had read to date. Exceptional stickhandling combined with his strong skating makes him extremely dangerous. At one point late in the game with the score tied he went completely coast to coast, barely touched, and almost put home the game winner. Overall he considers himself a playmaker, but I think he has the potential to be a key goalscorer for the Minutemen. He ended up with a lone goal in the 3-3 tie but it was a beauty. His center won a faceoff in the offensive zone, Pereira picked up the puck, and skated around the faceoff circle toward center ice. As soon as he came around the corner and had a straight view of the net he unleashed a nice wrister that when far top corner just a few inches below the crossbar. Skill goal. Assuming the two of them stay in school the prospect of Pereira on a line with James Marcou and Casey Wellman is enough to be cheerful about right now despite the team’s recent struggles.
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Speaking of Marcou and Wellman, the Republican’s Dick Baker writes that Toot needs to keep those two on the same line for UMass to be successful. In an effort to shake things up Toot put Wellman with TJ Syner and Will Ortiz and Marcou with Rocco Carzo and Danny Hobbs. At first I was going to refute Baker seeing as UMass actually got a whole three goals in the game including ones directly assisted by the two guys Toot split up. But Wellman only getting one shot on goal isn’t going to cut it, so perhaps putting them back together is the only choice at this point.
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Eric Filiou has recovered from mono and scored a couple goals for Penticton his weekend. Maybe he can give Doug Kublin some recovery pointers.
Colin Shea had 3 asssits to help the Junior Bruins win both of their games this weekend.
Conor Allen had a goal and an assist in three games for Sioux Falls this past week.
Kevin Boyle has not played since I watched him in the AJHL All-Star Game. He did not appear to get injured in that game.
Here’s a release the Rockets put out on Chris Delmauro heading out west to play in the USHL.
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In yet another ridiculous move by the International Olympic Committee, Jon Quick has been told to cover up the “Support The Troops” message on his Olympic mask. What a joke. Which is the more corrupt organization that has completely lost sight of their true mission; the NCAA or the IOC? I say it’s a tie.
According to the LA Times Quick will alternate with Tim Thomas as the backup to Ryan Miller. Team USA gets started today at 3pm EST against Switzerland.
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
Bullmoose
/ February 16, 2010Just looked at the Deerfield Academy website, and looks like they copied my alma-mater’s logo and “mascot”. They didn’t do a great job copying the main color though. 🙂 Interesting that we both watched the Big Green play hockey on Saturday…
Another note: why did Miller and Quick not consult the IOC and IIHF *before* commissioning their masks?
I also disagree with you on your assertion that the IOCs move asking Jon to cover up “Support The Troops” is “ridiculous.” I think politics do not belong to the Olympic Games. Would you have liked it if an Iranian athlete wore a mask that said: “Support The Jihad” (before you jump on me saying that Jihad is immoral terrorism, I’ll say that to *them* our troops are considered terrorists… plus, I am sure you have no problem with Jihad waged against nations other than your own). Or if a Russian guy wore something that said “Support South Osetia” during the Beijing Olympics?
The point I am trying to make is that “Support The Troops” on the mask of an American goaltender is not in the spirit of the international athletic harmony that the Olympic Games are supposed to represent. There are many other things you can fault IOC/IIHF for, but asking Quick to cover that is not one of them.
Best of luck to Quick, unless he plays against Russia. 🙂
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rocks22
/ February 16, 2010What you’re missing is that “Support The Troops” isn’t a political statement like the examples you gave. The phrase or a yellow ribbon doesn’t commemorate whatever reasons are behind our troops being overseas, it simply honors the fact that they are out there, somewhere, putting themselves in harms way because their country asks them to. “Support the troops” to me is universal, no matter the country and I don’t care if that phrase was on anyone’s mask at the Olympics. Also, please remember that I am 100% against the Iraq War and have been from the start. Yet I think what Quick put on the mask is completely appropriate because it speaks to each miliary person’s dedication to their country, not something specific as the war in Iraq. However, according to the IOC the phrase is “propaganda”. As is Ryan Miller putting the name “Matt” on his mask to honor a friend who died of cancer. That too is “propaganda” according to the IOC. That’s why it is ridiculous.
The IOC’s time would be better spent trying to run a seamless Olympic Games and protecting their athletes. So far they’ve failed miserably at that.
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Bullmoose
/ February 16, 2010I don’t think Quick meant his “Support The Troops” to be universal. Why would he put pics of Apache helicopters on his helmet next to those words, other than in support of the United States military?
There is nothing wrong with supporting your own military, by the way. It’s just I think it’s slightly jingoistic to do so at Olympics, since the mission of the Olympics is a *peaceful* athletic competition among nations. Thus, I feel that IOC was justified in their request that Quick covers up part of his helmet design.
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rocks22
/ February 16, 2010Obviously, Quick meant it to support the US military personnel around the world. But you made the comment how would I like it if another country’s athlete wore something similar. I’m telling you it wouldn’t bother me if they wore “Support The Troops” because it’s a universal sentiment no matter what country you’re from It is NOT a political statement or even propaganda.
You’re also not understanding the difference between supporting your country’s military and supporting the men and women who are serving. They’re not the same thing.
If the Olympics wants to be all PC, maybe they should take guns out of of the biathalon. All that shooting isn’t very peaceful after all.
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Bullmoose
/ February 16, 2010So, if an Iranian athlete had “Support The Troops” on his uniform, and had the picture of Katyusha rockets that Iranian troops use (covertly) to shell Israel (a staunch US ally), you would have no problem with it? You wouldn’t think it’s a piece of propaganda for a military/political cause contrary to the US interests. I am simply curious… And please don’t give me “I know propaganda when I see it” crap. Quick’s helmet is propaganda to many in this nation (though apparently not to you) and, especially, to those living beyond the borders (whose opinions, thoughts, and experiences a lot of Americans who were born here are quite ignorant). I do not see why that’s even a question.
Regarding guns at biathlon: the difference between the sport of biathlon and military action is that they are shooting at targets, as opposed to people. But there is a truly violent sport that to a casual observer does not look peaceful at all. However, I think you’d be the last person to advocate removal of hockey from Olympics.
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rocks22
/ February 16, 2010I said what I had to say. I don’t feel like continuing to repeat myself over and over without saying something new. I don’t know what else to tell you.
In other news, how’s that Russian women’s hockey team doing?
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Bullmoose
/ February 17, 2010We have a women’s hockey team? 🙂
About as well as UMass men, I guess…
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Kieron
/ February 16, 2010Got to partially agree with both of you on this one.
The yellow ribbon is a political statement. I’ve never seen it in other countries involved in conflicts (the UK springs to mind but I haven’t seen it a lot in Canada either and both countries support their troops in the current foreign entanglements).
But you are correct that a family members initials or name should be fine. The IOC has set the wrong tone on that one. They hand down the dictat without finding out that Tim Thomas has his kids initals on his mask for example.
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Wardy
/ February 16, 2010Brodeur also had to change his mask because of these lame rules. One wonders if Jim Craig would have been forced to pull the two small shamrocks off his mask in 1980?
I love the IOC trying to ban what they consider is propaganda when Nike paid a nice sum to the IOC to print hockey uniforms infused with varrious graphics which can be considered propaganda in my book including “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” on the sleves of the USA jerseys. Also on the USA stripes is perhaps the greatest symbol of American propaganda: the Statue of Liberty amongst other symbols. Nike also printed similar uniforms for Canada with graphics symbolic of that nation one can think of as propaganda.
So as always like the NCAA the IOC has zero problems with “messages” if they’re given enough cold hard cash.
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rocks22
/ February 16, 2010Agreed Wardy. Somehow I think if Quicky put a picture of a Coke can on his helmet he probably wouldn’t have to change it. Nothing more American than a cold Coca-Cola, no?
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