SPORTS
Deux sur trois pour les Faucons
# 67 Josh Kego
STÉPHANE LAJOIE stephane.lajoie@eap.on.ca
falo en septembre, en perdant son dernier match de ronde préliminaire. Les Faucons avaient pourtant amorcé le tournoi en lions, avec des victoires de 5 à 1 et 7 à 1 face à KGHD et aux South Shore Kings. « Nous avons terminé deuxième dans notre division et à une victoire des demi- !nales, a indiqué l’entraîneur des Faucons, Shawn Anderson. Josh Kego a connu un week-end de quatre points avec deux buts et deux passes. Josh Péladeau et Vincent Robil- lard ont aussi bien joué avec trois points chacun. En défense, Alex Giguère, Jean-Ma- thieu Lavoie et Gabriel Blouin ont montré l’exemple tandis que Félix Dufour et Benoît Labre ont été n o s meilleurs joueurs des d e u x côtés de la pati- noire. » Les Faucons sont présen- tement à Saint John, au Nouveau-
Brunswick, pour le deuxième showcase de la saison de la Prep School Hockey Fede- ration. Il s’agit d’une occasion rêvée pour les jeunes de jouer au domicile des Sea Dogs de la Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Qué- bec à Harbour Station, un aréna de plus de 6000 sièges. Leur premier match est prévu pour ce soir, face aux Kings de Edgehill, une équipe qu’ils avaient blanchie 7 à 0 lors du showcase de Bu#alo.
Les Faucons du Sommet ont remporté deux de leurs trois matchs lors de la Midget Fall Clas- sic, qui a eu lieu à Foxboro, la ville des Patriotes de la Nou- velle-Angleterre. Malheureuse-
ment, la troupe de Shawn Ander- son a répété l’er- reur qui lui avait coûté la !nale lors du showcase de Buf-
and Germany! My salary ranged from a minuscule 25-game tryout
at $100 per day to a more satisfying contract of just over $400,000
a year playing in Europe. My NHL salary ranged from $100,000
in my ϐirst year to $300,000 in my last year during my time with
Buffalo, Quebec, Washington and Philadelphia. As you can see, my
WI TH
numbers are nowhere near those of today’s players and yet I was
HAWKESBURY HAWKS hockeytalk@eap.on.ca S!"#$ A$%er&o$ So you want to be a hockey player?
still one of the players who did quite well relative to the average
professional hockey player. Some people may look at my numbers
and think I must have a nice nest egg of retirement money after 18
years of professional hockey, but don’t forget to take 50 per cent
for taxes, factor in the careless spending mentality of a professional
hockey player because we really believe the money will last forever
and include a family of four I had to care for. So trust me when I say
there wasn’t much left over when I retired in 2004!
Most hockey players that are not drafted in the ϐirst three rounds
in the NHL will have a long and difϐicult road to the top. There are
I thought this week I would talk about the (real) life of a typical
not many exceptions to this rule. The ϐirst path to professional
professional hockey player. Not the ones we regularly see, read or
hockey for many players is through the lowest levels, which back
Vincent continue d’impressionner au sein des Faucons avec sa production o!ensive et sa rapidité à la position de joueur de centre. Robillard
hear about but rather the other 90 per cent.
in my
days was the East Coast Hockey League. Players today will
Normally, when you pick up a newspaper or turn on the sports
most likely go through the Federal Hockey League or the Southern
channel, you are usually presentedwithwhat seems to be the typical
Professional Hockey League. Most of them will play out their days
life of all hockey players. You hear about them scoring goals on the
there, never making more than just enough to just get by. They will
nightly TV highlights. You read about them spending the summer
most likely take a second job especially if they have more than one
at their huge cottage on some prestigious lake. Or you feel bad for
dependant. There are the few who will endure this battle and ϐight
them because they have just left the team they have spent the last
their way up the ladder to a somewhat higher success and possibly
15 years with, making $4 million a year. They are now headed to a
land in the ECHL or even better, the AHL. But again they will never
Stanley Cup contender with a $1 million dollar pay cut!
earn enough money to set themselves up ϐinancially to be OK when
The players I just described only represent a small fraction of all the
they retire at the ripe old age of 30-35 years of age.
hockey players playing professional hockey. Most of themwill never
My whole point to this article is not to discourage hockey players
be spoken about in the manner described. The life of a professional
who want to go after the dream of playing hockey for a living
hockey player is a tough grind. There is the constant stress of trying
but only to educate them about the facts that they may not make
to keep your job from the next guy coming up the ranks, the lack of
enough money to live on during their time as a professional hockey
ϐinancial security as a result of a two- or three-way contracts or in
player and be in an even worse position when it’s time to retire.
many cases, just a simple one week tryout. Once you get past this,
This is exactly why ϐinishing your education is so important so that
# 4 Alexis Giguère
get ready for the constant moving from city to city and, in most
when the day comes that hockey is no longer an option for you, you
cases, from country to country.
will have your education to fall back on. I had experienced just that
As a professional hockey player who played the game for 18 years,
when I retired and had many doors close on me because I had no
I was not part of that group you regularly
hear about! I played for
formal education. Just because I had a good slap shot, was a fast
19 different professional hockey teams, I played for 26 different
skater and played in the NHL, no one was willing to offer me a high
coaches and I lived in 23 different homes in Canada, the US, Austria
paying job because of it.
U n ancien
des Mavericks de l’OHA
de Cornwall et des Sélects du Nord, le défenseur Alexis Giguère gagne en con"ance à la ligne bleue des Faucons.
45, rue Maple, Grenville | 1 855 291-4230 • 819 242-0115 www.kiagrenville.com
B200287PM
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