PATRICK BOUCHARD, NETMINDER FOR THE ROUGE HORIZON TOMAHAWKS RECEIVING HIS GIFT AS PLAYER OF THE MONTH OF JANUARY IN THE LFA FROM THE PRESIDENT AFTER THEIR GAME ON SATURDAY (PHOTO STEFAN MARQUIS)
The end of January is upon us, and the players and fans of the Ligue Fédérale des As do not only get the treat of the best photos of recent weeks, but also the crowning of the latest player of the month, as chosen by his peers.
In French one of the nicknames for a goalie is cerbère -- Cerberus, the mythological guard dog of the gates of hell -- so it’s fitting that one of these hellhounds finally takes top honours in the LFA.
Patrick Bouchard follows his teammate Julien Staeger who won it last month. He received a gift certificate from our new sponsor, the WINDSOR Hyberbar and Grill on the Main with one location on the South Shore as well.
The Czechers, who managed to tie the Tomahawks Saturday, promoted Michel Wees as assistant captain to fill in during the absence of François “The Bourbanator” who will meet a specialist for his knee this week. His season is on the line and we all wish him a speedy recovery so he can came back and play in the playoffs. During his absence, he’ll stay connected to the LFA because he’s volunteered to help with our Facebook page. I appreciate it greatly.The choice of Michel to replace him makes sense because he is the incarnation of the things we value in our league: a positive attitude, great work ethic, he plays clean and is very cordial with his adversaries and teammates. He’s an example to follow !
THE NEW ROAD CASE FOR THE LFA CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY BUILT IN-HOUSE, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE COMING OUT OF THE LFA (PHOTO JFD)
Another important absence in our league is our friend Fern, who was wearing the colours of the Cabane Express this year. In his case, an upper-body injury has kept him out of action for nearly two months now. Nobody knows when he may return. He’s still holding down the fort on our site, and it’s thanks to him that you can consult your stats every week. We all owe him a big thanks for his involvement in optimising our hockey experience.
Your website editorial team is happy to introduce some new sections in our site. One special space will be available for all of our awards because, as some of you know, we are working on a series of individual trophies that will be handed out at the end-of-season gala. I want to take this opportunity to launch a contest to name the trophies. The list of awards will be transmitted to you during the week. We will also be looking for suggestions for the name of the championship trophy that was unveiled at our season launch barbeque.
Another section we are starting will be for special contributions from you. The section will be reserved for those of you who are journalists, writers or poets in your soul and would like to express yourselves on our league or our national sport, or any subject of your choice.
We also hope to have special contributions from profesional journalists to help expand our thinking beyond what we already see on our pages. Who among you will create the foundation of this new free space? Don’t feel any pressure, let your spirit guide you. Other sections and a new format for league news will be announced soon.
To conclude this first edition of February, we (Eric Drapeau and I) have finished the transport case for our playoff championship trophy. Larry and I are also working on the Tremblay Trophy that will be awarded to the regular season champions -- a prize that will be the subject of fierce competition in coming months.