It is in this perspective that the LFA’s administration recently announced its plans for multiple expansions in the greater metropolitan area creating the possibility of playing in various divisions of the league 4 days a week. More information about the various hockey programs is available to you in the LFA Bulletin Board dated July 22nd. http://www.lfahockey.com/babillard-lfa-fr/ In summary, we will continue to offer hockey on Saturday afternoons with the central division at Notre Dame College arena with 8 to 10 teams. To this adult hockey classic in Montreal, we will add a 4 team division of the LFA Monday nights at the Sportsplexe in Pierrefonds with games starting between 7h45 and 9h45 and another division this time on the South Shore at the Complexe Sportif Bell in Brossard on Friday and Sunday nights also at great hours. A satellite division will also be in operation on Sunday evenings as well as our brand new LFA RUSH for 3 on 3 action at the Excellent Ice complex in Kirkland. The registration deadline is fast approaching, so do not miss your chance to be part of the nation's premier adult hockey league!

 In addition to these expansion plans, the first All stars game in LFA history will bring together the best players from our South Shore and Montreal division. This event will take place after our inter-division championship game (another premiere)of August 27th at the end of the summer and will be made possible by the participation of the Pierrefonds Sportplexe. The selection of the players who will take part in this match will be made by team members, captains as well as by the league administration in the coming weeks. The tentative date is Friday, September 1st.

As the league constantly strives to refine its product, after various requests from our members to review the way the playoffs are held on the island, the LFA’s president is proud to announce an amendment to the Montreal division's series with the creation of two pools of teams and the addition of 3 games to the calendar thanks to the collaboration once again of the Sportplexe in Pierrefonds which will allow us to offer a better chance to our six teams to win the ultimate honours. More details will be available on our next LFA Bulletin Board but reserve the date of FRIDAY, AUGUST 11th in your calendar for the start of the playoffs in Montreal.

Some league decisions may not please everyone, but be sure that we do listen to our members wishes and we do everything in our power to make them possible. The most recent plans and adjustments to our way of operating are just one of many examples of the effort the league makes season after season to provide you with an optimal hockey experience!

With this philosophy in mind, we had to make some changes to a team in our South Shore division to give it a chance to compete with the other formations. It is veteran goaltender Nicholas Chagnon winner of several championships in the LFA who agreed to join the Tomahawks to give them a hand to finish the season. Their keeper who had himself replaced another did not do the job between the pipes. Not wanting to make other transactions so late in the season, the league nevertheless is monitoring the situation of certain teams who are having difficulties and his thinking of ways to help them.

I leave you with a text from an occasional collaborator of our LFA News, Thibault Varin, captain of the Cabane Loggers in our Montreal division and encourage anyone to pick-up the pen from time to time to share their impressions on the universe of La Ligue Fédérale des As with everyone. In his case it’s pretty funny. It should be noted that he was unaware of the reshuffling of the series when he wrote his piece as the whole thing was put in place a few hours before the publication of these articles.

Play to Play
JFD

Couple of key matchups in the 9th week of activities in the Montreal division

While there is only two weeks left in the DesBois circuit, the battle for the series is fierce between the teams in the metropolis, to the point that most of them will have everything to win in their next two match-ups... or everything to lose. I'm going to make a brief (ha!) summary of last Sunday's games so that you are aware of the latest results and then I'll look into the playoff race later in the week by taking the time to highlight the key games of the upcoming weeks.

In the first game, the two teams with the best record (I couldn’t say “the two best teams”, sorry) clashed in a tight and high-tempo game. The Rhinos wanted to show their opponent how well they could play, and that's exactly what they did, as the friendly Jeremy Marston only needed 90 seconds to score the first goal of his team. The Torpedeos answered two minutes later, displaying a good fighting spirit when the evasive Raymond Riffon helped François Chartier to register his 4th in the campaign. 1-1. After exchanging goals on both sides, the Rhinos elevated their game and scored 3 unanswered goals at the end of the second period and in the third, as they took advantage of a 2 minutes penalty to Alexander Ouellet to kill any hopes for the Torpedeos to come back. Final score, 6-3 Rhinos.

The second game would oppose a team unfortunately already eliminated from the playoffs to a club that seems to have difficulty fetching victories these last few weeks, the Hackers. Looking for their first victory, the Vipers seemed determined not to let themselves be stomped as they took advantage of a 3-players defense from the Hackers, whereas captain Xavier Constantin had to unfortunately miss the game. Finishing the first period with a 4 goals lead, the Vipers were going to continue their ProJet Demolition (nice little plug here, JF. You owe me a can of Coke!) in the second and third period in a game that would end with a 10-1 score. The talented Bill Caroll finished the game with a sweet hat-trick and 2 assists, while Keith Diebel added 3 assists to his stats and scored a goal. Interestingly, only the substitute goalkeeper Francis Difeo did not put his name on the scoresheet.

Finally, a key game was played late in the evening as the Loggers faced the Shamrocks, a team who let important points slipped through their hands in last week’s meeting against the Torpedeos. They would want to come out strong, as they got their captain Maxence Hilleret back in the line-up after a week-off to heal a wrist injury. Aware of the importance of the game, the Loggers were ready to go, a team who seems to have found a way to win games in improving their defensive game. It was with a tie of 2 to 2 that the two teams returned to their respective locker-rooms after the first period. The Shamrocks took the lead early in the 2nd period, when Peter Gubernator and his impressive wrist shot scored his 3rd in the game, as the black jerseys were more often than not busy covering the dangerous Felix Dufour-Labrecque. The persistent Loggers kept being aggressive and it’s on an incredible individual effort that Thibault Varin (hi!) was going to deke the whole team and finish with a forehand-backhand-forehand-backhand-bobblehead-betweenthelegs-lacrosse-topcheese on goalkeeper Marc-André Martel, leaving the 7 spectators to regret not having taken-out their phones and launched their SnapChat application. Might have been a simple wrist-shot from high-slot too, I don’t quite remember, but all-in-all, this goal was about to motivate his troop, to the point where the black sweaters would score two more goals to make a 6-4 lead. A few cold sweats at the end of the game as Jean-Michel Tanisma cut the Loggers' lead in two, but the latter would hold on and win the dual, surpassing the Shamrocks to take third place, handing the Shamrocks the 4th and last place to access the playoffs. 6-5 Loggers. Honorable mention to Loggers Steve Rendle who seems to be clicking with line mates Nick Reviakin and Maxime Florant, as he now has 6 goals in his last two.

I wish you all a good week and I encourage you to revisit the news page over the next few days, as I will take the time to analyse the playoff race with the key matchups in the upcoming weeks.

Cheers,

Thibault