What Maxime O'Bagels Means to the CHL
It's safe to say we are in a golden era for young talent in the CHL. Julien Champagne was the first new saviour to arrive, and he was expected to bring the historically super-successful Montréal Cotdelapomais over the top and back into dynasty mode. The notoriously nasty Montréal media ate him alive when he was not an immediate superstar, despite the fact that he was exactly what that team needed anyway- they've won four of the last five Dumas Cups. Champagne has not quite become the ultra-mega star the CHL expected, in part because this team is as much about goaltending, and because Pascal Sévigny, Alexandre Briére and Luca Messina are all stars as well.
Jean-Luc Barr was the next to come around, although he was flawed too- he struggled in the World Junior Championship. Yet, since he arrived with the Hamilton Tigers he has been a dynamo, playing in the Champions League and putting the team on his back in taking them to the Dumas Cup finals. Barr is one of the league's leading lights, yet he was not a major part of the last World Cup team, perhaps an effort to shield him from the immense pressure. Playing in Hamilton has helped, and whilst he is a strong all-around player, he has yet to find what he is absolutely the best at- something that will help with his megastardom.
Louis Periard was junior teammates with Barr, and is an absolute sharpshooter, quite the opposite to Barr. Periard is a vicious threat both on the rush and when given time and space (why anyone would ever do that, nobody knows!) His slap-shot is deadly and his goals have almost single-handedly made the Mallards a playoff contender despite a weak supporting cast. Players all over the world know better than to stand in the way of his shots, and he's big enough that he'll play rough.
Rezzi Tzar’kr’El is a loudmouth, hated across the country by all but the fans of les Citoyens- perhaps the perfect figure for that obnoxious but super-talented team. Tzar'kr'El is prone to making defensive mistakes, but can also absolutely level you just as well as Alexandre Briére despite being smaller. At full speed, there are few players more frightening coming at you than Tzar'kr'El, and when he plays a simplified game, he is a legitimate two way threat. He is easy to rile, and when he is off his game he can be brutal, but with age les Citoyens hope he will become perfect- and until then they will just keep winning Cups.
José Thibodeau broke the goaltending duopoly that suffocated Charlevoix's chances every year, and brought them four points away from a playoff spot this year. Thibodeau is a large, athletic netminder who suffered some initial confidence issues but has grown to be talented enough to merit a position on the World Cup team, taking away a job from Mark Crow.
Alexandre Labelle is the other hot young goaltender, and a big reason the Baltimore Gulls were not mired in expansion dreadfulness. Labelle is little and swift and a whirling dervish in net that plays goal like a fish out of water, flopping around and making preposterous saves one minute and occasionally letting in a beach ball with his overaggression.
Yet, perhaps above all else, the greatest young star in modern Cotdelapomais hockey is Montréal Royals general manager Christian Bruneau. When he inherited the Royals, they were a lowly squad living in the shadow of the most famous hockey team in the world, with limited fan support, a crumbling arena and the talented Luc Dionne, an excellent player who needs other players around him to be entirely effective. The Royals did things the old way, never challenging the norm, and when operating with a minimal amount of the attention and budget, they had little hope to finish near the playoff positions.
Bruneau was an international scout with a passion for statistics. He had come up with a new way of evaluating foreign players, and it's demonstrated itself in the brilliant international dealings, bringing in players like Shu Huanguo, Wojtek Veterin and Massimo Luccarello. The passion for statistics and scouting has been able to be parlayed into trades for Guillaume Lajeunesse and the Kingston Musketeers' 1st round pick, using hot prospects and Newmanistan's Milan Gadzic- which will almost certainly be used to bring in the man who will almost certainly make the Royals the place to be...Maxime O'Bagels.
Maxime O'Bagels was lightly rated when he was brought into the Papineau Bison, an unfashionable team in the LHJMM, the most popular major junior league in Cotdelapoms. As a sixteen year old he was not taken to the World Junior Championships, despite scoring 40 goals in 31 games. As a sixteen year old. At seventeen, the Bison did a little better and O'Bagels scored 47 in 35 games. As an eighteen year old, he led the LHJMM with 53 goals, and scored 7 goals in 4 games as the Bison won the Bruneau Cup. O'Bagels will be expected to come immediately to the Royals and score goals along-side Dionne and Lajeunesse, and perhaps more importantly he will be expected to make the Royals a legitimate team that people want to watch. Making the Cotdelapomais vs. Royals the derby it deserves to be by creating a rivalry with Julien Champagne will be of the utmost importance, and it should be easy.
O'Bagels was born to a poor Sorthern immigrant in a rough neighbourhood of Outremont, and it shows- he is tough and would never get caught up in some of the embellishment and arrogance that Champagne is criticised for engaging in. O'Bagels has thrived under pressure at the Bruneau Cup, whilst somehow Julien Champagne is still not trusted to perform at the highest levels, no matter how many Dumas Cups he is a part of. And finally, Maxime O'Bagels represents everything Christian Bruneau brings to the Royals- youth, joy and hard work, creating a perfect rival to our dynastic champions.
With that said the team have been preparing themselves for this tournament, half the time on ice, the rest either in drunken brawls or boxing matches, so our opponents are in for a shock when out boys pick a fight. We've been drawn into group A, and frankly, we don't have a chance in hell of making it to the playoffs, but goddamnit we're going to try!
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