Special guest Sam Cosentino looks to tame Wildcats in #KiaCHLeCup
Best known as Sportsnet’s NHL Draft and prospect expert, role reversal sees Sam Cosentino as the one under the microscope Saturday.
One of four celebrity participants partaking in the premiere Memorial eCup presented by Kia, Cosentino will take to the ice at 2:10 p.m. Eastern, electing to go up against the powerhouse Moncton Wildcats while donning the jersey of the rival Saint John Sea Dogs.
“Moncton was the home of my first Memorial Cup in 2006, and the Sea Dogs were a team that had an unbelievable run going back to 2010-12 which really elevated the rivalry between the two New Brunswick towns,” Cosentino told the Canadian Hockey League. “They even had a Rivalry Cup that they would play for each year in their season series, so I just thought it would be pretty cool, knowing how much those two teams hate each other.”
Cosentino, 49, promises to bring some veteran savvy to the afternoon showdown, recalling his video game history through childhood that began with Pong before progressing to the likes of Frogger and Space Invaders. The Cosentino household was even home to a rarity known as Intellivision.
“I played video games way, way back in the day,” Cosentino recalled. “There will be nobody involved in the CHL that remembers Intellivision. It was the size of an iPhone Pro, it had a moving disc on the bottom, and it had a keypad on it. The game you were playing, you would slide over the keypad and those would be your directions on how to play. I don’t know that I knew anyone else that had an Intellivision to be honest with you.
“I am not much of a gamer now but I am really happy to participate because, for me, the Memorial Cup is a culmination of a year’s worth of hard work, and with last year’s getting cancelled, I was more than happy to stay involved.”
In preparation for his first-round opponent, Cosentino has gone through a digital training camp of sorts, taking part in nightly gaming sessions with his seven-year-old son, while his older nephews have also been quick to offer up plenty of helpful tips.
As everything else in life, the pandemic has had a significant impact on scouting.
While it's early yet, here's a look at whose stock is rising 📈 and whose is falling 📉 in Sam Cosentino's first ranking of the top prospects for the 2021 NHL Draft.https://t.co/yLwy592wpK
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 27, 2020
“My son had been schooling me up until the last two days,” Cosentino quipped. “What we do is usually before bed we’ll go down there and play an NHL game and then we’ll play a junior game. I have been practicing with Saint John and he takes Rimouski because he wants to play with Alexis Lafreniere.
“We have split the last two nights, but he had about a six-game win streak going in. It was nice to finally beat him in a game – he didn’t like that too much – but that is all right, Dad had to get the upper hand at some point.”
Streamed across Facebook Live and Twitch, the tournament is showcased like a real-live game, complete with broadcasters who not only have the unique challenge of telling the game story through pixelated players but must offer up play-by-play and colour commentary over a game coming through a monitor. Cosentino can certainly relate.
“I have done hockey once that way,” Cosentino concluded. “We had a game in Acadie-Bathurst two years ago that we couldn’t get to because of a snowstorm but they still played. And then when I did the Montreal Expos in 2004, probably 20 games were done off a monitor.
“It’s a huge challenge especially when it is a live event, but you kind of know from watching the players, little idiosyncrasies that you see about a live player that you don’t get in a video game format. As good of a job as EA Sports does in putting all of that together, there is still a lot of the real-life subtleties that you can’t see that, so that presents a ton of challenges.”
Among the four guest participants, a win by Cosentino would also mark the first tally for the guests in the win column after WHL alumnus Zach Hodder fell to the Medicine Hat Tigers while Canadian gold medalist Erin Ambrose was defeated by the Barrie Colts. Hockey reporter Andy Mailly-Pressoir of TVA Sports is also set to face off Saturday.
Catch all the action across Facebook Live and Twitch and follow along at CHL.ca/MemorialeCup.