The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League launches it’s 36th season on Thursday in Gatineau
MONTREAL, Tuesday September 14 2004 – For many hockey fans, the middle of September has a very special meaning : the return of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. That moment has come!
In a press conference at Mel's Cité du Cinéma, Mr Gilles Courteau, commissioner of the QMJHL, officially launched the 36th season in the history of the league.
This new campaign, which promises spectacular action, will start on Thursday September 16th, when the Gatineau Olympiques, two-time President Cup defending champions and dignified Memorial Cup finalists in each of the last two seasons, will host the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The game will be played at Robert-Guertin Centre, at 7:35 pm.
Mr Courteau will be in Gatineau to attend the opening face off and the hoisting in the rafters of Robert-Guertin Centre of this sixth League Championship banner in the glorious Olympiques' history.
After Friday September 17th, 12 of the 16 teams which make up the league's three sections (Atlantic, East, West) will have played their first of 70 regular season games. And on Saturday September 18th, Sidney Crosby and his teammates of the Rimouski Oceanic will jump on the ice for the first time this year, when they visit the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at Dave Keon Arena, at 7:30 pm. At the same moment, the Val-d'Or Foreurs will see action for the first time in 2004-05, at home, against the Quebec Remparts.
The Baie-Comeau Drakkar, on Sunday September 19th at Marcel Dionne Centre in Drummondville, and the Lewiston MaineIacs, on Friday September 24th at the Halifax Metro Centre, will be the last QMJHL teams to launch their regular season.
Every single team will play its last contest on Sunday March 20th, exactly five days before the start of the playoffs, concluding a 560 game regular season.
As it was in 2003-04, 13 teams will qualify for the playoffs. The teams finishing first in their section will be awarded a bye directly to the second round and one of the top three positions in the overall standings.
The finals, which will crown the President Cup winners, will start on Friday May 6th. The winning team will then travel to London, Ontario, to take part in the Memorial Cup tournament, from Saturday May 21th through Sunday May 29nd.
In between, for the second year in a row, a group of top Canadian players, eligible to the National team pre-selection training camp for the World Junior Championship and playing in the QMJHL, will take part in a two-game series against a club from Russia.
The first game will be held at Le Colisée in Quebec City on Monday November 22nd. The next day, the Russian team will complete its stay on Quebec soil by facing the QMJHL all star team, this time at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The Russian delegation will then travel westward, first in Ontario then in Western Canada, to face stars of the OHL and the WHL in two more two-game series.
Off the ice, the QMJHL will act as innovators in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) by introducing an anti-doping and anti-drug policy, in close collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and Hockey-Québec. This policy includes random testing and sanctions for first time and repeat offenders, but will put the emphasis on information and prevention.
«Our objective is not to act as lawmen, explained Mr Courteau. Our goal is to provide education, prevention and help to every single player who will request it. The health and well being of our players has always been a priority and this initiative proves it even more.»
Once again this season, the QMJHL will immortalize four of the greatest figures in League history by inducting them into its Hall of Fame, on Wednesday April 6th at the Delta Hotel in Montreal. On the same night, the best teams, players, coaches and team officials will be the stars of the Golden Pucks Awards Gala.
Finally, the Annual League Meetings will take place in Saguenay from Wednesday June 1st through Saturday June 4th, concluding with the Annual Entry Draft at Georges-Vézina Centre, at 10:00 am.
