Friday, February 13, 2009

Has McCollum turned it around?

Probably for most of you, your last impressions of goaltender Thomas McCollum is his disappointing World Junior Championships. What has he done since the debacle? He was traded to the Brampton Battalion and is 9-1 with a 1.68 goals against average and .939 save percentage since joining Brampton.

After dropping their first game with McCollum in the lineup, the Troops have reeled off 12 straight wins and moved into a tie with the Belleville Bulls for first place in the Eastern Conference standings.

“It’s unreal,” said veteran defenceman Ken Peroff. “It’s a very tight-knit group and everybody is friends with everybody. It makes coming to the rink every day enjoyable and that’s when you are going to have success is when you are having fun doing it.

That's not too shabby. I would watch out for the Battalion for the rest of the way. They have a goaltender and the forwards. They have Cody Hodgson and draft eligible Matt Duchene who's becoming one of the league's elite.

The Battalion set a team record with a 16-game winning streak earlier this season and sophomore forward Matt Duchene said that the key has been to focus on the task at hand.


“I think you just have to take one game at a time and not look too far ahead,” said Duchene, who is rated second among North American prospects for the NHL Draft this summer. “We’re just trying to play well every shift we’re out there.”

How about Jaroslav Janus who was one of the stories of the World Junior Championship is still shining. After a little stumble the first few games, he's 7-2.

That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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