CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Boston Bruins trade that sent Cornwall’s Adam McQuaid to New York earlier this week was a good one for the rebuilding Rangers and I’m certain a trade New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will gladly approve.
McQuaid was involved in a numbers game and youth movement on the Bruins blue-line and the trade for Steven Kampfer and mid-round draft picks was just what his career needed.
RELATED: Click here for more on the trade.
The Rangers are getting a great team player with leadership skills and a player who recorded 157 hits and 144 blocked shots with the Bruins in 2016-17. McQuaid is not flashy offensively but he doesn’t have to be with the Rangers, who can score but are not that great in their own end. There will be many fewer loose pucks laying around the Rangers crease and fewer bodies standing over Lundqvist with rugged McQuaid wearing blue.
Injuries have knocked Adam out of the Bruins lineup for periods of time in recent years but, if Adam stays healthy, fans in New York will love him just as they have done in Beantown.
Looking at the salary cap aspect of the trade, the deal was a smart one for the Bruins, as McQuaid is in the final year of his contract that pays him $2.75 million this season while Blueshirts defenceman Kampfer makes $650,000 – a savings on the Bruins cap.
When I first heard of the trade, I felt the Bruins did Adam a favour and since then I am even more convinced that is the case.
Baseball
The Kings County Baseball League final starts Sunday at 2 p.m. at MacNeill Fied in Stratford when The Alley Stratford Athletics entertain the Northside Gill Construction Brewers in the best-of-seven series.
The Athletics have more firepower than Northside with the likes of Shawn MacDougall, Dom Ryan, Grant Grady, Ryne MacIsaac, Randy Taylor, Allister Smith and pitcher/hitter Dan O’Shea, but the Northside club has ace righty Jordan Stevenson, the best pitcher in the province. The Brewers rely on the MacLean boys Jason and Jayden, plus Jed MacEwen for offence but the difference-maker could be Stevenson. We shall see.
Football
The Prophet’s NFL football picks will start next Saturday after our usual two-week review period at the start of every NFL season. For the record, I did pick Kansas City to win and the Bears and Browns to cover in Week 1, another Prophet fast start, stay tuned for next week’s pick.
In the CFL, my Montreal Alouettes have won two straight and the game Sept. 21 with Winnipeg is a must-win if the Als hope to make the playoffs.
Fundraiser
The Face Off Against Cancer hockey tournament begins Friday, Sept. 28, with the draft of visiting NHL players at Rodds Charlottetown. It should be a fun night with a hot stove component and a trivia quiz with hockey trivia expert Jamie (Squid) MacLeod.
Also, on Friday evening, there’s a silent auction of items including green fees, NHL jerseys including Connor McDavid’s and the biggie for parents with hockey kids is a pair of weeklong passes to the Allan Andrews hockey school, the finest such hockey development program in the world.
One of the more interesting silent auction items is dinner for two with Doug MacLean – one of the big names in the hockey world. The former NHL GM and head coach is entertaining for sure. More on this next week.
Harness racing
Live harness racing continues today at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park with a doubleheader card featuring the P.E.I. Colt Stakes.
The afternoon card is a dandy with three divisions for two-year-old colts at $6,700 and three P.E.I. stake fillies at $6,900. There’s also the $2,350 top class with Tobinator, Elm Grove Kaboom, Zero Rate and four others.
The night card gets underway at 6 p.m. and it features P.E.I. Colt Stakes for sophomore pacers and fillies plus a $2,650 top class with Gold Cup and Saucer-type pacers Rose Run Quest, Czar Seelster, Euchred, Winter Blast, Red Magician and Cartoon Daddy.
There’s also a terrific card at Mohawk tonight with some of the best young trotters on the continent. Swandre the Giant, who lost for the first time last Saturday, meets a very tough field in the $400,000 William Wellwood Trot. Union Forces with Scott Zeron, White Tiger (Anthony MacDonald), who was a close fast-finishing third last week, and Green Manalishi S (Tim Tetrick) are among the 10 starters.
MacDonald also has Lawmaker from Pp #5 in the $665,000 Canadian Trotting Classic right next to his brother James from Post 4 with For a Dreamer. Also on the card, the sensational invitational pacer Lazarus N.
At Yonkers, New York, tonight, Mark MacDonald has the outside post in the $44,000 top class, which he won last week with another Jimmy Takter pupil in Sunfire Blue Chip.
The Maritime race game lost one of the more talented horseman with the passing earlier this week of veteran Jack Bernard, 85, who was a prominent trainer-driver in his day. He is a former Old Home Week top driver and in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s campaigned a big stable in both Fredericton and Saint John, N.B.
A smart all-around horseman, Jack is also credited in many circles with inventing the trotting hobble, which is widely used today in the sport. To his son Kimball and all connected to this gentleman, my condolences.
Fred MacDonald's column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].
