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Sunday, September 20, 1998
Tanguay to suit up with Colorado Avalanche
Tanguay, who grew up cheering for the Quebec Nordiques, found himself rooming with one of his childhood heroes.
"It's quite an experience," said the Halifax Mooseheads winger. "I get to Colorado Springs and they put me in the same room as my idol, Joe Sakic. I was rooming with him for a week.
"I was nervous just being around him. I didn't know what to do or what to say. But he's a great guy. He just told me to relax and enjoy myself."
Tanguay, selected 12th overall this past June, is one of 30 Avalanche players in Las Vegas for exhibition games. Only 10 of the 30 are rookies.
Colorado played the Los Angeles Kings late Saturday. The teams will meet again today.
"I expect to play at least one of the two, if not the two," said Tanguay, who is now rooming with Chicoutimi Sagueneens winger Ramzi Abid.
Known as one of his own worst critics, Tanguay said he got off to a slow start at the main camp.
On Tuesday, he played on a line with Chris Drury and Claude Lemieux.
Tanguay said a meeting with Colorado coach Bob Hartley helped him relax.
"I could play a lot better than I am right now, but I'm just getting started," Tanguay said. "I have to pick it up a notch in Vegas and we'll see what happens."
- Halifax's two import players are set to rejoin the Mooseheads.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Kings returned Russian goalie Alexei Volkov, 18, and the St. Louis Blues returned Slovakian forward Ladislav Nagy, 19.
Los Angeles Kings assistant coach Don Edwards was a goalie in the NHL for 10 seasons and liked what he saw of Volkov.
"He has had a good camp," said Edwards, who played with Buffalo, Calgary and Toronto. "He's a young kid and we have lots to work with. He definitely has the potential to play at the NHL level in the future, if he continues to develop."
- Rookies Brandon Benedict and Samuel Seguin scored their first major junior goals and 15-year-old goalie Pascal Leclaire won in his debut as the Halifax Mooseheads opened the Quebec hockey league season with an 8-5 victory over the Victoriaville Tigres.
The Mooseheads struggled on the road all of last season, but had few problems in Victoriaville on Friday night.
Fresh off camp with the Pittsburgh Penguins, forward Alexandre Mathieu joined the Mooseheads in Victoriaville about an hour before game time and scored twice.
Jason Troini, Jeff Sullivan, P.J. Lynch and Marc-Andre Binette also scored for Halifax.
- In other action, Paul Spadafora scored at 18:19 of the third period as the Hull Olympiques beat the visiting Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 5-4.
Marty Johnston, Dustin Russell, Daniel Clermont and Adam Rivet also scored for Hull.
Rookie defenceman Andrew Carver of Grand Lake picked up two assists for Hull.
Johnston leaves Sunday for a tryout with Utah of the International Hockey League while teammate Francis Nault, also an overager, has a tryout with Michigan of the IHL.
Philippe Tremblay, Alexandre Page, Patrick Yetman and Artem Rybin scored for Cape Breton.
Randy Copley, at camp with the New York Rangers, didn't play for Cape Breton.