4 Copper Throwers invited to All-Star Game !

Today was another big day in Copper Throwers history, the team saw no less than 4 of their players receive an invitation to play in the GOHL Annual All-Star Game.

While Jaromir Jagr was voted by the public to be the starting right winger, the coaching staff elected to invite Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan and Jaroslav Spacek.

So this goes to show that GM Vachon’s bold moves this off-season seem to be more than justified now. The 2 high priced free agent right wingers are both gonna be playing in the all-star game, while Shanahan was acquired from Montreal, this leaves Spacek as the only “original” member of the team to be part of the game.

And some fans will tell you that Yannick Tremblay who shows the best +/- ratio (+33) of any defensemen in the league as well as Andrew Cassels would have been deserving of an invitation. But the biggest loser has to be Ed Belfour, who after a rocky start has been a wall in nets of late, and shows the best goalie rating in the GOHL.

Cassels didn’t really seem to care as he said “Im not surprised, I mean just look at the guys that got invited, plus they have to bring in a player from every team, so they couldn’t invite a ton of players from a single team, having 4 is already a lot ! “

Tremblay seemed a bit more disappointed though, “Oh well, it’s not what we play for, but it sure would have been nice to get the recognition, I know Im not a well known player still and that played against me, but im very happy for Jaroslav ! He’s been very solid for us all year and he fully deserves to be there.” To Tremblay ‘s credit his stats show 29 points to Spacek’s 23, he his +33 and Spacek is +16.

As for the usually easy-talking Belfour, he didn’t have much to say… “well what do you want me to say ? They could invite only 2 goalies… and look at the Sasquatch’s roster and tell me who else than Roy was worthy of being called an all-star ??” Ok I think Eddie’s got a point there !

As for the 4 all-stars, well they were of course thrilled to be invited.

Jaromir Jagr for one was touched by the fans voting. “It really surprised me, I did not expect it, after signing my contract I heard a lot of negative comments towards me and I didn’t think that I would still get so much appreciation, plus with Brett having such a great year, I thought he deserved to be voted on the starting lineup, but Im glad that at least he got invited, it will be fun for both of us to represent the Copper Throwers, plus we’re gonna have Shany and Spacek with us, it will be a lot of fun ! “

The Golden Brett was very excited, he looked like he was a rookie still, “It’s always fun to go play in an all-star game ! Im really looking forward to it ! Plus I will have the chance to play with Shany. I think that having 4 players from Rouyn going to game is a tribute to our great season and to great work of the organization. Im really looking forward to it ! “

So the 4 Rouyn-Noranda players were leaving to go the the all-star festivities and really intended to enjoy their weekend.