Unfamiliar foes
Interleague play in QMJHL opens questions about league’s schedule
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League fans may be scratching their heads as to how, and where, the first half of the season ended.
Sydney’s Mitchell Balmas led the way with a hat trick for the Gatineau Olympiques in their 4-1 victory. It was Balmas’s last game with Gatineau as he has been traded to Bathurst, but before moving to a new team, he may have felt like he was in a new league. The win came in Ottawa, against the OHL’s 67s in an outdoor interleague contest. The return matchup will take place in Gatineau on Jan. 12, and the two-game set is part of the 67s 50th anniversary celebration.
Interleague play isn’t an entirely new concept for the QMJHL and OHL, although it was the first OHL vs. QMJHL regular season contest since the Victoriaville Tigres blanked the Belleville Bulls 4-0 on Feb. 23, 2003. The Tigres/Bulls game ended four years of regularly scheduled interleague action that began in 1999.
Opening up two games for Gatineau to match up with Ottawa would appear to cause a disturbance in the QMJHL schedule, but even big fans of the league may be surprised to know how inconsistent the calendar is from team to team. Fans of the six Maritime Division clubs have been used to a standard pattern since the 2013-14 campaign. Maritime clubs play East & West Division teams twice each, and take on four of their divisional rivals nine times and the other rival eight times.
But there is much greater variance for clubs in the East &
West, as regardless of division all clubs play each other at least four times — with a small exception. Chicoutimi and BaieComeau will only face each of Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d’or three times apiece this year, and that allows the rival clubs to play on 10 separate occasions. Sags/ Drakkar and Huskies/Foreurs are the most frequent fixtures in the league.
Generally teams in the East and West play clubs in the other division four times, and their own division six times, but there are some exceptions, as Rimouski
sees Québec for eight games this year, and Victoriaville & Shawinigan of the East will each compete with both of Drummondville & Sherbrooke of the West on five occasions. Many of these types of concessions are done for travel purposes and to retain rivalries that were strong during previous alignments.
As recently as two years ago, Rouyn-Noranda president Jacques Blais inquired about the possibility of regular season contests against OHL squads like North Bay and Sudbury. Though it has yet to transpire, the idea
did receive a favourable reaction from QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau.
Just as it would be unlikely there would ever be interleague play between the WHL and OHL, it’s unlikely the Maritime Division would ever partake in games against teams from other leagues due to distance. However, while it would be a greater time commitment for OHL squads to come to Atlantic Canada in comparison to their regular schedule, the reverse is not necessarily true.
In 2016-17 during its sixgame road swing through La Belle Province, the Screaming Eagles flew commercial in and out of Montréal, and have used Ottawa’s airport during prior road trips. Matches in RouynNoranda and Val-d’Or could be replaced by a game in Ottawa and a short drive to Kingston, but it’s unlikely such a change would be proposed.
A more practical switch for Maritimes teams would be allowing Bathurst to play less games against Nova Scotian clubs, and additional contests against Rimouski. The Titan and Oceanic have taken advantage of their close proximity by playing each other in the pre-season the last four summers.
One radical solution would be to abandon divisions all together. Since the 2011 postseason the QMJHL has used the overall standings to determine playoff positioning, with 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc. Aside from giving the top three seeds being awarded to division winners, the groupings don’t serve a practical purpose. Perhaps a schedule could be put together allowing teams to play each other however often deemed fit, with the condition being that no matchup happens more often than 10 times and no less than two.
Of course, there is the matter of marketing to the casual fan and selling the idea of the division standings. There is also regional pride, and the idea of winning a division title. But rest assured if potential expansion or relocation to St. John’s or elsewhere comes to pass, scheduling will be a league topic once more.