Mid-Week News and Notes

Ryan Hillier and his Halifax Mooseheads have a lot to be happy about and that does not include Wednesday night's 5-2 win over the Rimouski Oceanic.

The new CHL Mosak Mastercard Top 10 Rankings came out today and the Mooseheads made the biggest jump in the poll going from 7th to 3rd. The Mooseheads who now boast a 16-3-0-4 record also hold a shoot out win over the team currently ranked as number 1 the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

Hillier and his Mooseheads are now on quite the roll as tonight's win over the Oceanic was their 5th straight. The Mooseheads also now trail the Screaming Eagles for the top spot in the QMJHL by just 2 points with the Mooseheads holding 3 games in hand.

As for the game itself tonight, Hillier had a quiet evening taking just one shot, registering one hit and losing the only face off he took.

For the Oceanic the bad news is the injury bug that has repeatedly haunted them now added 2007 7th rounder David Skokan to it's lengthy list as Skokan missed tonight's game with a groin injury.

There is no timetable as to when Skokan will return.

We Told You So Because They gave us reason to believe

When the Blueshirt Bulletin first started to cover Ranger prospects in 2004, we got to see for ourselves what the future might look like. If you have been a reader of the Blueshirt Bulletin since 2004 then what you witnessed in the Ranger win over the Devils did not come as a surprise to you.

Sure some will say this is stroking our own egos but it is not. What it is about is prospects who refused to listen to the critics and who told us they wanted to become Rangers. It is about young men who told us how badly they wanted to be Rangers and then went out and proved it.

Whether it was Brandon Dubinsky who told us how badly he wanted to become a Ranger after watching the 1994 Cup win or Nigel Dawes who always had a big smile on his face when someone tried to say he was too small for the NHL. You just knew that inside Dawes was promising to make someone eat their words.

It is about young men who had a dream not just of playing in the NHL but rather wanting to become Rangers. From Dubinsky who got his Ranger addiction from his father to Dawes who talked about how much good he could for others by playing for the Rangers.

It is about hard work, dedication and a desire to show they belonged. It is about the Rangers who drafted not only talented but players with good honest character inside of them.

We are talking about human beings with giving hearts and strong work ethics. About prospects who come from hard working families and were brought up with the lesson that hard work is the best way to make your dreams come true.

It is about a Nigel Dawes who showed us what a champion was supposed to be for getting a haircut at center ice to raise money for charity as a teenager. In a day and age where athletes are all about themselves there is Dawes giving back.

It is about doing an interview for someone because you said you would and not begging off because you are sick. That was my first meeting with Dawes who had just flown across the world and was suffering from food poisoning but was more worried about keeping his word. If keeping your word is that important to you then you know this is who you want on your team.

It is about a Brandon Dubinsky who could score a hat trick in a game then go back to his host family's house and tape hockey sticks for the youngest child at the home because Dubinsky had promised to. It is stopping in the middle of an interview because a young fan has been waiting for your autograph and making sure that fan gets quality time not just a signature.

When people asked why we believed these 2 were going to become Rangers this was just a few examples of why. See you can draft talent and develop it, you can draft skill and nurture it but you can not draft being a good person with a huge heart and a dream.

Nothing meant more to us than seeing Dawes and Dubinsky score goals in the game against the Devils. We knew the meaning of those goals because they had told us a long time ago how important it was to them.

We got the message both then and tonight.