So, you’ve ended up at Dalhousie for your first year of school and you say you’re a sports fan?
Well, you’re in luck.
Halifax not only boasts some of the top teams in the AUS, the city also prides itself on two great sporting alternatives—a junior hockey team and a professional basketball team.
Halifax Mooseheads
Sure, statistically speaking, the Halifax Mooseheads was the worst team in the entire Canadian Hockey League over the past three seasons. That’s the bad news. The good news is a revamped Halifax Mooseheads outfit will be entering the upcoming QMJHL season full of optimism, and all because of one name: Nathan MacKinnon.
Widely touted as the next Sidney Crosby—they share the same hometown, Cole Harbour—MacKinnon was the number one pick of this June’s QMJHL draft by the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. He was acquired by the Moose in a blockbuster trade that saw Halifax relinquish two players, including their top scorer, Carl Gelinas, and three first round draft picks. All for a boy wonder.
The star of Team Nova Scotia in the 2011 Canada Games, MacKinnon was also sensational in this winter’s World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Winnipeg—he had five goals and eight points, even though he was the second youngest player in the tournament.
Anticipation for the forthcoming season in September doesn’t stop with MacKinnon, as the Mooseheads are stacked with gifted youth. They drafted a talented second overall pick in Jonathan Drouin and are home to one of the 2012 NHL Draft’s top prospects, forward Martin Frk.
An off-season overhaul behind the bench led to the Moosehead’s third coach in two seasons, up-and-comer Dominique Ducharme. His no-nonsense approach should shape this talented team into a challenger in the years to come.
Halifax Rainmen
The Halifax Rainmen, the professional basketball team in town, will begin play in November as part of an upstart league.
Formerly of the Premier Basketball League and before that the American Basketball Association, the Halifax Rainmen is one of three founding members of the National Basketball League of Canada currently preparing for their inaugural campaign.
Rainmen owner Andre Levingston has been a driving force behind the new Canadian basketball league as interim president.
Halifax will look to write a new chapter in the unchartered waters of the NBL by playing some familiar foes and new rivals. The Rainmen will face Oshawa, London, Moncton and Summerside, while revisiting familiar PBL foes, the Quebec Kebs and Saint John Mill Rats.
The Kebs and Mill Rats joined Halifax in deflecting from the PBL within two days of the championship trophy presentation, amid accusations of game fixing by PBL chairman, Dr. Severko Hrywnak and owner of the league champion, Rochester RazorSharks.
The Rainmen failed to agree on a new contract with former NBA player Mike Evans and the team is on the market, as of press time, for a new coach. Evans led his squad to a disappointing semifinal loss at the hands of the Lawton-Fort Sill last season.
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