The Deloitte Devil Rays have
quietly had a great start to the 2010 ball hockey season. Credit for that goes
to their line-up of fund accountants and office employees.
Among them is Ryan McGuire. The Canadian
works for UBS and plays the right defender position on the Devil Rays side. So
far that effort on the defensive end has translated to 10 goals allowed on the
season and a 2-1 mark atop the standings.
McGuire, 33, is his first year with
Devil Rays and his fifth year in the Cayman Ball Hockey League. He states the
success of this year’s squad is a true team effort. “I am really happy with the
group of guys that were assembled by the Deloitte Devil Ray’s ‘management’ in
this season’s draft,” McGuire said. “I’d say around 10 of us have played
several seasons together in the pre-draft era, so that really helps in terms of
early season jelling. My two personal goals every game are to get some exercise
and to contribute to the team by having a positive plus-minus.”
Serving as co-captains for the
Devil Rays are Michael Hall and Robert Rintoul (both are employees at
Deloitte). Hall is a left winger in his second year with the Devil Rays while
Rintoul is a centre on his third campaign with the team (second straight as
co-captain).
Hall has 12 years of experience
playing ball hockey and states this year’s early triumph is due to foreign
talent.
“It’s still pretty early in the
season but we have a solid team and should be one of the best once we have the
team chemistry going,” Hall said. “We took Serge ‘Chief’ Berube (who is the
director at Deloitte) with the number two overall pick, so we have one of the
best backstoppers in the league and he can keep us in any game. We also added
one of the most underrated players in the league – Jean-Philippe Valiquette –
and he paid off right away with four goals on opening night.
“Rob (Rintoul) is one of the best
players in the league – he can score from anywhere. Leo Kassam is another guy
that can really score and set up goals. I don’t mean to brag but I have led the
league in blocked shots for the last seven seasons in a row.
“We lost a couple of quality
defenders in the draft but were able to bring back McGuire and he has picked up
the slack back there. We definitely have the highest proportion of French
Canadian players in the league so I guess I would have to say our team
resembles the Habs (Montreal Canadiens).”
The statistics for the league show
the Devil Rays are just as good offensively as they are on defence. Four players
are among the top scorers in the league with Jean-Philippe Valiquette and Brent
Forsyth atop the heap with seven points apiece.
Rintoul has been playing the sport
for three years in Cayman and states the current level of production makes the
team a true championship contender this season.
“We started strong this season with
a high scoring first game to boost confidence,” Rintoul said. “We were
fortunate to get several returning players from last year as well as some “new”
additions who played on the team the year before. Therefore the familiarity of
playing together was already there for the first two games. I think if the
attendance continues to be strong we should be a favourite for the championship
this year. I’d have to agree with Hallsy (Mike Hall) in that our strong
contingent of French Canadians can only lead to (comparisons with) the Habs.
Although coming from the west coast of Canada this is a tough revelation for
me.
“I think with our even spread of
skill I’d say we better resemble the Canucks with skill across all four lines
and one of the best goalies in the league. I don’t normally like to name people
and then leave a few out but our winger tandem of Hallsy and Leo Kassam with
Brent Forsyth at centre is in my opinion the strongest line in the league. We
consistently gain control of the game when that line is out on the floor. I
also think we have a solid core of defence with Kevin Huys and McGuire holding
the fort making sure the opposition don’t get any easy ones through. We’ve also
added the scoring touch this year of Francois Lamontagne, a Partner of Deloitte
and he will add even more depth to the team.”
Deloitte are next in action on
Thursday 4 November at 8pm. The Logic arena of Kings Sports Centre sees the
Devil Rays battle the Sharks, led by multi-sport star Scott Gossen and wily
veteran Robert Mahadeo. With the regular season extending into next January and
the playoffs wrapping up in mid-February, Deloitte have a ways to go to dethrone
the CIBC Islanders as the new champions of ball hockey.
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