Linkorama

The NCAA's early signing period begins on Wednesday and continues for a week. Hockey is usually a little slower than football or basketball, so it may take a couple days for those NLIs to be processed and whatever, but eventually, we should finally get some good quotes from coaches about the players they recruited.

James Mirtle reposted an article from a Canadian newspaper about hockey blogs that references many of the top NHL bloggers. No mention of the top bloggers in college hockey though. Way to be thorough, Canada. Just for that, I'm boycotting Stompin' Tom Connors next weekend when they play his song at the Midwest Wireless Center. Oh, who am I kidding? That's an empty threat. I love Stompin' Tom too much.

Anyway, someone who does get a (very well-deserved) mention is hockey blog Godfather Eric McErlain, whose work with Caps owner Ted Leonsis helped get me into the XCel Center earlier this year, and fingers crossed, will help get me into the National Hockey Center in two weeks.

RWD uses the ancient art of the Mad Lib to describe Don Adam's bungling of Duluth's should-have-been-goal on Friday night.

Hockey Thoughts also attended the Elite League NIT, but on Friday, so there is another opinion for you to read. One interesting note is that Wisconsin is interested in TI defenseman Eric Springer. Springer is a nice player. He's not huge, but he's fairly solid, and is very confident with the puck. He might make a good character player to fill out Wisconsin's defense down the road.

Hockey Thoughts also previews Wisconsin HS Hockey. I'm gonna try to cover Minnesota high school hockey a little more this year since I'm a little more familiar with it. I should have something about that up eventually.

Wisconsin split with Anchorage. It's nice to see Anchorage get some points out of a weekend where they played two tough games. Wisconsin really needs to get healthy if they want to make a run in the WCHA.

The Minnesota Daily talks about Minnesota's sweep.

Michigan finally got a win over Michigan State. It's like Kirk Herbstreit said, "If you've been a Michigan State fan for the past 40 years, you know that this is why you're Michigan State." I don't know if it's really appropriate here, but Mike Eidelbes usually throws a barb or two at Michigan in his weekly column, so I'm just evening things out in the universe.

Welcome back, Zach. Ok, I already mentioned this, but this time I rhymed.

LSSU struggled on Saturday night. Jim Roque was pretty tough on goalie Jeff Jakaitis. Here's what he told USCHO:

"I was upset with him {Jakaitis}, I thought he himself turned the game around," Roque said of his senior goaltender. "It was 1-0 and we had a little momentum going and Jeff never plays the puck, and that's the part I don't understand. Then the third goal was a rebound goal and he has to take the heat for that and he'll tell you the same thing."

Hockey in Wisconsin points out that World Jr. A Championships are being broadcast over the internet for free.


BCHL forward Wade MacLeod committed to Northeastern. It is interesting because the three top 20 years old in the BCHL all committed in the past week.

Also, Green Bay Gambler and Hibbing, MN native Shea Walters committed to Bemidji. I kind of like Bemidji's strategy of taking players out of the USHL, regardless of highly-rated they are. The USHL has become such a competitive league that I think the players that come out of that league don't have to make too much of a transition to the college game.