It's important because I wrote it. I wrote a diary post over on MGoBlog talking about Michigan's hockey recruits.
I forgot to mention this last weekend, but Bowling Green defenseman Tim Maxwell left the team for "academic reasons". Maxwell's departure opens up more ice time for freshman Nick Bailen, who I think is a seriously underrated player.
Nine other goalies may have a better goals against average than Shane Connelly in WCHA conference play this year, but I'm willing to bet that none of those nine share a Christmas tree with Baby Mangino
Michigan Tech forward Mikael Lickteig is is done for the year with a knee injury. For some reason, I think of Lisa Simpson faking food poisoning to leave Martin Prince's birthday party. Seriously though, Tech has really been hit hard by injuries this year, and you know it's bad when a guy that doesn't even play goes down with a season-ending injury.
The most annoying thing in the wake of USA Hockey's announcement of their world junior is that we have to hear about how there's an OMG CONSPIRACY about every CHL that didn't make the team--despite the fact that 8 other CHL players apparently weren't part of that conspiracy.
Regan Bartel is mad that Colin Long didn't make the team. He asks, "
# If Long was on a level footing with a U.S college player on the depth chart, would that U.S college player have received the nod over the renegade that fled to Canada to chase his hockey dream? " I'd say Long is roughly on level footing with a Garrett Roe or Carter Camper, neither of whom made the US team last year. The US should get more than enough scoring from their top two lines. They needed a solid collection of guys for the lower two lines.
As far as my complaint earlier today on the exclusion of Jeremy Morin and Cam Fowler, I'll backtrack a little on Fowler. The US has a pretty loaded defensive corps--the other bitch du jour was about John Carlson not making the team on D--and this afternoon, I had a nightmare flashback to that horrible defense that played in the Grand Forks World Juniors a few years back, and decided that going with more maturity isn't the worst thing. I still can't think of a great reason for leaving Morin off the team.
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7 comments:
heres one reason for morin not making it..... hes not a great skater and it sometimes hurts him in international competition and with the older, faster, and skilled competition, he could really lag behind.
Morin was one of the US best players at the U17 last year. His skating didn't seem to hurt him. Keep in mind this World Juniors is being played on NHL-sized surfaces.
Bailen benefitted greatly from the increased ice time. He was a physical force on defense and saw more time on the power play against Minn. State last weekend. He looks like he is ready to blossom into a big time defenseman.
The USA invited 5 WHL players to the WJ tryouts--3 from the Memorial Cup Champions, the Spokane Chiefs. Those guys know to win and should help make the USA competitive this year.
the problem with BG is that outside of bailen, page, and krelove they have no defense for next year when they lose a 30 min a game senior in schmidt and now that they already lost maxwell maybe they could groom petiot. their recruiting class next year doesnt exactly feature any top end guys but ruel could play right away as he is a big, physical, stay at home d man. i think they are at least one, possibly two guys away from having a solid defensive corp to complement the explosive offense they will have next year.
The US totally missed on Colin Long, John Carlson, Phillip McCrae, AJ Jenks and a few others. If there are 6 better defenseman than Carlson on the US team, then the US is coming home with a Gold Medal. McCollum will be solid in net. Unice has International experince and will be a solid back up. Wahl and Bowman are going to be fun to watch and give International teams fits. O'Brien may be giving the people of Ottawa a preview of things to come. Like it or not leaving "the U" has been the best thing for him. Besides the CHL guys, who is going to pay the price and score goals versus the stingy Team Canada Defense? The guys who wear cages during league play? Hopefully A.P. from Michigan can keep his hot streak going. Coaching is going to be huge, especially on the PK. Hopefully the US does not blow a chance at a medal.
mitch wahl is going to compete for pucks? come on. he plays his best games in round arenas
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