At This Very Moment...

Aaron Voros is tied for the lead league in NHL scoring.

I just wanted to capture this moment in history.

That Just Happened

Erik Johnson injured his knee two days before the start of training while getting out of his golf cart. Brilliant.

Goligoski Gets the Call

The Pittsburgh Penguins have called up Alex Goligoski, who had a great playoff run in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

It sounds like Goligoski will be the 7th defenseman for tomorrow's game. Technically, he only needs to dress for one Stanley Cup final game to get his name on the Cup, but it's likely a moot point since by all accounts, Detroit is practicing the button combination for their Fatality finishing move.

Not So Fast, My Friend

WCH favorite Mike Emrick made a comment in the third period of last night's game between Detroit and Dallas that caught the attention of TNABACG.

Emrick was wondering aloud how Toby Petersen, a kid that played at Bloomington Jefferson HS just outside of Minneapolis, ended up going to Colorado College, rather than becoming a Gopher. The implication is that it's basically a given that the top players from the Twin Cities area will matriculate to the University of Minnesota, and ultimately on to the NHL.

It's a seemingly logical theory, except that it doesn't seem work in practice. It's undeniable that Minnesota gets basically their pick of the top-rated high school players from the Twin Cities, but the numbers look much different by the time you get to NHL alums. Out of the 25 players to hail from the Twin Cities and their suburbs that played at least one game in the NHL last season, only 6 are alums of the University of Minnesota, just slightly worse than one out of four.

Here's what the list looks like. (Note: I used Let's Play Hockey Magazine's list of former college players that played in the NHL, and used Hockeydb for hometowns. I don't have a specific definition for Twin Cities suburb, but basically Maple Grove, Hastings, Coon Rapids, and Blaine all made the cut; Red Wing didn't.)

Minnesota Alums
Jordan Leopold
Paul Martin
Barry Tallackson(The NHL lists him as from North Dakota, but Minnesota listed him as from St. Paul)
Kyle Okposo
Jeff Taffe
Erik Johnson

Non-Minnesota Alums
Andrew Alberts(Boston College)
Casey Borer(St. Cloud)
Tim Conboy(St. Cloud)
Bret Hedican(St. Cloud)
Joe Jensen(St. Cloud)
Dave Tanabe(Wisconsin)
Toby Petersen(Colorado College
Tom Gilbert(Wisconsin
Mark Parrish(St. Cloud)
Brandon Bochenski(North Dakota)
Josh Langfeld(Michigan)
Zach Parise(North Dakota)
Jack Hillen(Colorado College)
David Backes(Minnesota State)
Ryan Carter(Minnesota State)
Mike Lundin(Maine)
Matt Smaby(North Dakota)
Tom Preissing(Colorado College)(Born in Illinois, but grew up in Minnesota)
Tim Jackman(Minnesota State)(Born in North Dakota, but grew up in Minnesota)

It would make sense that the non-Minnesota alums list would be a little longer since there are so many players in the Twin Cities and Minnesota can only recruit so many, but it's kind of surprising that there is that big of a gap, considering Minnesota is starting with the better talent in nearly every case.

Free Hockey

Most of the buzz around the hockey world today centers around the epic 5 overtime game between the Philadelphia Phantoms and Albany River Rats in the AHL.

Former Gopher Ryan Potulny was the hero, scoring 2:58 into the fifth overtime. Philadelphia is pretty loaded with former college players. College alums who dressed for last night's game were: Chad Anderson(UAA), Kyle Greentree(Alaska), Mike Ratchuk(Michigan State), Jason De Santis(OSU), Nate Guenin(OSU), Jon Kalinski(Minnesota State), Ryan Potulny(Minnesota), Jared Ross(UAH), Darroll Powe(Princeton), Jonathan Matsumoto(BGSU), Andreas Nodl(SCSU), Michael-Lee Teslak(MTU), and Scott Munroe(UAH)

Trotter Called Up

Former Denver Pioneer Brock Trotter was one of six players called up by Montreal today to join the team for the playoffs.

Trotter probably won't see any game time unless Montreal is hit with a rash of injuries. I'm not even sure the extras practice with the team.(I know they didn't with Anaheim last year, but I'm not sure if that's common practice). Still, it shows he's one of the top prospects from the AHL team, and at least now there's a possibility of playing in the playoffs.

ECHL All-Stars

DJ Powers from the website Hockey's Future is in Stockton, California covering this year's ECHL all-star game, and sat down with a couple former college players for interviews.

She interviewed former Minnesota goalie Kellen Briggs, as well as former Minnesota State forward Travis Morin.

Slow News Day

It's the middle of the season and yet this was really the best that I could come up with. I'm sorry.

If, out of curiosity, you've ever checked the stats for this website, you may have noticed that it gets about 2000 visitors per weekday, and roughly 80% of them are people doing Google searches for information on Mike Komisarek's girlfriend.

The person most are searching for, is Montreal-area restaurant marketing executive Lindsay Rosen, who is(was?) dating Komisarek. Rosen's resume includes being credited as catering supervisor for the movie White Squall(a movie described by IMDB.com as "Not Ridley Scott's best work") and being engaged to MLB pitcher Carl Pavano(described as "Not Brian Cashman's best work")

But late last month, Komisarek was spotted at the opening of a shoe boutique(what I'm sure is a first, for an NHL player) with Elisha Cuthbert, who falls into that weird category where I know she's famous, but I have no clue what she's ever done. (Upon further review, I guess she was in '24,' and also, multiple episodes of "Are You Afraid of the Dark") Cuthbert is apparently on the rebound from a relationship with another NHL player, Sean Avery.

So what's the deal with former Michigan hockey players? First it was Mike Comrie and Hilary Duff and now a potential Komisarek-Cuthbert pairing. I hope prospective Michigan recruits are taking notice.

Sigalet Collapses

Former Bowling Green goalie Jordan Sigalet, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while with the Falcons, collapsed last night in the third period of his team's game against the Worcester Sharks last night. He lost consciousness on the ice, but regained consciousness by the time he was taken off the ice on a stretcher.

Not much is known about what condition Sigalet is in, but it sounds like it his collapse could have been due to fatigue caused by his MS. Sigalet's story is a great one, and hopefully he will recover.
UPDATE: It sounds like Sigalet will be ok.

Hirsch in the News Again

You can add another chapter to the sad saga of Tyler Hirsch.

Hirsch had recently been trying to resurrect his hockey career, and start his professional hockey career. He attended the Minnesota Wild training camp as a free agent, trying to earn a contract.

Last Friday, the Houston Aeros, Minnesota's AHL affiliate announced that Tyler Hirsch had signed a contract with the Aeros, and would be assigned to the ECHL.

Sunday, Hirsch emailed Michael Russo, Wild beat writer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune to say that he had not signed the contract and that the Wild had been unethical in saying that he had signed.

After news of this broke, the Aero's GM Tom Lynn said the Wild planned to cut all ties to Hirsch.

Hirsch's lowlights while with the University of Minnesota included the well-documented outburst at the Final Five, missing the first game of the 2006-2007 season after showing up late for a team meeting, and finally, being kicked off the team in the middle of last season.

Linkorama

Former Michigan Daily writer James V. Dowd is INCH's new CCHA correspondent. Here is his conference preview.

Andy Baggot from the Wisconsin State Journal looked at the WCHA by age.

A couple recent articles make mention of Jamie Benn "fast-tracking" to the pros by spurning Alaska for the WHL. Benn was a 5th round draft choice of the Dallas Stars. How many other 5th round draft choices have made the NHL out of the WHL, and how many games have they played?

2005-Masi Marjamaki, 1 game
2004-Steve Regier, 10 games
2003-Nigel Dawes, 8 games
2002-Robert McVicar, 1 game
2001-None
2000-Travis Moen, 203 games
1999-Justin Mapletoft, 38 games, Jordan Krestanovich, 22 games

NCAA players drafted in the 5th round that made the NHL in the same time period:
2005-None
2004-Ben Walter, 10 games
2003-Lee Stempniak, 139 games
2002-John Zeiler, 23 games
2001-Kevin Bieksa, 120 games
2000-Mike Stuart, 3 games, Matt Koalska, 3 games, Greg Zanon, 70 games, J-M Liles, 232 games, Nolan Schaefer, 7 games
1999-Ryan Miller, 129 games, Niko Dimitrakos, 158 games

Former Denver Pioneer Paul Stastny started off his season with a hat trick for Colorado. Former Duluth Bulldog Matt Niskanen played for Dallas and managed to keep an even +/- rating.

I Didn't See This Coming

Apparently former Michigan forward Mike Comrie is dating Hilary Duff. If you're keeping score at home, Comrie is actually only 7 years older than Lizzie McGuire.

So to recap, in this past week we've now covered: Jack Johnson dating Sarah Murray, Kellie Pickler dating Jordin Tootoo, and now Mike Comrie dating Hilary Duff. I'm like the Perez Hilton of the hockey world.

Yeah, it's summer.

Update: A lot of people have been finding this site after doing Google searches for more info ComDuff. When I graduated from college, I was challenged to make a difference in the world. I think I'm doing so.

Also, all this talk of girlfriends and I didn't even mention Mike Komisarek and his girlfriend. I still get at least one Google search per week for "Mike Komisarek + girlfriend"

Linkorama

A lot of Shattuck-St. Mary's alums are back in Faribault working out over the summer. Also of note, Jack Johnson is apparently dating UMD's Sarah Murray.

Chris Kunitz took the Stanley Cup back to Big Rapids. No word on if Kunitz pulled anybody's hair.

I should have linked to this earlier, but D.J. Powers of Hockey's Future covered the Snoopy Senior World Hockey Tournament. A team of Michigan alums ended up beating a team of Denver alums to win their division.

Kellie Pickler is praying for the Predators to stay in Nashville. I'm not even sure what to say to that.

Top 5 Simpson's Sports Episodes. Awesome.

Goon Update

I don't know if this helps or hurts Clarkson fans in the wake of their overtime loss today to Massachusetts.

Anybody remember Matt Nickerson? He was a big defenseman that was a third round draft of the Dallas Stars. He originally committed to play for Michigan, but that fell threw, and he ended up going to Clarkson. He played one season with the Golden Knights, racking up an impressive 179 PIMs. Yes, that's 4.7 penalty minutes per game. In a league where you can't fight. After that one season, Nickerson had worn out his welcome in the ECAC and decided to go pro.

How is his pro career going? Well, he is currently with the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads, though he won't be playing for them for a while. Nickerson was recently suspended for 16 games. Why? Well, according to the ECHL:

“During a third-period melee, Mr. Nickerson engaged multiple opponents who clearly did not wish to participate in an altercation,” said ECHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Rod Pasma. “At the conclusion of this incident, Mr. Nickerson delivered two blind-sided sucker punches to an unsuspecting opponent. The ECHL will not tolerate such inappropriate behavior from our players.”

I haven't seen any footage, but I'm guessing Nickerson earned his suspension. Especially since a teammate got 7 games. So Nickerson's actions were presumably more than twice as bad as whatever his teammate did. Thank goodness this idiot didn't stay in college hockey longer.