Wilbur

The 5 in 5 rule could be a mighty blow for high school hockey. Instead of kids sticking around and playing through their senior years they'll be pressed to make a decision on high school hockey vs. junior hockey. I'll use a kid like Benson from Sheyenne as an example as he lead the state in scoring. If that rule goes into place he'd have one full year of potential junior hockey after this year. His dad being the head coach he likely sticks around and plays before and after the year in Watertown where he is tendered, but after that he'd just have the one full year. ACHA teams may be licking their chops with this one as it doesn't apply to them at all. Stay tuned.

Don't show this to the Pohlads. Got better while spending less.

I see the pros and cons of the rule changes. No bailout TO on an icing is for more offense, but will lead to more delay BS of the team that has been out there on a 2 minute shift, unless the officials start calling delay of game on it. I'd rather see it stay the same and each team uses a TO where they want it. I think the players for the most part adapted really well to the no hand pass rule. I guess adding it back in the defensive end means that when a guy is down on his knees in the corner he can glove the puck to a teammate to keep the game going. Count me in the should've kept it where it was group with that one too. As far as the trapezoid and goalies being unfairly limited in showing off their athletic ability in the corner by playing the puck....I mean we need to let the best athletes on the ice show off that skill. I know @burd agrees......

I think the Friday night game against Omaha in the playoffs summed up the end of his tenure to a T. Up a goal in the third period, and you got outshot 17-0 while sitting back and taking punches from Omaha like they were the Soviet Red Army team. Murdered in the faceoff circle, outhustled, outhit, out whatever you want to call it, yet after the game we talked "culture" and "finding a way" and "a full sixty on Saturday" when our goalie just stood on his head so we could barely get to the finish line. I don't know if that, or needing to beat Robert Morris in OT and getting pushed to the brink by them after having to beat them in OT was the low point.

I'm going to need to know what bar now....and where I can get a Sandy t-shirt.....

Bringing in a tough as nails kid that isn't afraid to get in front of pucks with the half shield on, and has played with Carels a bit. I'll call that a win. Dumanski is captain material in a few years, his coach at Prince George just loves the kid. Dressing 7 d men most nights is my guess, the battle between that group to stay out of the suites on game night is going to be fun to see.

I think regardless of where he gets drafted you're still looking at the prospect of an 18 year old (this June, still 17) kid making a monumental jump after playing against U20 guys in Prince George. Lets see where he's at after a year in college hockey playing against some men from Duluth, Denver, Western, etc. I'm not a legal expert in terms of the "grant in aid" that the kid signed with UND. Back to the draft standpoint, I don't think he's going ahead of baby Jesus, Stenberg, Molhotra, or Chase Reid. Vancouver is likely to go whoever is left between Molhotra or Stenberg, but I think San Jose goes with Stenberg as an elite forward to play with baby Jesus of last year's draft, and Molhotra makes all the sense in the world for Vancouver with his time in the region previously with a couple of organizations. Reid ends up in Chicago, and then Carels to NY, and Verhoeff to Calgary. My two cents.

Hold your horses UND fans. The experts up in Canada have Carels playing in the NHL next season as an 18 year old d man if he's drafted by the right team. Scratch him off the list and hope we get Dupont now. And somebody please take jersey #4 from him and give it a good wash.

My favorite one was when they had a kid with diabetes that had a service dog with him that was trained to let the kid know when his blood sugar reached a dangerous level. The kid was a senior and it was getting towards the end of the year, and in true Ole form, "yeah that kid graduates this year.....man am I gonna miss the dog."

A lot of the coaches/parents/broadcasters I speak to around the state have nothing but great things to say about Ole. Ran into him a few times and I never had a bad conversation with him. Great one liners! "The kid has two speeds....neutral and reverse..."

Got a chance to see Grubb a bit this weekend, and I'm excited to see what he does in Brandon this year. Hockey IQ is off the charts, but then playing for Tom Ward at Shattuck will do that to a kid. The kid has definitely taken advantage of his time in the weight room as well.

Twins lose another lead late in the game last night, and low and behold Varland has a .38 ERA for Toronto..... He's making less than a million remind you.....

I heard boys, but in the title 9 world that I know little about other than "keep the dollars fair" you'd assume that both would be making the move if they were to jump.

If this was all just a sick game, fine, you win..... While I'm here, rumor mill now stating that Langdon is possibly making the jump. Stay tuned there.

Quinn.

Colin Grubb is at the Northern Plains District Boys Player Development camp happening in West Fargo this weekend. If you have USA hockey TV you can stream games. He's in the 09 group which has a ton of ND kids that not shockingly don't play their hockey in North Dakota anymore. Fylling, Larken, Peterson, Bryan, Deschamp, Packulak, etc. If you had all those guys on a Team ND summer group that would be a fun group to watch.

Bailey Ober with a complete game shutout last night. Was refreshing to watch (I cracked and took the half off twins.tv special for 45 bucks for the remainder of the season). I didn't have to worry about Rocco pulling him after the 7th inning because the binder said that he was statistically going to get worse. He could've thrown 13 scoreless innings the way the ball was coming off his hand at a brisk 88mph last night that the Marlins couldn't handle. I get its the Marlins, but an efficient outing. I also saw aggressiveness on the base paths....and gasp....a hit and run that worked perfectly. Three game winning streak. Can we get to 75 wins? Maybe??

Alright, you've got my interest.....

The Wild will need to shore up the d zone in the offseason. Their 3-6 d men are going to be the story of this playoff season. Right after they get the game tying goal they get hemmed in on a bad shift and you could just tell it wasn't going to be their night. Losing Brodin hurt like hell, but you need more out of Spurgeon. Bogosian just throwing the puck up the wall that lead to goal #3 was a pee wee play. Faber and Hughes can't play 35 minutes, just a recipe for disaster, especially when Colorado know that those guys are every other shift and can run the Mckinnon line accordingly. Rumor mill has the Oilers interested in Gus this offseason if he's willing to go there, not sure what they have for d men, but they've got to get something useful in return, especially on the back end.

I think even young Keaton knows that he's got a long ways to go before he jumps to the professional ranks. NHL Central Scouting has him as their #2 overall prospect amongst north American skaters, but home country guru Button at TSN has him below Reid and Carels as their 6th overall prospect. Its been said before, the biggest thing for him is his skating and defending. Unlimited potential offensively, now a great opportunity to play a lot and get the opportunity to become better in his own end. I'd think he's got to be the guy that they are thinking QB's PP1 playing with Zellers and Reschny, but there is a long time between now and then. I don't see him falling past the Blackhawks if Stenberg and Reid are both off the board, which they should collectively be #2 and #3 in my opinion. The experts think he goes to Seattle, but I'd be shocked if a kid that already has the NHL body drops that far.

Quick check in....the team is 16-20 and only 1.5 games out of first place in a very bad American League Central. Now imagine if they had two decent bullpen guys, or make that one bullpen guy you could rely on.

I honestly don't see the team losing a single game next season, or a team keeping it within 3 goals. But if they do.....

It would've been better to go with Gus in game one off the Dallas series then to throw him in last night and the first two shots go in the net. Jesper back in for game 3 which is must win #4 now for the Wild.

Completely agree. USHL teams are going to really have to do their due diligence in the phase 1 draft. I mean you look at Dubuque last year trading up in the first round to take a kid like Colin Grubb, and he's headed to Brandon next year and likely will never skate a shift for them before he's in Grand Forks.

USHL teams can tender up to two players (2010 birth year this year, always 16 year olds) in exchange for their first and second round picks in the phase 1 draft before the draft happens. Phase 2 draft happened today, which is the 17-20 old pool of guys. I believe teams have 50 guys on their protected rosters.