Mr. Blanston
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Posts posted by Mr. Blanston
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It must feel good to go on a message board and rip on a kid who is a Mr. Hockey finalist. I would be willing to bet that everyone who is on here bashing Rehak couldn't even carry his jock strap. You guys say how does a kid with 19 points in the West get a nomination for Mr. Hockey. The kid plays defense, he's not a forward. There's a lot more to the game than just putting up points. The kid plays on a offensively challenged team, compared to Ladouceur who plays for a very dominant Red River team that frequently blows out opponents and finds the back of the net a lot more than Williston does. Its only common sense when a team scores as often as Red River does that those kids are going to have higher point totals than a kid like Rehak from Williston. Red River has 158 goals compared to Williston's 77 according to Gillen's site. Red River has scored more than twice the goals Williston has. Ladouceur has one more goal than Rehak, but a lot more assists. Well its a lot easier to pick up assists when you are playing for a highly skilled Red River team that averages over 6 goals a game. I am by no means trying to take anything away from Ladouceur, the kid is a great player and in my mind deserves to win Mr. Hockey. You dont get drafted into the USHL unless you can play, but at the same time Rehak can also play the game. He may not be the player Ladouceur is, but he is a very good hockey player who has been a big part of an improving Williston program. There is no reason why he shouldn't be a Mr Hockey finalist.
"There is no reason why he shouldn't be a Mr Hockey finalist."
There is a reason why he shouldn't be a Mr. Hockey finalist: there are other players in the state who are much, much more talented. He has a snowball's chance in hell at playing junior A, let alone D1 (yes, I've seen him play several times).
Hockey 09 don't look at this as us ripping on a kid who is a Mr. Hockey finalist. We (or at least I) don't have anything against these two players from the WDA. They're average players who work hard for their team, and for that they should be commended. Instead, try to look at this as us ripping on coaches in the West who ignorantly and selfishly vote for kids in their conference instead of the players who are much more qualified for the award.
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A few things. Not winning the Mr. Hockey award will have no affect on Wurdens success in the future or hurt his draft stock at all. NHL scouts could care less about who wins this award. Now, it really does not matter how often a player from the West wins the award, either. Just because a player from the West has not won the award for 15 years does not mean that we should favor players that are nominated for the award from that side of the state because it has not had a winner in a long duration.
Now, Blanston, I agree very much so with the majority of your post. But in the beginning of your post you say "It does no good to sit here and argue over something very few of you on this board are educated about." Well, and I am not intending to be standoffish because I agree with most of this post but, where is your hockey education coming from? I only ask because at the end of your post you say something to the extent that Western coachs should not have the same voting power as Eastern coachs? Tell me how that solves the problem? That would not solve the problem, my friend.
UNDhockey22,
The problem is one which most of us should agree on, that Herbel is not a skilled enough player to be called Mr. Hockey. Most of you should also agree that the majority, if not all, of his votes came from coaches in the WDA. Therefore, it's logical to conclude that if western coaches had less voting power, Herbel would not have won, and North Dakota hockey would not be embarrassed like it will be when their "senior athlete of the year" can't make a junior A team this summer. This can only perpetuate the stereotype that North Dakota hockey is terrible.
Wilbur,
If I am the coach of any team that lose to Bottineau, I grab a bottle of scotch and a handgun and... just kidding Wilbs, no offense. In all seriousness, I addressed this issue in my previous post, and this particular situation would fall under the category of ignorance of a specific western coach. Even if he does get lit up by Herbel, he has got to be conscious enough of the level of skill that is out there on the ice in front of him, and of the level of skill of the top three EDC teams. However, he is not conscious of this incredible disparity, which I fear is the case with many other western coaches as well. Don't get me wrong, I am aware that several great hockey players have come from the west, all of whom would be legitimate winners of the award had they not left for juniors, but Eric Herbel is not one of them.
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It does no good to sit here and argue over something very few of you on this board are educated about. The fact of the matter is that Eric Herbel is not a great hockey player. I have seen him play, his skills would be slightly above average on a team such as Red River, South, or Grafton. He played in the Elite II league last fall, which is comprised primarily of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in nodak and minnesota, and did not stand out. Dan Wurden, on the other hand, played in the Elite league, amongst the best players in Minnesota, and was chosen by scouts and coaches to participate in the league's all-star weekend, signifying that he was a stand out in that league. Think of the last three winners of the award. Jordan McIntyre (narrow win over teammate Matt Moreland), Jake Marto, Paul Weisgarber. Putting Herbel in the same category as those three is completely undermining their accomplishments that distinguished them as great hockey players. The west coaches have embarrassed North Dakota hockey out of their own foolish pride or just plain ignorance, and although it sounds harsh, should really not be given the same power as the eastern coaches in the voting process.
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Who all will play d111 next year from North Dakota?
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After speaking with my son, he told me he heard Klenow say he was able to play better at the tryout than he did during his high school career. He had a point a game at the tryout. Maybe that will clear up some confusion because I'm sure most of us were just going on high school performance.
Can't wait to watch that kid next year for the jets- should be quite a treat. Does anyone know if he's committed anywhere yet?
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So, "When playing GF and other good teams they shorten the bench to two lines (at the most)". By saying at the most, which means no more than two, you imply that sometimes they just skate one line? That obviously makes no sense but I would guess you mean something else by that phrase.
Do any of you know what Troy Bottrell's plans for next year are? With that size he reminds be a lot of Jake Vigen out on the ice. Has he been picked up by anyone yet?
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My point was not that they should not keep scoring against North, of course they should when it's 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, 8-0, 9-0, and even 10-0. They should not however rub it in the faces of the players. With about 4 minutes left a south player was called for unsportsmanlike conduct when he skated by Norths bench after a goal and went for high fives. Try and convince me that you'll see that in a Gopher/ Sioux game (4 minutes left, 4-0). Let's say what South did against Wahpeton was justified. Lets say South has been having trouble scoring this season and they were exercising some of there frustrations... Okay. But that's not the case. You don't know how hard those Wahpeton players work in the off-season, and neither do I. Maybe one or two of them worked really hard last summer. A great work ethic for 3 months will not make a Wahpeton into a high caliber team. Does any one deserve to lose 26-0? It was 19-0 going into the third. Have your top two lines sit on the bench and retape there sticks, they should not play. Make 20 passes before a shot, and every shot you take before twenty passes is one crusher. Figure something out.
Maybe a South Holy Angels game wouldnt be 26-0. It probably wouldnt. But I want South to know how it feels to be down 10-0 and have Jay Barribal skate by there bench asking for high fives.
Don't expect anyone to feel bad for you because your team sucks. And just to clarify, he didn't try to get high fives from your team, he pulled on the front of his jersey just as Danny Irmen did, ironically, in the Sioux/Gopher game the night before. One more thing... why should some players (ahem, NORTH) go and try their hardest against wahp (twice) and have some individuals score, oh say, six points against them each game, but when players from South, who are better, do it and it's so bad? All points count the same on Gillen's website even if they shouldn't, and it's unfair for certain players to score all their points against wahp while the good teams are playing better competition. You know exactly what I'm talking about Specifics. Quit complaining.
p.s. Almost the entire South team should know how it feels to get whipped as it happened last year against Moorhead. There's nothing you can do about it. It sucks, but that's the way it is.
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Does anyone know who are on the top two lines for Grafton this year? It was mentioned earlier that Mohagen would play with the Campbells but he didn't dress against North (according to Bob Gillen's site)
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The RR/South game IMO had great refs. Only two questionable calls I saw. 1) A high sticking on South early in the second. 2) That penalty on the RR player after the whistle when the South player took a dive.
Also remember early in the year, every year, the refs love calling it tight setting a precedent, but they always seem to ease things back as the season goes along.
I think he was refering to the game that happened tonight against Crookston.
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I wasn't there, but from what I gathered, Shanley had more goals at the end of regulation than Central did, hence the loss
That was a pathetic attempt at being witty considering Shanley won in overtime.
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I want to reiterate how disappointed I am in some people on this board. If it were me when I was in high school or my son (who is thankfully not yet reached high school) I would be quite hurt by these comments. Before posting anything else, people, please, please, please, get your facts right. OK I'm done.
Soohockey how long has it been since you were in high school?
to everyone who said that mclean and stahl are the best goalies in the state, congratulations for being complete morons. those kids really showed up to play today, and together posted a stellar save % of just over 67%. stahl was a complete veg in net today. i couldve put a 12 yr old girl in there and it wuoldve been a closer game. and for mclean, well 8 saves on 13 shots to a team that had a grand total of 0-count 'em ZERO players on the WDA all tourney team really speaks for itself. mr mclean u should buy your defensemen some steak dinners tontie because without them i wonder how many goals century wouldve scored. 15? 20? both mclean and stahl should buy a new pair of breezers for tomorrows games, seeing as how both of theres are covered in piss.I was under the impression you were a current student at Red River, but you're clearly an adult with a small child. Guess I was way off.
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Really? Who would play defense, block shots, kill penalties,... and so on. That MIGHT win you games in high school but last time I checked teams pick up players for reasons other than if they can put the puck in the net. There would be chaos with no defensive role players, what would a team of goal scorers do against a team equally talented, but had good defense aswell? They would not do anything, they would lose.
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Specifics, your hockey knowlegde is supreme. You are a student of the game and I, for one, am honored to be able to read your colorful insight. Thank you.
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The west does have one dman that matches up wit the best in the east and that is Tyler Jundt. He has the tools we will see if he uses them this season to get on the Mr. hockey ballot.
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I think it's difficult for one defenseman to get nominated for Mr. Hockey, which Galt might already have. It's doubtful there would be more than one defensemen, so he'd basically have to beat out Galt. I'm not saying it's not possible but he'd have to put up some pretty huge numbers especially since he's in the west to get on the Mr. Hockey ballot.
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How about this for a thought: Homecoming will still be a football game, but the volleyball girls play instead of the RR football team. It would keep everyone happy and, let's face it, they probably would do the same if not better than the boys. What were they, 0-9 last year?
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First of all, the way the Player of the year awards (Mr. Hockey/Ms. Hockey) are made for girl's and boy's hockey needs a procedural change. There should be a balanced number of finalists for the spot. That means four finalists instead of three. When you have two finalists from one region (West or East) the result might be a diluted or split vote based on geography and the best candidate is not selected. The current procedure does not guarantee a geographically biased vote but there should be an equal number of finalist candidates from the EDC and WDC.
I did not follow girl's hockey very closely but last season I think the odd number may have created a problem. For the boys it was not a problem as Marto is a good player which was underscored by his recruitment by the Sioux. Any other thoughts on this issue?
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While that system may help hinder geographical biases, I just don't think it's a realistic possibility to have two finalists from the each region. As Wilbur and the rest of us know, the west is usually significantly weaker than the east, and their two candidates might not be better than even the third best player from the east. Take this upcoming season for instance, the east would only get to nominate two players, while clearly their top four or five players are better than any player from the west, which isn't fair to those players in the east. Any thoughts?
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Generally speaking, the seniors to be who made it to the USA Hockey National Festival for North Dakota are automatic picks to Elite I (Wesigarber, Klenow, Monson).
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IMO the only player of those three that should have been put on the team without going to the tryout is Weisgarber.
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Central 5 Minot 2 midway through the second period. Check in on Grand Forks station 1310 if you live in Fargo.
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What's OC?
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The olympic arena
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Assuming no one moves on right? I can't wait for Thursday, someone earlier mentioned GFC being in the hurt bag without Garritson, if he doesn't play they are really in trouble. Minot plays the body (from what I'm told) I'm excited for that kind of a game. Good luck to all the teams, especially teams from the West (maybe since I finally believe in them, they'll believe in themselves). Was the last West team to win a opening round game in 99-00 when GFC didn't make the tourney and Jamestown/Erstad went as a 4 seed?
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Bismarck High beat Grafton last year in the first round.
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GO GPR!!
Our goalie is playing well and we have The Line; we just need the D to step up in the tourny and get some contribution from the 2nd and 3rd lines. Years ago we had the Brodeur, French, Pederson line that set the record in scoring, but we got trounced by a very good Central team in the final.
I'm not sure I've seen a team more motivated than South who must be saying
"Remember last year."
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South might not be as motivated as you think. Surprisingly enough, only 5 of the players on this year's roster were on that team last year, which was loaded with seniors. The rest of them either played junior varsity or bantam "A". I'm not saying these kids aren't motivated at all, just that remembering what happened last year doesn't directly pertain to most of them.
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Let's get back on topic, eh
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Kelly Howe. I still remember his one-handed interception in the end zone against the Bison at Memorial Stadium, it was priceless.
2007-2008 ND High School Hockey
in Non-collegiate sports
Posted
Alright, 250-10. If this kid is on a USHL roster at this time next year, you win. If he is not, I win.
"if you have seen rehak play many times as you claim, then you are just a horrible judge of hockey talent."
Have you ever seen a USHL game before? Skill wise, he doesn't stand a chance.
I think we had this exact same argument last year when a kid from the west won Mr. Hockey. Predictably, he's had a less than average year in the NAHL and is not currently on track to receiving any looks from D1 schools. On the other hand, 2007's best player by far, (Danny Wurden, Fargo South), is doing very well in the USHL. Wurden is a defenseman in a far more talented league, and Herbel is a forward in the much less talented league. Both players have 10 points thus far. Interesting...