Vegas

So is that two big names now? Seabrook and Gregoire are pretty big losses for any team. I wonder what the heck is going on over at DU.

I believe Ryan was the leading scorer the first year that Toews played at Shattuck. It was Ryan's Senior year and Toews' Freshman.

I think you'll get two or three years out of Gregoire. He basically lost a season due to his injury last year, so another year of development in Junior will only help him. He also needs to get a little stronger which didn't happen last year, also due to his injury. He will be a pleasant surprise to most people on this board once he gets here. I think he was a steal for the 3rd round.

I agree. Gregoire was selected in the 3rd due to the limited amount of viewing time. If he had been able to play an entire season, his draft stock would have risen considerably. I was hoping that he was selected by Chicago. That would have been fun.

I use one of those little DVD players to point my dish. They work great and they are about the same size as a receiver.

I have found the fortec dishes to be of a higher quality than most. Just because the elevation may be slightly out doesn't mean that these dishes should be avoided. Take a look at the hardware and the fit of the dish compared to others before you make these kind of statements.

Don't the USHL teams get picked right around now? That would suggest that they will have a leg up on the QMJHL since they can prepare these guys over the summer. The QMJHL team will still likely be in the middle of their tryouts. I'm going to predict that the USHL teams will be competative in the sense that they won't lose by more than 2 or 3 goals. It will be the manner in which they play that will be more telling however. I'm going to predict that the CHL teams will be a little more offensive minded and the USHL teams will play a much more defensive style just to keep the games close. The USHL teams will also likely have to shorten their bench. Should be interesting.

I'm not going to argue with you too much, but don't be surprised if Gregoire has similar stats to Wilson when everything is all said and done. The Wilson men have historically taken a little longer to develop than others. They usually don't get bigger and stronger until their late teens. I also haven't seen Wilson live for a few years now but Gregoire was always the better of the two growing up.

The Wilson's still live in Winnipeg. Colin is in Ann Arbor Michigan with the USDP and has been for the last 2 years. Jason said he missed his family and that is why he wanted to come to UND, i.e., to be a little closer to home. Colin has been away for 2 years and I haven't heard similar sentiments so I'm guessing he's ok with being away. It would be cool to have Colin join his former teammate but I wouldn't hold my breath. Your right, Colin has/is rated in the top 10 for the 2008 draft. I still think Gregoire is his equal however.

For these reasons, UND should be looking at the top 10 Manitoba boys in every age bracket starting with this year's 93's and have a plan for monitoring and eventually recruiting them. UND is as close if not closer than any other option for a kid in southern Manitoba. In addition, the province in general is poorly served by the CHL (WHL Junior league in Canada), i.e., UND has the advantage in this part of Canada which is quite unique. The first thing they have to do is raise their profile a little more and make sure that the parents know what their kids can and cannot do in order to keep their eligibility. I could just imagine how powerful UND would have been over the years if they had had guys like Cam Barker, Dustin Boyd, Erik Hunter from the 86's, Codi Burki and Darren Helms from the 87's, Toews and Ian White with the 88's, Gregoire and Colin Wilson with the 89's etc. Yes they would only be two year players but so what. They would be outstanding recruits.

Wow! What the heck is going on here? Jason Gregoire is now going to play for the Sioux? That is absolutely great news if it is true.

Duncan is a sniper. He'll get his share of goals with or without Toews. It will just be a little harder next year. If Duncan puts on a few pounds over the summer, I don't see why he can't score as much if not more. Duncan will be a great collegiate hockey player. Someone mentioned St. Louis. Well St. Louis probably has about 20 to 30 Ibs on Duncan. I'm not saying Duncan can't play in the NHL, just saying he has to get some mass to him if he wants to play an 84 game schedule along with playoffs and be as effective as St. Louis.

I believe he is batting 5 for 5. Under 17's, Under 18's, 2 - Under 20's and now a World Championship with the Seniors. Has he lost a game? I can think of one. Team Western lost to the U.S. in a meaningless round robin game after they had clinched 1st place in their pool. I can't think of another game beyond that one.

I predict that he makes it. I have that much faith in this kid.

You don't know all the facts. The story or the reasons for the ban just sounds too simplistic to me. I'm sure there is something else that hasn't been disclosed that may be the real reason for the ban. The kid looks like he needs to go on a bit of a diet anyway. I'm going to guess that the league they played in wasn't really that competative.

I hope they don't get picked up by anybody. FTA is the best deal out there and the picture quality is already close to HD. It's way better than a lot of the national broadcast stuff. Someone asked that they should go national. Well FTA is national. You can pick it up from virtually anywhere in North America.

Here are some stats for you for the year before Hrkac scored his 116 points: Canadian National Team (this was when NHL'ers were generally not part of the program) Skaters Regular # Player Name Birthdate Age Pos. GP G A Pts PIMS Cliff Ronning 1965-10-01 20 C 71 55 63 118 53 Mike Millar 1965-04-28 20 R 69 50 38 88 74 Don McLaren 1963-01-17 23 R 69 44 38 82 12 Tony Hrkac 1966-07-07 19 C 62 19 30 49 36 Fabian Joseph 1965-12-05 20 C 71 26 18 44 51 Serge Roy 1962-06-25 23 D 67 8 34 42 53 I think we all know who Cliff Ronning was. He became a fairly decent NHL'er for the Vancouver Canucks but no superstar. To suggest that Hrkac would be a superstar in today's game simply doesn't make sense. Nor is it consistent with what he actually accomplished after he left UND.

And you are wrong about Babe not facing anyone throwing 100 miles an hour. There have been guys that can throw that fast in all eras. Plus, they could legally throw the spit ball when Babe played, current players don't have to face spit ballers on a regular basis. But it is very difficult to compare the eras of baseball because of 2 major factors, segregation and expansion. Babe only played against white players. But then again, there are approximately twice as many major league baseball teams now as in Babe's era. So there are a lot of players in the majors now that would have been lucky to even see AAA baseball if we had fewer teams. Does that balance out some of the differences? We will never know because it is impossible to accurately compare players or teams from different eras. But superstars, like Babe Ruth, would be successful in any era.

1st, 3rd, 7th and 20th picks from last year's draft played in the WCHA this year. All of these guys are expected to be first liners and leaders on their respective teams. Hrkac, Smail, Eaves etc, where all utility players at the NHL level. Why was that? You can make all the excuses you want for them but the simple fact is that they played in a league that doesn't compare to today's WCHA. This league is at another level. An old NHL goalie told me that he doesn't teach the position the way he played. It simply wouldn't work. He has to teach a completely different style. Sccoring on goalies who learned the position in the 70's and 80's is a heck of a lot easier than scoring on a butterfly goalie that knows how to move along the ice. There is no comparison. The equipment is only one aspect of it, knowing how to use that equipment is the key. And finally, what was the speed of those pitches that the old Babe was hitting 400+ feet out of the park. Where they coming in at 100 mph. I'm going to guess that they weren't.

This is why Jon Toews is such a special player. I used to coach against him when he was exactly this age. Jon would score his 5 or 6 goals which would happen about half way through the game. Once he had his fill of goals he would ask the coach (which was rare since he was very aware of what was going on) who hadn't scored in a while. He would then spend the rest of the game trying to get that kid a goal. His leadership qualities started at a very young age. The kid in the above story is not being taught to be a true leader or a good teammate. If it keeps up he will never make it. Anyway, DaveK, your right, you should never stick your nose in something like this. It never pays. Just remember that the best of the best, don't do this stuff. They are much more gracious in winning or losing.

I hate rain on everybody's parade but there is no comparison between the players of today and the players from 20 or 30 years ago. The DOT line is hands down more talented than any of the previously mentioned lines. Players are stronger, faster, shoot harder, better coached, better conditioned, etc, etc, etc. The old boys scored a lot of goals because the goaltending was basically terrible compared to today's goalies and there was really no organized defence to speak of. Some of the aforementioned players would have a very difficult time even cracking a modern WCHA lineup. And if you don't believe me, than ask one of these old guys. I'm sure they would tell you the same thing.

The 10 minute misconduct in the most important game of the year will definitely have some impact. It remains to be seen how much.

Agree, it wasn't much of a hit at all. The problem is that Radke got schooled by Johnson on this one. I'm not going to be too harsh on Radke even though he is not the sharpest tool in the box. You need guys like Radke to get some energy going once in while. Not everybody can be a power play specialist. I think you see what happens when that's all you've got ,i.e., gophers. Johnson has obviously done something similiar to this before based on his reaction. Don't know what Lucia said to him or if someone at the USNDP taught them this but he definitely played it up for the ref. I'm glad he lost as a result.

I believe most of us didn't blame that goal on Lee. Chorney tried to make a play at the far blue line when he probably should have just dumped the puck low into the corner. Taking the a chance at that time in the game was not appropriate. Anyway its water under the bridge. It doesn't mean squat now that the Gophers are gone and everybody can concentrate on some good hockey players rather than a bunch of over-hyped wannabees. Nothing really wrong with Lee. He's a solid college defencemen who may bulk up and become a decent NHL defencemen one day. He's never going to be the big intimidator that some people want. As long as he separates the man from the puck when he is supposed to and he contributes offensively than that's all that can or should be expected.

Besides he's getting left mixed up with right. Right