Vegas

Then you should be happy you got this kid. I've got to go back to work now. Have a nice day

We'll see where your team winds up at the end of the year. Then you can tell me all about how great they are. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that the Goofer goalie that Toews lit up in the shootout?

I consider myself knowlegable about hockey. I could care less about football and the NFL in particular. I know character when I see it, and Toews has it. The rest of these guys are just overhyped goofers. Some of you are right that sometimes scoring stats don't matter. If you check you'll see that Meuller is ahead of Toews in the scoring race at the World Juniors. However, would anybody seriously take Mueller over Toews? I'll also bet that Toews has a better +/- which if you know anything about the game, that stat does matter! At least, if you want to stick in the NHL.

The only thing that is stupid is thinking that these guys are even close to Toews in overall talent. Toews has something these guys don't have, he can perform under pressure. Always has, always will. Okpokso played second fiddle to Toews at Shattuck. You better believe that Okpokso and gang are scared sheitless at what is coming.

To all the Okposo Goofer fans on this site. Where was he during the shootout? On the bench where he belongs. Where the hell was E. Johnson during the shootout. I thought he was the second coming. Toews was the best player selected in last years draft! PERIOD!!!!

The Canadians send their "A" team to the summer tournament when everyone is available, the one the US does not attend. You should ask USA Hockey why they don't go to that tournament. Are they afraid of something? Most if not all of their players should be available. The spring tournament is right in the middle of junior playoffs in Canada. The only players available are the guys who played on teams that didn't make the playoffs.

Canada is more skilled than the US in several aspects of the game. 1. Better goaltenders 2. Know how to protect the puck and not expose it. Canadians can dangle with anybody but they won't do it unless they are well ahead. Gagner showed that at the end of the Sweden game. 3. They can snipe better than any other nation. World Class athletes don't need a lot of chances to score. They score when the opportunity presents itself. The second skill can be taught to the US kids. The first and third skills are much harder.

Winnipeg is about the 1/3 the size of Metropolitan Minneapolis but it has about 3 times more hockey fans per capita, so attendance would probably be about the same. If Edmonton can hold a hockey francise in today's NHL than so can Winnipeg, particularly if they got a hold of a team like Pittsburg. Part of the Jets problem was that they were too good in the WHL. The NHL basically raped them when they first joined and it took a decade just to get a decent team back. By that time, a lot of diehard fans had given up on them. A new team would get a lot of those people back.

I'm not sure what you meant by this?

I watched him find many different ways to lose a game last year. The pattern is repeating itself this year. Basically the team in front of him doesn't trust him and therefore they are very tentative. That is partially why they didn't score a lot of goals for him. I'd start splitting the goalie duties until Greico appears ready to go. Sorry to the Phil fans out there but he is not a good D-1 goalie.

Poplawski has committed to Colgate. Would have looked nice in the green and white.

I hope that is not true, however, based on the last game, that may have swayed Grieco's mind. Personally, I don't know why he got pulled. The second goal went off of the guys skate. Most NHL refs would not have allowed that goal since it was clearly off of the skate and the player made no attempt to knock it in with his stick. I don't know why Mr Lamoureux would have problems with how Phil has been treated. He did nothing last year to prove that he deserved more ice time. Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't he around .500 last year? All I know is when Grieco goes down he does not get moved. There are guys in the NHL that could put both the puck and Phil into the top corner of the net. 153 Ibs. Come on! What's with that! He has had 2.5 years to put some meat on his bones and he has done nothing. At least show some committment to the program by putting on some muscle.

I think they should start splitting the goalie duties to give Grieco some playing time. Not sure why they took him out of Saturdays game. He looked fine to me.

Interesting to note that TSN will broadcast 3 USA games. Canadians will probably see the US team more than the US.

Don't forget it's final exam time and he may have found that academics and D1 hockey in combination is a little more challenging than what he was expecting.

It's kind of interesting to see the difference in attitude. The Junior leagues in Canada don't hesitate to let their players go mainly because of national pride. It's kind of the flip side of what we are constantly told, that Canada lacks patriotism. Canada will be sending a very strong team to this tournament despite what the experts may be saying. And next year's team may be even stronger.

Well, I'm not so sure I agree that Canada has an advantage. The US has a development program that has a lot of these guys playing together for several seasons. The Canadian team on the other hand gets together for a couple of weeks each year. The styles of the Canadian junior leagues are also quite different. But I still think Canada is going to win again this year based on who they have available. Should be a very solid team with no real weaknesses.

Selby Clark Corrin Toews Zajac Am I too late!

http://www.tsn.ca/images/stories/20060616/...essel_48921.jpg

Caught the UAA Mankato game tonight. Thanks for the headsup. Quick question. Does Charter Cable usually have a feed on satellite or did they just do it because they were broadcasting back to Alaska?

Thanks Iceberg. I'll try and catch the game tonight.

From a WCHA perspective, one interesting name is Kyle Turris ranked 21st (Wisco 07). He is also the leading scorer at the Junior A Challenge which is going on this week in Saskatchewan. They've got the gopher's Jim O'Brien ranked 12th even though he hasn't scored a point in 9 games. Espo has dropped to no. 3. Nick Petrecki (USHL going to BC in 07) ranked no. 4. From my perspective they have Eric Doyle ranked at 19. Played with his dad. Must have got his hockey genes from his mom

November ISS ranking has 23 of the top 30 kids coming from the CHL and 1 from Canadian Junior A. 1 out of 30 from the USHL and 2 from the US Under-18, 2 from European based teams, 1 from the WCHA

Yes 2002 is a long time....................................................................for a 10 year old!!!! The USHL is on everybody's radar now. That wasn't the case 5 years ago. The stats are also a bit misleading since a kid playing a single game in the CHL is commited to that league and that league alone. NCAA hockey is no longer an option. The USHL lists kids that may have only played a small number of games. TJ comes to mind. I don't think you can compare the leagues straight up like you have since the situation is very different.

What's your problem? I gave you a name of a kid that is right under your nose and you think I'm the one with a problem. I follow a lot of junior hockey from the WHL to the USHL. There is only so much time in the day, however. My range in hockey talent appears to be a little larger than yours based on the feedback I'm getting from you.