Vegas
-
Posts
197 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Vegas
-
-
WJC
in Men's Hockey
I guess when your own team is mired in the lower tier of the conference, that's all you can do is pick apart the team in first place.
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?
-
WJC
in Men's Hockey
Vegas, my guess is that you're also one of the "experts" who figured that Ron Powlus, Ryan Leaf, Andre Ware, and Akili Smith would make great NFL quarterbacks, too.
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.
-
WJC
in Men's Hockey
Boy, I hope Okposo (and EJ) don't light our asses up like a Fourth of July Firework's show when we play minny this year. A statement like this may look awful stupid. For the record though, Johnny Toews is a world class talent and proves it time and time again.
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.
-
WJC
in Men's Hockey
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!!!!
-
Hmmm... Perhaps, but even so, why would Hockey Canada not try to put a winning team on the ice for international competition? The Olympics, World Juniors, World Championships, Spencer Cup, U18, U17, and so on tourneys are big deals (relatively speaking) to the Canadians in terms of hockey accolades. SUre, the first three are more important than the others, but still, a Gold in hockey in international competition is important to Hockey Canada, I'd think.
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 not more skilled than the US, but they play with more heart
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.
-
And more passionate about hockey.
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.
-
You did, but there were some details that had to be worked out for it to happen. As you saw in other posts in this thread, he was added to Lincoln's roster (USHL). If it had been determined that classes he took in Canada would not be transferrable to a US college, he would have had no choice but to play in Lincoln, if he wanted to keep three years of eligibility.
I'm not sure what you meant by this?
-
This has been discussed on here over and over. In case you have forgotten, the team was probably averaging 2 goals a game for Phil last year when he started in net. They could usually score early and often when Parise was in net, but for some reason never when Phil was in net. Hakstol couldn't even explain it.
His stat's last year:
Win-Lose Record: 5-7-0
Save Percentage: .911
Goals Against: 2.61
Those stats are actually really good if you ask me. If I sat down at the beginning of the year as coach of a hockey team and someone told me that my goalie would have those kind of numbers and still not have a winning record, I would laugh in their face. The rest of the team has to do their part, that's why it's a team effort. It's a complex puzzle to me. Without that certain piece of the puzzle, the rest will never fall into place.
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.
-
The thought of that scares me. There have been lots of vicious rumors floating about DISCLAIMER: Not saying any of these are remotely true. I wouldn't say they were rumors if they had truth to them).
Phil Lamoureux's folks not being happy with Phil's playing time leading up to this year...
This one seems unlikely. Phil has nowhere to go really. He could quit, sure, but I don't think he'd transfer just for one year.
The most likely to leave would be Anthony Grieco. He's 18 now. He has 3 years of junior eligibility left and 3 years of NCAA eligibility left (if he chose to continue that route). What he DOES have is Major Junior interest. St. Mike's of the OHL (IIRC) owns his rights. I don't know how active they are with Tony, but MJ defections during the season is a statistic on the rise. Jason Bailey (Michigan) and Nigel Williams (UW) and I think one other already left school for MJ. It would be a shame to see Tony leave as well.
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.
-
Canady and Mason were not top line guys. They were role players that played hard, but I wouldn't consider them overly skilled players at the college leave.
The goal tending this is difficult to gauge. I didn't agree with the goalie change, but if the SIoux have a strong third period it may have given Lammy confidence as the #1 guy for the stretch run. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I can't see Walski getting a shot strictly because of the psychological effect that would have on the other two and the team. It would be having the coach confirm to the other two tenders that the staff has no confidence in them. Personally I hope that Greco gets a shot to be the #1 and get some good experience for the future.
I think our talent level, and the talent level of the freshmen are not to the level of recent Sioux teams, and are very middle of the pack in the WCHA. I guess we are just spoiled.
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.
-
Canada just listed their final roster and Toews is on it so I hope this suggests that he is going to be fit to play.
http://www.tsn.ca/world_jrs/feature/?fid=4804
Update: Toews, is one of is teams Assistant Capts, Letang is the Capt.
Interesting to note that TSN will broadcast 3 USA games. Canadians will probably see the US team more than the US.
-
I really enjoyed watch Bishop on the ice, kind of depressing that he is leaving! I had picked this kid to do really well, oh well, maybe next year!
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.
-
I think the big reason for the difference in selection process is the number of potential players to consider. Canada clearly has more players to look at in the selection process, so they start with a camp two weeks prior to the WJC. Since Team USA has very few players to look at (and they have them in camp during August) they don't need to have another selection camp in December.
Plus, I think the Team USA realizes that many of their players are going to be playing college hockey during the season, and they don't want to pull them away from their teams any longer than they need to. The last thing Team USA wants to do is sour the relationship they have with NCAA coaches.
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.
-
I don't know.... I think the US is really short on goaltending this year and they are going to be even shorter on playing time together before the WJC begins. Notice how Toews is leaving before the rest of them? I think their selection policy isn't just the only reason why they play so well as a team...
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.
-
INTERMISSION TRIVIA
THERE ARE 5 TOTAL PLAYERS FROM WINNIPEG ON THE 2 TEAMS COMBINED. NAME THE 5 PLAYERS AND THEIR TEAMS
winner will get a dvd copy of the 2000 title win vs BC
Selby
Clark
Corrin
Toews
Zajac
Am I too late!
-
-
3 games on G11 tonight
Mankato/Alaska 12083 H 6617
UMTC/JBSU 12126 V 6789
Bucky/Denver 12066 H 6789
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?
-
for those with a motorized FTA box, tonight's Mankato/UAA game is next door on G11
Galaxy 11 (91W)
12083
H
6617
preshow on now...game starts at 7:35
it aint the sioux...but its hockey
Thanks Iceberg. I'll try and catch the game tonight.
-
Any interesting names?
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
-
Your range is larger then mine? You think that the USHL has "only come to the fore in the last year or so." And all of a sudden your range in hockey talent is larger then mine? The USHL has been the premier Junior Hockey League in America ever since I can remember. . Even before 2002 when the USHL became Tier 1, they still were "in the fore" long before that. Hell, in 2003, the total number of USHL players ranked on NHL Central Scouting Service's Final Ranking exceeded that of the Quebec Major Junior League.
Edit: USA Hockey explains it a hell of a lot better then I have.
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.
-
Do you follow junior hockey at all? Like seriously, come on.
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.
WJC
in Men's Hockey
Posted
Then you should be happy you got this kid.
I've got to go back to work now. Have a nice day