tnt

There is a World Junior thread.

Makes you wonder if Jacob Kvasnicka just stays in Minneapolis after the World Juniors. That wouldn’t exactly ingratiate Minnesota with Penticton taking a player halfway through the season, especially when Minnesota needs to be building more ties in Canada rather than the opposite. Will be interesting to see what teams do that want to fill spots for the second half.

I think we already know. They recently split with Bemidji State, and did split with Duluth early in the year. From what I’ve seen, they have been getting outshot quite a bit, but they have a very good goaltender.

Watched Williams last night and to me it looks like he needs a lot more time in the weight room to be ready for college. Have to watch more before any real conclusions can be drawn, but didn’t see a lot of dog on bone, but a lot of coasting. Can’t judge him on one performance though, and you could definitely see the skill. I see that Chyzyk is out not only recruiting, but determining who is ready to come in, so I’m sure they will make the right judgements and let people know what the expectations are for improvement in order for them to make the jump. Looking forward to see future games to track his progress.

Seriously, just like with Philadelphia, Seattle hasn’t done near as well since Hakstol left, and both teams have way more pieces to the puzzle that Hakstol didn’t have.

I agree. I will also say that from what the coaches are saying, that he is very well liked in the locker room. It seemed to me that Calder kind of kept to himself. That isn’t a knock on him, as there are a ton of different personalities, but we have seen how far a great team chemistry can go, and vice versa.

Not giving hasn’t stopped anyone on this board or off this board from complaining about lack of success or for asking for coaches to be fired. Just because people have different priorities than you doesn’t mean they don’t want to see the program succeed. Just to be able to complain, I will donate a dollar to the effort, and if you go by those that complain the most vociferously to donation level, you better be giving over half your salary to the cause.

Does that give the new coach enough time to get ahead of the game for potential portal help? Like to give the coach plenty of time to construct their staff and do their due diligence on players.

Got beat 4 of 5 to Omaha that year as well.

The problem is if Hughes wants to play with his brothers, Guerin doesn’t have a say in letting him walk. I think it will all depend on whether the Wild show progress to a Stanley Cup run. A power play with Boldy, Kaprizov and Hughes could be devastating, but there are plenty of high end units that don’t perform to their talent level, and the Wild have already been living off of their power play. The reason the Wild struggled early this year even with a potent power play is because they weren’t playing to their defensive identity. The question is will this move do anything to change that identity, or just make it easier to maintain it by playing from the lead? Secondary scoring could still be an issue, but you saw how that changed when Zuccarello came back. I think it could be huge for them, but they surely need to make some postseason strides to show Hughes he should stay.

Yeah, having “firsts” like sweeping Omaha for the first time sure beats the negative “firsts” that were happening over the past 5-6 years.

It’s a super nice start, but we need to keep finding ways to win in the second half as well. Really different in the league this year, as there is already a clear line between home ice and being on the road. Usually it is up in the air until the final weekend. Just glad we are on the right side of line.

Kind of makes you laugh at the people who thought our season was on the line if we lost the second night at Clarkson.

ASU might be missing Potter, and I don’t think ASU has much offense without the power play, so wouldn’t put my money on ASU.

Would hate to lose him because he obviously has some skill (2nd on Edmonton in goals), and his game really sounds like it matches our culture perfectly. Hope the communication with him and the coaches is open and honest.

It’s always great if you can get some second tier guys to play an extra year of juniors. When you aren’t super elite, trying to fast track your career can sometimes actually set you back. Think of Brent Johnson, although that was more on Berry, because it is ultimately up to the coach.

Did he mention ONeil? He has been scoring goals with Edmonton and sounds like he has a high compete level, although I suspect he will be a role player here starting out, and we have a lot of penalty killers and guys like that right now with Josephson, Croal, Zakreski, Littler and Reschny if he stays. We do lose Dylan James though.

I don’t think the points McKenna is putting up are bad, but it was curious to me why he chose Penn State to develop, as they hardly have the pedigree defensively to develop him on that aspect of the game. Shouldn’t the goal be to get prepared for the next level, not just reinforce what you are already good at. Getting ready for a long NHL career should be the focus.

Someone must have seen the highlight reel of Zeller’s goals, including the beauty against St. Cloud.

Watching the two games between the U.S. Development team and CHL All stars, I was most impressed with Xavier Villeneuve at defense. Smaller guy, but huge compete level. Compared to Lane Hutson. Imagine he will play out east somewhere though.

Hope Chyzyk has been in contact with Chase Surkan of Brandon. Really ripping it up as a 2009.

Ashton Schultz was the U.S. player of the game.

Does anyone know if Bryce Pickford has any interest in college hockey? Has already put up 20 goals and 16 assists as a defenseman in the WHL.

My sources are telling me what to think of your source.

To NDSU like Starcevic I suppose.