USHL 2010 Prospects/All-Star Game

I had a really hard time finding information on when and where the 2010 USHL Prospects Game was going to be, so I had to ask the USHL. I'll put it on here to save others the trouble: it's going to be Tuesday, January 26 in Indianapolis. Hosted by the Indiana Ice.

So there you go.
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Finley possessed

I couldn't talk to Joe Finley last night because I was busy filling in for the paper, but I took some photos at warmups. Several came out with just white in his eyes. I've never seen anyone blink this way on film. Kind of creepy.




He played well though. Quite a good skater for his size and he's hard to get around. Accurate shot from the point. I'll probably talk to him in a few weeks.
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How you know when your team has sold out

This.


The Kalamazoo Wings, in warm-ups. The helmet stickers went all game.
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NHL prospects in the ECHL for 2009-10

Just finished my yearly "prospects to watch" in the ECHL for HF. It's a lot more work than it looks like. Not all the NHL prospects are mentioned, just the best ones -- the ones who will be there half a year and move up, not the guys who are just playing out the string.

The ECHL teams range from nine NHL-contracted prospects (Bakersfield) to none (Johnstown). Here's the full list, near as I could come up with. You can't use transaction logs because those are often misleading.

Alaska (STL): T.J. Fast, Ryan Turek, Anthony Peluso, Tomas Kana
Bakersfield (ANA): Maxime Macenauer, MacGregor Sharp, John de Gray, Stu Bickel, Timo Pielmeier, Justin Pogge, Bobby Bolt, Logan MacMillan, Shawn Weller.
Charlotte (NYR): Ryan Hillier, Chris Chappell. None from Colorado.
Cincinnati (NAS): Jeremy Smith. None from Montreal.
Elmira (OTT): Michael-Lee Teslak, from Philly
Florida (CAR): Rob Hennigar. None from the Panthers
Gwinnett (ATL): Chad Denny, Michael Forney. None from Columbus
Idaho (DAL): Guillame Monast, Michael Neal, Richard Bachman
Kalamazoo (PHI): Jeremy Duchesne. None from San Jose
Las Vegas (PHO): Nick Ross, Matt Watkins, Joe Gistedt
Ontario (LA): Dwight King
Reading (TOR and BOS): Kevin Regan and Stefano Giliati
South Carolina (WAS): Braden Holtby, Joe Finley, Josh Godfrey
Stockton (EDM): Jordan Bendfeld, Bryan Pitton
Toledo (CHI and DET): Alec Richards, Jordan Pearce, J.C. Sawyer
Trenton (NJ): Myles Stoesz
Utah Grizzlies (NYI): J.D. Watt (CAL)
Victoria (VAN): Dan Gendur
Wheeling (PIT): Alex Grant, Joey Haddad, Casey Pierro-Zabotel
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Head injuries, football and dogfighting

This is probably the only football-related story I've read all year, and it's a good one. It compares football and dogfighting, for their destructiveness to the participant. It's by Malcolm Gladwell, one of today's best thinkers and writers.

From The New Yorker:

Much of the attention in the football world, in the past few years, has been on concussions—on diagnosing, managing, and preventing them—and on figuring out how many concussions a player can have before he should call it quits. But a football player’s real issue isn’t simply with repetitive concussive trauma. It is, as the concussion specialist Robert Cantu argues, with repetitive subconcussive trauma. It’s not just the handful of big hits that matter. It’s lots of little hits, too.

There is nothing else to be done, not so long as fans stand and cheer. We are in love with football players, with their courage and grit, and nothing else—neither considerations of science nor those of morality—can compete with the destructive power of that love.

Hockey is of course much more of a skill game than football. But it does raise the specter of head injuries and the responsibility of the league and the fans to spare the players.
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Takeaways from Traverse City tournament 2009

Now that I've been back home for a few days, I have some perspective on the real takeaways from the 2009 Traverse City tournament.

First, four games each day is a lot of hockey. On the last day, an elder statesman scout sat down next to me and said "I'll just write down what you write down." I felt his pain. But if you want to see a lot of hockey in a short time, this is the place to go. And lots of scouts from other teams were there, so it's obviously meaningful hockey.

The stands were about 30% scouts, 50% parents and other family, and then miscellaneous, including agents. Not many simple fans. Not a lot of media either, except around the Red Wings. But the media who were there seemed to pick out their article topics before the tournament started, making for material that didn't seem to fit right.

There are no good camera angles in either rink. The one spot that isn't behind white netting cannot see the near boards. So I had to edit when the play reached the near boards. The video didn't work out as well as hoped. Better than nothing though I suppose.

I came away with an even lower opinion of agents, which seemed impossible. I stood next to a rather well-known one by the glass during warm-ups and he was trash-talking another agent and his recruits. Sports would be better without agents.

The Granato brothers take after their dad in their looks.

The Dallas Stars organization is not what I would call "serious." I used to think that Les Jackson must have been the heavy to balance out Brett Hull, but know better now. Joe Niewendyk seems to carry his new role well though.

The Wild dressing room was the best to hang out around, very friendly. Carolina was good too.

Players: Zach Boychuk should play in the NHL this year. It will be a shame, and a waste of money on an unnecessary vet, if he doesn't. I was also impressed by Evgeny Grachev, though more in potential than actual play. He's a horse. Matt Calvert certainly put himself on the radar. I had already interviewed him before he started scoring, which was great.

Ivan Vishnevskiy was a disappointment, and not just to me, I heard other people saying that too.

Tyler Beskorowany is a hoot to talk to, and Darcy Kuemper is very happy-go-lucky.
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Predators hire Niagara goalie coach Ben Vanderklok

Ben Vanderklok will take over Mike Valley's duties with the Predators minor-league affiliates. Valley, who was recently hired by the Dallas Stars, had worked closely with Predators goalie coach Mitch Korn. Korn told me today that he got Vanderklok to replace Valley. Vanderklok had been Jeremy Smith's goalie coach in Niagara, and Korn had been impressed with his reports. He hired Vanderklok first to help with one of his summer camps in Buffalo as a get-to-know-you exercise, thinking that he might need him in a year. But Valley ended up getting picked up this summer.

Vanderklok will commute to Milwaukee 10 days a month, and Cincinnati five days a month. Korn will overlap in these cities as well. (Vanderklok's actual contract might be with Milwaukee, it's not clear, but in any case this is a Korn hire.)

Here's the only shot I have of him from today: