Notta Preview

I had honorable blogger intentions. There's been plenty of time to compile a preview and come up with something here. But I really didn't and don't feel like it. Maybe it's all the bye weeks? I don't know ... there's no break between this weekend and the end of the season so maybe I'm just making the most of whatever free time and skipping out on my responsibilities here. Maybe it's just that I realize that I'm viewing this as a responsibility and instead of the distraction and fun I usually assign to my feelings about writing here. Maybe I'm just lazy this week?

It isn't like there hasn't been some interesting developments here and there. Colorado College just recently suspended two players and "everybody" wants to know what they did to warrant being virtually kicked off the team. I could care less. It's a tough break for their teammates but perhaps it's an opportunity for another team to take advantage of them. I doubt they're seriously "reeling" from it and that it'll affect this weekend's outcome. Who knows though? I notice a bit of a buzz with everyone droning on and on about Lucia being a crappy recruiter (as an excuse as to why they aren't winning every game 8-1) since Motzko left ... funny thing is that most of the kids on the Gophers team are Motzko recruits. The reality is that Lucia has an easy job recruiting but St. Cloud fans have to have something to TRY to hang their hats on.

UND fans are pointing out how difficult their schedule has been as some sort of excuse for their underperforming against expectations (um note here Susies ... your schedule isn't that much more difficult than anyone elses in the league). Perhaps they're actually playing up to their potential and all the genius "pundits" were just wrong (excepting me of course). Enough Gopher fans are still preoccupied with the whole Snow/Okposo debacle to be mildly entertaining. I'm especially enamored with the ones that continue to throw the kid under the bus. UAA continues to be the most closed-mouthed school with regard to leaks of information about new and/or incoming players. Thanks guys for that ... makes it sooooo easy to write stuff here. Sigh .... you can tell I'm rolling my eyes right? What's happening in Mankato lately? Nuffin. They're exceptionally boring lately. Duluth? Boring. Wisconsin? Boring ... Turris was supposed to be the next Crosztky right? Not yet. He'll be gone after this year anyway.

NHL GM's are probably sick of talented offensive players being stuck in a league where EVERYONE is trapping constantly. See the Gophers vs. Wayne St. on FSN last week? The Gophers were trapping them! LOL. What the hell? See Wisconsin versus CC last week? Trap-Fest galore by both squads. Sigh. DU vs. Dartmouth? Trap-o-licious. Game two of the UAA-UAF series? Trap-o-rama! Every friggin night in the WCHA is "playoff-style" hockey no matter who is playing it seems. Did I leave any team off the insult every other team list? Oh yeah ... MTU; thanks Jamie Russell for jumping on the Eaves trapping bandwagon over the last couple of years and setting the trend for every coach to start using it.

None of this really takes anything away from cheering for the Seawolves though as far as I'm concerned. Our boys can high zone trap with the best of em; the effort and the result of that effort is what matters to me. I guess I'm just jonesin for a live hockey game. It's been almost a month since I've sat in the Sully and more than a month will have passed by the time Wisconsin comes to town next weekend. Sigh. I was gonna at least give you a picture of a sexy woman with a hockey stick but it was a little too risque' so you get the Chimp instead. Lastly, Doc DelCastillo/Yoda voting update: 55 votes say "dead ringer" ... 10 votes say "not at all".

New Recruit: Curtis Leinweber - Okotoks AJHL

Heisenberg has a new listing for the Seawolves on his 08 list. Forward Curtis Leinweber from the AJHL's Okotoks Oilers. Curtis is listed at 5'8" 169lbs and turns 20 on February 25th. He is in his thrid season with the Oilers and has 12g-31a in 41 games so far this year; 6 of his goals have come on the power play and he has 3 game winners. In 06-07 he put up 9g-18a in 57 games. His stats put him in the profile of having doubled his output from one season to the next which is always something that looks good to recruiters.

He is the 4th leading scorer on his team and 23rd on the league scoring chart. There isn't a lot of press about Curtis that I could find. His size and numbers would peg him as a bit of a playmaker. It appears he is also playing a left-wing lock role on the Okotoks team giving him some all-important defensive experience coming into the WCHA.

Welcome Jeff Carlson

I've made mention of this as recently as yesterday and today UAA officially announced that defenseman Jeff Carlson (6'2" 200lbs) has joined the team. Here is the relevant text from the announcement:

Alaska Anchorage head hockey coach Dave Shyiak announced today that Jeff Carlson has joined the Seawolves for the Spring 2008 semester and is eligible to begin practicing with the team.

A 6-2, 200-pound defenseman, Carlson tallied 15-24—39 totals in 59 regular-season games with the Southern Minnesota Express of the NAHL in 2006-07. The Richfield, Minn., product was his team’s top scoring defenseman and finished fourth among league blueliners in points. Carlson also posted seven power-play goals and three game-winning goals.

This makes an already deep UAA defense even deeper. Now with 10 guys on the blueline, each and every player will need to compete hard in practice and play well in games to guarantee playing time. I doubt we'll see Jared Tuton filling in on the backline for injured players anymore. There is every indication from Jeff's resume that he'll compete well for playing time at some point. Naturally, I'd expect that his conditioning is in question but that shouldn't be an issue for an extended period. Here's what I wrote about Jeff last year (Dec 2006) in one of my comprehensive recruit updates.

Jeff is one of the two verbal committments that UAA isn't allowed to comment on. He is in his second year with the Southern Minnesota Express of the NAHL. Jeff is currently the 2nd leading scoring defenseman in the league with 9 goals and 16 assists in 32 games this season. Last year he scored 9 goals with 27 assists for the Express in 56 games. His numbers are obviously good news. Last season Jeff had interest from a couple of other WCHA teams according to Chris at the Western College Hockey blog. Apparently there was some sort of academic issue which prevented him from entering a school but all indications are that those have been resolved. Chris also indicated to me that Jeff is a "really talented player". His maturity should mean that he'll be able to step in at UAA and contribute right away. If my memory serves me he is the third UAA Seawolf with that name.

Through the remaining part of last season Jeff continued to be one of the Express' leading scorers (finished 4th on the team) and was named to the Robertson Cup (league championship tournament) all-tournament team. I'll say it again here, Jeff is a young man that could become a high quality presence on the blueline for UAA. It's nice to see him finally in the fold after I'd talked about him for so long here (first mention was November 17th 2006). Welcome to UAA Jeff.

Sunday Potpourri: The "Wow" Edition

On August 15th, 1977, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) received a transmission on the Ohio State University Radio Observatory unlike no other signal received before or after. In SETI lore it is simply called the "Wow" signal because of the annotation that radio astronomer Dr. Jerry Ehman wrote in the margin. If you're not familiar with what SETI does it can be summed up simply by saying they listen. They listen all across the radio spectrum and all over the sky for any signal that isn't naturally occurring. Space is a relatively noisy place. Virtually every object out there emits some sort of radio noise. SETI's job is to separate the "noise" (which is usually just a steady buzz) from any possible source from some civilization out there. A signal from a civilization is dramatically different from the background quiescent noise. The "Wow" signal was never seen again. The scientists confirmed it's origin as coming from from somewhere inside the constellation Sagitarius but subsequent attempts to "hear" it again have all failed.

That's been the story for this blogger the last couple of weeks or so as well only times three. I made the call that Bryce Christianson from the Vernon Vipers would joining the Seawolves to replace the injured Matthew Gordon. Additionally, I've been expecting to hear about defenseman Jeff Carlson joining the team anytime now. Lastly, there was every indication that transfer Brian Bales eligibility would allow him to start playing as well (he's been in school all of the 1st semester and practicing every day). But just like the SETI "Wow" signal I haven't yet received any hard confirmation about any of those three sitations. I could publish here what I've "heard" but those things aren't much more than speculation and rumor. So I won't burden you with reading all that. I will say that by all indications Bryce should be in the fold. I will also say that Jeff Carlson should be on the squad from everything I've heard. And last but not least I honestly don't know when/if Brian Bales will be playing. With any luck there'll be confimation and/or some clarity on all three of these guys this coming week. Wow?

What a boring week eh? How many "off-weeks" have we sat through so far this season? Four of them. But that's the end of that. No more off weeks without the guys playing. From now until the end of the season they play every weekend. No breaks. 4 away series starting this weekend at Colorado College and 4 home series ending with Minnesota Feb 29th/Mar 1st. 16 games in 8 weeks is what remains. 48 more periods of regular season hockey; 960 minutes, 57,600 seconds. When that's done (and likely not before) we'll know if the team has earned a home ice playoff series. There is plenty of work to be done and plenty of opportunity to make up the 4 points that separates them from 5th place. That's right. Only 4 points. 5 of the 8 series are against teams that currently sit in 5th place or below. 3 of the 4 road series come against the three teams currently occupying 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the league.

Truthfully, there are only two teams that look to have a home-ice spot locked up. DU and CC will be playing at home (brave prediction by me eh?). But after that it is still wide-open. UND continues to fail to live up to the ridiculous preseason predictions that had them dominating everyone all season long. They split with St. Nothingelsetodoville this past weekend. Minnesota-Duluth is looking vulnerable losing to the USNDT and splitting with Bemidji. Wisconsin couldn't score with a pocketful of cash in a Mexican whorehouse. The Gophers swept #58 Wayne St. this weekend but didn't look impressive by any stretch of the imagination. Mankato lost to a less than good UNO team recently but managed two wins against Ivy-leaguers Yale and Princeton. St. Cloud lost 6 in a row before going 3-2 in their last five. My point here being that nobody is tearing it up and everybody will be fighting hard for the critical league points to earn those home ice WCHA playoff spots.