Showing posts with label Chris Peters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Peters. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

UND Recruit Ryan Gropp Snubbed by Team Canada



UND recruit Ryan Gropp has been snubbed by team Canada for the Ivan Hlinka roster. Seems like a puzzling move to me. I would have thought he would have made the roster.


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Monday, December 31, 2012

Was USA forward Rocco Grimaldi sent a message?



You kind of have to wonder if USA Forward Rocco Grimaldi was being sent a message by USA coach Phil Housley? To be honest with you, I haven't been impressed with very many of the players on team USA this year. It's obvious that Jacob Trouba is a men among boys and Seth Jones has looked pretty good to me, the rest of the team has been kind of underwhelming. There's no "I" in team so we will see what happens going forward. I don't think this version of team USA is all that strong anyways.




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Thursday, December 20, 2012

What team USA play today...



You can watch team USA's WJC on the NHL Network today at 11:30 A.M. CT against Sweden, however, Rocco Grimaldi will not be playing in today's game. According to Chris Peters, Rocco is a lock to make the team.




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Friday, October 26, 2012

Game day: A couple of things to get you into the mood

Tonight's chat for the UND vs UAA game is here. [click to view]

Brad Schlossman was on the Pipeline show and here is the audio right here. [click to listen]

UND's Women's hockey team's games against the Minnesota Gophers will be televised this weekend on Midconet.
This weekend's games are televised by Midco Sports Net which can be viewed on Midcontinent channels 26 (analog), 322 (digital) and 622 (HD). Saturday's game will be shown on a tape delay as it will run on Sunday from 11-1:30 p.m., leading up to Sunday's game which will be shown live.[UND Women's Hockey]
Former UND forward Michale Cichy who transferred from UND to WMU and who sat out last year after transferring to WMU, catches up with the Pipe Line Show as well. [Click to listen]

Chris Peters from the United States of hockey has his CBSSports.com College Hockey Power 10, for Week three up. [Click to view]



It looks like the former UMD goalie Brady Hjelle is the OSU starter tonight against BGSU.

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Sunday, October 21, 2012

While most of us were asleep... Sifting through the debries on day later

The discussion all started with this tweet in question.



As most college hockey fans know by now, North Dakota lost in the championship game of the Brice Goal Rush Tourney last night in Fairbanks, Alaska. Obviously, UND was "favored" to win the game and after they lost twitter and a few of the fan message boards were a buzz.

Actually, it happens a lot after UND loses just ask @UNDSID

I mean, it is, what it is. UND lost a hockey game that most thought they should have won. It's not like this loss is of the Holy Cross level. To quote a former Michigan player, "the best team doesn't always win." That's hockey and that's sports in general.

From the fun fact department. No team other than a team from Alaska has won the Brice Goal Rush Tourney, UA has won the tourney in 2009, 2010 and 2012. UAA won it in 2008 and 2011. That streak is in tact after this past weekend.



These were some of the tweets that I found in my twitter feed today. I have to give credit, where credit is due, UND lost a game to a team that wanted the game more. UND didn't cash in on their opportunities and UA did, that's hockey. UND wasn't going to go 42-0-0, there will be a few more losses before the season is over and I bet they will lose a game to a team that they should've beaten.





Here is the list of teams that have played in the Alaska Goal Rush Tourney.
2008: Mercyhurst, Maine, UAA and UA
2009: Robert Morris, Rennselaer, UAA and UA
2010: Colorado College, Union, UAA and UA
2011: Mercyhurst, Omaha Nebraska, UAA and UA
2012: Merimack, North Dakota, UAA and UA


This is a blog post that I found on the subject today.
Alaska Nanooks Hockey blog --- Efforts like we saw tonight show exactly what the Nanooks are capable of. Tonight they outskated, and outworked a good North Dakota team. It's amazing the number of excuses that are out there online that the only reason that the Nanooks won was because of the suspensions to North Dakota players. My answer: those players made the choice to have the party, and getting caught was part of the risk and you have to live with those consequences. But that excuse can't be used to cope with the loss, nor take away anything from this victory for Alaska. The fact is UND was outplayed by the Nanooks tonight.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tweets of the day - UND suspends four captains





If you weren't on the internet or a had smart phone today - then you probably haven't noticed the UND Hockey team was making news off of the ice this morning and this is a collection of some of the tweets that I found worthy of being posted for all to see.



@Bruce Ciskie the voice the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs was the voice of reason this morning as this incident broke and of course Drunk Hockey Guy wasn't buying any of it this morning.














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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Skrudland, 'Rocco at 90 Percent'

I am just catching up with a few things after being in Orlando, Florida this past week. There were a few people that were concerned about Rocco Grimaldi's knee and how he was progressing.

I know Brad E. Schlossman had posted somewhere earlier this summer that everything is going fine for the UND forward Rocco Grimaldi and that he should be ready for the start of the season.

I know this tweet from Chris Peters has got a few people concerned as well. I would imagine if Grimaldi has a strong first half of the season he will get a look from Team USA for the WJC. I am hoping that Chris can get us some more details as the summer goes along.


On the 14th of July the Florida Panthers' Director of Player Development Brian Skrudland was on the Pipeline show with Guy Flaming asked Brin Skrudland if Rocco Grimaldi was able to take part in the Panthers prosepect camp.

“No… He [Grimaldi] has been on skates – he has been training hard – the decision was just in a sense that he is that he is just really starting to feel comfortable and the one things about these kids even though it’s a development camp the competition is incredible ,” Skrudland said.

“That’s what makes this guy’s such quality people, here we are and we are out having some fun but I will tell you that each one of these kids hates to lose. I would have hated to play marbles with these guys when I was younger cause they are all bigger stronger and they probably would’ve all beat the living crap out of me especially with the mouth I had when I played the game of hockey.

But you know – they … I think for in Rocco’s case and in Carter Brickley’s case these two dealt with some injuries this past season, they were working hard off the ice and on the ice with their trainers. …To come to camp and have a setback wouldn’t be the right directions. We want them both to go back to their teams this year have a fabulous year and next year will be another opportunity.”

Guy asked Skrudland, “any reason to think that he won’t be ready to start the regular season, Rocco I mean?”

“None what- so-ever, none what-so- ever; he’s… his rehab has been tremendous, he’s almost working at 90% right so, throughout the remainder of the... the summer that strength should continue he should be just fine.”

You can listen to this podcast from July 14, 2012 by clicking on this link

This past Tuesday, Dillion Simpson was on the Pipeline show this past week... [segment 1], [segment 2], [segment 3]
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Friday, June 29, 2012

Is the NCHC lacking name-recognition?

Chris Peters of the United States of Hockey has this little blurb on his blog today – it’s worth a look. I sure there will be NCHC fans will take issue with some of the things that he said. Or not!
In all honesty, the league didn’t have to do terribly much to seemingly come out ahead on realignment. By just letting things play out and adding Notre Dame, largely due to the league thanks to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference’s (seriously, that’s as hard to type as it is to say) lack of foresight and possibly arrogance, Hockey East took another significant step forward by attracting UConn.

Meanwhile the NCHC has very little name-recognition, and therefore a second-rate TV deal, a second-rate tournament venue, but a high level of on-ice competition. From a hockey standpoint, it’s a fantastic league, but that’s where it ends. That might be enough for you as a fan, but it’s not enough to lead me or anyone else to believe it’s going to be a great business long term.

The Big Ten Hockey Conference will have good exposure on the Big Ten Network, but it’s still merely a six-team league. Until a few more Big Ten schools step up for hockey, and there’s nothing to indicate that will happen anytime soon, the conference’s size doesn’t make for a lot of variety and excitement, though the rivalries should remain intense. Still, the exposure and brand recognition resonates with the casual fan.
First off, is Chris Right? For disclosure – Chris was not a big fan of the re-alignment that took place last summer, he isn’t alone there are a lot of people that weren’t fans of last summer's re-alignment plan as well. It's not like we had a choice in the matter, said schools pursued this venture without any input from the fans.

That being said, do you agree with what he said? Right now, I am more concerned with what NCHC fans think than the B1G fans. It's obvious that the B1G has name-recognition.

Does the new NCHC has very little name-recognition? In my opinion; no! I am also not so sure how you can say that there is little name recognition with the teams that make up the NCHC. Teams like UND, DU, C.C. UMD have all won NCAA titles and have storied histories.

Add to the mix up and coming teams like Miami University and Western Michigan from the soon to be defunct CCHA and UNO and SCSU and you have the making of a very well balanced hockey league. The NCHC brings to the table 16 NCAA titles, only the B1G will have more NCAA titles (20), so were not talking about a second rate bunch of pathetic cupcakes here. We already know the title counts of all three leagues involved.

Let's take a look at the financials. Historically, the NCHC teams have been successful on the ice as well as financially; if you look you will see that five of the future NCHC teams make about 3.2 million off of their Division I hockey programs as opposed to the reconfigured Hockey East which loses about $395,000 a year of their hockey programs. Only Denver and Western Michigan have lost money with their hockey programs.

I am not here to disrespect Hockey East or (Chris for that matter) because Hockey East is a very good hockey league and has piled up an impressive four NCAA titles during the 2000’s, however, it’s only been two teams that have won the NCAA titles during that time period ( BU and B.C.) – besides the three power schools currently in the Hockey East no other really stands out in that conference, except maybe the University of New Hampshire.

If anything I think that the two leagues are on equal footing as far as name recognition goes in college hockey.

I think historically speaking people are just as familiar with BU and B.C. as they are with DU, UND when it comes to college hockey.

Adding Notre Dame to the Hockey East was a good move but what exactly have they accomplished during their hockey existence? Yep! You will be able to watch your team play Notre Dame when they play their Hockey East foes, but the rest of the league is not going to benefit financially from that television deal.

Breaking it down further – outside of the power schools Boston College, Boston University, Maine and UNH who else in the current Hockey East stands out and packs fans in the stands? Maybe Notre Dame when they get to Hockey East in 2013-14.

Are University of Connecticut hockey fans going to suddenly realize that they have a college hockey team and fill the XL center when it’s 30 miles from their campus? This isn’t the UCONN Men’s or Women’s Basketball teams.

This is a very different animal, the UCONN Huskies hockey team with very little history that is currently a member of the AHA conference, that’s not to say that they can’t evolve into a power house hockey team. Let’s call UCONN a work in progress.

Here is the part that I do agree with Chris with. If the Target Center which is exclusively a Basketball venue doesn’t improve after the 100-150 million dollars improvements Target Center is going to be a second rate tournament venue. That’s really not debatable; the Target Center has its work cut out for it.

The central location of the Target Center does make it an attractive venue and the majority of the fans that have the most rabid fan bases are all driving distance away.

Finally, I am not so sure we can call the deal with CBS Sports a second-rate TV deal, before we even see how it turns out.

Besides the Notre Dame TV deal with NBC Sports Net, how is the rest of Hockey East doing when it comes to games being televised? I have watched a few of the games on NESN via my DirecTV Satellite Dish but I don’t see a lot of UMASS Lowell or Amherst games on the dish.

There are a lot of unknowns going forward – no one knows how this deal is going to shake out – I would say at least give the NCHC a chance before we bury them and kick dirt on a conference that hasn’t even played a collegiate hockey game as of yet.

I also think that it’s too early to declare winners and losers – with college athletics none of this stuff stays static – things change constantly. Who knows, maybe there are more moves in the re-alignment phase before the 2013-14 season kicks off.

Lastly, I know there are a lot of unhappy people with the NCHC Television deal, I gathered this by reading the reactions of the fans over on Brad Schlossman’s blog. Due to the size of UND’s fan base there are a lot of fans that live outside of the Midco.net foot print and watch UND hockey on DirecTV or FTA Satellite dishes. After the upcoming season, many of them are worried that they will no longer be able to watch all of UND’s home games. I too wonder if I need to re-subscribe to Midco.net myself?

In conclusion, there is also no reason to panic just yet because there is a whole year left to work out the details. As we get closer to the kickoff of the NCHC more details will emerge and we will get a better idea what is going to transpire. I also don't think that the NCHC will lack name-recognition.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Peters; If Hockey East gets the Irish it's a stiff slap in the face and a stumble out of the gates...

I usually love what Chris Peters owner of the United States of Hockey has to say and probably agree with what he has to say about 85 percent of the time but I couldn't disagree more with this recent blog post.

Let's break this down further; five of the top ten teams in all three preseason polls (CHN, USCHO, USA Today) are going to be in the newly formed NCHC to start the 2013-14 season. The teams that make up the NCHC have a combined 17 NCAA titles (DU 7, UND 7, UMD 1, C.C. 2). Tell me what leagues is currently more stacked than the NCHC is? The B1G is only other league that is going to have more NCAA titles (Michigan 9, Wisconsin 6, and Minnesota 5). Whether you want to admit it the NCHC has the making of being a pretty good hockey league.
Chris Peters; United States of Hockey --- From where I sit, the NCHC needs Notre Dame more than Hockey East does. The eight teams within the NCHC do not possess the national recognition required to garner a lucrative television deal, which presumably was a reason for forming the new league. Hockey East at the very least has the Boston media market pinned down, to go along with nationally known Boston College.

So, as tough a pill as it would be to swallow for perennial hockey powers at North Dakota and Denver, conceding some to Notre Dame is not the worst thing in the world. Without Notre Dame, was it worth breaking up the WCHA? Will the NCHC reach it’s full potential as it currently stands?

If the Irish get what they want from Hockey East, it’s by no means a fatal blow to the NCHC, but it’s a stiff slap in the face and a stumble out of the gates for the new league.
Lastly, I want to say that say again that I respect Chris Peters and his awesome work and this isn't personal what-so-ever but the new league hasn't even played a game yet and we have some people (not Chris) writing an eulogy before the NCHC has even played their first game.  
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