Team Illinois/Wisconsin.

The illegal curve has Team Illinois/Team Wisconsin up.

One of the readers of our 2010 State Olympic teams asked me why I didn’t put together a Team Illinois or Team Wisconsin since I had mentioned them in the list of 6 States which were the highest producers of U.S. born NHL players. My response was that while they did help to contribute, their input was almost half of what the 4th State (Team Massachusetts) provided so it might be difficult to put together a competitive team. Even by going to the AHL & College ranks it was difficult to put together a team that could contend in this ‘fantasy’ tournament.

However being up for the challenge I decided that since these two states border each other, why not combine the two and see what kind of team we could have. (as could be seen with Team Maritimes, when you don’t have enough players from one region, why not combine).

So without further ado, here is Team Illisconsin.

You can see the following teams:Team Quebec, Team Maritimes, Team Ontario, Team Saskatchewan, Team Michigan, Team Manitoba, Team Alberta, Team British Columbia , Team Minnesota, Team Massachusetts.

Team Massachusetts

Our friend Kyle from the Illegal Curve has team Mass up.

As part of our ongoing project of choosing Olympic teams based on states and provinces, I volunteered to take Team Mass., thinking it would be pretty easy to find a solid squad. While I was able to round off the defensive corps pretty quickly, the forwards took some work, with a search of the American League made necessary by the lack of NHL calibre forwards hailing from the state.

You can see the following teams:Team Quebec, Team Maritimes, Team Ontario, Team Saskatchewan, Team Michigan, Team Manitoba, Team Alberta, Team British Columbia , Team Minnesota.

Add team New York.

David from the Illegalcurve.com posted team New York today. As you can see from the other teams posted there are some impressive players from the teams from Michigan, Minnesota and New York. It's a matter of fact that Michigan is loaded.

Team New York is an interesting mix. The 27th largest state in the union based on total geography, it ranks as the third in total population. As a result one would expect that New York state would be well represented in the NHL. Turns out that it currently ranks third, behind Michigan and Minnesota.

Very talented group of forwards without alot of pop from the back end. The goalie contingent looks like a future Red Wings goalie camp. To complete our trio we had to coax a goalie out of recent retirement to have a full compliment of tenders.

You can see the following teams: Team Quebec, Team Maritimes, Team Ontario, Team Saskatchewan, Team Michigan, Team Manitoba, Team Alberta, Team British Columbia , Team Minnesota, team New York.

Team Minnesota.

Here is the team that Kyle asked me to submit to the illegal curve.
You can see the following teams: Team Quebec, Team Maritimes, Team Ontario, Team Saskatchewan, Team Michigan, Team Manitoba, Team Alberta, Team British Columbia .

As supplied by Goon of Goon’s World:

Coming as no big surprise, Team Minnesota looks like the class of the south of the border entries. A potent forward group and young, mobile defensive corps make the 10000 Lakers a team to beat. The Achilles Heel seems to be their goaltending, which, while talented, is a little shy on experience.

Coach: Dean Blais- While he lacks professional experience, Blais is a keen motivator who knows how to handle this group, mainly former collegians. He won’t take any shit and will get the most out of any underachievers.

Goalie:

1. Alex Stalock

2. Adam Berkhoel

3. John Curry

Defense:

1. Keith Ballard

2. Tom Gilbert

3. Andy Albers

4. Erik Johnson

5. Paul Martin

6. Alex Goligoski

7. Mark Stuart

Forwards:

1. Kyle Okposo

2. David Backes

3. TJ Oshie

4. Zach Parise

5. Dustin Byfuglien

6. Jamie Langenbrunner

7. Blake Wheeler

8. Matt Cullen

9. Jason Blake

10. Ryan Carter

11. Brandon Bochenski

12. Peter Mueller

13. Toby Petersen

The Minnesotans boast a pretty impressive back end. All young, mobile guys, there will be no problem with puck movement or with the power play. While none are all-stars, as a group they represent a formidable top 6. In an quick tournament such as the fictitious North America Cup, they can really hurt you.

I see them paired as follows:

Johnson-Gilbert

Ballard-Martin

Goligoski-Stuart

I have Andrew Albers as my extra.

Up front, a wealth of firepower awaits anyone standing in the way of the Maroon and Gold (assuming?). The top 6 all have elite level talent and can all put the puck in the net. Additionally, there is enough of a veteran presence to calm the ship should they fall behind to a team. While they might lack in overall grit, players such as Langenbrunner and Byfuglien are no strangers to the corners and Mark Parrish is at home at the top of the crease. I see the lines like this:

Okposo-Oshie-Parise

Wheeler-Cullen-Backes

Byfuglien-Langenbrunner-Blake

Carter-Mueller-Bochenski

Toby Petersen is my extra guy.

Goon's Illegal Curve...

Here is an round table article that I contributed to on the illegal curve.

This season the Minnesota Wild have played all but two games without super
star Marian Gaborik, yet even without the super star the Minnesota
Wild have an impressive record of 11-4-1 and sit in third place in the
Western Conference standings.

It looks as if the Wild are going to be unable to sign Marian Gaborik and
are in the process of looking for a team to make a trade with according to
the rumors from TSN.

I am sure that Gaborik's big price tag; the fact that he is often injured,
and his current injury status will make Gaborik hard to move to another
team. These factors are going to make it difficult for Wild to get as much
for Gaborik as they would like. As I write this it appears that the Wild GM
Doug Risebrough might be trying to trade Gaborik to the Rangers.

Personally, I am getting tired of the Gaborik saga and I would like to see
the Wild get some closure on the Gaborik situation as soon a possible. If
Gaborik doesn't want to remain a member of the Wild, then so be it, then it
is time for Doug Risebrough to ship him off to a team that wants him. Let's
face the fact even if Gaborik can get healthy again, after June he is worth
nothing to the Minnesota Wild if they can?t get him signed to a deal.

The fan base in Minnesota seems to becoming tired of Gaboriks antics as well. Many of them are saying don?t let the door hit in the butt on the way out.

In Gaboriks absence the Wild have still got some solid play from these
three forwards; Mikko Koivo (3-13-16), Antii Miettinen (6-6-12) and Andrew
Brunette (6-5-11) have played well offensively and have kind of gotten the
fans to forget about their super star Marian Gaborik. To soften the blow of
losing Gabby, rookie forward Beniot Pouliot has also started to make a
contribution to the wild offensively and is second on the team in goals5-2-7
in 16 games this season.

The Wild are rock solid especially in net and need to get All-World goalie
Niklas Backstrom signed for the long term deal as soon as possible. It would
be an understatement to say that Niklas Backstrom is the bedrock of the
defensive minded Wild hockey team. Backstrom has been that good and it makes
it possible for the Wild to win 1-0 and 2-1 games.