Open Thread - Stanley Cup Finals - Who do you like and why?

Finally the Stanley Cup Finals kick off tonight between the Eastern Conference Champion the New Jersey Devils (48-28-6 – 12-6 SCP) against the Western Conference Champion the Los Angeles Kings (40-27-15 – 12-3 SCP) – both teams include at least one ex-Fighting Sioux hockey players; Devils (Travis Zajac and Zach Parise) Kings (Matt Greene).

My Prediction – I think that the Los Angeles Kings are going to win the Series in six games; I believe that the Kings fore-check and their defense is going to give the Devils forwards fits like the other teams that were defeated by the Kings in the earlier round.

Feel free to chime in with your predictions…

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• Then there were two - Devils and Kings

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• Zach Parise - Because It's The Cup

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• Stanley Cup Finals Game 1: Devils Looking to Take Advantage of Home Ice

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• Stanley Cup finals faceoff: Devils vs. Kings

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Parise's press conference

Check this out, former Fighting Sioux and current New Jersey Devils forward Zach Parise is a hot commodity off the ice as well as two reporters almost end up slugging it out over positioning at the press conference.

Here is a great description of the incident from via Jill Painter of Inside the Kings,

There was a big scrum around Devils winger Zach Parise, and Parise almost had to break up a fight between reporters. The two men were jockeying for position with their tape recorder and microphone, respectively, when one yelled ``Stop it!’’ while Parise was talking.

The reporter smacked his notebook against the microphone, then used the spirals to run it down the microphone to impair the sound. Eventually, Parise was hit in the face by the microphone.

``Do we need to start this over?’’ Parise asked the men.

If they were wearing gloves, they would’ve dropped them right there.

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• CSN: Parise mum on his impending free agency

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Frattin done for the season

The Toronto Marlies got some bad news today when they learned that former Fighting Sioux forward Matt Frattin has suffered a knee injury and will need surgery. That's a big loss for the Marlies because Frattin is tied for the lead in scoring for the Toronto Marlies with (10g-3a-13 pts). Frattin is a restricted free agent and will need to be signed in the off-season.

Lance Hornby,Toronto Sun --- Winger Matt Frattin, who was a force physically and on the scoresheet, will be lost for the rest of the American Hockey League playoffs with a knee injury that will require surgery.

Frattin, who has a league post-season best 10 goals and shares the team lead with 13 points, was hurt in Game 5 of the Western Final in a bold play to score an empty netter to eliminate the Oklahoma City Barons. Frattin crashed into the net in a race for the puck.

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• Frattin Scores two as Marlies win

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• Frattin's goal against OKC

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• Marlies injury situation

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• Marlies move on to the Calder Cup finals

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Marlies injury situation



Toronto Star

 Here is the latest on the Toronto Marlies injury situation. Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like this year’s version of the UND Fighting Sioux – major injury problems – as it stands now, it looks like it could be all in for Marlies as well. Those that can dress could end up playing for the Marlies. The Marlies won their series with the OKC Barons, but it looks like the series victory came with a high cost.

TORONTO -- Forwards Mike Zigomanis, Nazem Kadri and Matt Frattin and defencemen Jesse Blacker, Korbinian Holzer and Mark Fraser all skipped practice with various injuries while wingers Marcel Mueller and Carter Ashton skated, but not on the team's top four lines.

Though Eakins said it was a good sign to have Ashton and Mueller at the rink, he wouldn't give details of the injuries or a timeline for when anyone would return to the lineup.

"Right now, anybody that wasn't on the ice is hurt and they'll play when they're healed," he said.

Despite missing some of their top-six forwards, and their top shut-down defensive pair, an optimistic Eakins believes things could be a lot worse for Toronto.

"We've probably got four or five guys who are playing extremely hurt and for those guys not to pack it in is huge," he said. "I don't know what we would do right now without the guys that are totally hurt, and off the ice, and the guys that are just hanging in there."

Bad news for the Marlies?

If forward Matt Frattin is hurt it could be a big hit for the Toronto Marlies.

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• Frattin's goal against OKC

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• Marlies move on to the Calder Cup finals

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• Frattin Scores two as Marlies win

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• Oklahoma City Barons bury Toronto Marlies 5-1

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• Frattin scores twice as Marlies take series lead against Baron

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Happy Memorial Day

Personally, Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays – Memorial Day is a day for reflection and an opportunity to honor our fallen heros – we should also not forget that freedom is not free – freedom comes with an expensive price tag.

As the editor Goon’s World; I would like to take this time to honor our nation’s veterans that gave their life in defense of this great nation, we should never forget. Also, if you get the chance today thank a veteran for his service to our country.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. -Senator Barry Goldwater

The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.  ~Thomas Campbell

I am also honored to have served with many great men and women during my time in the military.  

Everybody wants Zach

CBS New York

Former Fighting Sioux and current New Jersey Devils forward Zach Parise is going to be one of the most sought after free agents in some time. Parise is going to be able to command a very hefty raise this summer and there are going to be teams lined up to pay him that hefty salary.

Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com --- Has there been a hotter ticket than New Jersey Devils forward Zach Parise on the free-agent stage in the last 10 years?

You can see how badly he wants to win, the pistons pumping as he hunts down a loose puck in the neutral zone and sends it into the open net to ensure the Game 5 win for the Devils at Madison Square Garden.

He’s the engine that drives the Devils, with due respect to the big wheel Ilya Kovalchuk, who is much better than I thought he’d ever be when they gave him that lifetime contract as a free agent.

But how can there be room for both players next season and beyond when the Devils ownership is an absolute mess and Parise can easily get $8 million US on the open market?

The Devils have no wiggle room because Elias ($6 million) and Dainius Zubrus ($3.4 million) aren’t unrestricted free agents until July 2013, the same with Marek Zidlicky on defence.

There are four scenarios: Parise stays in New Jersey; he goes to Detroit, where the Red Wings will sell him on playing with Pavel Datsyuk, he slides over to the New York Rangers; or Parise, who turns 28 in July, goes home to suit up for the Minnesota Wild.

One can only speculate where Parise going after the July 1st when free agent can begin signing contracts with other clubs. You can bet that the Wild are going to be in the running and Michael Russo has basically stated that the Wild will give him the money he wants if he decided to come to Minnesota. With all of the young recruits in the pipeline ready to step up for the Wild this “might” be enough to convinced Parise to say yes to the Minnesota Wild. Or not! I guess we will find out around July, 1st?

In Minnesota, the citizenry are awash with expectations that Parise might want to come home. His dad, J.P., runs the hockey program at the exclusive Shattuck St. Mary’s prep school and Parise’s girlfriend is from North Dakota and one of J.P.’s best friends is former North Stars GM Lou Nanne, who holds significant sway in that area. But then again, plenty of NHLers don’t want the pressure of playing before friends and family.

Please Zach come to the state of hockey…

Parise and Zajac never played together at UND

NJ.COM

This seems to be a common historical point of discussion – but incorrect – while it’s true that Zach Parise and Travis Zajac both played their collegiate hockey for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux – Parise and Zajac never played together. It never happened; this could be cleared up by doing a simple search on Google. So it would be impossible for them to have developed chemistry at UND.

Parise was a member of the Fighting Sioux hockey team from 2002-04, Zajac arrived at UND in the fall of 2004 and played two season at UND as well, 2004-2006.

Larry Wigge --- Travis Zajac and Zach Parise go together like two peas in a pod.

They are center and winger, both from the University of North Dakota. Both worked well together there, so why not in the NHL. They feed off one another.

Zajac is the straw that stirs the drink and prefers to stay in the background to Parise's star status.

The secret is out, Zajac is a star too.

For much of the 2011-12 season, Zajac was a lost man ... a player without a team.

Related articles

• J.P. Parise back tracks on comments

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• Zach Parise - Because It's The Cup

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• Parise and Zajac never played together at UND

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• Classic Sid - Granlund would look better with Parise

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Advertisement in the Fargo Forum

This is a screen shot of an advertisement that was on the Fargo Forum website, just a few minutes ago. It's an advertisement for measure four voting no on the Fighting Sioux nickname.

Just for the Record I am not advising anyone how to vote on this ballot measure, that's up to you.  I just included this to show you what was on the Fargo Forum website.

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• Another perspective on the Fighting Sioux nickname

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• You can wear your Sioux jersey to the polls

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• NDSU won't play UND until nickname situation is resolved

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Marlies move on to the Calder Cup finals

Seems like your typical Matt Frattin goal, hard working and doesn't give up on the effort, you can also see Frattin's other goal here by watching the Marlies game six in six minutes highlights.

Beast Mode - as he has been all series long against OKC Barons - Frattin was again a monster in game six against the Oklahoma City Barons. Frattin scored his  ninth and 10 goals of the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. Frattin's is tied for the team lead in points with Jerry D'Amigo and Philippe Dupuis - ten goals leads the Calder Cup Playoffs as well.

The Toronto Marlies now face off against the Norfolk Admirals, who like the Marlies have quite a few ex-college hockey players on their team. Some of the college flavor of the Norfolk Admirals includes: Cory Conacher (Canisus College), Evan Oberg (Minnesota-Duluth),  Mike Kostka (UMass-Amherst),  Jonathon Kalinski (Minnesota State University-Mankato), Trevor Smith (University of New Hampshire),  Alex Killorn (Harvard), Richard Petiot (Colorado College),  Jeff Dimmen (University of Maine).

Then there were two - Devils and Kings

There will be at least one former Fighting Sioux hockey players name on the Stanley Cup this season.

From the Eastern Conference Champion - Zach Parise and Travis Zajac's Devils will play the Western Conference Champion and Matt Greene's Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals starting on  Wednesday Night.

Vladislav Namestnikov's questionable hit on Klarc Wilson

This past week the the CHL's MasterCard Memorial Cup has been on the NHL Network and I have watched a good share of the games. There has been some good hockey played and there has been some physical games as well.

Here is the video of a hit that took place during Wednesday's game. London Knight's forward Vladislav Namestnikov absolutely steam rolls Edmonton Oil Kings’forward Klarc Wilson.

There were some that thought the hit was predatory and questionable - incidentally the CHL decided not to give the London Knights star forward Vladislav Namestnikov any supplemental discipline for this hit on Edmonton Oil Kings’ Klarc Wilson.

What do you think of this hit? Is it dirty or a good check. It appears that Namestnikov does leave his feet to make the hit.

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UCONN to Hockey East

Hockey East Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It would appear that the Huskies of the University of Connecticut will probably be leaving the AHA and moving to Hockey East, it has been thrown around a bit the past couple of months. One of the interesting things that I found in this article was that Hockey East actually wanted to add the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami University Redhawks. It almost appears that the UCONN Huskies were the third choice of Hockey East. 

Allen Lessels, New Hampshire Union Leader --- Talks between Hockey East and UConn officials have heated up in recent months and both sides have been studying the feasibility of teaming up. While no formal invitation has been extended to the Huskies yet, it's clear that — barring any last-minute hitches — it's only a matter of time before one will be.

“Right now, we're looking very closely at UConn,” said Marty Scarano, the director of athletics at UNH. “I think it's safe to say that it's very close to being consummated.”

Hockey East started out as a seven-team league for the 1984-85 season and added Merrimack for the 1989-90 season, Massachusetts (1994-95) and Vermont brought it to 10 teams in 2006-07.

A major overhaul of the college hockey landscape — including the creation of Big 10 hockey for 2013-14 that will include Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin — led to Notre Dame coming to Hockey East.

“Once we made the move to 11, we had to make the move to 12,” Scarano said. “We knew that. We had talked to Notre Dame and Miami of Ohio and when Miami elected not to join us, we had to cast our attention elsewhere.”

So with an extra spot in AHA Hockey - there's an open slot as well in the WCHA - does one of these two  conferences step up and offer the University of Alabama Huntsville Chargers a spot in their conference? The Chargers still need a conference to call home. I get the feeling that all of the movement we have seen the last two summers might not entirely be over yet. Or is it?  

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Wisconsin's Justin Schultz moving on

None of us in the college hockey world are probably very shocked by this announcement. Personally, I really enjoyed watching Justin Schultz play three season at the University of Wisconsin and he could have signed a professional contract after last season, it was admirable that he choose to come back and play a third season with the Wisconsin Badgers.

For everything Wisconsin Badgers check out Chuck Schwartz.