Sunday, October 26, 2008

Linkorama

The biggest news so far this weekend is USA Hockey has called a press conference tomorrow at 11am at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. Buffalo has been awarded the 2011 World Junior Championships. The Buffalo News has more on this story.

My take is this a great choice for the tournament to be held. The Western New York is rich in hockey tradition, its near the Canadian border, and fans all throughout the Northeast could make the trek. In the perfect world for me it would be held in Boston but Buffalo is in driving distance. One thing I find interesting is no one from Niagera University will be present at the press conference. I forget if this is a Hockey Canada or an IIHF rule but one of the reasons that Montreal wasn't awarded the World Junior Championships for this year because there was no junior team in Montreal at the time. If Niagara University wasn't half an hour away, would Buffalo have this tournament?

The NHL Central Scouting Bureau released their preliminary "Players to Watch" list. I take a look at Maine recruits at the Maine Hockey Journal. The Hockey Journal lists all the players with New England ties in the report. What I question is why don't they rank major junior players in this report?

I have received an unconfirmed report but London's radio announcer has said defenseman John Carlson has a seperated shoulder. Hopefully the radio announcer has good sources because radio announcers aren't having a good month in reporting the news. Halifax's radio announcer John Moore said the Maineiacs were for sale. Here was Mark Just's response.

Don't be surprised if Windsor makes a trade in the next week or so. The rumor after the Peterborough-Kitchener game is Petes goaltender Trevor Cann could be on his way to Windsor.

That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

FYI....NHL typically does not rank Major Junior players on the "players to watch list" because ALL Major Junior players are automatically watched by NHL scouts and it is just a given. I could be wrong but this is the theory in past lists.

Nathan Fournier said...

That's what I thought but I would like to see a list for fans to a give idea where major junior players are going to go. So many times people hype up some player 2 years before his draft year and that player gets picked tn the middle rounds.