Hockey Season is Starting

Regular readers of the blog (thank you, by the way) will know this already, but as the weather gets colder, many of the items you see in the blog become related.

It's not quite a total hockey blog, but I cover UMD hockey, so I blog about the team a lot, and I watch a lot of hockey during the winter, so I tend to write about it a lot.

We're getting close to that "transition" time, as teams are starting up practices and training camp and all the like. UMD's first exhibition game is two weeks-plus away (Oct. 2), and the home opener is three weeks from the day of this post (Oct. 7).

In advance of those all-important dates, here are a few things to note.

• There will be a huge tailgate party outside Amsoil Arena before the opener against Notre Dame. The plan is to open the concessions inside the building at 5pm, and they'll have live music and that trophy UMD won last year outside. They'd like a big crowd for the event, so you can expect to hear more about it as we get closer.
• UMD has been skating at Amsoil for a couple weeks now, and coaches were able to get on the ice with the players Thursday for the first time. They worked for about an hour.
• For those wondering, the broadcast team for men's hockey remains the same. Check 94xrocks.com for a coverage map of the stations we broadcast on. You can also stream the games on that site.
• Former UMD assistant coach Brett Larson is in town this weekend as part of his new gig. There are two USHL exhibition games at the Heritage Center, as Larson's Sioux City Musketeers battle the Green Bay Gamblers. Games are Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 2pm. The hope is that USHL exhibition games in Duluth become a more regular event.
• The Minnesota Wild open training camp this weekend in St. Paul. Former Bulldog Justin Fontaine is on the 56-player training camp roster. Fontaine starred at UMD for four years before signing with the Wild this spring. I would expect him to start the season in Houston, but you can't rule out the possibility that he'll see time in the NHL this season if things go well with the Aeros. Former North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway is on the camp roster and likely faces a similar path to the NHL.
• The Wild will play seven preseason games and finish camp with a trip to Duluth. The team is going to spend a couple days practicing at Amsoil Arena Oct. 3-4 and also doing some bonding/team-building. There are no public events scheduled for the time they are here. It's all about bonding before the opener Oct. 8 against Columbus. If anything is added to the itinerary that the public will be invited to, I'll let you know when I know. Promise.

Future Bulldog Welinski Causes Stir With Move to USHL

I have a buddy in the TV business. He Who Shall Not Be Named argues with me all the time about hockey, as he used to play it and it's one of my favorite sports. I freely admit that he knows more about the actual playing of the game than I do, but some of his stances are rather odd.

One of the things he told me recently was he believes no kid from Minnesota should ever go to the U.S. National Team Development Program. The reasoning is twofold: 1) that program is better used when it's helping develop kids from non-hockey areas (i.e. Matt Donovan of Oklahoma and Jason Zucker of Vegas); and 2) the development in Minnesota high school hockey is just fine, thankyouverymuch.

I don't necessarily agree, because I don't think there is any blanket rule that can be made to govern what is best for every high school hockey player. I chose not to look down on Derek Forbort for his move to the NTDP last year. Yes, a lot of people in East Duluth were upset about it, but their loyalty is to the Greyhounds, not to Derek Forbort.

Forbort has to be allowed to do what he and his family thinks is best for his development as a hockey player and a person. If that's major junior, we have to let him go and not hate him for it. If that's the NTDP, the response has to be the same.

None of this means the kids who stay in their community or neighborhood school shouldn't be celebrated. Nothing beats a group of kids who grew up together leading their varsity team to the state tournament. Not only that, but it's a rarity these days. All the more reason to celebrate it.

Now, word has come down that another top Duluth East defenseman has chosen to spend his senior season away from home, and not helping the 'Hounds try to get back to state. This time, it's future UMD Bulldog Andy Welinski, who is going to play for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL this fall.

Welinski will finish high school as scheduled, attending classes while playing for the Gamblers, and he will be back at East to graduate next spring with his class. He's just going to miss the hockey season, because he'll be playing against some bigger and older players.

“If hockey’s what you want to do, then you have to make a couple decisions based on hockey,” Welinski said earlier this week. “And hockey, right now, is what I want to do.”

... “Either way, if I was going to go or stay, if I was going to get better I would need to motivate myself and improve that way,” said Welinski, who has committed to play college hockey at Minnesota Duluth. “Having other players with the same capability as me, working with them and having them challenge me, will make me that much better than staying here.”

This is what Welinski truly believes. If that's the case, he's not wrong to say it.

He downplayed any friction his father had brought up with longtime East coach Mike Randolph, who is one of the better hockey coaches you're going to find anywhere.

“I like Randolph as a coach,” he said. “He’s had tough times with some people in the past, but I’ve never had any troubles with him. He’s a great coach who knows hockey. I guess his coaching style is to be strict, and sometimes it turns out against him.

“Personally, (his return) did not influence my decision.”

Reality is that Welinski's words read like the words of a young man who made a very adult decision. There's nothing whatsoever wrong with that, even if you might not like what he decided.

But, naturally, the USHL coach who benefits from Welinski's deliberation and decision has to do the classy, dignified thing, and stick his chest out after he "wins" the player he wanted.

“USHL hockey is better than high school hockey,” (Gamblers assistant Jon) Rogger said. “It’s going to prepare you more for college and you’re playing against older and stronger kids like they will be in college. At the end of the day, it’s in the kid’s best interest — if they are good enough to leave high school early, then they should do it.”

Wrong.

This is what I expect a CHL coach or GM to say when his team poaches a kid who has already started the season with a U.S. college.

The USHL might be a level above U.S. high school hockey, but that doesn't make it automatically a better developmental option for a high school kid. Not only that, but implying that any kid should feel the need to leave high school to play in the USHL is just selfish and unnecessary.

No avenue for development is the be-all, end-all. No method is perfect, and there isn't one way that is going to work for every kid who is looking to get better.

Some kids need to leave high school because they feel the longer, more grueling USHL schedule will help them get better faster. Others do just fine developing in high school, and they don't ever really need to play in the USHL. There will be some that go from the USHL to college, but others will jump to the CHL.

Kids go from high school to the CHL. They go from high school to college. They go from high school to the NAHL, then the USHL, then college.

The last thing we need is to start chest-thumping because one or two kids do things a certain way.

More important than Rogger's need to show everyone how great his league is, it's vitally important that USA Hockey continue to churn out quality players.

After all, there are gold medals to defend, and other gold medals to win.

Good luck to Andy. He has chosen what he feels is the best developmental path for him, and at this point, my sincerest hope is that he shows up at UMD as a player prepared to make an impact and show all that potential the coaches saw in him.

Seth Ambroz Decides College Can Wait

Say what you want about Minnesota hockey coach Don Lucia, but there is no question the man has some serious recruits coming his way.

Last year, we saw Jordan Schroeder leave after two years, and freshman defenseman Nick Leddy developed nicely as the season wore on. The Gophers weren't good enough to make the NCAA playoffs or WCHA Final Five, but they have more help on the way.

Possible top ten NHL Draft pick Nick Bjugstad joins this fall, and possible 2011 top five pick Seth Ambroz was supposed to join him. The thought was that Ambroz -- who left high school for the USHL after his freshman season -- would be ready to play what would normally be his senior season of high school hockey in the WCHA.

It's quite a jump, but for someone who has been on an accelerated path, it wasn't something seen as impossible.

Hold on, though. Gopher blogger Hammy reported on Twitter that Ambroz will not join the "U" this fall. His report is backed up by a story on U.S. Hockey Report, a subscription-based site.

The thinking is simple: Ambroz will benefit more from being an alpha dog in the USHL than he will from having to work his way up the ladder at Minnesota. Not only that, but the physically imposing Ambroz took over 100 penalty minutes last year for the Omaha Lancers. If there is one part about his game that really needs work, it's probably that discipline thing.

Jokes about how WCHA officials treat the Gophers aside, it's probably not a good idea for him to enter the WCHA when he's only 17, has a reputation for taking penalties, and has to deal with 24- and 25-year-old college seniors. His fearlessness in the corners will eventually suit the Gophers well, as they have been known for a shortage of hard-working, high-character players in recent years.

That size (6-3, over 200 pounds by the time he gets to college) will help him a lot, too.

In the meantime, one has to wonder what Ambroz will do this year. Will he be bored with the USHL, or will he light it up like Thomas Vanek did before he became draft-eligible and eventually started terrorizing WCHA defenses?

Worse yet, will he become a pawn in the NCAA/CHL war? Let's hope not. Ambroz is a Minnesota kid, and he grew up close enough to the Twin Cities that you have to figure he's going to live a dream of sorts by playing for the Gophers. Not only that, but his advisor is former Bulldog and NHL mainstay Shjon Podein, and I can't see him recommending a kid go play major junior when he's been committed to a college for this long.

It's a bit strange to see a guy who has been pro-active in accelerating his education and hockey development suddenly hit the brakes. But this could be a good move for Ambroz, both in terms of becoming a star at the next level and for his 2011 draft chances.

We won't know if he did the right thing until the scouts have their say next winter.

Green Bay Becomes Bat Country

The Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL play their home games in the newsy Resch Center, which is across the street from Lambeau Field.

While not everyone in the league is on their way to a Division I scholarship, many USHL players have already committed to U.S. colleges, or they will commit before their junior careers are over.

It was a rather unique experience for the Green Bay players on Tuesday, as the Gamblers hosted Cedar Rapids (Iowa). No, it's not that they haven't played Cedar Rapids before. Instead, it's because the game was delayed when a bat started flying around the ice surface.

Instead of trying to slap it out of the air, ala Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs, Gambler players started swinging their sticks at it. Eventually, they were "successful."

Video comes from Fox 11 television in Green Bay.



You can expect a phone call from PETA very soon, Gambler management. Of course, the part of our world that doesn't hang on the life of a wayward bat sees at least a bit of humor in a bunch of hockey players trying to take out a bat with their sticks.