Wednesday Morning Link Central

I guess I'll start off with the bad news first. Senior forward Aaron Bendickson was injured in a scooter crash on Tuesday morning. According to Andy Baggot, "Eaves said Bendickson felt better as the day progressed, but aggravated a previous injury during the incident and his status for a WCHA series at Minnesota-Duluth Friday and Saturday is uncertain."

With Bendickson unable to practice Tuesday. Eaves changed up the third and fourth lines for practice. I kind of like the new lines actually.

Murray-Geoffrion-Smith
Street-Stepan-Davies
Bohmbach-Thurber-Mitchell
Johnson-Dolan-Grotting

Junior defenseman Brendan Smith was held out of contract drills for precautionary reasons after the hit he took on Friday night that looked brutal. He will be available this weekend, and Eaves is "hopeful" on Bendickson.
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I posted this yesterday as well but deal with it anyways.

In an effort to become as user friendly as possible, the Sixty Minutes. No Alibis. No Regrets. blog has taken the next step and gotten a twitter account. I'm fairly new to the twitter scene so you'll have to bear with me in this experimental phase.

I'm not sure exactly what we're going to use the account for but it will be nice to get information out without having to make a full blog post every time. It will also be nice to post things on twitter from the blackberry since it's virtually impossible to do a blog post that way. We may experiment with game updates but we'll make sure we let you know here before we do it there.
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You may have saw this link in the comment section yesterday, but if you didn't, you can check it out now. Dillon Simpson, the top defensive recruit for the 2011 season has verbally committed to the University of North Dakota. He was most likely the top 1993 born player available period.

Simpson chose the Fighting Sioux over Wisconsin, Denver, and Michigan State where his dad Craig played college before a 10 year NHL career.

It will be interesting to see when he arrives in Grand Forks. Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Elliott Schlosshman noted that Simpson has accelerated his studies so he will be available for the 2010 season. UND currently rosters 8 defensemen and only graduate one blueliner, Chay Genoway (who might apply for a medical redshirt). North Dakota also has two recruits who have signed for next season, prospective first round draft pick Derek Forbort, and Nick Mattson.
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Tuesday was day two in the set up process for the rink that will be played on during the Culvers Camp Randall Classic. "On the second day, the ice mat was laid down as the finishing touches were made to the platform the rink will go on."

Also, not sure if you are aware but there is a live web cam at all times of the the rink at Camp Randall. This is the first time I've viewed it and it's currently dark out so I'm not sure of the quality but it's definitely something to look into.
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If you paid attention to ExileOnDaytonStreet's Alumni update Monday night, you would know that former Badger goaltender Brian Elliott has been playing great as of late. If not, shame on you.

Elliott continued the trend last night with a shutout victory over the New Jersey Devils in the seventh consecutive win for the Ottawa Senators.

From the TSN game recap, "Elliott, recently named the NHL's first star of the week, won his fifth consecutive start. He wasn't tested often, but managed to come up big when needed en route to his third shutout of the season."
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Wisconsin senior forward Michael Davies has been named the WCHA Player of the Week for his performance last weekend in a tie and a win for the Badgers over top ranked Denver at the Kohl Center.

The St. Louis native continued his red hot stretch of play with a goal and an assist both Friday and Saturday night when the Badgers recorded 3 huge WCHA points. Davies has 24 points in his last 12 games.
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TSN analyst Bob McKenzie has released his mid-season top 30 prospects for the 2010 NHL draft. McKenzie is pretty highly respected in the hockey community and it looks like a pretty good list.

NCAA prospects of note:

#13-Riley Sheahan-Notre Dame (Freshman)
#14-Nick Bjugstad-Blaine High School (Minnesota recruit)
#18-Derek Forbort-USNTDP (North Dakota recruit)
#20-Tyler Pitlick-Minnesota State Mankato (Freshman)
#21-Jarred Tinordi-USNTDP (Notre Dame recruit)
#25-Brock Nelson-Warroad High School (North Dakota recruit)
#29-Jaden Schwartz-Tri-City USHL (Colorado College recruit)
HM-Charlie Coyle-South Shore EJHL (Boston University recruit)
HM-Kevin Hayes-Nobles Prep (Boston College recruit)
HM-Stephen Johns-USNTDP (Notre Dame Recruit)
HM-Jonathan Merrill-USNTDP (Michigan Recruit)
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I posted this on our twitter yesterday afternoon but It's worth a link here as well. Senior captain Blake Geoffrion has been featured in Bruce Ciskie's latest NHL Fanhouse article.

"Where Geoffrion has developed nicely -- besides his leadership -- is as a goal-scoring threat. He is a solid power forward, unafraid of the tough areas and very good with the puck around the net."

Ciskie is the UMD Radio announcer and also a very reputable college hockey writer.