Thursday afternoon reading material

-Former Badger defenseman Brendan Smith did an interview with Casey Richey from the SBNation blog Winging it in Motown. Smith talks about the Wings, being named to the AHL All-Star team, what it's like to work with Chris Chelios who is now an advisor for the Wings as well as a host of other topics. Thanks to @RicardoEfendi for the link.

-Chris Peters who runs the fantastic blog "The United States of Hockey" has a detailed post on 2012 draft eligible American hockey players. Included in his post are profiles of two future Badgers, 2011 recruit Jake McCabe and 2012 recruit Nic Kerdiles. Both players are eligible for the 2012 draft (McCabe is a late '93 birthdate).

-Wisconsin men's hockey communications guy Paul Capobiano who is in my opinion one of, if not the best communications guy in the business has posted a short video with interviews of Coach Eaves, Brett Bennett, and Craig Smith as they talk about the upcoming series at St. Cloud State. This is the first time I've seen them do this but I hope they continue.

-Andy Baggot updates us that the defense pairing changes which happened on Tuesday were changed scrapped on Wednesday. The usual pairings of Gardiner-Schultz, Johnson-Ramage, Springer-Simonelli were back.

-Baggot also noted some changes in the forward lines. Dolan is now centering Ryan Little and Keegan Meuer and Jefferson Dahl is between Patrick Johnson and Derek Lee on the smurf line. Dahl (5'9), Johnson (5'9), and Lee (5'10) could be an interesting trio to watch this weekend.

-Kyle Turris was sent down from the Phoenix Coyotes to the AHL's San Antonio Rampage. After a short 2 game stint in the AHL, Turris was recalled by the big club. Turris has 19 points this season in NHL games despite playing an average of less than 12 minutes per game. Among players for Phoenix that have played more than 30 games this year, only Paul "Biz Nasty" Bissonnett averages less time on ice and he's a fighter.

-The St. Cloud State hockey blog "Husky Hockey Time" has some interesting tidbits about the upcoming weekend series. Saturday night the Huskies will be wearing throw back jersey's that will be auctioned off.

-LA Kings insider Rich Hammond had a blog post yesterday about former Badger Davis Drewiske and his struggles to find regular ice for the Kings lately. Drewiske played 12 minutes last night in his return and didn't record a point and finished even on the night.

-Daily Cardinal sports editor Ryan Evans has a great article about the Badger men's hockey teams attitude the rest of the season. Evans, who I agree with 100% here basically says that it's time to stop focusing on moral victories and more on victories.

-Jayson Moy from USCHO.com has released his bracketology for the week. Moy has the Badgers as a #4 seed in the West Regional in St. Louis playing Merrimack in the first round. The other match up in Moy's West Regional is Denver vs Miami.

-Ryan McDonagh who has been playing great for the New York Rangers since his call up got featured on the NHL "hit of the night" in a game versus the Philadelphia Flyers. I have to be honest, I thought this was one of McDonagh's tamer hits.

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