Brian Elliott traded to Colorado

More to come...

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Badgers in the NHL, Part I

Now that NHL camps are wrapping up and rosters are getting finalized, I'll have a few installments of former Wisconsin Badgers either playing for an NHL team or in a squad's minor league system. Today we'll take a spin through the NHL's Eastern Conference.

D Ryan McDonagh '10, New York Rangers

McDonagh has been viewed as the most NHL-ready of last year's Badgers, and with good reason. The rock-solid defender's rights were traded from Montreal in a deal for Scott Gomez in 2008, and his chances of playing in New York improved after defenseman Wade Redden was sent to the minors on Sunday. McDonagh has impressed in camp with his physical play, and if he's not in playing his home games at Madison Square Garden in early October, his Rangers debut won't come much later. McDonagh led the Rangers in ice time on Sunday in an exhibition against the Detroit Red Wings, which bodes well for his immediate future.

C Derek Stepan '10, New York Rangers

I remember the moment when I knew Stepan was truly something special. While he had a magnificent sophomore year last year, his real coming-out party was when he scored two shorthanded goals in the same penalty against North Dakota on March 7th, 2009. Efforts like that get noticed, and he reminded me of that game tonight when he notched a shorty in the first period of the Rangers' game against Ottawa and a certain former Badger goaltender (more on him shortly). That was Stepan's second goal of the week, as he scored on Sunday against Detroit (with Brendan Smith on the ice). He also assisted on Marian Gaborik's OT game-winner last Thursday against New Jersey. At this time last week, I would have guessed that he'd be starting the season with Hartford of the AHL, but he's making a big run at a roster spot now, and my guess is he and McD are both in Gotham. If he does start in the minors, I expect him to be with the Blueshirts by the time they visit Columbus in mid-December.

D Jamie McBain '09, Carolina Hurricanes

McBain impressed in his first stint in the big leagues last season, putting up three goals and seven assists with a +6 rating in just 14 games at the end of the year. The Canes' early line sheet shows McBain matched up with US Olympian Tim Gleason on the second pair, and they should see plenty of ice time in all situations.

D Kyle Klubertanz '08, Montreal Canadiens

Kluby signed with the Habs over the summer after playing for a few years in Europe, where he ranked fifth in scoring among defensemen in the Swedish Elite League. He'll be manning the blue line for Montreal's AHL affiliate in Hamilton this season.

D Josh Engel '08, Toronto Maple Leafs
He of the miracle pass to Jack Skille against Cornell played all of last season for the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs' AHL affiliate, putting up 17 points in 70 games. He was invited to Leafs' camp this fall and will fight for a roster spot, but he will likely return for another year with the Marlies.

G Brian Elliott '07, Ottawa Senators

The goaltender on Wisconsin's most recent championship team entrenched himself as the starter in Ottawa over the second half of last season, posting a 2.57 goals-against and a .909 save percentage. Elliott struggled in his first playoff series, but many goalies have difficulty against the Pittsburgh Penguins' offense. Pascal Leclaire, from whom Elliott took the job, is still around, but he was ineffective last season. Elliott hasn't been extremely impressive in the preseason, but it appears that he'll go into the season as the starter.

D Joe Piskula '07, Philadelphia Flyers

Piskula signed a professional tryout contract with the Flyers, and was given the opportunity to play for a spot in the organization. Unfortunately, he was released over the weekend. Hopefully Joe can catch on elsewhere after playing three seasons for the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL. (UPDATE: Chuck reports that Piskula has signed with the Abbotsford Heat, Calgary's AHL affiliate, but this report puts him in Oklahoma City, the Oilers' farm team.)

C Steve Reinprecht '00, Florida Panthers

The guy who arguably should have won Wisconsin's first Hobey Baker award in 2000 will play his second season as a Panther after four years in Phoenix. Reinprecht consistently scores around 40 points per season, and will likely maintain that level of production for a seemingly constantly rebuilding Florida organization.

That's it for part one. Stay tuned for a look through the Western Conference soon.

Tex on Twitter

Badgers In The Pros: NHL Playoff Update

The University Of Wisconsin has a long history of producing NHL level talent. The 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are doing nothing to dispel that fact.

Joe Pavelski continued on his historic pace Sunday night by netting his 8th and 9th goals of the playoffs. It's Pavelski's third straight multi-goal game of the playoffs. The last player to do the same was Mario Lemieux.

Pavelski is having one of the best playoffs in San Jose history. His 9 goals tie him with Patrick Marleau for the clubs playoff record. Marleau set the mark during the 2006 playoffs. Pavelski is currently first in goals scored and his 14 points are second to only Sidney Crosby's 16.

Dany Heatley had a breakout performance on Sunday. His three assists were huge in the Sharks taking a 2-0 series lead heading into game three in Detroit. Heatley is having quietly solid playoffs. The former Badger All-American has 9 points in 7 games. His 8 assists are tied for second behind Crosby.

Brian Rafalski, the third former Badger All-American in the Detroit/San Jose series also had a big Sunday game. The Red Wings blue liner picked up a pair of assists in the loss on Sunday. He now has 8 points through 9 playoff games, good enough for fourth on the Wings in scoring.

Pavelski, Heatley and the Sharks next play Tuesday against Rafalski in Detroit at 6:30 CST on Versus (HD).

Wisconsin Badgers NHL Playoff Statistics

	Player	Team	Pos	GP	G	A	P
1	Joe Pavelski	SJS	C	8	9	5	14
2	Dany Heatley	SJS	RW	7	1	8	9
3	Brian Rafalski	DET	D	9	1	7	8
4	Ryan Suter	NAS	D	6	0	0	0
5	Adam Burish	CHI	R	3	0	0	0

	Player	Team	GP	GS	W	L		OT	SA	GA	GAA	Sv	Sv%
1	Brian Elliott	OTT	4	4	1	2		0	95	14	4.14	81	.853

Pavelski, Heatley, Rafalski, and Burish are still active and playing in round number two. Suter and Elliott have been eliminated. Davis Drewiske was on the Kings roster for the playoffs but was a healthy scratch thought the first round and they have been eliminated. Also, Jack Skille and Jake Dowell are on the playoff roster for the Hawks but they have not seen time as of yet.

Weekly playoff schedule

Mon-8 PM CST: Van at Chi (Burish, Dowell, Skille)-Versus (HD)
Tue-6:30 PM CST: San Jose (Pavs, Heatley) at Det (Rafalski)-Versus (HD)
Wed-8:30 PM CST: Chi (Burish, Dowell, Skille) at Van-Versus (HD)
Thu-6:30 PM CST: San Jose (Pavs, Heatley) at Det (Rafalski)-Versus (HD)
Fri-8:30 PM CST: Chi (Burish, Dowell, Skille) at Van-Versus (HD)
Sat-9 PM CST: Det (Rafalski) at San Jose (Pav's, Heatley)-Versus (HD)
Sun-7 PM CST: Van at Chi (Burish, Dowell, Skille)-Versus (HD)

Brian Elliott: He's Freakin' Awesome

Els has once again been named NHL First Star of the Week.

Like everything else, he did it simply by being freakin' awesome. 4 wins in the week with a 1.00 GAA and .966 SV% on 120 shots. Well done, Brian! We offer congratulatory Moose Calls to you.

Wisconsin All-Decade Team

Lot of talk at different blogs and websites about different All-Decades teams from conferences and things like that. I eventually plan on doing an All-Decade team for the WCHA but for today we'll settle for the Wisconsin All-Decade team.

Something like this is very tough to do because your basically creating your own criteria here. Do you go for the best career? Do you go with each players best individual season? It's really a tough thing. I wrestled with a lot of ideas and players and decided to take each players best individual season into account when making the list. Also, since I'm making the rules, I included the 1999-2000 season in here because I simply could not leave Rhino off the list. He may have gotten screwed for the Hobey but he's not getting screwed here.

Wisconsin All-Decade First Team
F-Steve Reinprecht (99-00)
F-Dany Heatley (00-01)
F-Joe Pavelski (05-06)
D-Jamie McBain (08-09)
D-Tom Gilbert (05-06)
G-Brian Elliott (05-06)

Wisconsin All-Decade Second Team
F-Rene Bourque (03-04)
F-Blake Geoffrion (09-10)
F-Robbie Earl (05-06)
D-Brendan Smith (09-10)
D-Jeff Dessner (99-01)
G-Bernd Bruckler (03-04)

Wisconsin All-Decade Third Team
F-Michael Davies (09-10)
F-Adam Burish (05-06)
F-Derek Stepan (09-10)
D-Davis Drewiske (07-08)
D-Dan Boeser (01-02)
G-Scott Kabatoff (01-02)

Wisconsin All-Decade Rookie Team
F-Dany Heatley (99-01)
F-Joe Pavelski (04-05)
F-Kyle Turris (07-08)
D-Ryan Suter (03-04)
D-Jake Gardiner (08-09)
G-Bernd Bruckler (01-02)

Wisconsin Player of the decade: Goaltender Brian Elliott

Flat out, Brian Elliott won Wisconsin the 2006 National Championship. There were pieces on that team that could be replaced and we still would have won, but not Elliott. Elliott had the best season I've personally ever had a chance to be around for a goaltender. His stats were flat out sick that season. A 1.55 GAA and .938 Save percentage is absolutely ridiculous. The team was 27-5-3 when he was in goal, and 3-5 when he wasn't. 2 of those losses for Elliott were immediately after he came back from a knee injury on the road. In my opinion, this was a simple decision.

Leave comments and let me know what you think. There are about 1,000 different ways this thing could have been sliced.

Badgers In The Pros: Tuesday Recap

Wasn't really planning on writing this blog post but I happened to stumble onto the box scores from last nights NHL games and there were Wisconsin players all over the place so I figured it was time for a brief update at least.

Robbie Earl who has been up and down with the Minnesota Wild all season long had a goal in a 3-2 shootout loss. Earl had a nice goal on a wrist shot after Nick Schultz found him streaking through the slot with a nice pass. Earl has produced for the Wild in extremely limited playing time. He's averaging only just over 8 minutes a game for playing time yet if you take his stats over a whole season he'd almost be leading the Wild in goals scored.

Ryan Suter continued his hot play after a fantastic showing in the Olympics by netting a power play goal for Nashville last night. The big lefty from Madison fired a puck that had eyes towards the net and it found it's way to the twine. Suter has really developed his game and is becoming one of the elite blueliners in the league.

Rene Bourque is having an absolutely tremendous season up in Calgary and didn't disappoint last night. The former Badger had a goal and an assist in an upset victory for the Flames in Detroit. Bourque is the proud owner of a new contract which will pay him an average of 3.33 million dollars until the end of the 2015-16 season. Hey Rene...have you heard about our new practice facility we're trying to build?

Former Badger defenseman Brian Rafalski who also played in the Flames/Wings game also had impact, albeit on the losing side. Team USA's number 1 defenseman at the Olympics, Rafalski had two assists last night for the Wings.

Just another ho-hum performance for Brian Elliott last night. The former Hobey Hat Trick finalist stopped 18 of 19 Edmonton shots to record a 4-1 victory for the Senators. Elliott is 13-3 for the Senators over his past 17 games. Elliott had to shut down Hillary Duff's fiance Mike Comrie when he got a penalty shot in the first period. "I know Mike from being in Ottawa and he is a little trickster," Elliott said. "He got a good shot but I got it with my stick."

Badgers In The Pros: Dowell Re-called, Records 2 Points

Press Release

The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled center Jake Dowell (DOW-uhl) from the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs. In addition, the Blackhawks have placed center John Madden on Injured Reserve.

Dowell, 24, has recorded a fighting major and three shots in two games with the Blackhawks this season. The Eau Claire, Wisconsin native has tallied 12 assists, 18 points and 66 penalty minutes in 55 contests with Rockford this season while serving as the team captain.

Overall, Dowell has appeared in 22 regular-season games with the Blackhawks over the last three seasons (2007-09), posting three points (2G, A) and 17 penalty minutes, which includes being held scoreless in one game with the club in 2008-09. He has also racked up 60 points (21G, 39A) and 266 penalty minutes in 188 regular-season AHL tilts with the Norfolk Admirals (2006-07) and Rockford (2007-10).

Dowell played today for Chicago in a 5-4 shoot-out victory for the Blackhawks. While playing only 8 minutes, the Eau Claire native was able to record a goal and an assist. The former Badger was named the third star in the Victory.

Other Badgers in NHL action on Sunday:

Former Badger goalie Brian Elliott continued his torrid pace with 34 saves on 37 shots in a 4-3 Senators victory. Elliott is 12-2 over his past 14 games played for the Sen's. Over that span he's allowed more than 3 goals only twice. Elliott is silencing a lot of critics right now with his play.

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.

Alumni Updates

Robbie Earl:

Ever since not getting picked up off waivers (more on that in a bit), Earl has made the most of his limited ice time. Two goals in two games has been drawing some raves from west of the St. Croix. This is especially notable considering that he's getting less than nine minutes of ice time (he got less than 7:00 against Detroit), and also considering that he's mostly playing on the fourth line. Not easy to score a goal when you spend most of the game paired with Andrew Ebbett and Derek "Good Lord, That Man Was Sired By A Moose" Boogaard. It definately seems like he's starting to find a groove that he was unable to get in Toronto. What once seemed like a career AHLer is finding ways to be a serviceable third and fourth liner.

In either case, he's getting some very favorable press in St. Paul. Wild beat writer Michael Russo had this to say:

And, 29 GM's should get fired today. These 29 men could have had Robbie Earl for jack squat Wednesday when he was on waivers. In the two games since, the former Wisconsin Badger's got two goals -- and now five in 15. I'm no math genius, but that puts him on pace for 27.33333333333333333 goals over an 82-game season.

He also brought speed, physicality and a helped draw a double minor from Derek Dorsett. The Wild's 9-0-1 the past 10 games Earl's in the lineup, and 10-3-2 overall when he plays. He's a difference maker!!!

Good work, Robbie!

Jamie McBain:

A nice little write-up on McB that I found on NHL.com.

Adam Burish:

Stumbled accross this NHL.com video linked on UrineSoakedHellholeNow.com of Adam Burish discussing, among other things, his timetable for returning to the Blackhawks. You can sense the restlessness, and there's something about that that seems like vintage Burish to me:



Dany Heatley and Joe Pavelski continue to set the world on fire in San Jose. I don't need links or stats. It's just a fact.

Bernd Bruckler:

This is a poorly translated link ("is Andre Lakos some time no longer in the squad by a tractor." Zuh???), but evidently Bernd's been battling an ACL injury, although Torpedo is still in the playoff hunt in the KHL. Speedy recovery, Bernd!

Brian Elliott:

One of the greatest Badger goalies of all time had one of the greatest weeks of his professional career last week, winning four games in four starts- a streak that included a stretch of three games in four days. It was enough to earn the NHL First Star of the week last week.

He was lights out with a .957 SV%, 1.26 GAA and allowing only 5 goals. I caught the end of an interview with Els on Hockey Central, and so far I haven't seen it on Versus.com or on Youtube. I'll keep an eye out for it, but in the meantime, here's a WTF save Elliott made against Marian Hossa after the puck took a WTF bounce off the endboards:

More HF's Top 20 Prospects, Fall 2009

Ottawa Senators

4.(3) Brian Elliott, G
Rating: 7.0B
Acquired: 2003 draft, 291st overall

After a stellar start to the year in the AHL, Elliott was recalled to Ottawa. For a time, it seemed like Elliott could help get the Senators back into the playoff picture. However, Elliott would show growing pains typical of a young goalie. Still, his play was overall impressive, resulting in him be signed to a two-year contract this offseason.

Going into 2009-10, the 24-year-old looks to be the backup on a full-time basis, but given Pascal Leclaire’s history of injuries, Elliott could see substantial time between the pipes. To take the next step and push to be a No. 1 goalie, Elliott must work on his rebound control, which was shaky at the NHL level. His athleticism and hockey IQ are both top notch, so with a bit of work, Elliott usurping Leclaire is not that far-fetched.

Edmonton Oilers

19. (NR) Troy Hesketh, D, 18
Acquired: 2009 draft, 71st overall

Hesketh, picked in the third round of the 2009 draft, was a lesser-known player. He has good size at 6’2, but is lanky. In his high school career, he’s shown good speed, a healthy shot and quick adaptation to the play.

Hesketh has some offensive tools, but he’s not an offensive defenseman and he’s good on the back end, but you wouldn’t call him a stay-at-homer. He’s well-rounded at this point.

It might take years to see if Hesketh pans out, but he’ll start at the University of Wisconsin in 2011-12 so the real meter of his growth will start to be seen at that point.

Brian Elliott re-signs with Ottawa

Badger alum Brian Elliott, the #1a (aka: Backup for now, Starter of the future) goaltender for the Senators and defender of Ottawa from rogue gangs of moose, has avoided arbitration with Ottawa and has resigned for two years.

Financial terms were not released in the NHL.com story or on TSN (as of 4:51 today). I'll update as they become available.

UPDATE: Per THN, Elliott will earn $800,000 in 2009-10 and $900,000 in 2010-11. (In case you were wondering, Elliott's previous contract was for $757,720 per year in 2007-08 and 2008-09, per Cap Geek.)

Thursday evening linkorama

• The NCAA has announced the NCAA Women of the Year Award conference winners, and Jessie Vetter was picked for the WCHA. Out of the 132 conference winners, the top 30 will be considered for the national award. I gotta think Vetter will be in the running. (Thanks to Boscacci for the heads-up.)
  

• The Badger Men have been invited to open the 2010-11 season in St. Louis at the Icebreaker Invitational. Other expected invitees include Boston University, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame. Sounds fun to me!

• Two Badgers have made THN's Top 10 American-Born Players: Mike Richter (#10) and Chris Chelios (#1). How 'bout that, Ma?

  10. Mike Richter, G
  Richter makes the grade here less for his NHL resume than for his international one. Richter did win a Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1994 and has the third-most NHL victories (301) amongst American netminders. But he answered his country’s call on 11 separate occasions, playing in world juniors, world championships, three Olympics, a Canada Cup and a World Cup – in which he led the U.S. to a gold medal and was named tournament MVP. Richter even left the University of Wisconsin after just one season to play for the U.S. national team for a year-and-a-half in preparation for the 1988 Olympics. His NHL career began the next season.
  
  1. Chris Chelios, D
  Chelios has been playing in the NHL since 1983-84. He is fourth all-time in games played and is the 10th-highest scoring blueliner ever. Chelios has never been the most prolific scoring rearguard – his best season came in 1988-89 when he totaled 15-58-73 in 80 games – but scoring was never the best part of his game. Chelios is one of the NHL’s all-time nastiest players, as his 2,891 penalty minutes – 12th most ever – attest to. But with that nastiness came skill, too. Chelios is a five-time first team all-star and a two-time second-teamer. He’s played in 11 all-star games and, most impressively, won three Norris Trophies. He’s also a three-time Stanley Cup-winner who has played for the U.S. at 12 international events, including three Canada Cups and four Olympics.

• Andy Baggot has a bit on Tony Hrkac's involvement in the Badgers' high school development camp. He also mentions the other coaches on the camp's staff.

• Davis Drewiske recently blogged from the Kings Fans Cruise. Among other things, we learned that he swims like a rock. (Thanks to Capobianco for the heads-up.)

• Not really Badger-related, but here's an article about the goaltender that Brian Elliott will be backing up.

• And completely not Badger-related: Plastic Ice.

Wednesday evening linkorama

• Paul Capobianco indicates that the Badger Men's roster will be released soon, probably Friday. In addition to freshman additions, he says we can also expect one number change for a returning player.
  
  In the same post, Capobianco reminds us that we can follow the Badger Men on twitter, and he also rounds-up a number of items that he had previously posted on twitter. Most of them we've already posted here, but one of the exceptions is this 2001 USA Today article about the UM-MSU Cold War game which fortells a Badger Hockey game @ Camp Randall.

• The Badgers high school development camp, which is "open to all and any participants", is taking place this week, and the top players in the state are there. DPlaya reports he is hearing that there may be some unhappy campers, saying that 'the camp may be trying to be "all things to all people" and not finding the mark with some campers.' That's unfortunate for players on both ends of the spectrum.

• UNO's new head coach, Dean Blais, reportedly has an "out" in his contract that allows him to apply for the Gophers head coach position should it become available. Thanks to Goon for pointing out the brief mention in the News-Chronicle. As Goon says, it's interesting, but nothing that Mavericks or gophers fans should worry about yet.

• Schlossman tells us that the WCHA's agreement with the Xcel Energy Center to host the Final Five runs out after this season but will likely be renewed. Talking about moving the Final Five to different sites is like beating a dead horse, it's not going anywhere. Fwiw, I don't really have a problem with it being at the X each year.

• The Blackhawks Confidential blog has a post that speculates Hossa's injury may open up a spot in Chicago for Jack Skille. (Thanks to the anonymouse who pointed it out.)
  

  Without Hossa's 71 points (40 goals) for Detroit last season, and with Martin Havlat's 77 points departed for the wilds of Minnesota, the Blackhawks are missing a big bopper that leads the orchestra.

  
  

  Jack Skille isn't that big bopper, but read on to see why I think this slow developer might be Hossa's early replacement and come riding to the rescue out of nowhere. Rockford is nowhere, isn't it?

  .
  .
  .
  

  That could open a chance for 2005 first-round draftee Skille to break into the NHL and see what he has to give after the 22-year-old scored 20 goals and 45 points in 58 games for Rockford last season. He comes at the right price for this squeezed salary cap and some think he can be an offensive force.

  
  

  Skille has rated uneven evaluations for his play in Rockford. He has been inconsistent, but with a strong training camp, he could turn around the way he is viewed and put all that behind him.

  
  

  The Hawks have to find out about Skille sooner or later after taking him as the seventh player chosen overall in the '05 draft. It might as well be sooner with Hossa's absence lighting the way for coach Joel Quenneville to tutor Skille in the first couple months while Hossa heals.

  The Madison-born Skille, who played for the University of Wisconsin, has appeared to some observers to be maturing slow step by slow step into a NHL-ready player. As long as he delivers a strong effort in camp, he should be in line for a promotion. But he has to rise to the moment.

• Guy Flaming implies that the blogger who started a rumor about an Oilers/Panthers trade might have been inhaling/drinking too much ether. (Ok, Guy didn't really imply anything about ether abuse; that's more an inference on my part.) The likely bogus rumor includes a number of players, including Tom Gilbert.

• The Edmonton Journal and the Ottawa Sun are both now indicating that (gasp) the Oilers haven't really given up hope or run out of patience regarding the Dany Heatley deal. Their trade offer is reportedly still on the table.

• The above Ottawa Sun article also has the following blurb about Brian Elliott:
  

  The indication on Monday was that the Senators and 24-year-old goalie Brian Elliott are close to an agreement on a multi-year deal. It could be announced any time soon.
  
  Elliott, who made $757,700 U.S. last season, will serve as a backup to Pascal Leclaire next season. Leclaire has two years left on his contract. He'll be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2010-11.
  
  By then, if not sooner, Elliott is expected to be ready to be the No. 1 goalie.
  
  If he's not, then the hope will rest on 6-3, 220-pound Swedish goalie Robin Lehner, who was selected in this year's entry draft.

• Jonathan @ the Copper and Blue has a post about the best goaltenders since the lockout. As part of his discussion of "youngish goaltenders who have had good results but don't have a long track record", he says the following about Els:
  

  Brian Elliott has had a very nice run the last few years; his college numbers and AHL numbers are very good and would seem to indicate that his performance this past season isn't an aberration. Ottawa brought in Pascal Leclaire as insurance but I would be very surprised if Elliott doesn't win out over the next few seasons (particularly given Leclaire's injury woes).

Thursday Evening Linkorama

I was going to do a linkorama yesterday, but I didn't have many links, and the 'rama was looking a bit anemic. So I held of until today. And lucky lucky me, I have all sorts of stuff to post today!

• Brian Elliott looks to have the backup goaltending position with the Senators all to himself, as the Sens traded backup goaltender Alex Auld to the Stars for a 6th-round pick in 2010.

• Sens owner Eugene Melnyk says Dany Heatley is welcome back with the Sens and they expect him to be at training camp. Melnyk's spin control is right up there with Brownlee's suggested spin control for Heatley.
  

• DPlaya always finds stuff I miss, and so naturally he found some articles about a couple of Badgers at NHL development camps. Here and here are two articles about Brendan Smith @ the Wings camp, and here's an article about Blake Geoffrion's status with the Preds. (I've added these stories to my previous NHL development camps post.)

• The Oilers website has a video interview with future Badger Troy Hesketh at the development camp today. The direct link to his video isn't up yet, but clicking here will link you to another video from today, and then you can select the Hesketh interview from the list on the right. Speaking of Hesketh, here's a quick blurb from Coming Down the Pipe regarding Tuesday's interview on the Pipeline show:

  We also had extended interviews with a pair of new Oiler prospects in Kyle Bigos and Troy Hesketh - two defencemen that originally caught Edmonton fans off guard at the draft but are starting to change minds as people get to know more about them.

  Nice to hear that Oilers fans might be starting to come around . . .

• The rumors are that future Badger Jordan Schmaltz and fellow Wisconsinite Alex Racino have made the USA Hockey U17 team that will compete for the Five Nations Cup in Germany in August. DPlaya promises to post the roster when it's officially announced, and I promise to try to follow suit.

• DPlaya tells us that future Badgers Jefferson Dahl and Cody Strang (as well as fellow Wisconsinite David Donnellan) have been included on Mahoning Valley's protected list, and future Badgers Matt Paape and Jordan Schmaltz have been included on Sioux City's futures list. WCH has links to the protected lists for 7 of the USHL teams.
  

• I'm trying to do a better job of following where WI girls hockey talent ends up collegiately, and I see (thanks BTD!) that SSM defenseman Madison Kolls (Hudson, WI) has recently verballed to UND for the 2010-11 season. A number of Wisconsin players will also be entering the DI college ranks this season: Madison Capitals goaltender Ilana Friedman (Middleton) @ Vermont, Monona Grove HS / Madison Capitols defenseman Emily Groth (Monona) @ Providence, and Cedarburg HS / Madison Capitols goaltender Emily Siira (Cedarburg) @ Sacred Heart. And of course, SSM foward Brianna Decker (Dousman) and Madison Capitols forward Lauren Unser (West Salem) will be joining the Badgers!

• This isn't really worth linking, but I'm easily amused, and I think it's funny that the Edmonton Journal ended an article with this line from Sam Gagner regarding why he and Cogliano declined Tom Gilbert's offer to live at his new house: "[Gilbert]'s getting old now. I think we want to let him spread his wings."

• Here's another thing that might not be worth linking, but again, I'm easily amused. Apparently there's a website called eHow where you can learn how to do all sorts of things. And someone named ProWriter1 actually wrote an entry telling guys how to get their girlfriends to like hockey. I could list all the reasons why ProWriter1 is an idiot, but luckily Aubrey has already done a pretty good job. Pretty funny. Btw, ProWriter1 also brings us a number of other gems, including "How to find Mr. Right on the Internet", "How to find an ugly woman", "How to plan a wedding in 48 hours", "How to get fat", "How to prepare roadkill appetizers", and "How to sponge a TV serving tray." Fantastic!

Which 2006 Championship Team NHLer had the best season?

Four members of the 2006 National Championship team have placed themselves firmly as mainstays in the NHL, and spent most, if not all, of the past season at the highest level. Several other Championship Season Badgers (Jack Skille, Jake Dowell and Davis Drewiske) spent chunks of last season in the big show as well. (hopefully I didn't forget someone???) So which mainstay had the best season? Each brings a different game/role to the ice each night, and in the end stats certainly don’t tell the whole story. This is a tough vote.

Joe Pavelski – The former All-American enjoyed his best season yet in a San Jose Sharks uniform. Pavs was the 4th leading scoring on the Sharks (third in goals) and helped the organization to their first President’s Trophy for best regular season record. Unfortunately, the playoffs didn’t go so well, as the Sharks were ousted in the first round. Pavs is also a key part of both sides of the special teams’ spectrum for the Sharks.
Stats: 80 games, 25-34-59, +5, 46 PIM, 8 PP goals, 3 SH goals, 19 min/game and 56.3% faceoff winning % on 1250 faceoffs

Brain Elliott – After starting the year in the AHL, the Ottawa Senators saw their future and called Elliott up to the NHL. Playing for a bad team, he managed to record some nice stats, and will hopefully be between the pipes in the NHL for many years to come. Not bad for a 9th round pick and former All-American who almost wasn't even a Badger.
Stats: 31 games, 16-8-3, 2.77 GAA, 0.902 save %, w/ 1 SO

Adam Burish – The former Team Captain (which is mentioned in about every game he plays in) continues to play a critical role for the Chicago Blackhawks. Burish has arguably become one of the best PKers in the NHL and does a great job as a 4th line energy guy/grinder/fighter/agitator. Of this group, his team has had the most success in the playoffs, and his name has been praised regularly for things that don’t show up on score sheets. Hard not to like Burish who is a fan favorite in the Windy City.
Stats: 66 games, 6-3-9, +3, 93 PIM (way down from last season)

Tom Gilbert – After setting a few Edmonton Oilers rookie defenseman records (formerly held by Paul Coffey) Gilbert signed a huge contract, and didn’t disappoint in his sophomore season in the NHL. He played in all 82 games for the Oil, was 4th on the team in points and 2nd in assists (t-9th overall in assists by Dmen in the NHL). As my favorite alumni I follow some Oilers blogs, and everything coming out of Alberta is generally nothing but praise for the former All-American.
Stats: 82 games, 5-40-45, +6, 26 PIM, 2 PP goals, 22 min/game.

A few Tuesday afternoon links

• Yesterday's Ottawa Citizen had a fantastic article about Brian Elliott and his journey to get to where his is today; it's a must-read. The Ottawa Citizen also evaluated Sens players at the all-star break, and here's what they had to say about Els:
  

  Brian Elliott, 3-1-1, 2.18, .924: It's tough to think that a ninth-round draft choice can spin some magic in the NHL, but maybe Elliott can. He has certainly played well so far, he played well in Binghamton and he was an outstanding college goalie at Wisconsin, winning the NCAA championship in 2006. So it doesn't look as if he's a fluke. If he demonstrates he can play well consistently, Ottawa might find the goalie it lost through the misadventures of Ray Emery.
  

• Last week the Ottawa Citizen had an article on Dany Heatley that I didn't stumble on until today. Here's what Heater said going into the all-star break:
  

  "I think I've felt a little better with the puck lately," he said. "That's the way it goes. Some people get on you when it's not going in the net, and you just got to understand sometimes it doesn't go in, sometimes you don't get a bounce here or there, and that's how it was going there for a little while. It's nice that it's going in again."

• The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a nice article about Don Granato and his return to Worcester for last night's AHL All-Star Game. Granato, of course, was head coach of the PlanetUSA All-Star team. Prior to his diagnosis with Hodgkins lymphoma, Granato was head coach of the Worcester Ice Cats.

• Todd Milewski has a whole bunch of alumni links, as well as alumni and recruit stats.

• Todd also has an article about how Brendan Smith has been handling being injured. Smith won't play this weekend, and he may or may not be back next weekend. The article also mentions the benefit of last week's bye for younger players, including Derek Stepan and Jordy Murray.

• The Badger Herald has an article that talks about some of the same things. In regards to the bye week, Mike Eaves responded as follows:
  

  “Today we came in, had a workout this morning to get rid of some of those cobwebs physically,” Eaves said in his weekly press conference Monday. “Hopefully we’ll be mentally fresh to come back on the ice and be productive. … History tells us that sometimes it takes a period [to shake the rust off.] You may look sluggish for a period. When we come out of that period tied, one up or one down, we’re going to know we’re in pretty good shape.”

  Well, I sure hope the boys are ready to go this weekend; I'm not sure that they can afford the luxury of shaking rust off during the game. Andy Bohmbach told the blog that the team's goal is to get to DC and win the title. Well, if that's their goal, and if they're going to drop 2 games to Northern and give away a game to CC (not to mention dropping all those games at the beginning of the season), they can't really afford to drop points to UMD because they're rusty. But you know, from what I recall, the Badgers didn't look all that rusty in the opening Showdown game after being off for several weeks, so they should be able to come back from 1 week off just fine.
  

Sunday evening news & notes

• Gandalf just mentioned today's WSJ article about All-American Candidate Jamie McBain, but I don't think that either of us yet mentioned the uwbadgers feature about him. So I thought I'd better do so now: Speaking softly and carrying a big stick.

• Lowetide looks at the performance of the Oilers' D, including Tom Gilbert:
  

  Gilbert P: 46gp, 4-8-12 (.250) A:46gp, 3-21-24 (.522)

  
  My theory with Gilbert is that he would be forced into a more defensive role and that the lack of PP time would hurt his numbers. He has in fact exceeded my full-season prediction at the AS break and is once again having a career year offensively. This year's 5x5/60 (1.23) is the best on the club (D) and his -5.0 Corsi comes against the toughs and with average help. Last season's numbers in those categories (0.98 and -5.2) got him a very nice contract and he is delivering on the promise this season. His GF/GA ON this season (35-32) is a slight improvement (65-67) over one season ago. Tom Gilbert has more than covered my bet and is delivering a quality season in a very tough role.

• Here's another nice Brian Elliott article.

• Baggot talks about how the upperclassmen have stepped up their games this year and about the Badgers' tough road ahead.

• Both Baggot and Milewski talk about the Badgers' recent bye week.

• Worgull has a piece (premium content) about the Badgers position in the standings and their upcoming schedule. Derek Stepan comments on the Badgers' recent loss to CC, and Cody Goloubef comments on the remaining schedule.
  

  “It’s bitter pill to swallow and live with for two weeks,” center Derek Stepan said. “I would like to get back into the swing of things. We played well on Friday but we kind of let things slip up a little bit on Saturday. We’re going to do a lot of practice, learn from our mistakes and we’ve got to get better.”
  
  “It’s big to get some rests,” defenseman Cody Goloubef said. “We know these games coming up are big. I think it helps, the timing is nice and we’re here to win.”

It looks like it's official . . . and other alumni news

• I should have posted this Thursday. Or Friday at the very least. But hey, better late than never, right? With Brian Elliott starting the last 5 games for the Sens, it appeared he just might be their number 1 goaltender. Looks like that's official now, with Martin Gerber being placed on waivers on Thursday. The Sens' website has a really nice feature on Elliott right now, too.
  

  "(Elliott) has made some real big saves at crucial times in games," said Hartsburg. "He's given us the saves and given us the chance in games to get something out of it. Before, there were goals going in at the wrong times. I think what Brian has done for us is when the game is on the line, he's been very good for us."
  
  Added defenceman Brendan Bell, "He is just that calm, steady guy in net and I think if we're going to turn this around, we're going to need that."

• Jake Dowell scored his second goal of the season last night in Rockford's 6-2 win over Iowa.
  

  In the third, Dowell pushed the score to 5-2 with a short-handed breakaway goal at 7:12 with a helper from Jimmy Sharrow. Both of Dowell's goals in 2008-09 have come on the penalty kill.

  Dowell also had an assist and finished +2.
  

  Bertram started the scoring as he picked up a feed from Dowell in front of the net and put it past David LeNeveu at 11:37 in the first period to give the IceHogs the advantage.

• Paul Capobianco has a number of alumni updates. He notes that Ryan Suter, Rene Bourque, and Brad Winchester are all having career seasons in terms of points production. He also notes the success that Dany Heatley and Brian Rafalski are having this year. Good stuff; thanks Paul!
  

• In his 2nd game back with Hartford, Matt Ford recorded another assist. (He also had an assist in his 1st game back). Hartford lost 3-2 to Lowell.
  

Alumni updates

• Do I really need to tell you how well Brian Elliott is doing? He picked up his 3rd win of the season last night in the Sens' 3-2 win over Washington. In his 5 games this season, he has a .924 SV% and 2.18 GAA.

• Jack Skille has been doing pretty well in Rockford lately -- last I mentioned, he had 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in his last 3 games -- but now you can make that 9 points in his last 5 games (not counting the 1/16 game in which he left the game early), as he added an assist in Rockford's 1-o win v. Toronto on 1/10 and a goal and an assist in Rockford's 4-2 loss v. San Antonio on 1/13.
  
  The Third Man In has a description of Skille's goal v. SA:
  

  Jack Skille got the IceHogs back into the game at 15:23 of the second period when he found a small space over San Antonio goalie Josh Tordjman’s left glove and shoulder. Treading up his trademark right wing, Skille snapped a wrist shot from the right face off dot to close the gap to 3-1.

  In those 5 games, he was +7 and had 25 SOG. And in one of the games (Rockford's 6-5 loss to Grand Rapids on 1/7), he had a season-high 12 SOG. Nice!
  
  Unfortunately, Jack didn't get a chance to score in what would've been the 6th game of his little streak (Fri 1/16 v. Chicago Wolves), as he left that game early with an injury. He has since missed the Hogs last 3 games.
  
  In 36 games with the Hogs this season, Skille has 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points. He has already tied his point total for last season, in which he was 16-18-34 in 59 GP. He's currently 3rd on the team in points, but he's played 8 fewer games than the top 2 scorers.
  
  

• Jake Dowell hasn't been scoring a whole lot of goals this season, but he recently got some love on The Third Man In:

  - Despite just one goal to show for his efforts this season (he went 33 games without one), alternate captain Jake Dowell remains one of the Hogs’ most-consistent and sound performers. Obviously there’s disappointment that he hasn’t been able to provide much offense, but if there’s an injury to Colin Fraser, Adam Burish or both, Dowell should be more than capable of filling those roles in a replacement stint.

  The Third Man In also mentioned the following in a discussion of what to do with the Hogs' lines when Tim Brent returns:
  

  - Dowell is fine wherever you put him but he’s been better at center.
  
  - Dowell can be moved to the fourth line but I don’t see that as a permanent thing. . . . Peters is rolling his lines a lot more now than he was at the beginning of the season but he likes to use Dowell and the fourth line doesn’t see much more than a third of the ice that the second line does.
  

  Sounds like Dowell plays consistently well regardless of on which line or in which position he's put. It'd be nice if he had some more goals to show for it, but it's nice to hear that he's playing well.
  
  In 42 games this season, Dowell has 1 goal and 10 assists for 11 points. Last season, he was 7-10-17 in 49 GP.
  
  By the way, you can find some nice Icehogs game pics here. I've only looked at the top 2 albums, but there are some nice pics of Jake in there. (Skille didn't play in those games, so no pics, but I'd imagine there are some nice pics of him in previous albums.)

• Tom Gilbert seems to be doing well lately. I previously mentioned that Gilbert closed out the 1st half (41 games) of the season 2-16-18, +2. In his first 5 games of the 2nd half, Gilbert was 1-5-6, +3, and it sounds like his play has been picking up recently.
  It had been a while since he had last scored, so I was happy to hear that he got his 3rd goal of the season this past Friday in Edmonton's 3-2 win @ Colorado. And his play last night (2 assists) earned him 3rd-Star in the Oilers' 4-3 win over Columbus.
  
  (I really need to make a better effort to watch some Oilers games.)

• Joe Pavelski, whose Waterloo Black Hawks number is being retired this weekend, scored his 100th NHL point last night. (Thanks to bucky15 for pointing that out.) In 171 GP, he's 46-54-100. This season he's 6th on the team in scoring, with 13-19-32 in 43 GP.


• Matt Ford is back in the AHL, having been recalled from the Charlotte Checkers to the Hartford Wolf Pack. In his 1st game back with Hartford, Ford had an assist and finished +1 in their 3-1 victory @ Portland on 1/19. Ford started out the season in Hartford and was there for about a month (12 GP, 1-0-1, E) before being assigned to Charlotte. Ford is the top goal scorer and 2nd-leading points scorer for Charlotte (21 GP, 16-15-31) and by far has the team's best +/- with +19 (no one else is above +5). By the way, Charlottes's top points scorer (Mike Bayrack, 34 GP, 10-28-38) has played in 13 more games than Ford.
  
  Ford will be playing in the ECHL All-Star game tonight at 6 PM CST. The game is being televised live on NHL Center Ice (Channel 785 on DirecTV, Channel 626 on Dish Network). If you don't have NHL Center Ice, you can catch the game on b2 for free.
  

Brian Elliott gets another win

In his 4th career NHL game, Brian Elliott stopped 29 of 31 shots in the Sens' 3-2 win over the Thrashers. Nice work, Brian!!