Getting Underway

The camaraderie was thick last night at the Princess Lodge. The players were all dressed for success and you can tell they are all excited to hit the season rolling. Coach said it best, "In a thousand mile journey, it all starts from step one". That step one starts this afternoon with the Blue/Gold game.

Last night, I had the pleasure of Carlo Finucci's company  at our table, who has really been working his tail off training and conditioning. I'm really happy for him, he's get some great puck handling skills, and that conditioning will definitely help with his speed. Judging by the video that was played, displaying their pre-season activities (I'll see if I can get my hands on it for those who didn't attend), the guys have really been training hard all the way around. As coach said, guys are really competing for time on the ice top to bottom and lines are still somewhat in limbo. This afternoon at the Blue/Gold game will be the first chance to see which players fit in to which lines, and see which players have some good chemistry with each other.

The competitions will be very interesting as well. After seeing practice this week, the fastest skater is going to be a very exciting competition to watch. Of course, they are just fun little competitions, no real impact other than bragging rights. Will Ronnie Meyers keep his fastest skater title? We'll find out this afternoon.

The biggest announcement from last night was the captain's announcement. All 3 of this year's captains are seniors. Forward Derek Klassen and defenseman Bryant Molle are both alternates (yes, I'm a purist, I don't like to call them assistants), and forward Kevin Petovello, who served as an alternate last year will don the C for the 2010-11 season.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm excited to get things going. This evening, at 5:00PM will be the puck drop at the Blue/Gold game. Doors open at 4:00, and since the Patty is less than half the size of the Carlson Center, I highly suggest showing up earlier rather than later. If you can't make it, be sure to follow me on Twitter for updates.

The Final Countdown

The title is much more than a famed song by somewhat of a one-hit wonder band, but the clock can't tick fast enough tomorrow to hit 6PM for the Nanook Hockey kick off banquet tomorrow night at the Princess Lodge. If you've never been, the banquet is a pretty relaxed environment. The freshman get to introduce themselves and talk a bit about where they come from, how they got here, and so on. Historically, the captain and the alternate(s) have been announced as well. Not to mention the elegantly prepared menu for dinner. The menu this time around is Yankee Pot Roast and Chicken ala Pierre, with potatoes, vegetables, salad, rolls and dessert.

Of course, Saturday is when the fun really begins. The guys suit up and take the ice for the first time this season for the intra-squad scrimmage known only as the Blue/Gold game, which always takes place during UAF's Starvation Gulch, a yearly student tradition. The Blue/Gold game is a lot of fun to watch. Although not a true game in the sense, but it gives a good first look at the players, and a good chance for the new guys to see the (reduced) crowd for the first time.

Granted, there really isn't a whole lot of pre-game analysis I can do here, but its definitely an event you don't want to miss. Puck drops at 5PM, doors open at 4PM on Saturday at the Patty Ice Arena.

Some pre-game reading.

• Joe Sova's picture has found its way to INCH's A-Z lineup, a pre-season series they run spotlighting players around college hockey. Check out the article to see what they had to say.
• AlaskaNanooks.com produced a cool write up of incoming transfer Adam Henderson, who made his way here from Michigan State. Henderson said of his departure “Michigan State was a bit of a culture shock for me, but coming to Fairbanks is closer to what I’m familiar with.  I am much closer to my family and it now gives them the opportunity to come watch me play,” Good that he's a family man! Anyone remember when Curtis Fraser's dad came to town, and he went off and scored 3 goals in the first 5 minutes? I do. Check out the whole post.
• You can also check out a photo compilation on Facebook of the Nanooks first practice this past Monday. Great shots!

That's all for now, folks.  Be sure to follow along with my Twitter feed on Saturday for live commentary. See you at the Patty!

10 Days

The sun is actually going down at night, cars are nice and frosty in the morning, meaning hockey season is upon us. 10 days from now, the 'Nooks will take the ice for the first time of the 2010-11 season to face...themselves... The annual Blue/Gold game is always a treat for the community. Gives every one a first look at the new players. And it gives the new players a first look at the crowd. The rules are a little relaxed, its not a full game, and there are some friendly fun intra-squad competitions, like fastest skater, hardest shot, and lastly the shootout challenge. This shootout isn't all about scoring either, it's style points that count.

The Blue/Gold game is slated for Saturday, the 25th at 5PM at the Patty Ice Arena on campus. The exhibition game against University of Windsor of Ontario will be on the following Thursday (9/30) at 7:05, also at the Patty Ice Arena.

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For those that haven't seen the news (or those who don't read my Twitter feed), the folks at College Hockey News beat all the major players to the party with the arrival of their Preseason Top 10. Writer Joseph Edwards pens the Alaska program at number eight in his write up, saying

"The Nanooks — an NCAA Tournament team for the first time last season — lost five players from their roster coming into the 2010-11 season, headlined by leading scorer Dion Knelsen, but they can take plenty of solace in returning nine of their top 11 scorers from last season, including Andy Taranto who put up 18 goals and 42 points as a freshman. Also in the mix are blueliners Joe Sova and Aaron Gens, who surpassed the 20-point on the season as sophomores. Scott Greenham, who went 18-12-9 last season, returns to backstop the Nanooks and improve upon a top-10 team defense (2.83 goals/g) from last season. A second trip to the NCAA postseason isn’t a given, but it’s certainly not [out of] reach, especially with so much uncertainty in the CCHA with teams like Michigan State, Notre Dame and Ohio State, all of which lost a lot and have huge question marks."

Keep in mind, three scoring stand-outs in their respective junior leagues, including Canada's Junior A Player of the Year coming into the Alaska program will look to boost last years 40th ranked offense (2.77 goals/game average). I'm quite confident that Dallas and his staff are getting this new guys into the system and will work them throughout the lineup.

The other major news outlets have yet to release their preseason thoughts, but I'll visit them more a bit later.

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Also of note is Penn State's move to add a Division I varsity hockey team. Many of my informed readers who have emailed me about this seem quite familiar with the club. They've had a club team for several years with a loyal following of fans. Their current arena looks to be about the size of Taffy Abel arena, where 3,372 Lake Superior State fans call home. But, it's not the fan count that really matters. If that were the case, UAH (whose arena more than doubles the capacity of Lake Superior) wouldn't have been nixed from the CCHA. Tom Anastos, the man at the helm of the CCHA, said in a press release back from August 11, 2009

“The league completed its due diligence of the application for membership submitted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville with careful consideration and discussion of various issues,”

CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos said in a news release. “At this time we have chosen to maintain our membership at its current level." (source)

Fast forward 364 days, when Anastos went on record with the Detroit News, saying

"They are a very attractive choice -- very attractive," CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos told The Detroit News on Tuesday. "They're in a different market than we're in, more and more U.S. players are on college rosters, and there's tremendous growth of the sport in Pennsylvania." (source)

This can only mean one thing... The CCHA hates the south...

...joking, of course. But really, why would Anastos force an established program to become the only independent team, especially when UNO defects to the Weak Club Hockey Association, leaving an odd number of teams? Seriously, shutting out a conference-less team, which would bring the CCHA back to an even 12-team conference, the CCHA said "No way", and went on to hire a third party scheduling consultant (for who knows how much money) to work out a formula to make the 11-team rotation work. Then, the following year, they bring in an upstart team in Penn State. I don't get it...

Speaking of that schedule rotation, which takes 5 years to cycle evenly, will be in place for a total of a year before (potentially) bringing the conference back to 12, while still leaving UAH out to dry. One has to think, is the CCHA seeing the big picture here?

Penn State adding a D-I program of course makes 6 Big Ten (of which, I'll point out, currently has 11 member schools, and will be growing to 13 next year...) member schools, which has everyone on their heels as to whether Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and then Penn State will bail out of their respective conferences in favor of a new Big Ten conference... Thus putting the CCHA at 8 teams, and UAH still homeless.

I can sit here and deliberate how Penn State can change the landscape of the college hockey world, but we'll save that crap for next offseason, when it actually matters. For now, congratulations to those who are supporting Penn State hockey. I'm sure this is an exciting time for you, and even though the D-I hockey landscape is small, growth is always a good thing. Once again, good luck to the UAH folks, I'm pulling for ya.

Can we just drop the puck already?

Anxious For Hockey Season?

I hope so. I am. Watching football preseason only reminds me that hockey season is right around the corner. Looks like the roster for this season is pretty close to finalized. The Nanooks website now has the rookies listed, and the numbers for everybody. Cody Kunyk will wear 37, Erik Slemp will wear 10, Michael Quinn will wear 6, and Colton Beck will wear 36. Our sophomore transfer student, Adam Henderson will put on number 14.

I know I've raved about Cody Kunyk before, and fairly soon I will have pieces written for the others. I've only been promising them all summer, but between now, and the Blue/Gold game (which is is now 30 days away, by the way) I'll have write-ups.

I'm really psyched for this season to start. I know a lot of the team has really been putting the hours in to keep getting better. I know Joe Sova has stayed in town, and from the sound of things, he's putting in a lot of time getting ready for this season. Although I haven't heard for certain, but I'm sure all of the guys are putting in the reps to excel this season.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Nanook hockey (I can tell by how people are finding their way to this blog), last year was the program's first stint in the NCAA national tournament. After an unfortunate loss to Northern Michigan in the second round of the CCHA playoffs, The 'Nooks got a second chance to make a run for the national title. Alaska was pitted against 4th ranked Boston College. The team fared very well, giving the eventual national champion Boston College Eagles their biggest challenge in the tournament. Although Boston College prevailed with a 3-1 victory on the scoreboard, the Nanooks kept it to a 1-1 hockey game before a shorthanded breakaway and empty net goals ended their national tournament hopes. After that game, Boston College went on to win the next three games, including the national championship game, outscoring top ranked opponents by a score of 21-8 in that time.

Once again, this season I'll be tweeting during every game from my Twitter account. The feed is embedded on the right hand side of this page, and you can also follow my tweets @nanookhockey. I'll be travelling to Anchorage in October, for the Kendall Hockey Classic. I'm also going to try to make it to another game this season outside of Alaska, but I haven't decided on where or when yet.

If you're still not pumped yet, check out this video.