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.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Snippets - Greentree, Hendry, Hohl, & Kunyk in the Spotlight
Some small snippets from my Twitter feed that I haven't had the time to pull into a formal post, so I decided to get them here to get some more exposure.
Former Nanook Kyle Greentree has inked a two-way two year deal with the Washington Capitals/Hershey Bears after leading the Chicago Blackhawks AHL affiliate Rockford Ice Hogs in goal scoring with 25 goals in 64 games has made is way over to Washington, whose system may be a better fit for Greentree to get some ice time in the big time.
Jordan Hendry is also a free agent (not sure about restrictions, trying to dig), however no signings have been reported. If I had to guess, I would think that some of the teams struggling defensively towards the end of this past season, only one I can think of right now that would be a good fit is the St. Louis Blues, would pick him up as a good second-liner candidate. Chicago just has a lot of depth defensively, but with Sopel gone now, the 'Hawks have good reason to keep him, but nobody has said anything yet. I do think he is an under-rated player that doesn't get a lot of attention that he should, but that's how it goes sometimes. Granted though, I'm slightly biased. Word on the street is he's going to be back in Fairbanks here fairly soon. I'm going to try to figure out how to socially engineer my way into an interview.
Nanook Senior-to-be Ryan Hohl has made his way to the Detroit Red Wings free agent prospect camp at Joe Louis Arena, getting his name heard with quotes such as "Ryan Hohl's fast and has absolutely beautiful hands. He's roofing the puck past Mrazek and Mountain easily and efficiently." (MLive.com). Sounds like he's definitely making a name for himself. However, if he impresses too much, I wonder about the probability of his return for next season. He has definitely improved from his first two years in Fairbanks. Although his production has dropped, earning 5 points off of 5 assists this season in 32 games played, his play has become much more effective. This past year was the fewest amount of penalty minutes he has taken in his career with the 'Nooks, and it shows in his positioning. Granted, this past season, ice time certainly came at a premium, but Ryan definitely made it count with his positioning and checking abilities. And although he is somewhat infamous for taking some penalties, hes one of the best at drawing penalties from the other team... Anyhow, he has a great shot, I'm sure that's one of the main reasons he was the first shooter in nearly all of the shootouts this season. I'm glad he's out there at the camp, if for nothing else to see what he can do and play with other prospects and draft picks for arguably the best team in the NHL in the Detroit Red Wings.
While trying to dig for some video footage I found a while ago (which, has seemed to vanish) for Cody Kunyk, I did stumble on this old audio recording of an interview with The Pipeline Show that I should have found a long time ago. If you don't know about it already, TPS (Blog) and their guys put out a bunch of information en masse of up and coming players all over North America. These guys put up a lot of stuff with a daily radio show that I try to follow, but can't generally keep up with all the time. That said, these guys did an interview with Cody Kunyk (MP3) this past December talking about his potential, progression, and coming to Alaska. In the interview, he talked about the recruiting process, and by what he said it (again) speaks to our coaching staff finding these gems of players early before they really take off, and from Cody's words they didn't back down either. Kunyk had said he had some bites from Northeastern that didn't seem to pan out, but this being from last December, I wonder how many NCAA teams hit themselves in the head once they found out Canada's Junior A Player of the Year is already wearing a Nanook sweater.
Kunyk is one of quite a few recruits who are going to be showing their faces on the Nanook roster this coming season. I've been saying for ages now that I am going to get write-ups of these other guys posted for over a month now, and I've failed to deliver! Fortunately, there are another 3 months to procrastinate before next season starts...
Former Nanook Kyle Greentree has inked a two-way two year deal with the Washington Capitals/Hershey Bears after leading the Chicago Blackhawks AHL affiliate Rockford Ice Hogs in goal scoring with 25 goals in 64 games has made is way over to Washington, whose system may be a better fit for Greentree to get some ice time in the big time.
Jordan Hendry is also a free agent (not sure about restrictions, trying to dig), however no signings have been reported. If I had to guess, I would think that some of the teams struggling defensively towards the end of this past season, only one I can think of right now that would be a good fit is the St. Louis Blues, would pick him up as a good second-liner candidate. Chicago just has a lot of depth defensively, but with Sopel gone now, the 'Hawks have good reason to keep him, but nobody has said anything yet. I do think he is an under-rated player that doesn't get a lot of attention that he should, but that's how it goes sometimes. Granted though, I'm slightly biased. Word on the street is he's going to be back in Fairbanks here fairly soon. I'm going to try to figure out how to socially engineer my way into an interview.
Nanook Senior-to-be Ryan Hohl has made his way to the Detroit Red Wings free agent prospect camp at Joe Louis Arena, getting his name heard with quotes such as "Ryan Hohl's fast and has absolutely beautiful hands. He's roofing the puck past Mrazek and Mountain easily and efficiently." (MLive.com). Sounds like he's definitely making a name for himself. However, if he impresses too much, I wonder about the probability of his return for next season. He has definitely improved from his first two years in Fairbanks. Although his production has dropped, earning 5 points off of 5 assists this season in 32 games played, his play has become much more effective. This past year was the fewest amount of penalty minutes he has taken in his career with the 'Nooks, and it shows in his positioning. Granted, this past season, ice time certainly came at a premium, but Ryan definitely made it count with his positioning and checking abilities. And although he is somewhat infamous for taking some penalties, hes one of the best at drawing penalties from the other team... Anyhow, he has a great shot, I'm sure that's one of the main reasons he was the first shooter in nearly all of the shootouts this season. I'm glad he's out there at the camp, if for nothing else to see what he can do and play with other prospects and draft picks for arguably the best team in the NHL in the Detroit Red Wings.
While trying to dig for some video footage I found a while ago (which, has seemed to vanish) for Cody Kunyk, I did stumble on this old audio recording of an interview with The Pipeline Show that I should have found a long time ago. If you don't know about it already, TPS (Blog) and their guys put out a bunch of information en masse of up and coming players all over North America. These guys put up a lot of stuff with a daily radio show that I try to follow, but can't generally keep up with all the time. That said, these guys did an interview with Cody Kunyk (MP3) this past December talking about his potential, progression, and coming to Alaska. In the interview, he talked about the recruiting process, and by what he said it (again) speaks to our coaching staff finding these gems of players early before they really take off, and from Cody's words they didn't back down either. Kunyk had said he had some bites from Northeastern that didn't seem to pan out, but this being from last December, I wonder how many NCAA teams hit themselves in the head once they found out Canada's Junior A Player of the Year is already wearing a Nanook sweater.
Kunyk is one of quite a few recruits who are going to be showing their faces on the Nanook roster this coming season. I've been saying for ages now that I am going to get write-ups of these other guys posted for over a month now, and I've failed to deliver! Fortunately, there are another 3 months to procrastinate before next season starts...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
2010-11 Schedule Announced
I know posting has been thin lately, but life gets busy when the sun shines. Anyway, the schedule is hot off the press for the 2010-11 season, and its looking pretty good.
Our scheduling cluster mates are Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Ferris State. Home games include in order Bowling Green, Michigan, Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ohio State, Ferris State, and Michigan State.
The schedule proves to be an interesting November. The bout in January after the break isn't as seemingly difficcult as it was last season, but playing at Yost Ice Arena in Michigan is never easy.
Our scheduling cluster mates are Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Ferris State. Home games include in order Bowling Green, Michigan, Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ohio State, Ferris State, and Michigan State.
The schedule proves to be an interesting November. The bout in January after the break isn't as seemingly difficcult as it was last season, but playing at Yost Ice Arena in Michigan is never easy.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Aaron Voros Pisses Off Lindsay Lohan
This article is a bit……..different than one might expect to see from me. I'm not one for celebrity gossip or anything, but this was too funny to pass up.
Saturday night in a New York City club, Voros, his girlfriend Jessica Stam, and fellow Ranger buddy Sean Avery, apparently had a pretty prime seat in the club next to the DJ. That seat just happened to be the one Lindsay Lohan wanted and subsequently threw a fit to the club's security goon squad, trying to get them to forcibly move Aaron and his party. Naturally, security refused to do so and pissed off Lindsay to the point of mental breakdown. Okay she was already there. But regardless, she makes a wild story, claiming Voros is her former boyfriend who she wanted nothing to do with. Of course, Voros denied knowing her (who wouldn't?), and then Lindsay threw her drink at Voros' girlfriend Stam, and eventually left the club.
Surprisingly enough, Voros didn't actually retaliate. Though, I suppose if this was on the ice, it might have ended a little differently. Just ask the Canadien's Ryan O'Byrne...
NY Post Article.
Saturday night in a New York City club, Voros, his girlfriend Jessica Stam, and fellow Ranger buddy Sean Avery, apparently had a pretty prime seat in the club next to the DJ. That seat just happened to be the one Lindsay Lohan wanted and subsequently threw a fit to the club's security goon squad, trying to get them to forcibly move Aaron and his party. Naturally, security refused to do so and pissed off Lindsay to the point of mental breakdown. Okay she was already there. But regardless, she makes a wild story, claiming Voros is her former boyfriend who she wanted nothing to do with. Of course, Voros denied knowing her (who wouldn't?), and then Lindsay threw her drink at Voros' girlfriend Stam, and eventually left the club.
Surprisingly enough, Voros didn't actually retaliate. Though, I suppose if this was on the ice, it might have ended a little differently. Just ask the Canadien's Ryan O'Byrne...
NY Post Article.
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