Select 17 Festival

Ppgoal · Post by **Ppgoal** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 4:34 pm

Wow was I surprised to see that the Minnesota team finished with a 1-3-2 record. I cannot remember a Minnesota team ever doing this bad. What happened? Was the team poorly picked or what? I am even more suprised considering USHR named the Minnesota team the favorites.

eq8r · Post by **eq8r** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:58 am

Poorly picked?? You must mean poorly invited to automatically play on the team. Definitely, extremely disappointing! What I've heard is that 9 of these guys were automatically "placed" on this team per USA hockey and the NDTP. As a previous "hot" topic on this websit beat to death.....the tryouts were a complete farce. I think what's happening is that kids are highly rated at too young of an age then they plateau and the high rating sticks with them. I've seen so many players who continue to develop as they move up in levels of play and are totally overlooked. These highly rated players are then expected to continue to produce and when that doesn't happen, the excuses start to fly. Has anyone ever thought that MAYBE these players have hit their plateau, were really awesome players in Bantams or early in their HS career, but the honeymoon's over? Don't get me wrong.....some of these highly ranked players are legit, however, some are totally over-rated at too young of an age.

sloppyice · Post by **sloppyice** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:34 am

I would say all the players at the 17s and 16s are good players. But the theme of your message is very well put. The national program does not have the ability (nor do they care to look) at late maturity or skill development of many of these other players who have not been identified early in their peewee or early bantam years.

Dimona1964 · Post by **Dimona1964** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:58 am

I don't think that the automatic placements from NDHP in the 16s this year were out of line at all, Mueller was the only one that I know of anyway. The 17s may have been a different story.

hockeyhair2 · Post by **hockeyhair2** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:32 am

I went to 4 out of the 6 games. I thought the team at times played well but were out matched, especially at defense. Minnesota lost 3 top defensemen before the tournament played and the other teams had highly skilled talented players. But still look at the scores. subtract the 5 that Michigan got on the first day (1 open net with 5 seconds left), Minnesota only gave up 12 goals in the other 5 games. Considering 2 other Minnesota defensemen got hurt during the tournament, leaving just 4 and in these types of tournaments the defensive coverage is at the mercy of good offensive teams, the defense or the goalies really did a good job. The problem that I saw is that we couldn't bury the puck although we had plenty of chances. The line of Stoa, Rau and Thang probably didn't produce that they should have, but they played hard and got alot of chances. Vandevelde look really talented, but maybe had power forwards as line mates when he could have used a finesse player to compliment him. I think we could have used some of the boys off of last years team, but Bariball played real hard after the first game. Defensively, Chorney and Ammerman were impressive and are probably the only two that will move on to the next team, but realistically we could have been sending 5 defense to the national team easily if Johnson, Lee and Finley could have played. Yes I know they wouldn't have selected 5 from the same team, I am just saying that is how solid of a defense we could have had.

bigtime · Post by **bigtime** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:36 pm

k

bigtime · Post by **bigtime** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:39 pm

Gergen was Minnesota's best forward and Chorney was their best defensemen. Lee not being their hurt bad. They were all missing their best line from the year before in Stewart, Fulton and Pilot. That also hurt.

Sioux Fan · Post by **Sioux Fan** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:06 pm

Central vs Minnesota Things that really stood out to me. Defenseman other than Chorney and Suter were not that assertive in the defensive corners seemed to not want to tie up often the defenders would get caught on the wrong side fo the offensive players. Maybe the big rink was stopping them from being assertive. I would try to fix that. One thing I noticed that even with the good size that Stoa has he had a lot of trouble making good decisions in the neutral zone. I also found myself wondering why he wasn't devastating on the forecheck. I didn't understand why he wouldn't drive the puck in wide with his reach and ability to protect the puck. I counted at least 5 odd man rushes that he negated by trying to beat one defender by cutting back to the middle. I would hope that the National Development Program should teach our forwards how to read line rushes and to be effective attacking the zone and breaking the defenders down to a 2 on 1, anytime you have a 3 on 2 you should not be making a selfish individual move to turn over the puck and possibly giving the opponent a 3 on 2 or 2 on 1 the other way. I would hope the USA program would teach a big strong forward how to protect the puck and go to the net when he didn't have it and create space for his linemates. I also feel that maybe it wasn't that important as these guys are elite and chosen. Sometimes I think this may come back to bite them in the butt if they don't focus in and work hard. Sometimes having talent gets in the way of playing hard. Skille was very good and Kessel made an electrifying rush or two. I also thought Chorney was very good. I liked the Suter boy and his cousini on the Central team too! I thought the Henry Sibley Warrior was very good on Friday. He had a goal and several other good Chances. Harrison from Shattuck played well too. I concur that Gergen may have been the best on the ice on Friday. Hockey Nut in So. MNEdited by: <A HREF=http://p074.ezboard.com/bmnhs.showUserP ... xfan>Sioux Fan</A> at: 7/20/04 10:59 am

bigtime · Post by **bigtime** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:33 pm

gERGEN NOT GERTEN

Trojan06 · Post by **Trojan06** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:02 pm

I thought it would have been interesting to see Kramer and Miller play together again. They tore it up at the 16 festival in Rochester for Team Dakota. Miller had 5pts Kramer with 6pts. They were a huge part of the good run their team put together. i guess i won't be seeing that repeated anytime soon. 1-3-2 is very dissapointing. Especially when we are supposed to be the favorites.

Sioux Fan · Post by **Sioux Fan** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:19 am

Where were those guys from and why didn't they make the 17 team? sorry about the spelling error. Mr Gergen deserves more respect. Hockey Nut in So. MN

shutout · Post by **shutout** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:51 pm

Several people are touching on injuries, which players were hurt and at what time of the tournament did these injuries occur ? Also, it sounds as if some of the players did not go to the tournament. Were there some no-shows or was it all injuries.

eq8r · Post by **eq8r** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:08 pm

Good question "shutout", and good point "Sioux Fan" regarding the elite/chosen ones and continued hard work. I think some of these guys that already have deals feel like they don't need to prove anything anymore. That's too bad there were so many guys out injured. Did they get injured during the festival? Were they injured prior to the so called "tryout"? It sounds like several of the 17's played pretty well, but it also sounds like several didn't give it their all. What I find frustrating (and I'm sure others feel the same way), is that several of these "elite/chosen" ones already have some type of deals going on, whether it be a spot on a USHL team or a college team. Why don't other hard working/talented kids get a shot at being showcased instead of the same kids who have nothing left to prove?.....(plus they should have work hard in every game just like the "non-chosen" ones).

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