Any Meltdown scores from last night?

[Wisconsin Coach]

99 Capitols beat 1A teams Beloit, McFarland, Green Bay, Appleton, they were not handled by 2A State Champion Fox Valley unless you think 0-3 and 2-5 scores as "handled". My point was that puckhogI stated ""The quality of the lower levels is good indication of how far it has fallen. Most of the younger levels of Tier I in WI could not beat the similar age group Top WAHA Youth Hockey teams." This statement is not accurate! 99 Capitols and GB Gambler 98 results do provide evidence to my point.

As for your opinion, you are entitled to it, I personally like the Team Wisconsin B&A format, but I think the winter season AAA teams fill a need for some players.

Your statement " The problem there being that if your not already "entrenched" with the team from a young age it is almost impossible for them to make a spot on the team even if they are better than the kids that are entrenched" is not accurate, if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not.

[ThePuckStopsHere]

Note to CHEESE HEAD CENTRAL - Get your own forum!

[Wisconsin Coach]

Good job puckhogI, just testing you on how much you know about Tier 1
"You are incorrect on the Northern WI Blizzards and the Phoenix, they are Tier II, not Tier I."

Why is it that you don't see the Blue Devils, Flyers, Bucks, Blaze, & others in open tourneys such as the Meltdown? I think you know why.......They are more in line with a 1A-2A team at best and know they can't compete in even an open level bigger tourney in the cities...... Once again what age level?
you are connected to the Jr Badgers, throw out a challenge to the Blizzard 94's, or the Blue Devils 95's, Wisconsin Flames 96's, Capitols 97's, Flyers 98's or 99's

I suggest you get your facts straight and get on the golf course rather than blogging all day long...... I am on the golf course!!! my facts are straight, your visions of grandeur are being challenged, come up with some facts to back your hyperbole!

[ThePuckStopsHere]

Good job puckhogI, just testing you on how much you know about Tier 1
"You are incorrect on the Northern WI Blizzards and the Phoenix, they are Tier II, not Tier I."

Why is it that you don't see the Blue Devils, Flyers, Bucks, Blaze, & others in open tourneys such as the Meltdown? I think you know why.......They are more in line with a 1A-2A team at best and know they can't compete in even an open level bigger tourney in the cities...... Once again what age level?
you are connected to the Jr Badgers, throw out a challenge to the Blizzard 94's, or the Blue Devils 95's, Wisconsin Flames 96's, Capitols 97's, Flyers 98's or 99's

I suggest you get your facts straight and get on the golf course rather than blogging all day long...... I am on the golf course!!! my facts are straight, your visions of grandeur are being challenged, come up with some facts to back your hyperbole!

Wisconsin hockey talk boring - Minnesota hockey talk worth screwing off at work for!

Watch out for wild cattle on the golf course.

[Wisconsin Coach]

Hey "ThePuckStopsHere" everyone knows that the Jr Badgers have a few of the best Minnesota players on their roster (well at least some times), so in a way this is about Mpls hockey players. Does that count?

[Wisconsin Coach]

Watch out for wild cattle on the golf course.

Got Milk

[JSR]

99 Capitols beat 1A teams Beloit, McFarland, Green Bay, Appleton, they were not handled by 2A State Champion Fox Valley unless you think 0-3 and 2-5 scores as "handled". My point was that puckhogI stated ""The quality of the lower levels is good indication of how far it has fallen. Most of the younger levels of Tier I in WI could not beat the similar age group Top WAHA Youth Hockey teams." This statement is not accurate! 99 Capitols and GB Gambler 98 results do provide evidence to my point.

As for your opinion, you are entitled to it, I personally like the Team Wisconsin B&A format, but I think the winter season AAA teams fill a need for some players.

Your statement " The problem there being that if your not already "entrenched" with the team from a young age it is almost impossible for them to make a spot on the team even if they are better than the kids that are entrenched" is not accurate, if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not.

The 0-3 and 2-5 scores were only two of the four times they played Fox Valley, you left out the other two times which were 2-7 and 2-8. If it were only the two scores you posted I would agree, but since it is four scores yes I would call it "handled". I also said the 99's were a "really good little team", it seems like you focused on the negative rather than the positive in my post, there was BOTH in there.

You are correct the year round AAA does serve some purpose for SOME players, I am hoping things are becoming more prevalent though so that number becomes fewer and fewer in the state of Wisconsin. It's no offense to those year round clubs I just think it is a sign of things being healthy in the sport in our state if that continues in that direction.

As for this statement:
"if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not"
I cannot speak for all the AAA clubs and I probably made too general a statement. But I have seen the Caps rosters from season to season and the only turnover I see on their rosters comes from kids not returning. I can honestly say I've never seen where I kid played for them one season and did not make the team (if they returned) the following season. I'd say with their organization once you are in your in. By the way, that is not necessarily a bad or evil thing in and of itself, it is what it is, but from what I've seen it is that way in that club and many others, I don;t think this is a big secret, I mean politics are unfortunately everywhere in youth sports.

[ThePuckStopsHere]

Hey "ThePuckStopsHere" everyone knows that the Jr Badgers have a few of the best Minnesota players on their roster (well at least some times), so in a way this is about Mpls hockey players. Does that count?

No enough with the Jr.Badgers, any team with the name Badgers should not be mentioned on this forum. And any Minnesota parent showcasing their kid around to play in an open tournament for kicks should be deported to Milwaukee.

Oh, FYI those are not some of the best players in Minnesota

[ThePuckStopsHere]

99 Capitols beat 1A teams Beloit, McFarland, Green Bay, Appleton, they were not handled by 2A State Champion Fox Valley unless you think 0-3 and 2-5 scores as "handled". My point was that puckhogI stated ""The quality of the lower levels is good indication of how far it has fallen. Most of the younger levels of Tier I in WI could not beat the similar age group Top WAHA Youth Hockey teams." This statement is not accurate! 99 Capitols and GB Gambler 98 results do provide evidence to my point.

As for your opinion, you are entitled to it, I personally like the Team Wisconsin B&A format, but I think the winter season AAA teams fill a need for some players.

Your statement " The problem there being that if your not already "entrenched" with the team from a young age it is almost impossible for them to make a spot on the team even if they are better than the kids that are entrenched" is not accurate, if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not.

The 0-3 and 2-5 scores were only two of the four times they played Fox Valley, you left out the other two times which were 2-7 and 2-8. If it were only the two scores you posted I would agree, but since it is four scores yes I would call it "handled". I also said the 99's were a "really good little team", it seems like you focused on the negative rather than the positive in my post, there was BOTH in there.

You are correct the year round AAA does serve some purpose for SOME players, I am hoping things are becoming more prevalent though so that number becomes fewer and fewer in the state of Wisconsin. It's no offense to those year round clubs I just think it is a sign of things being healthy in the sport in our state if that continues in that direction.

As for this statement:
"if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not"
I cannot speak for all the AAA clubs and I probably made too general a statement. But I have seen the Caps rosters from season to season and the only turnover I see on their rosters comes from kids not returning. I can honestly say I've never seen where I kid played for them one season and did not make the team (if they returned) the following season. I'd say with their organization once you are in your in. By the way, that is not necessarily a bad or evil thing in and of itself, it is what it is, but from what I've seen it is that way in that club and many others, I don;t think this is a big secret, I mean politics are unfortunately everywhere in youth sports.

"JSR" Lighten up, grab your self a block of cheese, a case of blatz and enjoy your Friday night! Its only Hockey!

[puckhogI]

PS2 Tiger woods is not the golf course......:-)

[BluntInstrument]

Hey "ThePuckStopsHere" everyone knows that the Jr Badgers have a few of the best Minnesota players on their roster (well at least some times), so in a way this is about Mpls hockey players. Does that count?

No enough with the Jr.Badgers, any team with the name Badgers should not be mentioned on this forum. And any Minnesota parent showcasing their kid around to play in an open tournament for kicks should be deported to Milwaukee.

Oh, FYI those are not some of the best players in Minnesota

I believe they are

[JSR]

99 Capitols beat 1A teams Beloit, McFarland, Green Bay, Appleton, they were not handled by 2A State Champion Fox Valley unless you think 0-3 and 2-5 scores as "handled". My point was that puckhogI stated ""The quality of the lower levels is good indication of how far it has fallen. Most of the younger levels of Tier I in WI could not beat the similar age group Top WAHA Youth Hockey teams." This statement is not accurate! 99 Capitols and GB Gambler 98 results do provide evidence to my point.

As for your opinion, you are entitled to it, I personally like the Team Wisconsin B&A format, but I think the winter season AAA teams fill a need for some players.

Your statement " The problem there being that if your not already "entrenched" with the team from a young age it is almost impossible for them to make a spot on the team even if they are better than the kids that are entrenched" is not accurate, if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not.

The 0-3 and 2-5 scores were only two of the four times they played Fox Valley, you left out the other two times which were 2-7 and 2-8. If it were only the two scores you posted I would agree, but since it is four scores yes I would call it "handled". I also said the 99's were a "really good little team", it seems like you focused on the negative rather than the positive in my post, there was BOTH in there.

You are correct the year round AAA does serve some purpose for SOME players, I am hoping things are becoming more prevalent though so that number becomes fewer and fewer in the state of Wisconsin. It's no offense to those year round clubs I just think it is a sign of things being healthy in the sport in our state if that continues in that direction.

As for this statement:
"if it was the rosters would be almost identical from season to season and they are not"
I cannot speak for all the AAA clubs and I probably made too general a statement. But I have seen the Caps rosters from season to season and the only turnover I see on their rosters comes from kids not returning. I can honestly say I've never seen where I kid played for them one season and did not make the team (if they returned) the following season. I'd say with their organization once you are in your in. By the way, that is not necessarily a bad or evil thing in and of itself, it is what it is, but from what I've seen it is that way in that club and many others, I don;t think this is a big secret, I mean politics are unfortunately everywhere in youth sports.

"JSR" Lighten up, grab your self a block of cheese, a case of blatz and enjoy your Friday night! Its only Hockey!

Huh??? I think I have been light the whole time, and besides I can't drink anymore, my insides can't take it . We were just having a nice discussion. I am aware it's only hockey. I'm about as laid back a it gets when it comes to this sport. I'm especiallly secure about that after having seen some of the nut job parents I saw at that meltdown tourney, my goodness people, get a grip their little kids

[Sk8 Str8]

Cabin vs Cottage?

Hamm's vs. Old Milwaukee?

I too have had enough Cheese talk on this bored...but am a bit confused about the Jr Badgers--is there two Jr Badgers programs? One in Western Wisconsin and one in Madison/Milwaukee area (or is the Eastern Wisconsin a winter team)?

[DonnyHockey]

Champions I'm aware of:
'98 - Thunder Bay
'00 - CCM

I saw this and the score above that showed 98 ccm 6 and 98 jr. Badgers 6. In both cases, this can be a bit confusing because there are 3 ccm teams at these ages (actually, I am not sure if there is a 98 ccm capitals so there may only be 2 ccm teams at that age). So to clarify, I suggest putting the info down like this...

98 Jr. Gophers - 6
98 CCM Monopoly Open - 6

And in the 2000 championship

00 Thunder Bay Northern Hawks - 2
00 CCM Monopoly Invite - 4

Or just call them the Monopoly. The other CCM probram probably should be called CCM Capitals to avoid confusion with the Madison Capitals though.

Some other results I know...

99 Champs - Jr. Badgers over the 99 Manitoba Colts (don't know the score)
00 madison stars played the 00 manitoba thunderbolts for 3rd place - stopped watching this @ 1 to 1 so I don't know the final.
98 third place - Fort Francais over Monopoly Invite 4 to 1.

The 00 Madison Stars won the 2000 level third place game 5-1. My son played for this Madison Stars team. They lost to the Monopoly in the semi-final game but honestly it didn't look like the same team that played in all those other games, the kids were exhausted by Sunday, I thought CCM was a better team but I thought our kids could have given them a much better game had they played like they did in the first three games and even in the third place game later that day. Alot of games, staying up way past their bedtime in a hotel, etc.. etc.. it's alot for an 8 year old. I was proud of them none the less. All of our kids play for local Madison area suburb Youth Hockey club teams. We have kids on our team that were, in my personal opinon, invite caliber players (#11, #8, #7, #10, and one of the goalies). Interestingly because of several of the posts on this thread on this board I can tell you that most of our parents did not know the difference between what the Invite and the Open tournament was. Apparently the "open-vs-invite" politics of your area is lost on us to some degree. Interestingly I saw the roster for the Madison Capitols 2000 team that will participate in next weeks Meltdown Invite tourney and I know all the kids on that team and well, in trying to not sound terrible, our Stars team would beat that Capitols team, if we played them 10 times, our Stars would probably win 7 or 8 times out of ten. The Stars are lead by some fore thinking folks who want to see Wisconsin hockey model itself similarly to Minnesota hockey in that, they want kids to play for their local clubs in the regular season and those clubs are pseudo feeder programs for the High Schools, and try and make AAA hockey a before and after deal like Minnesota does. The Madison Capitols are year round AAA and there are many who believe this is not healthy for kids at such a young age (I agree). So several invite caliber are choosing the Stars over the Caps in our area of late (the caps are not happy about this and there is some anymosity between teh programs right now). Does that mean we should have played in the Invite tourney, no, we jsut have different "politics" of our own down here so to speak.

JSR - nothing personal but when your team gets hammered in the semi's and you blame it on lack of sleep that's a bit much. If the team was so tired how could they muster enough energy in the 2nd game in the 3rd place game to win? Bottom line is your son's team got beat pretty bad by a much better team. Looking at the scores this '00 Monopoly team hammered the teams they were supposed to including your son's Stars team and beat two very solid teams from Canada. That Manitoba team had one loss and it was to Monopoly, other then that they destroyed everybody else. I spoke with the one of the Jr. Gophers coaches and he said by far the Monopoly team was the best and they even toyed with his team and eased up on them as it got out of hand.

[ThePuckStopsHere]

Hey "ThePuckStopsHere" everyone knows that the Jr Badgers have a few of the best Minnesota players on their roster (well at least some times), so in a way this is about Mpls hockey players. Does that count?

No enough with the Jr.Badgers, any team with the name Badgers should not be mentioned on this forum. And any Minnesota parent showcasing their kid around to play in an open tournament for kicks should be deported to Milwaukee.

Oh, FYI those are not some of the best players in Minnesota

I believe they are

If you believe those kids are some of the best in the state on Minnesota you either:

A) Tuck one of them into bed each night.
B) Don’t get out and watch much hockey.
C) Tuck one of them into bed each night.

[BluntInstrument]

No enough with the Jr.Badgers, any team with the name Badgers should not be mentioned on this forum. And any Minnesota parent showcasing their kid around to play in an open tournament for kicks should be deported to Milwaukee.

Oh, FYI those are not some of the best players in Minnesota

I believe they are

If you believe those kids are some of the best in the state on Minnesota you either:

A) Tuck one of them into bed each night.
B) Don’t get out and watch much hockey.
C) Tuck one of them into bed each night.

No I only tuck my son in at night. I don't watch much hockey but I believe the 98 Blades is regarded as one of the better teams in state isn't it ( I believe you even posted something like that here) ? I think these kids played for them a few years even after the turn over they had so it would make sense that they would some of the better players. I may be wrong and that's ok I don't have a dog in this fight my kid isnt of this caliber and I'm ok with that.

[JSR]

I saw this and the score above that showed 98 ccm 6 and 98 jr. Badgers 6. In both cases, this can be a bit confusing because there are 3 ccm teams at these ages (actually, I am not sure if there is a 98 ccm capitals so there may only be 2 ccm teams at that age). So to clarify, I suggest putting the info down like this...

98 Jr. Gophers - 6
98 CCM Monopoly Open - 6

And in the 2000 championship

00 Thunder Bay Northern Hawks - 2
00 CCM Monopoly Invite - 4

Or just call them the Monopoly. The other CCM probram probably should be called CCM Capitals to avoid confusion with the Madison Capitals though.

Some other results I know...

99 Champs - Jr. Badgers over the 99 Manitoba Colts (don't know the score)
00 madison stars played the 00 manitoba thunderbolts for 3rd place - stopped watching this @ 1 to 1 so I don't know the final.
98 third place - Fort Francais over Monopoly Invite 4 to 1.

The 00 Madison Stars won the 2000 level third place game 5-1. My son played for this Madison Stars team. They lost to the Monopoly in the semi-final game but honestly it didn't look like the same team that played in all those other games, the kids were exhausted by Sunday, I thought CCM was a better team but I thought our kids could have given them a much better game had they played like they did in the first three games and even in the third place game later that day. Alot of games, staying up way past their bedtime in a hotel, etc.. etc.. it's alot for an 8 year old. I was proud of them none the less. All of our kids play for local Madison area suburb Youth Hockey club teams. We have kids on our team that were, in my personal opinon, invite caliber players (#11, #8, #7, #10, and one of the goalies). Interestingly because of several of the posts on this thread on this board I can tell you that most of our parents did not know the difference between what the Invite and the Open tournament was. Apparently the "open-vs-invite" politics of your area is lost on us to some degree. Interestingly I saw the roster for the Madison Capitols 2000 team that will participate in next weeks Meltdown Invite tourney and I know all the kids on that team and well, in trying to not sound terrible, our Stars team would beat that Capitols team, if we played them 10 times, our Stars would probably win 7 or 8 times out of ten. The Stars are lead by some fore thinking folks who want to see Wisconsin hockey model itself similarly to Minnesota hockey in that, they want kids to play for their local clubs in the regular season and those clubs are pseudo feeder programs for the High Schools, and try and make AAA hockey a before and after deal like Minnesota does. The Madison Capitols are year round AAA and there are many who believe this is not healthy for kids at such a young age (I agree). So several invite caliber are choosing the Stars over the Caps in our area of late (the caps are not happy about this and there is some anymosity between teh programs right now). Does that mean we should have played in the Invite tourney, no, we jsut have different "politics" of our own down here so to speak.

JSR - nothing personal but when your team gets hammered in the semi's and you blame it on lack of sleep that's a bit much. If the team was so tired how could they muster enough energy in the 2nd game in the 3rd place game to win? Bottom line is your son's team got beat pretty bad by a much better team. Looking at the scores this '00 Monopoly team hammered the teams they were supposed to including your son's Stars team and beat two very solid teams from Canada. That Manitoba team had one loss and it was to Monopoly, other then that they destroyed everybody else. I spoke with the one of the Jr. Gophers coaches and he said by far the Monopoly team was the best and they even toyed with his team and eased up on them as it got out of hand.

Wow, such insecurity. What is a bit much is this post. Talk about someone needing to lighten up, and apparently someone needs some reading and comprehension lessons. I will not rehash but anyone with half a brain could see I didn't blame the loss on lack of sleep and never once said the team could win. I said they were capable of playing better and giving them a better game than they gave them, nothing less nothing more. Others seemed to understand that, but there is always someone out there As for the comment about playing better in the second game of the day, the fact you even have to ask that shows you know nothing about sports and further discussion would be pointless.

[coach75]

That's not what I said at all. What I said was tourney organizers don't police team rosters for curiosities. Maybe Bernie does as he didn't like the idea of a former player playing on a new team. That was a weird one. What I did say was it's the responsibility of the AAA organizations to run their programs with common sense and ethical behavior. Borrowing players from an invite level organization, and sitting your own kids, to try and win an open level tourney, isn't fair or ethical. Jr. Badger parents know that and the guilty Blade families know it too. I'm guessing they'll be told, you know what, don't do that again. You get flack, we get flack, just not worth it.

We can only hope, but I don't think that'll stop other teams from doing in the future. The Jr. Badgers aren't the first, and sadly, won't be the last to act in this manner.

My hope is that this will make parents think twice about signing their kid up to play with this team. Why should they fork over all that money only to have them bring in some ringers to play in the tourneys at the expense of their kid's ice time?

I'll definitely pass the word along to any parent looking into the Min/Wis Elite League.....STAY AWAY!!!!

Remember everyone wants to play for a winner. Not a poor sport!!! Mabe you should look into basketball....

[silentbutdeadly3139]

I'm sure they won't/can't move up because their best players are Blades players they pick up for this tournament so they would loose them and couldn't compete.

The last 2 years they have been in the Championship. in fact in the last 2 years no Mn team has made it. other than the No Wings in a different division. And the WI Flames won it prior to that. It comes down to recruiting having a winning program. The kids making new pals and most important having fun!

Sounds like you're affiliated with this program in some manner....why won't they step up and play at the invite level? Is it because the best players on the team (who they "recruited") would not be available to them?

yes I think The Final Word ... i mean WJB ... i mean coach75 is affiliated. May even be able to find him on the JR Badgers web page.

Remember everyone wants to play for a winner. Not a poor sport!!! Mabe you should look into basketball....

Still waiting for you to respond why you dont play in the invite ? Stay classy

[coach75]

The last 2 years they have been in the Championship. in fact in the last 2 years no Mn team has made it. other than the No Wings in a different division. And the WI Flames won it prior to that. It comes down to recruiting having a winning program. The kids making new pals and most important having fun!

Sounds like you're affiliated with this program in some manner....why won't they step up and play at the invite level? Is it because the best players on the team (who they "recruited") would not be available to them?

yes I think The Final Word ... i mean WJB ... i mean coach75 is affiliated. May even be able to find him on the JR Badgers web page.

Remember everyone wants to play for a winner. Not a poor sport!!! Mabe you should look into basketball....

Still waiting for you to respond why you dont play in the invite ? Stay classy

Watch for the Min/Wis All-Star team they will be able to play with anyteam, Machine,Blades,Icemen, etc... in fact the 98 Jr. North Stars beat the Mn Made Duece 3-2 yesterday in a very good game.

[muckandgrind]

Sounds like you're affiliated with this program in some manner....why won't they step up and play at the invite level? Is it because the best players on the team (who they "recruited") would not be available to them?

yes I think The Final Word ... i mean WJB ... i mean coach75 is affiliated. May even be able to find him on the JR Badgers web page.

Remember everyone wants to play for a winner. Not a poor sport!!! Mabe you should look into basketball....

Still waiting for you to respond why you dont play in the invite ? Stay classy

Watch for the Min/Wis All-Star team they will be able to play with anyteam, Machine,Blades,Icemen, etc... in fact the 98 Jr. North Stars beat the Mn Made Duece 3-2 yesterday in a very good game .

The Duece is Bernie's "B" team.... Again, answer my question: if your squad is so mighty and can play with the Blades, Machine, Icemen, etc....why did you play in the Open instead of the Invite?

Did the Blades players have to pay? Or did you let them come in for free?

[silentbutdeadly3139]

Sounds like you're affiliated with this program in some manner....why won't they step up and play at the invite level? Is it because the best players on the team (who they "recruited") would not be available to them?

yes I think The Final Word ... i mean WJB ... i mean coach75 is affiliated. May even be able to find him on the JR Badgers web page.

Remember everyone wants to play for a winner. Not a poor sport!!! Mabe you should look into basketball....

Still waiting for you to respond why you dont play in the invite ? Stay classy

Watch for the Min/Wis All-Star team they will be able to play with anyteam, Machine,Blades,Icemen, etc... in fact the 98 Jr. North Stars beat the Mn Made Duece 3-2 yesterday in a very good game.

This isn't about the Min/Wis All-star team ( not even sure what the heck that is, renegade team ?). Your avoiding the original discussion/question/issue. To refresh your memory the discussion centered on 98 Badgers rostered/playing blades players in the Open Meltdown and whether that was ethical. I think all said it wasn't issue with the Blades players themselves but with the Jr Badger organization and if they have that caliber player, want to brag about their success they should step up and play in the Invite Meltdown... but perhaps they cant because they wouldn't have the players to compete. Which is fine, as you say its for fun but don't go bragging about being able to play with anyone but play in open tournaments because some of your top players play for another invite level team first.

[coach75]

yes I think The Final Word ... i mean WJB ... i mean coach75 is affiliated. May even be able to find him on the JR Badgers web page.
Still waiting for you to respond why you dont play in the invite ? Stay classy

Watch for the Min/Wis All-Star team they will be able to play with anyteam, Machine,Blades,Icemen, etc... in fact the 98 Jr. North Stars beat the Mn Made Duece 3-2 yesterday in a very good game .

The Duece is Bernie's "B" team.... Again, answer my question: if your squad is so mighty and can play with the Blades, Machine, Icemen, etc....why did you play in the Open instead of the Invite?

Did the Blades players have to pay? Or did you let them come in for free?

Everyone pays $799.00 except for the coaches get a break on the price. Sorry if some people are up set with the success of the Jr. Badger program for what ever reason. Like I have said before it is about the kids having fun and making new pals. And I feel the Jr. Badger program promotes that very well. The Min/Wis All-Stars will play in June-Aug and is the top 4 players from each team. I hope his answers your questions. The 98 Blaze have nice team and program as well.

[muckandgrind]

Watch for the Min/Wis All-Star team they will be able to play with anyteam, Machine,Blades,Icemen, etc... in fact the 98 Jr. North Stars beat the Mn Made Duece 3-2 yesterday in a very good game .

The Duece is Bernie's "B" team.... Again, answer my question: if your squad is so mighty and can play with the Blades, Machine, Icemen, etc....why did you play in the Open instead of the Invite?

Did the Blades players have to pay? Or did you let them come in for free?

Everyone pays $799.00 except for the coaches get a break on the price. Sorry if some people are up set with the success of the Jr. Badger program for what ever reason. Like I have said before it is about the kids having fun and making new pals. And I feel the Jr. Badger program promotes that very well. The Min/Wis All-Stars will play in June-Aug and is the top 4 players from each team. I hope his answers your questions. The 98 Blaze have nice team and program as well.

You're still ducking the question..It was YOU that said this program is a "winner" and could play with the Blades, Machine, and Icemen......again....why didn't you play in the Meltdown Invite if you feel your team is at the same calibre with those teams? Or is the reason you wouldn't able to compete without your Minnesota kids?

Of course this is supposed to be about the kids "having fun and making friends"...but you're basically putting together an invite team and playing at the open level...and yet, you don't seem to think there is anything wrong with that. There are a couple of terms for what you are doing, "trophy chasing" and 'sandbagging".

[thunderwolf]

You're still ducking the question..It was YOU that said this program is a "winner" and could play with the Blades, Machine, and Icemen......again....why didn't you play in the Meltdown Invite if you feel your team is at the same calibre with those teams? Is it because you wouldn't be able to compete without your Minnesota boys?

I fairness Muck, looking at info on their website, one or two of the Blades guys played all tourneys with the Badgers last year.(#20 for sure). Another(#16) appears to only played 1 tourney based on the number of games played. The incentive, I'm guessing, is to be considered for the team they take to Lake Placid.