Bachman recognized…again.

In case you missed it, goaltender Richard Bachman picked up his third Defensive Player of the Week honor from Western Collegiate Hockey Association Tuesday, the fifth time he has received recognition from the league. The Tigers remain ranked fourth in both weekly polls.

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Think Colorado College has a candidate for the Hobey Baker Award? Want to throw your weight behind Air Force’s Eric Ehn, who was a top-three finalist last season? Go to hobeybaker.com and follow the ‘Vote for Hobey’ links.
**I tried it Thursday afternoon to see if I could give more instruction, but it didn’t seem to be active yet.

Sign of things to come?
Bemidji State, which plays CC at World Arena on Jan. 18, will present its case to WCHA officials for admittance into the 10-team league on Jan. 13. With the demise of the Wayne State program, which is playing its final season this year, the five-team College Hockey America conference shrinks to four programs and the future of programs at BSU, Robert Morris, Niagara and Alabama-Huntsville looks bleak. Because a conference with fewer than six teams is not permitted to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the ability of CHA schools to recruit and be competitive would be extinguished. The CHA, which was started to help new programs make the transition to Division I, was granted an exception in 2005 that ends after this season.

Tiger Tracks
NHL:
It’s nothing new for long-time Tigers fans who watched Mike, Colin and Mark Stuart come through the ranks, but it’s still neat to think about what Colin’s recent call-up to the Atlanta Thrashers means to his family back in Rochester, Minn.

A look at the downside of being a back-up goaltender in the NHL gives Curtis McElhinney a shout-out for his work in 131 minutes of play this season.

AHL:
Former Colorado College center Brett Sterling was named a starter for the 2008 AHL All-Star game’s U.S. team, announced Thursday. The game will take place January 28 in Binghamton, N.Y. He’ll be joined by fellow CC alums Toby Petersen (Iowa Stars) and defenseman Brian Salcido (Portland Pirates).

ECHL:
Would-be senior James Brannigan, who departed CC in the summer only to be released by the Augusta Lynx (ECHL), got a belated Christmas present. Depleted by the call-up of former CC teammate Aaron Slattengren (who enjoyed a brief stint with the Manitoba Moose (AHL)), the Lynx signed Brannigan to a player try-out contract (a 25-game agreement) on Dec. 27. On Slattengren’s first night back in Georgia, Brannigan scored his first professional goal on former teammate Matt Zaba, who stopped 35 of 41 shots in the Charlotte Checkers’ loss.

Meanwhile, Trevor Frischmon could play his last AHL game Friday, when his PTO contract expires.

USHL/Recruiting Front:
Recruit Nick Dineen, who is slated to join the Tigers this fall, was named to the 2008 USHL Top Prospects/All-Stars game, to be played Jan. 29 in Green Bay, Wis.

Scuffles Solidify CC Squad?

As defenseman Jack Hillen took a swing at classmate Derek Patrosso at Thursday’s captain’s practice, I couldn’t help but wonder if what Hillen had just told me about “great team chemistry” was null and void.

Part of it is that I grew up in basketball country. If one Tar Heel were to lash out at another like that, Roy Williams would probably have to resign.

Also, as a veteran of female teams, I can say unequivocally that if the same physical manifestation of frustration were to happen, the grudges would never dissolve and the group would quickly become fractured into cliques.

But I guess it’s different for men, as I have been learning in my second season of spending every day watching and talking to the Colorado College hockey team.

Thursday’s practice had more scuffles than in all of last season’s practices combined.

“Way to stay intense,” said senior Scott McCulloch, who had to pull apart Hillen and Patrosso, before reminding the Tigers of some basic ground rules. “Make sure, if you’re going to fight, that you take off your helmets so we’re not breaking hands.”

When I asked players about fighting with their teammates, they smiled forgivingly at me and explained what is an obvious concept to them.

“We’re just ready to play,” said defenseman Nate Prosser, who got chippy with freshman Stephen Schultz during the Tigers’ short-sided 3-on-3 game. “That’s just us being competitive…. It happens every day in juniors.”

Eric Walsky, who is more apt to stand to the side and watch after nursing his right wrist back from a potentially career-ending injury, said fighting is a “good thing.”

“It’s all subconscious,” he explained. “Nothing personal.” Walsky added that when a little fighting doesn’t happen, those frustrations can boil over in the locker room and destroy team chemistry. So, it’s like a safety valve? “Yep,” he said.

I’ll admit it: my brief tutorial on the subject of intrasquad fighting still left me somewhat flummoxed, especially as the players left the locker room laughing and talking as if they’d spent their practice sharing their feelings or doing team-bonding activities.

But I guess, as they explained to me, that’s exactly what they were doing. I think I just had a breakthrough.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about fighting within a team.

***
Mark your calendars:
CC’s 2007-08 TV Schedule
(All Times MT)

Day & Date Opponent Network/Channel Time
Fri., Oct. 19 Univ. of Minnesota FSN Rocky Mountain 7:30 pm
Sat., Oct. 20 Univ. of Minnesota FSN Rocky Mountain 7 pm
Sat., Nov. 3 @ Univ. of North Dakota The CW (KXTU) 6 pm
Fri., Nov. 23 Univ. of Denver CET Network (Comcast) 7:30 pm
Sat., Dec. 1 @ Univ. of Alaska Anchorage The CW (KXTU) 9 pm
Fri., Jan. 4 @ Univ. of Wisconsin Big Ten Network 6 pm
Sat., Jan. 5 @ Univ. of Wisconsin CSTV 6 pm
Sat., Mar. 8 Univ. of Denver CET Network (Comcast) 7 pm

***
Articles off of the WCHA conference call, held Wednesday morning:
–Shane Frederick of the The Free Press (Mankato) writes about the WCHA’s youthfulness.
–Elliott Olshansky of CSTV quotes Scott Owens and George Gwozdecky’s takes on the Rockies’ late-season surge. Previously, Olshansky says the Tigers are overrated. What do you think?

***
Tiger Tracks:
Four former Tigers made opening-day NHL rosters: Brett Sterling (Atlanta Thrashers), Mark Stuart (Boston Bruins), Curtis McElhinney (Calgary Flames) and Tom Preissing (Los Angeles Kings).
–Will Stuart stick on the Bruins’ roster?
–Sterling gets love from readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Thrashers blog. Also: makes Burnside’s watch list and earns a new nickname around Hotlanta.

It looks as though Brandon Straub will start his professional career with the Johnstown (Pa.) Chiefs (ECHL).

And what a lucky guy Matt Zaba is: he will begin with the Charlotte Checkers, an ECHL team in gorgeous North Carolina!

Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald asked Marty Sertich to give advice to Sioux senior Ryan Duncan about how to avoid a Hobey hangover.

Trevor Frischmon gets a shot to play another season in Syracuse (AHL).

Mike Stuart lands offer in Austria, while Peter Sejna‘s status remains unknown.

Speed, Defensive Systems Are Focuses Monday

With less than two weeks until Colorado College’s first hockey game, coaches Joe Bonnett and Norm Bazin began implementing defensive systems on Monday night. As in seasons past, the Tigers will play a man-to-man defense and minimize switches–when one player trades his defensive assignment to another player–which Bonnett said promotes an aggressive mentality.

During one-on-one defensive drills in the corners, defenseman Brett Wysopal was a standout. Even though he is the shortest player at 5-foot-7, Wysopal uses his lower center of gravity to his advantage. Against left wing Scott McCulloch, Wysopal was a downright pest with his stick and not afraid to check McCulloch whenever possible.

Bazin also had the forwards practice backchecking by having them sprint down the ice, take a shot, and sprint back.

Fitness in the form of cross-ice sprints and serpentine skating patterns was integrated throughout the practice to Bazin’s and Bonnett’s chorus of “speed, speed, speed!” and “go, go, go!”

All together the practice laid out the ingredients of success for the Tigers this season. They’ll be going all-out up the ice, generating shots with their speed. With the forwards backchecking aggressively, they’ll try to create turnovers in the neutral zone and keep the puck from even reaching the young defensive corps and untested goaltender. When the puck gets into the defensive zone, each player will play in-your-face defense with the hopes of never giving their opponents an open look or an easy lane to drive the net.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done.

Only 11 days left until the season-opening exhibition against Calgary and 24 until the first game against Minnesota.

***
Here were Monday night’s lines:
White Sweatt–Vlassopoulos–Walsky
Red McCulloch–Johnson–Testwuide
Blue DeBoer–Rau–Schultz
Gold Overman–McMillin–Patrosso
Maroon Thauwald–Lampl

What are your thoughts about these combinations? Post a comment.

***
An interesting article on the utility of face shields, which features the contrasting stances of Boston Bruin and former CC defenseman Mark Stuart, and his father, Michael Stuart, who is USA Hockey’s Chief Medical Officer. It mentions Stuart’s older siblings and former Tigers, Colin and Mike Stuart.

Tiger Tracks:
–Mark Cullen assigned to Grand Rapids (AHL).
–Marty Sertich reports to Iowa Stars (AHL) training camp.

Coaches Emphasize Precision

With assistant coaches Norm Bazin and Joe Bonnett running practice Monday, the speed was cranked up a notch. Colorado College players spent most of the 90-minute practice split into separate groups: the forwards worked with Bazin and the seven-man defensive unit worked with Bonnett. No special teams work as of yet.

Among the forwards’ focal points were precision passing and toughness. One drill was devoted to taking hits along the glass while protecting the puck.

On the defensive end of things, senior Jack Hillen and junior Jake Gannon took charge, setting a hard-working pace in footwork drills.

Alternate captain Jimmy Kilpatrick (hip) and reserve sophomore Dan Quilico (ankle) watched practice from the bench.

Coach Scott Owens and athletic director Ken Ralph observed practice.

***
Both members of the St. Louis Blues’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen, last season, Peter Sejna and Mike Stuart remain on the free agent list. Although I never saw Sejna play for CC, I can’t imagine that many predicted he would be on the outside looking in at 27 years old. See Sejna’s career numbers here. Sejna won the 2003 Hobey Baker Award.

In reference to his bad-luck injury, former CC goaltender Curtis McElhinney says he is still adjusting to the NHL.

Recent CC grad Matt Zaba was released from New York Rangers training camp and will report to Hartford (AHL). Defenseman Brian Salcido will report to Portland (AHL).

Also, Thrashers win 4-3 in OT with two goals from Joey Crabb, one from Brett Sterling and an assist from Colin Stuart. Crabb, one of 13 players reassigned from training camp, will return to Chicago (AHL).