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US Junior Team Part II

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Re: US Junior Team Part II

streaker said:
Some disingenuous folks have tried to downplay the US' victory by bring up the fact that Canada lost one of their best d-men in the Swiss semi-final, and that they really didn't send their best team to the event... considering guys like Kane, Del Zotto and about six others in the NHL would have been eligible had they not gone to the NHL.

I guess Team USA will just have to put an asterisk on their gold medals. :D
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This tournament isn't about the best U20 players. It's about the best U20 players that aren't good enough to play regularly in the NHL. ;)
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

On one of these US Junior Team threads, there was a debate over how hot Gabriel Bourque's sister. Someone pointed out that there probably weren't too many hot girls in Saskatchewan. This post from textsfromlastnight reminded me of that:

(201): In Canada she would be a 10 but here in America she's only a 7
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

Puck Swami said:
The NHL network used TSN camera feeds and crew, but the USA game announcers and reporters were American (Dave Starman, JP DellaCamera and Fred Pletsch), and the broadcast was packaged by USA Hockey in the USA. Canadian TSN viewers saw their usual excellent announcing crew of Gord Miller, Pierre McGuire and Bob McKenzie.
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I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Bob giving intermission thoughts during the games. Either way, I don't think TWC has TSN in its package.
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

streaker said:
Some disingenuous folks have tried to downplay the US' victory by bring up the fact that Canada lost one of their best d-men in the Swiss semi-final, and that they really didn't send their best team to the event... considering guys like Kane, Del Zotto and about six others in the NHL would have been eligible had they not gone to the NHL.

I guess Team USA will just have to put an asterisk on their gold medals. :D
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Kane is 21.

The Canadians can qualify it any way they want, but they'd be crowing about it right now had they won. We beat the teams that were there to beat and won the title. Nothing else is relevant.
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

CHFAN222 said:
IDK much about Major Juniors but is there any way that at the end of the season having the Memorial Cup winner compete against the NCAA champion? Would it be close or would the Memorial Cup winner blow even the national champion out of the water?
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The better comparison is between the USHL and Major Juniors. That actually happened back in 2007, and the USHL went 2-1-1 when the Omaha Lancers and Indiana Ice headed north to play Quebec and Rimouski of the QMJHL. The Major Junior supporters would point out that a couple of the top players were at NHL camps and playing in the Canada/Russia Super Series, and that the QMJHL is not as strong as the OHL or WHL. The USHL supporters would argue that the games were held in Canada, and that they had players out for NHL camps as well. I suspect that the CHL is really stronger than the USHL, but I would love to see more USHL/CHL games.

I believe that Major Junior teams are only allowed to have three 20 year old players on the roster and none over 20, so the ages of those teams is much more similar to that of a USHL team than that of an NCAA team.

To be honest, I would expect good NCAA teams to destroy any CHL team simply based on age alone. Even if one believes that the CHL has players who will develop into better NHL players, they will be on average 2-4 years younger than NCAA players. There is a LOT of development in hockey players between the ages of 17/18/19 that are typical on a CHL team and the 19/20/21/22/23 of a typical NCAA player. They get bigger, faster, stronger, and improve on all of their skills in that time.
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

Rich said:
There is a LOT of development in hockey players between the ages of 17/18/19 that are typical on a CHL team and the 19/20/21/22/23 of a typical NCAA player. They get bigger, faster, stronger, and improve on all of their skills in that time.
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Unless they play for Michigan Tech.
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

I think the Canadian junior leagues are more focused on nhl where ushl is more about D 1. On that note, I dont believe for a second the Candaian leagues are better.
 
Re: US Junior Team Part II

streaker said:
Some disingenuous folks have tried to downplay the US' victory by bring up the fact that Canada lost one of their best d-men in the Swiss semi-final, and that they really didn't send their best team to the event... considering guys like Kane, Del Zotto and about six others in the NHL would have been eligible had they not gone to the NHL.
Click to expand...

Look, I am neither naive or ignorant enough (yeah shock to some posters here) to say or even believe that our Junior aged players are better than Canada's when we all know (or perhaps should know) that the best Canadian junior aged players are already playing in the NHL.

This year was no different (and perhaps even more so since Canada was indeed missing something like 7 or 8 players who were in the NHL) than any other year for Canada....it is simply the nature of the tournament and Canada has adjusted quite well.

What I will say and what this tournament has proven beyond doubt is that our best Junior aged players not in the NHL are better than Canada's non NHL junior players (at least this year). The U.S. won the gold and nothing can change that fact!

In a one game playoff, anything could happen. A Memorial Cup team usually has about 5-8 drafted players, a NCAA Champ usually has 10-15 and sometimes more. But in a seven game series, the NCAA team would likely win because the college players are older, bigger and stronger.
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Pretty well much agree Swami but it sure would be very close. Last year's Memorial Cup winner, Windsor, had 13 drafted players (hdbase.com) compared to 15 that the NCAA champs B.U. had. This does not include, however, players that are still ellgible to be drafted such as Taylor Hall, who will be the number 1 over all pick this year.

I think that age would be the deciding factor but again, it would be close.

The better comparison is between the USHL and Major Juniors. That actually happened back in 2007, and the USHL went 2-1-1 when the Omaha Lancers and Indiana Ice headed north to play Quebec and Rimouski of the QMJHL.
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Poor comparison since Omaha and Indiana were the two best teams the USHL had to offer and were playing average to below average Q teams whose better players were away at NHL camps.
 
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Re: US Junior Team Part II

CHFAN222 said:
IDK much about Major Juniors but is there any way that at the end of the season having the Memorial Cup winner compete against the NCAA champion? Would it be close or would the Memorial Cup winner blow even the national champion out of the water?
Click to expand...

Would there be fighting???
 
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