As an outsider looking in, this club baffles me sometimes. Don't get me wrong outstanding club that posts respectible numbers. The varsity team seems as though its run flawlessly and it might be but the jv team seems like it gets the short end of the stick. here are my problems:

1.) They run no systems. The coaches do not seem to know what they are talking about. Who hired them? The head coach is an old man that goes around telling people he played in the NHL. He didn't even come close nor does he know anything about hockey. The assistant coach played club hockey at mankato state before transferring to missouri state where he played one year at j.v. third line. He still attends school there but if he couldnt even play varsity why is he coaching?

2.)They seem like they play the wrong people. This team has two players that played juniors last year. Ones on third line and ones on the fourth line and dresses every other game. while less talented jr.'s and sr.'s dress over them. Also, they have 4 goalies on their team, one of which was on the practice squad of a jr. team last year and he is a sophmore and the other that passed up a jr. A contract to come play a missouri state. These two are backups behind two kids with only highschool experience and one of which cant skate.

3.)Every player on the team that I've heard from hates the coaches and is getting worn out on the team. If no progress is made and the board at MSU does not find coaches or do something i would not be surprised if every player quit. It's not fun playing for coaches that think they know the game but in reality dont.

If this is a true jv team and if injuries on varsity occur why would you not make sure the players are ready for that jump by having good coaches and running the same systems as the varsity team does? this just doesnt make sense. Someone tell me the logic

Quote some sources instead of making accuisations. If this is your opinion, either approach the team about coaching or if it's your son that you are worried about, name sources and expose the problem.

I'm sure since there is nothing said about it, then there is not a problem with the team other than a disgruntled parent. It's funny that the resignation of a coach was attributed to a problem between varsity and jv and that was proved not to be true, now this same thing is being brough up again.

hahaha!

Could you wait until they lose a game to start complaining? This team came within an OT goal of winning the Silver division with the same group of coaches and many of the same players last year and they only lost a few games in the whole season. (I'm curious as to exactly what system you've seen the varsity team play or have you ever seen them play a game? Because they don't play a system.)

I also know that your comments about all of the players you have talked to not liking the team must be from a really small sample. Many/members on the team are back for their 2nd or 3rd years???????? Pretty sure they wouldn't be back if things were bad there.

Regarding the freshman that aren't playing much, if they had the type of background you described they would have been automatic additions to the varsity team in years past. Ben must not have seen the can't miss talent either as he placed 7 freshman with less credentials on the squad the year before.

If you son is that unhappy please encourage him to quit the team sooner as opposed to later. They cut about 10 kids who tried out for this team, I'm sure many of them would be excited to get a second chance.

You're right, varsity does not run a system; they run a lot of them. For offense, defense, forecheck, pp, pk...your sources are dead-accurate. Congratulations.

i can give you the names of the two players that played juniors and the one that practiced and the one that had an offer this year and the teams they played for. if you'd like. The varsity has systems, they have a set powerplay pk breakout faceoffs etc. And til they lose a game? they played mizzou 2 times and they arent even a real team. Let me know what youd like to know and i'll tell you

I'll go slow for you so try to follow along. I never doubted that they had players on the team that had junior experience. The point I made was that if these kids were as good as you think they are they would have made the varsity team. EVERY other kid coming into the program in the past 3 years with those kinds of credentials made the varsity team. So there must be a reason why they didn't and why they might not be getting the ice time you want them to have. Many of the players playing in front of them have played at the varsity level and have been very successful at the silver level. If they are good they will get their chances, patience or their is nothing stopping your kid from exploring a new hobby.

You said, "Every player on the team that I've heard from hates the coaches and is getting worn out on the team. If no progress is made and the board at MSU does not find coaches or do something i would not be surprised if every player quit. It's not fun playing for coaches that think they know the game but in reality dont."

You conveniently ignore the points I made about the high number of players that are back for their second and third years??? Pretty good indicator things aren't so bad on the JV team. What I'm hearing is that your "junior" kid didn't make the varsity team and that's not setting well with you. He has choices and I know at least 10 kids would like him to make the right one.

You might also want to consider the fact that the quality of coaches is in large part dependent on your location. MSU plays in Springfield MO, the list of experienced coaches lining up for the job is very limited.

You and the previous poster show a strong lack of knowledge about hockey. Again I'll go slow for you and him. MSU does not play a hockey "system." They have some tactics and set plays. A "system" is directed towards specific opponents and is a strategy that involves tactics. As an example MSU has never used tape to evaluate opponents and create related game plans. I could go on and on but I'm pretty sure your not going to get it anyway.

I am just wondering why any kid would quit playing Jr.'s to go play club at MSU?? Which Jr. teams did they play for?

There is one kid listed on the ACHA website that says he played in the Twin Bridges program. They used to be similar to the Junior Blues in terms of level "Junior B" but they now list that team as a "College Prep" team? I don't know enough about the current organization of hockey at that level to comment any further.

I know the Twin Bridges team got a lot of the kids that couldn't play for a very good (National Championship Caliber) Junior Blues team. I knew several kids that played a year or two for the Twin Bridges Junior program when it first got started in 2004 I think. The local kids who played for them were good AA players as a rule, certainly kids that had no future playing at a higher level. I'm pretty sure that no kid coming out of that program has ever even played at Diii NCAA so that would explain why they are playing club hockey,

That Twin Bridges team is a regular MOAM AA Midget Major team, that plays in the MO Hockey AA league, against some ACHA College teams and a couple of higher level tournaments. Not remotely close to Jr. B.

There was a Jr. Team called the Lightning that was not very successful the couple of years they were around but they have since folded.

You stay classy!

There are currently 3 freshman with tier 3 junior A experience on the MSU varsity team. 2 of them are 1988 born alumni of the St. Louis Jr Blues CSHL team along with a 1990 born that played with the now defunct St. Louis Lightning MJHL.

The previous post is correct. The ACHA website has him listed as being from Twin Bridges but when I searched his name i found out he did play with the St. Louis MJHL team last year.

Every college that currently runs an ACHA D2 program under their D1 program or in this case tries to run two ACHA D2 programs and list one as the strong "Varsity" team is going to have trouble with the "Red Headed Step Child" feelings. If the head coach from the "Varsity" team does not interact with and help structure the lower teams staff, schedule, finances and on ice systems then the players immediately see and feel this lack of attention. Worse, if the lower teams players are working out every week thinking that they have a chance to move up to the "big" team but in reality the head man never develops players then the lower team will spiral out of control and eventually go away.

On the other side, this is "club" hockey and as such is difficult for coaches to stay loyal to guys that are trying to develop and move up because as we all know, every season there are new better players that either come to schools naturally or are recruited through the academics at the university and the opportunity to continue to play some kind of hockey. I would go out there on a limb to say, there are probably a lot of players that would leave a junior B team to go to a good school and get on with their education and eventually enter the work force which is where 95% of junior B players are going to end up anyway. Now if you're talking about players leaving junior A or a higher developmental program to go to a "club" program then I would say that there are other forces in action (scholarships, book money, etc...). There are numerous ACHA programs that you can see by looking at their rosters that there are funny things going on.

Anyway, if the MSU head coach and staff were smart, they would get together and unify the program. If not, then in the future MSU maybe one team lighter and take away 25 spots for players to enjoy an extension of playing a sport they love while representing their university.

I would agree that to for MSU to continue to grow and improve they need to bring both of their teams together. That wasn't previously a goal but I think with the organizational changes that occurred it is more of a possibility.

Regarding the post that started this thread off. It would appear to be a fathers/players expectations don't meet reality. The Lightning Junior B program was from the original Twin Bridges organization. They were never competitive playing in the Great Lakes Division. I just looked at their roster from last year (they have since disbanded and relocated to Minn.) and I know several of the players and they are not an elite team by any stretch of the imagination.

The kid in question according to the web-site had 1 Goal and 1 Assist. Another kid on the team I'm very familiar with, (a good AA kid) now playing for SLU had over 30 pts and I'm not sure he could play for the MSU varsity team. I say Dad and son need to take a step back and see why the want (or don't.) If it's this bad for you 4 games into an undefeated season you may want to quit and give someone else a chance to play. I say do it before the team leaves this weekend for Chicago and Milwaukee, and let another kid bond with the team.

I find it funny how SIU-E has 2 teams which don't really work together yet they don't have these problems at all. Using the theories above that 2nd team should have folded long ago.

this is hilarious, come to a forum and bitch about the team you play for, or is this a parent doing this? well, we will probably never know. what a coward...

I think the original poster is under the impression that when a player has Jr. experience that means they must be highly skilled. Not all Jr. teams are world beaters, and the Lightning team literally took whoever they could to fill up the roster and meet the budget, a kid from the 4th line Jr. Blues team is comperable to a U18 Central States player. I guess my point is just because somebody was on a Jr. roster somewhere does not prove anything talent wise.

Hey all,

This topic is going nowhere fast. Frankly, I don't see benefit or purpose of ever starting this thread, however, that's just my opinion. Substantiated facts, proof and names would certainly have helped make your case. Starting a topic under an anonymous name and making accusations certainly lends no credibility to your case.

Having been around ACHA club hockey for 8 seasons now, I've seen teams AND leagues come and go. No two teams approach the operation and administration of their organization in the same exact manner. I'm just thankful that we have club hockey and that players can continue to play the game they love and to have some fun.

Take care,

cabunten

This forum is full of cowards, except for those who put their name to posts.

Zach Brancato- Tulsa Rampage/ quit
Mike Wirthlin- St. Louis Lightning/ #1 defenseman
Zak Tobey- Atlanta Jr. Knights/passed up to go to school at MSU
Blake Kaufman- St. Louis Lightning/ Practice

Don't know anything about the kid but being a practice goalie for the Lightening is not really an impressive tag.

Are we to assume these are the four players that will resigning from the club?

Will they please do that ASAP so that the team can get some players that won't trash their coaching staff on a public forum and that understand that freshman players may actually have to earn playing time? Seriously there are about 10 kids that would love to take their/your place and they need to know that they will leaving town for a road trip.

I think MSU has a few players that played JR A in the NAHL. Jonny Spellman , Alaska and Joe Combs, St Louis Bandits. Not everyone that plays JR A will get a Div. 1 college offer so they may want to come to a school for an education and have fun playing hockey at any level. They could also be good enough to have Div. 1 schools offering them spots on their team but they want them to wait a few years. Most Div. 1 colleges want their hockey freshman to be 20 or 21 years of age. I know that one of the two kids that played JR A had schools wanting him, but he didn’t want to wait until he was 21 to start school.
Bottom line they just want to have fun playing hockey again.

What, did you someone say just have fun? Thank you, it's about time.

i didnt start this post to trash kids nor do i have anything to do with the club. im just simply stating what i see as a friend of a friend of a friend. just because kids are upset about the ice time, just because kids think they should play more means they should quit? i dont understand. If freshman have to earn ice time and these kids among others who arent playing have to show that they are good enough, how can they when they dont even get a chance to show what they have? i didnt want an uproar nor these kids to be blamed for what was said. i was simply looking for advice as to what a kid should do and if the team is upset about coaching what should happen. no one is saying that they arent having fun. no one is saying that they are upset with the other players but its understandable that kids can be upset about ice time if they arent playing.

also if there is someone that does agree with these statements and what not i'd appreciate if theyd back me up here

As far as products of the St. Louis Lightning, Kaufmann was not rostered on the Lightning's 07-08 roster so I am unsure of his involvement with the team. Wirthlin did dress a significant amount of games with the Lightning and is currently on MSU JV (unable to find stats). Skaggs is on MSU varsity roster and according to MSU's Web Sports Radio website, has 4 points in 5 games.

Well your last post sounds somewhat conciliatory but lets review what you said.

"The head coach is an old man that goes around telling people he played in the NHL. He didn't even come close nor does he know anything about hockey. The assistant coach played club hockey at mankato state before transferring to missouri state where he played one year at j.v. third line. He still attends school there but if he couldnt even play varsity why is he coaching?"

Pretty clear you wanted to trash the coaching staff and youdid.

"2.)They seem like they play the wrong people. This team has two players that played juniors last year. Ones on third line and ones on the fourth line and dresses every other game. while less talented jr.'s and sr.'s dress over them. Also, they have 4 goalies on their team, one of which was on the practice squad of a jr. team last year and he is a sophmore and the other that passed up a jr. A contract to come play a missouri state. These two are backups behind two kids with only highschool experience and one of which cant skate."

Next you trashed their teammates, saying they these "junior" kids should be playing in front of kids that have been successful at the Silver level and saying one of their teammates can't skate. Kind of hard to hide from that rhetoric.

"3.)Every player on the team that I've heard from hates the coaches and is getting worn out on the team. If no progress is made and the board at MSU does not find coaches or do something i would not be surprised if every player quit. It's not fun playing for coaches that think they know the game but in reality dont."

Finally you state that every player that you have talked to "hates the coaches" and is getting worn out on the team. And that you would not be surprised if "every player quit." Finally you just said that you never said that the kids weren't having fun but that's exactly what you said????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

So although you say your a friend of a friend... (I'm pretty sure no one is buying that line.) Someone needs to decide if they hate the coaches and they aren't having fun and are going to quit or are they just dissatisfied with their lack of playing time so far and didn't voice their displeasure very well?

this entire post is stupid. It is club hockey, no one is gonna go on from here and play in the NHL. That is why we choose to just get a good education but still play hockey at a competitive level. If any team in our league ever played an actual D1 team, we would get smoked. So give it a rest

Let's try and redeem the quality of this thread if possible. I can understand why someone new to the MSU program or knows someone who is new to the MSU program could be confused to a certain degree.

Maybe someone more knowing than I can shed some light on the following questions.

1. What is the guiding philosophy for hockey at MSU? Is it for fun or is it supposed to be truly competitive college level hockey like NCAA? There seems to be a mixed message. Is MSU the right spot for a kid who could potentially play Tier I Jr. A who hopes to continue on to and NCAA D1 school at some point?

2. What if any is the development process from JV to Varsity level hockey at MSU. If you make JV is that where you will most likely be the next 4 years or is there a chance of moving to Varsity?

3. Does the program run like an elite level hockey program or is this a pay to play hockey situation like high school? So if you are a stud freshman will you sit because guys have been around longer, therefore deserve more ice time based on senority not talent. (I am only using that as an example to clarify my question)

4. Are the expectations of new parents/players too high because this is "College" hockey and they thought is would be more competitive, better coaching, etc?

5. Are expectations to high because incomming players might have been superstars on previous teams and now find this is no longer the case?

Again, just some questions that will hopefully explain where people maybe having some confusion why things are the way they are and hopefully turn this thread around with some intelligent answers.

Nice positive approach to discussing an issue that is important to many. I've been around the program for going on 4 years so I'll take a shoe at answering some of these.

Let's try and redeem the quality of this thread if possible. I can understand why someone new to the MSU program or knows someone who is new to the MSU program could be confused to a certain degree.

Maybe someone more knowing than I can shed some light on the following questions.

1. What is the guiding philosophy for hockey at MSU? Is it for fun or is it supposed to be truly competitive college level hockey like NCAA? There seems to be a mixed message. Is MSU the right spot for a kid who could potentially play Tier I Jr. A who hopes to continue on to and NCAA D1 school at some point?

This one is easy. If a kid has that potential and WANTS to play at that level he's not going to move up from MSU hockey or probably any D2 ACHA program.

2. What if any is the development process from JV to Varsity level hockey at MSU. If you make JV is that where you will most likely be the next 4 years or is there a chance of moving to Varsity?

This may/should be changing. In the past it was a one time shot at Varsity if you didn't stick you were going to be a JV player. The JV roster is filled with players that had this experience.

3. Does the program run like an elite level hockey program or is this a pay to play hockey situation like high school? So if you are a stud freshman will you sit because guys have been around longer, therefore deserve more ice time based on senority not talent. (I am only using that as an example to clarify my question)

I think it's a combination of several things. It is pay to play and seniority will have some benefits but if you can play you will. It may take sometime to catch the attention of the coaches but you will be given a chance. They only have a couple of extra players. Kids are often missing because of injuries and school obligations. The coaching staff is good at giving the 4th line players a lot of playing time when the game dictates it. This team is good and gets up quickly on a lot of teams. These kids will get their chances they just need to be patiend.

4. Are the expectations of new parents/players too high because this is "College" hockey and they thought is would be more competitive, better coaching, etc?

Probably but it is very competitive hockey and they can't want for that.

5. Are expectations to high because incomming players might have been superstars on previous teams and now find this is no longer the case?

I'll site this example. One of the juniors was second in mid-states in scoring his senior year. The kid can flat out play but not good enough for the varsity coach. He's good with where he is at and even declined an offer to move up to the varsity team at the end of last year because he wanted to play not sit on the bench.

Again, just some questions that will hopefully explain where people maybe having some confusion why things are the way they are and hopefully turn this thread around with some intelligent answers.

Thanks for the positive approach to a sensitive issue.

I heard scott gleason was going to the nhl next year. good for him. he deserves it.

I made the post, I've never even spoken to the player you listed. I do know hockey and was making a point. I really don't know if he is good enough to play for a seemingly much deeper varsity team now. I do know he met the criteria the previous poster mentioned and mentioning his statistics were relevant to the discussion. Your childish comment however was relevant to nothing.

Let me answer your first question.

If you haven't been contacted by a USHL team by the time you are 16 or 17 you most likely will not be playing Tier I Jr. A hockey. These teams are out scouting and recruiting players all year. Most USHL teams have closed tryouts, you have to be invited. If they do have an open tryout they charge a couple hundred bucks, it is really more of a fund raiser for the team. A player that has aspirations to play Tier I or Tier II Jr. A hockey would not go to MSU or any other club team in hopes to advance to Juniors.

How about the NA?

.

The NA is tier 2

Question:

Does a dead horse feel pain when he gets kicked repeatedly?

For midwest skilled hockey players the best avenues are USHL, tier 1 and NAHL tier 11. Both are Junior A and age runs up to 21 years old. The feeder system for them is generally Triple A Midget programs as they play 60 plus games through out the country among the best competition.
Division 1 Varsity programs, about 70 of them, primarily look at the top Junior A programs to fill their rosters. Do the math and you can see there is a huge number of players after maybe 2100 scholarships.
That is what make club programs so appealing. When you look at the Division 1 club programs they are filled with Junior players.
MSU's program is among the top club programs in the county. What an atmosphere to play in for those young men that still want to play hockey and get an education. I would think them moving to Division 1 would be in the cards. To do so they need to continue to add players with Junior experience.
Thanks to Title IX, moving to a Varsity program is very limited for schools across the county.

Don't see MSU going to D1 ACHA status. Real increased commitment and there are not many qualified local coaches there in Springfield, MO. The coach they have now is doing them a favor coaching as he has a son in the program. Not many D1 programs have a Dad coaching. Besides the lack of local committed coaching (not unless the university is gonna pay a head coach enough to relo and be in Springfield) you have the issues of greater travel expenses with the closest D1 ACHA programs to MSU being Iowa State, Lindenwood, Illinois and maybe an Oklahoma and Central Oklahoma. Every other trip is either a 14+ hour bus ride or a plane trip. They're in a tough geographic location.

I'm not knocking on MSU, they're a good team, but most teams from D2 that move up to D1 club are the ones who consistently go to Nationals and win. MSU hasn't even made the national tournament (yet) so I don't see them moving to D1 anytime soon. I'm not saying never, but not in the near future.

they moved from D3 to D2 with out a championship...... theyre lookin pretty good

UMMM, who moved from D3 to D2 without a championship? Not Missouri State.

I think the 12:14 poster meant that Missouri State moved from D3 to D2 without having a championship under their belt at the time, which is correct. I find all this bickering over an organization that has in 6 seasons gone from a D3 team to a potentially making Nationals this year just wreaking of either jealousy or confusion.

Let's compare them with say, Florida Gulf Coast.....FGCU started in 2002 and went from a 4-12-0 team in (D3) to a 34-8-1 team their first year in Division 2 in 2006-2007. The Eagles have improved since ranking 1st in the Southeast. The one huge difference is the influx of Canadian players and former NHL coaches on staff. (Who can argue with Florida weather. That's what they use to recruit players from Canada. That and the 3 to 1 ratio of girls to guys at the school.)

I'd say that based on Missouri State's recruiting class this year, schedule, colaborative team organizational efforts, being ranked 4th in the Central last season; they are doing very well for themselves. All this despite most players being from Missouri and the "lack of qualified coaches" in the state.

The Missouri State will face three number one ranked teams in the next two weeks - Davenport, Sienna and Florida Gulf Coast. I have a feeling that if they fare well against those teams this season, the bickering still won't stop.

when were they D3?

their 1st and 2nd years they were D3

this pretty much says it all...and the question remains...Why is this kid not playing varsity?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryBImI9iSTU

Listen, i'm not trying to make anyone feel bad but i have to be honest. If there's one thing i learned from playing acha hockey on teams with junior players as well as players from just random high schools... its that it REALLY doesn't matter where you played before college.
You may have played juniors. You may have some talent... but don't expect ANYTHING to be just given to you.
These juniors and seniors that "just played high school" may have been worse then you when they were freshman but they've been there playing, improving themselves and prooving themselves to veterans. If you expect to recieve solid playing at ANY level, id reccomend you do the same.
The coaches know you played juniors and that will probably automatically give you the edge over someone with the same skill level that didn't but if you're down on the depth chart now... trust me when i say there is a reason for it.
Keep digging. You'll get what you deserve.

are you serious? a youtube clip... sign him up!

Who else would post that besides that player himself? Nice job. Glad to see the ability to be able to skate around a pylon *cough, fallen player, cough* and then hit a wide open net. If I were a rapper from a few years back i would have to call that MAD SKILLZ

What makes you think the player posted it? You don't want to ASSume anything.

stay classy

ok GOD

Wow it was like they left the net wide open for you! Seriously, has the original poster ever been to a MSU hockey game? Sure they lack some skills, but they are in no way an NHL team. They have fun playing while at the same time get a quality education. Trashing anybody in a forum and using the name annonymous gives that person no credibility and should not be allowed to talk about the Ice Bears. This video is a few years old, but some of those players are still on the team and they look like they are having fun! taken off of the websportsradio site.

ok mostatebear. the video is actually from jan 2008, not sure where you get that it is from a few years ago?

Can we please divide this post into chapters since it's getting so long?

Let's start with Chapter one - The whine, Chapter two - discussion, Chapter three - getting boring. etc. etc.
Thank you for your help.

After Northwesterns loss last week in which MSU made a 3 point comeback in the last few minutes, the NU coach had this to say.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_N1OjGhIFc

wasnt it a tie?

the link screwed up, i added a link to a video of the 05 team

The video was made on the way home from the 2005 trip to St. Cloud in October 9th of '05.

Here is a interesting video from a game that sums up the msu ice bears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI

the bears were who we thought they were... HAHAHAH thank you Dennis Green

i hate scott gleason

I think the current Bears injury situation presents a nice opportunity to address some perceived weaknesses in the MSU "one organization" concept.

My suggestion is that the organization move up the JV team's top line for the weekend. The JV team doesn't have any games and with the injuries to the varsity clubs forwards this seems like a no brainer. This line has played together for over a year, put together a bunch of points last year and probably most importantly understand sound positional hockey, their not going to hurt you and just might surprise you with some offensive help you might not anticipate.

This line is frequently matched against the #1 line of MACHA Silver opponents. Against lines that only have one team, many of these lines would compete at the Gold level, not top lines but certainly can compete with3rd or 4th lines. (McKendree's is an example.)

It's a non-conference game against a really good opponent at home and costs you nothing to see if these kids can compete at this level and sends a positive message to the other JV kids and prospects thinking about coming to MSU. I think a lot of us would like to find out if some of these JV kids can compete and put to rest some of this split organization talk. If not now when?

Listen, i'm not trying to make anyone feel bad but i have to be honest. If there's one thing i learned from playing acha hockey on teams with junior players as well as players from just random high schools... its that it REALLY doesn't matter where you played before college.
You may have played juniors. You may have some talent... but don't expect ANYTHING to be just given to you.
These juniors and seniors that "just played high school" may have been worse then you when they were freshman but they've been there playing, improving themselves and prooving themselves to veterans. If you expect to recieve solid playing at ANY level, id reccomend you do the same.
The coaches know you played juniors and that will probably automatically give you the edge over someone with the same skill level that didn't but if you're down on the depth chart now... trust me when i say there is a reason for it.
Keep digging. You'll get what you deserve.

To this date no one has ever stated what the actual purpose of the White team is. Let's hear that and then go from there. Or even what were some of the players feelings in the situation. Since the 2nd team is off this weekend this would be a decent time to move them up. That is if the #1 team doesn't have guys that don't dress that are looking for their shot. FGCU is a good team this year and last year easily beat them twice.

Stan had actually brought the idea up during the broadcast over the weekend, about possibly having to tap the JV team because of the injuries. I was just pushing on the idea a little with the thought of moving up the entire #1 line. Apparently chemistry is missing with all of the injuries to various lines at the varsity level, this way you keep a line's chemistry intact and let some of these banged up kids heal.

Regarding the opponent, I think that's why it's an exceptionally good idea. If they can compete with these guys than I think that will say a lot. All three of these kids played some on the varsity team as freshman, it's not like your throwing out a line that has no chance of competing. They've all gotten better over the past year or two as evidenced by their results so if they didn't get run off the rink as freshman their certainly going to be able to compete as juniors and seniors.

This stands to be a win-win and lets give credit to Stan for bringing the idea up.

Then if that's the case I think it is a great idea and would show that this is why they have the second team in place.

One thing to add. The ACHA doesn't allow up and down movement from DI to DII and vice versa after the team has played six games. I wouldn't be surprised if something like this is brought up in the case of two teams within DII.

The deadline for those movements is much later in the year for the D2 teams. I'm sure someone out there knows the exact date but I know it was pretty late into the season before they had to freeze the rosters last year. What I don't know is how long you have to add players to the roster. I don't know that any of these kids are currently on the varsity roster. In some leagues there is a 72 hour requirement before you can play them but I don't know about MACHA.

Stan's a tool. Just let the coach, coach. If they need to bring out more players then so be it. Can we end this messsage string. MSU topics bore everyone.

you have to think that the varsity has 5 lines so it will take alot to need to go down to the JV

For DI once a player has played six games he is frozen. For DII the entire cut off date is Jan. 31st. That is to move players both up and down.

Regarding MSU having 5 lines. They have one kid that is rostered as a forward but never plays, I think he has officiating conflicts. They just lost a kid for the year and had two kids not play over the weekend because of the before mentioned injuries. I would be willing to bet that the JV #1 line playing together would be better for the club then the 4th/5th line players placed on other lines. Only way for me to win my wager is for them to give it a try? What say you MSU?

Injuries still leave MSU Varsity with 4 lines. Seems like moving a whole JV line up would have negative affect. What is the point of picking 15 forwards and then not letting the extras play when the inevitable injuries occur? Maybe they need a player or two to move up and be prepared to sit.

BTW, word is that one of JV first line players has missed half the games due to injury. Any truth to that?

According to the website they only rostered 13.5 forwards. 1 is gone for the season, 1 has only played 1 game (conflicts?), 2 more were hurt this past weekend (status unknown.) The reasoning for the suggestion to give this line a chance was because of their potential for some offense. The varsity forwards scored a total of 3 goals over the weekend and I'm pretty sure with those injuries they all got a chance to play.

Regarding injuries, one of the players on the top line missed one game over the weekend because of an illness. I think they did have a player injured earlier in the season but not from the #1 line and I'm not sure who that was/is.

I'm sure the new coach has enough to do besides consider suggestions from the gallery but thought it was worth a chance.