View from the Scratching Post: Back from Minnesota

Not a whole lot to say here, as pretty much everything that I could say is up on the Wildcats' website. Great weekend, had one of our players named Player of the Week (Kyle Delaurell, going 3-6-9), had another named Showcase MVP (Thomas Erlacher, 4-1-5, 3 GWPPG), and a third joined them on the All-Showcase team (Shaun Jameson 0-5-5 with excellent play in his own end as well).

If not for Lyle Rocker's great play for Topeka, I think Mike Jarboe could easily have joined those three on the Team.

Fun week aside from hockey too. Gen and I went down to the Mall of America, I got to eat at Chipotle twice (we seriously need a Chipotle, Qdoba, and/or Baja Fresh here in the Falls), saw Gen's family, met up with fellow U.S. grad Paul Teeple, and as expected, watched a crapload of hockey. I'm planning next year to go for the whole thing, and watch the whole day Saturday and Sunday and return late Sunday. Maybe write more on here while there as well, since I know I didn't write a single thing on here during the week.

Got to watch a few other games besides the Wildcats. So far, the St. Louis Bandits do not look anything like the team we've seen the past two seasons. The Junior Blues are another who fall into the "could be dangerous" category. Kenai River is vastly improved. Traverse City surprised me, as did Alaska. Topeka is definitely the best team in the league (though I feel the Wildcats are pretty close).

So far, everything said on the Wildcats seems to be accurate. The scoring depth will be better than it was in the past. While most of the scoring came from the #1 power play unit, you can definitely see the chemistry developing and that the abilities are there from every line. I still think the majority of scoring will come from the top line, but the other three lines will be bigger contributors than they were last year.

Not much physical play, but that's not a concern. As you may recall, last year's team was a hard hitting squad, not afraid to fight. But they didn't get too physical in Minnesota either. It'll come, I'm not worried.

All in all, looks like we're in for another good season. I'll have more next week as the team prepares for two games in St. Louis on October 4 and 5.