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Non-NHL Hockey Discussion (CHL, NCAA, AHL, KHL, etc) Non-NHL Hockey Discussion (CHL, NCAA, AHL, KHL, etc)

12-21-2009 , 04:13 AM
im interested but im also interested in how u got the gig as a hockey announcer?
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12-22-2009 , 01:35 PM
I've been a sportscaster before in all the major sports. I have almost 2000 career game broadcasts under my belt.

I just asked in the OOT low-content thread whether an "ask me" thread about being a sportscaster might be better over there or in here. I have received a few requests to do one. I've been open about my career in bits and pieces in various posts but obviously that doesn't make it easy to follow.

Last edited by MicroBob; 12-22-2009 at 01:46 PM.
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02-08-2010 , 08:55 PM
Beanpot championships tonight, BC-BU, always a big game. Sick or else I'd be there. Anyone else care?

We've (BC) been murkin' everybody lately and our attack is borderline unstoppable right now. Hopefully we can put a hurting on them.
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02-08-2010 , 09:10 PM
Sick bump!

I had to laugh at the NBC announcers on Sunday talking about the tough travels the Penguins had. Flying into Newark and then having to ride on a bus for FOUR WHOLE HOURS to get to DC at 2:30am for a noon game. In the ECHL we call that "an excessive amount of sleep."

Friday night coming back from upstate NY our bus broke down in the big snowstorm. No bus company would come to get the team because the roads were so bad. The owners of the team got their SUV's and got to the bus on I-79 in Pittsburgh where they proceeded to bring the players back to WV 4 or 5 at a time. The last of the players got back at 4pm. Game that night was at 8pm. Everyone felt lousy and was sleep deprived....so naturally they went out and won 10-1! Really weird.


All the Washington teams are tearing it up and are in first place in their respective leagues.

Hershey appears to be running away with the AHL. Had an 11 game win streak...then lost one game...then put together a 10 game win streak which they still have going.

The other Washington Capitals affiliate, South Carolina of the ECHL, had a 13 game win streak earlier this year and are in first place in the league. But they surprisingly lost all 4 games of a mini-series against Wheeling a couple weeks ago.
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02-08-2010 , 09:14 PM
3 weeks ago or so #1 ranked Miami University was stunningly swept in back to back games by Robert Morris University of Pittsburgh. They talked about it on the Penguins broadcasts some. RMU was 3-12-1 or something coming into that series so winning both games was really shocking.

RMU plays one game each year at the Pens home at Mellon Arena and promote it as a big event and this one turned out to be even bigger than they expected.

I think Miami outshot RMU in the second game of the series back at Miami something like 37-15 but RMU held on with some amazing goaltending.


Also - watched part of the outdoor classic they had at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. Looked like an okay crowd to watch the Badgers and the Wolverines. They were claiming 55k fans there or something like that but I don't think it was quite that much. Still...even if it was only 40k or so that's not bad in 20 degree weather to go see an outdoor college hockey game.

The announcers mentioned that it wasn't exactly the first time they had played outdoors in this rivalry. Wisconsin and Michigan had played each other 40 times in the great outdoors back in the 1920's and 30's. I liked that stat.

http://www.uscho.com/news/college-ho...WithaRink.html




Last edited by MicroBob; 02-08-2010 at 09:28 PM.
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02-08-2010 , 09:21 PM
Also - Miami hockey is mourning the loss of one of their student assistants. Brendan Burke, 21, was killed in a car crash in Indiana when his car slid out in the snow storm this past weekend. He is the son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke.

Miami hockey won their game that night 2-0 but wouldn't talk to the media about it and many were visibly upset when informed of the news.

Burke had made news a few months earlier and was profiled on espn.com when he admitted that he is gay and received the open support of the Miami hockey team as well as his father.

http://www.uscho.com/news/college-ho...afsGMDies.html
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02-08-2010 , 09:24 PM
Even though they got swept against RMU a few weeks ago, Miami remains a near-unanimous #1 in the country:

1 Miami(46)20- 4-6 996 1
2 Denver( 3)18- 6-4 949 2
3
Wisconsin( 1)16- 7-4 899 3
4
St. Cloud State18- 8-4 844 4
5 Bemidji State18- 6-2 703 7
6
Yale14- 6-3 650 8
7 Minnesota-Duluth18-11-1 642 6
8 Cornell13- 6-3 637 5
9 Colorado College17-10-3 635 10
10
Boston College15- 8-2 598 14
11
North Dakota 13-10-5 538 9
12 Maine14- 9-3 432 16
13 Michigan State 17-10-5 389 12
14 Ferris State 17- 9-4 387 11
15
New Hampshire 13-10-4 258 13
16 Union 15- 7-6 248 20
17
Vermont 13- 9-4 242 17
18
Massachusetts 16-11-0 201 15
19 Michigan 16-13-1 131 19
20 Mass.-Lowell 14-12-2 29 18
Others Receiving Votes
: St. Lawrence 28, Alaska 18, RIT 15, Boston University 8, Rensselaer 8, Northern Michigan 6, Sacred Heart 5, Lake Superior 3, Minnesota 1


Last edited by MicroBob; 02-08-2010 at 09:31 PM.
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02-08-2010 , 10:13 PM
Went to the Camp randall classic, and it absolutely sucked.

the final wcha stretch should be interesting and fun, with hopefully wisconsin winning the macnaughton
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02-08-2010 , 11:44 PM
Michigan has every game left against unranked teams. I don't think they can afford to lose any of those games, and they have to get to the Final 4 of the CCHA Playoffs, and hopefully that will be enough to sneak in as a 3/4 seed.
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02-10-2010 , 02:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by HungryHippo
Went to the Camp randall classic, and it absolutely sucked.

the final wcha stretch should be interesting and fun, with hopefully wisconsin winning the macnaughton

This doesn't really surprise me to be honest. I would go to a big NHL outdoor classic game if I had the energy and it worked okay for my schedule. But for essentially a 'regular' game being done outdoors with just your everyday crappy sight-lines etc I have to think it would just be 3 hours of freezing one's nuts off while not seeing a damn thing happening in the game.
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02-10-2010 , 02:30 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zimmer4141
Michigan has every game left against unranked teams. I don't think they can afford to lose any of those games, and they have to get to the Final 4 of the CCHA Playoffs, and hopefully that will be enough to sneak in as a 3/4 seed.

Michigan is 19th in the Pairwise rankings. They'll probably need to make it to 15th or 14th to get a 4 seed to the tourney. All it takes is a team like Bemidji losing in their conference tourney to shrink the number of at-larges available (Bemidji is a lock...but if they lose in the conf tourn then some team that would not have gotten in otherwise will steal a spot). Perhaps same scenario in the CCHA or ECAC if Miami or Cornell go down and allow an extra team to make it.

Yeah, 6-0 or 5-1 for Michigan in their last 6 against a less spectacular schedule might get them there (as well as getting to CCHA semis). Looks like a pretty down year in the CCHA. Miami is #1 and then you go down to 13 and 14 with Ferris St and Michigan St. So realistically the CCHA is at risk of perhaps sending only 2 teams to the tournament. Is it actually possible for the CCHA to end up as a 1 bid league this year if Miami wins the conf tourney? Wow, that would be incredible if it happened but it's not completely impossible (although somewhat unrealistic) if Ferris and MSU blow it down the stretch.

WCHA looks good to get 6 teams in there with Denver, Wisc, St. Cloud, Colo Coll, Minn-Duluth, North Dakota. Hockey East would have four with BC, Maine, Mass, Vermont and maybe NH.

ECAC is a two team league at best right now and perhaps only one with Cornell at 15 and Yale and Union tied at 17.
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02-10-2010 , 02:51 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MicroBob
This doesn't really surprise me to be honest. I would go to a big NHL outdoor classic game if I had the energy and it worked okay for my schedule. But for essentially a 'regular' game being done outdoors with just your everyday crappy sight-lines etc I have to think it would just be 3 hours of freezing one's nuts off while not seeing a damn thing happening in the game.
i was going to write a long post ranting why it sucked, but i didn't think it was necessary lol.

Albany Worcester Fort Wayne St. Paul
Denver St Cloud Miami Wisconsin
Maine Bemidji CC BC
UMD Vermont Mass UND
UNH Ferris St AHA Champ Cornell

Here is the current projection for the tourney, taking into account the shortest flights for #1 seeds.
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02-10-2010 , 12:49 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by HungryHippo
i was going to write a long post ranting why it sucked, but i didn't think it was necessary lol.

Albany Worcester Fort Wayne St. Paul
Denver St Cloud Miami Wisconsin
Maine Bemidji CC BC
UMD Vermont Mass UND
UNH Ferris St AHA Champ Cornell

Here is the current projection for the tourney, taking into account the shortest flights for #1 seeds.

getting that #1 overall seed I used to think was a pretty significant advantage because of the difference between the AHA champion and any of the other #4 seeds. All the other #4 seeds are very close to the very top teams in the bracket.

But then #1 ranked Miami got swept by a lousy Robert Morris team who had gone winless in their previous 9 games. And it appears that RIT and Air Force might not be completely terrible anyway. Still think one would rather want to play RIT than any of the other 4 seeds though.


Bemidji I think is going to have a tough time hanging onto their #5 ranking in the pairwise (the top 2 seed). Even if they go 8-0-0 to finish the regular season their remaining opponents just aren't very good and thus their ranking might take a hit even then. They play RMU (8-14-5), Niagara (7-15-4), Neb-Omaha (14-12-6), Ala-Huntsville (7-13-2). Then they have to play a couple of those teams in their conference tourney too.
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02-11-2010 , 02:05 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MicroBob
Also - Miami hockey is mourning the loss of one of their student assistants. Brendan Burke, 21, was killed in a car crash in Indiana when his car slid out in the snow storm this past weekend. He is the son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke.

Miami hockey won their game that night 2-0 but wouldn't talk to the media about it and many were visibly upset when informed of the news.

Burke had made news a few months earlier and was profiled on espn.com when he admitted that he is gay and received the open support of the Miami hockey team as well as his father.

http://www.uscho.com/news/college-ho...afsGMDies.html

The funeral in Mass drew a lot of NHL big-wigs to support Brian Burke on the loss of his son. messier, Bettman, Maple Leafs reps, various other NHL GM's and owners, etc.

The most noticeable attention grabber that I saw mentioned in two different places was the appearance of the Miami hockey team who flew up there to attend the funeral. They were the ones who knew him well of course and were openly emotional at the loss of their friend.

John Buccigross wrote a nice column about the services on espn.com
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02-11-2010 , 02:09 PM
Not sure if minor league hockey will get any more interesting over the next couple of weeks. All the NHL teams are off for the Olympic break but the AHL and ECHL keep on playing. So I think some of the fringe players on the NHL teams might get sent down to the AHL to get some playing time and that chain-effect will perhaps result in a couple of AHL'ers heading down to the ECHL.

Then all the NHL teams will come back to action and they'll want to fill up their rosters a bit again. At this time of year all the ECHL teams are kind of scraping by with what they can because they've had various players grabbed by the AHL due to injuries, etc. Some ECHL teams have lost both of their goalies to the AHL and thus they are on their 3rd or 4th goalies of the year. Lots of roster juggling.

Pittsburgh has been playing some salary cap games and will recall Nick Johnson or Mark Letestu from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the day of a game and then send them back that night and then recall them again a couple days later. These guys have been putting some crazy miles on I-80 all for their moments of glory playing in the NHL...and then it's back to the minor leagues immediately after. Over and over it seems.
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02-11-2010 , 03:41 PM
How depressing will it be when 3 Minnesota teams make the NCAA and the Gophers arent one of them.
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02-11-2010 , 06:51 PM
I'm honestly shocked at how mediocre Michigan has been this season.

And I personally think, having experienced team tragedy before, that Miami will rally around losing Brendan rather than dwell on it. They want to win that national title in his honour. It's funny how tragedies like this can strengthen your resolve.
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02-11-2010 , 07:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MicroBob
Not sure if minor league hockey will get any more interesting over the next couple of weeks. All the NHL teams are off for the Olympic break but the AHL and ECHL keep on playing. So I think some of the fringe players on the NHL teams might get sent down to the AHL to get some playing time and that chain-effect will perhaps result in a couple of AHL'ers heading down to the ECHL.

Then all the NHL teams will come back to action and they'll want to fill up their rosters a bit again. At this time of year all the ECHL teams are kind of scraping by with what they can because they've had various players grabbed by the AHL due to injuries, etc. Some ECHL teams have lost both of their goalies to the AHL and thus they are on their 3rd or 4th goalies of the year. Lots of roster juggling.

Pittsburgh has been playing some salary cap games and will recall Nick Johnson or Mark Letestu from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the day of a game and then send them back that night and then recall them again a couple days later. These guys have been putting some crazy miles on I-80 all for their moments of glory playing in the NHL...and then it's back to the minor leagues immediately after. Over and over it seems.
San Jose has been doing that all season since they are right up against the cap. Before January, they didn't have an ECHL team... so that meant from San Jose to Worcester, back to SJ back to Worcester, repeat.

Now they have an ECHL deal with the Stockton Thunder. Do you know if they are allowed to send players to Stockton to wait a couple of days instead of flying them 3,000 miles? It doesn't show them playing any games in Stockton, so I'm guessing they have to fly them to Worcester.
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02-16-2010 , 12:11 AM
bluef0x - San Jose has been affiliated with Kalamazoo in the ECHL all season which is something that you yourself mentioned earlier in this thread. They have used them some as they have shuttled some players back and forth from Worcester of the AHL a bit. Some teams use their ECHL affiliates more than others and the Sharks are certainly not as active in K-Zoo so I'm not surprised you may have forgotten. But there are definitely some players in K-Zoo assigned from Worcester.

I do not know about whether they can ship extra players to Stockton for kicks or how that stuff works. If the player himself has a 2-way NHL/AHL contract then that would certainly have to get in the way of the NHL team trying to ship them to the ECHL for a couple days but I'm not really sure.

Some people think there's a chance some of the western ECHL teams will eventually morph into AHL teams now that the AHL has been branching west. Stockton might end up as San Jose's AHL affiliate for all you know. Obviously the practicality of the easier travel would be a big reason why.

Last edited by MicroBob; 02-16-2010 at 12:29 AM.
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02-16-2010 , 12:17 AM
Johnstown Chiefs are no longer. The site of the classic film Slapshot and all that hockey history going down the drain. The Chiefs have announced they are done losing money in Johnstown and will be moving to Greenville, SC next year. Greenville has a big, nice arena and drew well in the ECHL in the late 1990's and then ended up having financial difficulties and folded in 2005. So they'll be happy to get ECHL hockey back.

Unlikely to save the Chiefs in Johnstown but maybe they'll get another team there in another league someday...if not next year then perhaps the year after that.

I will broadcast my last game in Johnstown at the old War Memorial Arena on Sat, Mar 13.

Albany of the AHL is moving to Charlotte. Not sure what is happening with the Charlotte ECHL entry but they'll be moving somewhere almost certainly. There's a chance a different AHL team could be moving into Albany. Few rumors out there.

Springfield, Mass of the AHL will be no more as that team is heading to Oklahoma City.

Muskegon, Michigan of the IHL announced they are ceasing operations after this year. 50 years of professional hockey ending but they are getting a juniors team in the USHL.

This is only the beginning of what I expect will be several franchise moves around minor league hockey.

Last edited by MicroBob; 02-16-2010 at 12:27 AM.
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02-16-2010 , 12:23 AM
Geddy - While I know it's emotional for them I'm not entirely sure it will make a huge difference in their efforts to win a national championship. Team would very much be on a mission... tragedy or no tragedy... particularly with the disheartening way their season ended last year.

The NCAA tournament is single elimination anyway which can be a pretty crazy crap-shoot in a sport like hockey.
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02-16-2010 , 12:35 AM
Well, the Sharks' ECHL affiliates keep folding, hard to keep up to date... didn't hear about the deal with Kzoo.

I remember when the Oilers didn't have an AHL affiliate, which meant Stockton got a huge group of AHL talent.
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02-16-2010 , 01:29 AM
The Ducks don't have an AHL team this year and have farmed them out to a few different AHL places including San Antonio (perhaps a bit more than others) while also shipping some AAA caliber players to the AA level Bakersfield team in the ECHL.

Yes, Kalamazoo definitely has a few Worcester Sharks contracted guys on their team right now. Kalamazoo is also affiliated with Philadelphia and their AHL team in Adirondack.

Some organizations might place 10 or 11 guys on a given ECHL team whereas some other organizations might only have 2 or 3 guys at that level. Which also relates to why some of the ECHL teams have two NHL parent clubs while others only have one.

Buffalo and Tampa Bay are a couple of teams that don't have an ECHL farm club at all.

But right now it looks like San Jose is kind of using two different ECHL teams which is a bit unusual. I'm guessing they are fulfilling their contract with K-Zoo and then may bail out and just go with Stockton next year (perhaps also staying with Edmonton). But it doesn't really kill them to also keep an agreement with K-Zoo if they like having a couple of guys there who are more easily able to go between Worcester and the ECHL.

Guys get hurt in the AHL and call-ups from the ECHL happen very quickly and having your own ECHL team somewhere within the same time-zone is a bit more convenient.

And, as I said, I have to think some of those western NHL teams would love the idea of getting their AHL affiliate closer to home for easier travel purposes now that this shuttling back and forth stuff for the NHL fringe players seems to be more common. Many people are forecasting that teams like Stockton and Bakersfield could end up in the AHL within the next couple of years.
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02-16-2010 , 01:30 AM
Quote:
didn't hear about the deal with Kzoo.

ORLY?!?!??!


Quote:
Originally Posted by bluef0x

I was hoping the Sharks would make a deal with the Stockton Thunder, but it looks like they signed with Kalamazoo.
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02-16-2010 , 02:33 AM
lol, awesome.
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