Anyway, I just looked up a bunch of different US teams at random and so far in my sampling the American teams went 14-0 against their Canadian exhibition opponents at the beginning of this past season. Most of the games were 6-1 or so.

Close call: U of Calgary lost at Denver 3-2. DEN outshot Calgary 40-14 in the game...and Calgary scored both of their goals against Denver's 3rd string goalie who only played 14 minutes in the regular season.

Bowling Green was 5-26-2 and had one of the worst offenses in the country including 15 games scoring 0 or 1. They won their exhibition over Wilfrid Laurier 7-3. BG never scored more than 4 goals for the rest of the regular season.

Robert Morris, who went 10-19-2 (but did beat #1 ranked Miami), swept Queens 8-4 and 3-2. Clarkson went 9-24-4...but they crushed U of Toronto 6-1.

It's also worth noting that many of the Canadian teams have already started their season before their exhibition with the U.S. teams. The Canadian teams have one or two games under their belts while the American teams have zero.

Edit/Update! Finally found one game where a Canadian team won against a U.S. team. Wilfrid Laurier won at Ferris State 3-1 the night after getting drubbed at Bowling Green.

That improves the Canadians' record in my random sampling to 1-14.

There are a few former Canadian college kids who are able to hold their own against the former American college kids at the ECHL level though for whatever that's worth. The Canadian colleges aren't completely inept or anything like that. Most of the ECHL teams might have 10 or more players who came out of NCAA hockey and maybe 2 or 3 who played for Canadian college (referring to where they played before turning pro...most of the ECHL'ers aren't rookies and are simply coming from whatever other ECHL team they most recently played for...but before that were college players)

Bob: I think they were arguing CHL vs. NCAA, not CIS, which most everyone agrees sucks. CIS teams are basically filled with former CHL players who weren't good enough to make the NHL or anywhere close, but go back to school and want to play some hockey along the way too.

Whoops. I thought triumph had quoted the bit about the exhibition games for some reason when he said he didn't think it was true. Sorry for the confusion. The comments by flow and triumph were quoted back to back in Lee's post and somehow that threw me. Oh well....I'm an idiot and everyone already knew that anyway.

Regardless, I thought the CIS teams were closing the gap a tad on the NCAA teams. I think Michigan State even lost to Windsor or somebody 2 or 3 years ago. So it was interesting for me to look it up and to see that it's still blowout-city (frequently) when they play each other.

The CHL vs. NCAA stuff would still be somewhat interesting but the age and strength difference going so hard towards the NCAA'ers puts the CHL at such a huge disadvantage.

Ya, Bob I think the consensus is that NCAA is better than CIS but at the very top end the CHL is better than NCAA but overall NCAA is better than CHL.

Windsor up 2-0 early over Calgary at the Mem Cup. Windsor win guarantees them a spot in the final.

A lot of CIS teams, besides having ex-chl players, are filled with players who werent good enough to earn scholarships to U.S. colleges. I could be wrong but am fairly certain that playing in the CHL kills your eligibility to play in the NCAA.

Most Canadians playing in the U.S. college system came out of the provincial major junior leagues (1 notch below CHL, also serve as "farm teams" in some cases) Theres a lot of players who are definitley good enough for the CHL but maybe feel that although they are good enough to be drafted they still want the education to fall back on. Also theres lot of kids who are just late bloomers and were passed over in the CHL draft (they draft at 15). 20 years ago if you were good enough for CHL but chose NCAA most people would say you ruined any shot at making the NHL.

Comparing the two leagues is a tough one, CHL players are playing 70+ game seasons for large crowds and coached by staff that are usually made up of ex-NHL players when there 16 years old. The CHL has more top level talent but i agree with the posters who have said the NCAA teams have more depth.

If anybody can get to Brandon in the next 40mins i have two free tickets to tonights Windsor vs. Moncton game GF's B-Day dammit..

XcrosseyedX - You are correct in everything you just posted...including the part about the CHL players no longer being NCAA eligible (while they are still eligible to play CIS).

Big game tonight, Brandon - Calgary, doesnt really mean anything for the standings since Moncton went 0-3 but these teams have a great rivalry going since CGY knocked BDN out of the playoffs.

Heading to the game early to check out the hockey village. All the NHL trophies are there including the Stanley Cup which arrived this morning as well as some other memorobilia.

Update on AHL action:

Hershey Bears/Manchester Monarchs series is tied up @ 2 games apiece; both teams winning all their home games. Next game is Thursday in Manchester.

Hamilton Bulldogs are up 2-0 on the Texas Stars thus far. Texas hosts tonight's game.

The top end of the CHL is always going to have better top end players then NCAA schools and it will always be that way. It's basically designed for players who have a very good shot at going to the NHL, and have no intentions on going to school anyway. Why not go and make some money in the meantime before you sign your big contract. I also believe that a lot of those teams will pay for some type of school either during or after your time spent there?? It's really a win win if you're really that good. In the U.S. though children are raised to play division 1 college hockey for the most part, and in Canada they are raised to play in the OHL. etc. Best player in NCAA years ago Nate Gerbe, Phil Kessel, Jack Johnson etc. CHL Tavares, Kane, Toews. Hard to compare NCAA is just deeper Go hawks. Nice to see fellow Hockey players and supporters.

great brandon/calgary game. heading to ot

The Whl has a scholarship program and WHL players are still eliglble for play in CIS. Not entirely sure about the details but i had a friend about ten years ago that had a few years in the WHL then played CIS after. He was well above average skill in the WHL and won player of the year in the CIS in his first year. He was only 5'5" 150lbs and never drafted.

Tough decision to bet the farm when your only 15 years old. Around Canada were seeing more and more stories about burned out kids and pushy parents. I remember reading something last summer about a kid who quit and his dad was furious, claiming his kid owed him money that he had spent on his development.

Brandon took it down in OT 5-4, the place went nuts. After game party in another part of the arena complex with about 1000 people. I'm quite intoxicated and have to work in 5 hours but ill be doing it all again on Sunday, hopefully with a Memorial Cup win

Hershey Bears are 1 period away from back-to-back Calder Cups. Up 3-0 on Texas.

Is Ovechkin playing? He needs the RANGZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

(no Olympic or WC gold, no SC this year)

Nope. John Carlson is though.

Atmosphere looks really solid. The play-by-play guy is a friend of mine. Must be a pretty big thrill for him to be calling this on "sort of National" TV.

They just announced that this is a new record attendance for the Bears (11,002 tonight). I like this play-by-play guy; always does a good job.

John Walton is pretty solid and I really wonder if he's going to be in line for an NHL gig at some point. He and I have known each other since we were about 12 I think. Not super-best friends or anything but played little league baseball, etc and then we got into broadcasting at roughly the same time. We're both almost 40 now.

Congrats Hershey Bears, that's how you finish the year when you earn the most points in the regular season.

Hershey's team was pretty amazing. Won 22 of 23 games at one stretch from Dec to Jan.

That crowd is really awesome too. Really makes the AHL look great to the U.S. and Canada audience many of whom might not have much familiarity with the league.

Chris Bourque wins Calder Cup MVP.

The Calder Cup is so tiny lol.

Edit: Ray Bourque out on the ice with his son. Pretty cool.

Kelly Cup of the ECHL.


Wasn't able to find a pic of the Charlestown Chiefs trophy of the Federal League. The trophy at the end of that movie is REALLY small.

Daaaaa Bears. John Carlson is such a gangsta

It's getting to be "that" time of year again.

Biggest news is Penn State announcing they are going D1 in a couple seasons after an $80M donation from some alum for a new arena.

Previously there have only been 5 teams from the Big10 with D1 college hockey: WIS and MIN in the WCHA...and OSU, MSU and Mich in the CCHA. Now that there will be 6 there is the very strong possibility that they will form their own Big10 College Hockey conference.

This would no doubt hurt the WCHA and CCHA. They would be able to survive without the biggies. But those Big10 teams are huge for those conferences. Will be very interesting to see how it all shapes out.

The AHL is a little bit changed from last year.

Lowell, Mass no longer has a team. The Devils moved from Lowell to Albany and are now the Albany Devils.

Albany River Rats are thus no longer. They moved to Charlotte. The Charlotte Checkers are in the AHL now...not the ECHL.

Oklahoma City Barons are ready for their first year in the AHL. They are the farm club for Edmonton. Previously the Oilers were in Springfield, Mass.

Springfield is now the affiliate for Columbus.

Syracuse used to be the affiliate for Columbus. They are now the top affiliate for Anaheim. Anaheim didn't have an AHL team last year. There were only 29 AHL teams and 30 NHL teams. So Anaheim had to feed them around to a couple AHL teams and also down to their ECHL team.

Wilkes-Barre Penguins and Hershey Bears will play on Dec 30 in Pittsburgh at their new Consol Energy Center as part of their Outdoor Winter Classic weekend. Robert Morris University will also have a game at the big building (but not outdoors at Heinz Field apparently).

Robert Morris University and the Consol Energy Center will be hosting the Frozen Four in 2013 I believe (maybe it was 2014...not sure).