NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

File this under the WTF column ...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=218840&hubname=

The San Jose Sharks will be sending three coaches and five players to China to compete in the Asia Ice Hockey League to help develop hockey in the world's most populous nation.

The players and coaches who will spend the season playing for the China Sharks will compete against Japanese and Korean teams in the Asian league's.

''It is the first time we have got the support from the NHL and we can say that they came to support us in our most difficult period,'' Chinese Winter Sports Administrative Centre vice director Lan Li told the China Daily.

''We want to see ice hockey grow in China, to be as popular as basketball, soccer and Olympics right now,'' the paper quoted Sharks President & CEO Greg Jamison.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Makes sense, really. There is a big Asian population in the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose region, and they make up a big part of the Sharks' fan base.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Is the league good enough to develop those players, though? Could it possibly be better than the AHL?

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

It may be a good idea, but I wouldn't want to be one of the players sent to China. I don't know what that would say about the players who were sent.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Maybe the Leafs could send Nik Antropov.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Is the Asian league good enough--now--to develop NHL caliber players? Probably not. But the Sharks have an opportunity to do what MLB franchises have done in South America and the Carribbean and create developmental camps.

It would allow the Sharks to create a fan base in Asia and perhaps develop players who could help the organization.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Sorry, beats, I don't see it as a win-win situation.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

I do like what the L.A. Kings are doing right now before they face the Ducks in the regular season opening games. They're playing in Austria in a mini-tournament and they are working with one of the teams to promote the sport there.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Milbury's found a new job:

http://www.tsn.ca/ctvnews/sportsstory.asp?story_id=218849

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Carolina's Cam Ward gets a 24-save shutout of the Preds in his first action of the exhibition season.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Rangers beat the Devils, 4-3, at MSG tonight. Jagr, Gomez and Drury didn't play--they'll skate tomorrow night at home against the Flyers. Devils backup goaltender Kevin Weekes left the game with a possible concussion six minutes in, following a collision with Sean Avery and teammate Johnny Oduya.

Avery and Oduya got tied up and their momentum carried them into Weekes, who banged the back of his head off the post. Weekes, who was the Rangers backup goaltender the last two seasons, was carried off the ice by two teammates.

MSG Network reported that Weekes told the Devils' training staff that he felt "nauseous."

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

So MSG is saying that Weekes feels like he stinks?

Weekes had a concussion while with the Canes and it was tough for him to get clearance to return because he was so smart the first time he took the baseline test.

He better be ready for those two games he'll be in goal during the regular season!