Norris, Seabrook and other things

I'm allowed to have the weekend off.  Especially after doing three different activities on Saturday that totaled over 21 miles.  Off we go.

The Norris finalists were announced today for best NHL defenseman.  The finalists are Chicago's Duncan Keith, Boston's Zdeno Chara and Nashville's Shea Weber.  Each player excels on the defensive and offensive sides of the game.  Keith finished 6th in the NHL in assists with 55.  He also finished in the top 10 in plus minus for defensemen.  One player who was ahead of him was Zdeno Chara, the massive now 37 year old Boston Bruin.  He also ended the season with 17 goals which ties his second highest season total for his career.  If you want to see a guy who can really fire go check out Shea Weber.  He led all d-men with 23 goals.  It's the second time he has hit the 23 mark.  Plus at 28 he is the youngest of the group with many good years in front of him.

All of this is nice.  You would expect the finalists to have great numbers.  That's not why I included this in the post.  None of these guys were drafted in the first round.  All of these guys played in the AHL.  Go watch your local AHL team.  It's a smaller and more intimate setting.  It's affordable.  And you will be seeing future hall of fame players who will board a bus in the parking lot after the game who will be more than willing to talk to you and sign autographs.  By the way, all three Vezina finalists also played in the AHL.


JUNIOR WATCH

I wanted to make note of this before, but I have the weekends off.  The OHL finals are set.  Both teams rolled through the conference finals.  North Bay swept Oshawa.  Guelph needed five games to beat a very good Erie team.  Guelph ended the season with the 108 points, the most in the league.  North Bay had 82.  One player on North Bay has been drafted in the second round and another in the fourth by the NHL.  Those are the highest draft picks the team has playing.  Guelph has two former first round picks, three second round picks, one third round and two fourth round players.  That's playoff hockey for you.  It's easy to say Guelph should take this but when a team is rolling you never know.

UNDER 18 WC


As predicted by me in my last post Canada and Sweden did indeed meet in the World U18 Championships.  It just so happened that it was in the bronze medal game.  It was the U.S. who once again dominated the tournaments with a fairly easy win over Sweden and another easy win over the Czech Republic.  Couple of names for the U.S. to watch for sure in the next few years.  American born players tend to go the route of the university so it could be upwards of four years before they play professionally.  That's why the Eichel story could be interesting if he is a top 3 pick.  He probably still goes to college.  Erik Johnson was the number one pick of the draft in 2006 and he still went to Minnesota even if it was only one season.

Quick note on Brent Seabrook.  He and Chicago are moving on in the playoffs.  He ended up playing just 3 games due to his suspension.  He is in the top ten in scoring and second among defense.  A tip of the hat to you and a shoulder to the face.