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Tuesday @ The Rink
CHAT LIVE With CSTV Hockey Analyst Adam Wodon
Welcome to the CSTV.com moderated chat room!
On Thursday, October 6 at 1:00 p.m. ET, CSTV Hockey Analyst Adam Wodon stops by "Tuesday @ The Rink",
presented by CSTV.com and
USCHO.com. Adam will be fielding all of your questions as he previews the upcoming season.
Adam Wodon has been covering college since 1988, and has since been the play-by-play broadcaster for Princeton and Cornell, and in professional hockey. He worked at USCHO.com for nine years, and since 2003 has been an analyst for College Sports Television's regular college hockey coverage. In addition to more than a dozen years in the radio and newspaper business, he has also worked for ESPN, including work on the 2004 Frozen Four game broadcasts.
** GET YOUR QUESTIONS IN NOW!!:
Adam won't be stopping by until 1:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, October 6th, but feel free to submit your questions now and we'll save them for his arrival!
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| CSTV.com Moderator: We have been having some technical issues. If you have already submitted your question, we ask that you please send it in again. Thank you. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: Welcome back to a new season of Tuesday @ the Rink. It promises to be a fun season of chats. We have a special Thursday edition to kick things off this season. Our first guest is CSTV hockey analyst Adam Wodon, who is here to answer all your season preview questions. |
| Adam Wodon: Hi, everyone. I'm excited hockey is here and am ready to take your questions on the new season. |
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| Greg (Edina, MN): With all the hype surrounding Phil Kessel, it seems like people are expecting him to be a Hobey finalist right away. What do you think is a reasonable expectation for his freshman year at Minnesota? |
| Adam Wodon: Thing with Kessel is, he's got two other centermen on his team that are also extremely talented: Guyer and Potulny. So he won't have to be the man. As a result, the points will be spread out, and he probably wouldn't win the Hobey. And, even though he has the potential to be the next Kariya, he's probably not the same set up guy Kariya was at this stage. So the odds of him winning the Hobey are small, but it's possible. |
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| Lou (Columbus): What is the early word on the hot Minnesota freshman class? |
| Adam Wodon: I think Minnesota's freshman class could be the most talented recruiting class ever. But that doesn't necessarily mean it will translate into instant dominance. These are still young guys we're talking about, and it will be an adjustment. In particular, I'm concerned about Blake Wheeler, the fifth overall pick in the 2004 NHL draft, who spent last season in Green Bay of the USHL, where his numbers weren't spectacular. But the talent is amazing. |
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| Marshall (Boston): Is there any reason to believe that the West won't be dominant again this season? |
| Adam Wodon: Nope. The WCHA should be dominant again. Michigan will be there by the end of the season, if Billy Sauer is the real deal in net. Boston College, UNH, Maine and BU are just not getting the top of high, high quality talent recruiting-wise that the Western schools are getting right now, for whatever reason. Cornell had a great recruiting class again - but that's relative. They'll be a pain in the rear, but certainly not quite up to WCHA levels. |
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| Austin (Troy): It seemed like last year was a big year for the ECACHL, with three teams in the NCAA tournament, and four looking like a real possibility in the homestretch. How many ECACHL teams do you think will make the NCAAs this year? |
| Adam Wodon: I'm hopeful that St. Lawrence can have a breakout year. Also, if Colgate can find a top-notch goaltender, they could also make noise again. Dartmouth has never quite gotten over the hump, and they lost their best player in years in Lee Stempniak. They had a great recruiting class, though. So you never know there. But basically, we're looking at Cornell as the only probable sure thing. It will be between 1 and 3, but more likely 1 than 3. |
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| Paul (Allston, MA): Of all the new coaches in D-I this year, which one do you think will make the biggest impact at his new school? |
| Adam Wodon: Good question, Paul ... I don't think there's any question that it will be Jeff Jackson at Notre Dame. He is a tremendous coach. If he gets the resources there - such as a new arena that is in the works - he will win there. Period. Mark Dennehy will provide an enormous breath of fresh air at Merrimack, but that assumes the stink isn't already too powerful. Greg Cronin will help at Northeastern, but again, it's hard to win there no matter who you are. |
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| Don (Rutland, VT): How big an impact do you think Vermont will make in its first year in Hockey East? |
| Adam Wodon: I like Vermont a lot, actually. Kevin Sneddon is a good coach, and a great leader of men. It starts in goal, and they have a legit good one in sophomore Joe Fallon. Captain Jaime Sifers is another legit star on that team, and Brady Leisenring returns after missing most of last season. Scott Mifsud graduated - that's big .. but watch out for Torrey Mitchell up front. |
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| Mark (Milwaukee): You mention that Kessel isnt a Hobey candidate yet - who do you think will be the final three? |
| Adam Wodon: I love Gabe Gauthier at Denver. T.J. Hensick at Michigan is a candidate. And I'd imagine Minnesota teammates Danny Irmen or Ryan Potulny will be up there, if they come to play every night. And of course, I'd imagine Marty Sertich, Brett Sterling and David McKee will be right there again - those were the three finalists last year and they are all back, which is unprecedented in college hockey. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: Don't forget - coming up at 2:00 we will be joined by Air Force Head Coach Frank Serratore. The Falcons kick off their season this Friday against Maine as part of the Icebreaker Tournament in Colorado Springs. |
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| Ed (Grand Forks): Do you feel like North Dakota was underrated in the preseason polls? It would seem that adding Lee, Chorney and the rest of that recruiting class to a Frozen Four team, they ought to be a lot higher. |
| Adam Wodon: Well, North Dakota lost a lot of players from last year's team, including Brady Murray and Matt Greene, who left early for the pros. They have a lot of talent, but so do the other 4 teams rated ahead of them in the WCHA. They had a magical run in the NCAAs last year, and they could certainly do it again, but other teams deserve to be higher at this point. Their recruiting class wasn't the same as Michigan's, Minnesota's or Denver's for example, despite Chorney and Lee. |
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| Jarvis (Providence): Do you think there are any D-III teams that could hang on the D-I level? |
| Adam Wodon: Well, we'll find out with RIT's entrance into D-I this season. Certainly the top echelon teams could be competitive in Atlantic Hockey, that's for sure. Perhaps pull off an occasional upset elsewhere. But after that, probably not. |
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| Pete (North Andover): You mention the "stink at Merrimack." What's the answer there, if there is one? Seems like a lot of Hockey East fans want them out of the conference...do you think that could/would happen? |
| Adam Wodon: I do know that the Hockey East offices are concerned with what's gone on at Merrimack, but I'm not sure it's to the point they'd make a drastic move like kicking them out. I think everyone would like to see them stay in Hockey East, and be competitive. Leadership starts at the top, and in the case of a university, that means its president. So until something changes there, there will continue to be issues. But Mark Dennehy is used to adverse situations, and I know he'll make the most of it. I just hope he gets the ability to do some real work there without getting hamstrung from above. |
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| Bobby (Waltham): Harvard has been ranked in preseason polls, but it doesnt seem like they deserve it, based on their losses. Where will they be this year? |
| Adam Wodon: I have Colgate ahead of them, myself. The defense should be pretty good. But the scoring will be slim. I love Jon Pelle as a player, but he can't carry it himself. And of course, the goaltending is a huge question mark. So they have a lot of questions. The freshmen are unknowns - at least to me :-) - and so you never know. |
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| Carl (Houghton): What individual players have the most pressure on them to carry their team or get them to the next level? |
| Adam Wodon: Good one, Carl. I think there will be pressure on Brian Elliott at Wisconsin, replacing Bruckler in goal. If he's great, Wisconsin will be in the Frozen Four. Same for Cory Schneider at BC. But players like Kessel, Potulny, Gauthier, Sterling, etc... that we've mentioned previously, don't really have that pressure because they are surrounded by large supporting casts. Hockey is not an individual sport like that, so other than the goaltenders, you can't really point to players in that sense. |
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| Richard (Greeley, CO): Seemed like last year was a real good year for goalies, with four keepers among the Hobey finalists. Can we expect more of the same this year? |
| Adam Wodon: Well, three of those are gone ... plus a number of other really good ones - i.e. Montoya, Crawford-West (Miami), Silverthorn (Colgate), McElhinney (CC), Bruckler (Wisconsin), and so on. A lot of new goaltending this year. Of course, goaltending in general is so much better than it's ever been, I'm sure there will be plenty of great goaltending. But you can pretty much bet there won't be four Hobey finalists again. |
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| Patrick, Augusta: Seemed like the NHL raided a bunch of schools - who was hurt the most and who was the most surprsiing defector to the pros? |
| Adam Wodon: Maine losing Jimmy Howard is tough in and of itself. Michigan was hit hardest, with Mike Brown, Al Montoya and Jeff Tambellini all leaving. That's huge. Of course, they got another ridiculously great recruiting class, so it's hard to be too concerned for the Wolverines. I thought the most surprising was Brady Murray leaving North Dakota to play in Europe. And I thought Patrick Eaves would stay four years at BC. |
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| Leon (Boulder, CO): Denver seems to have a really rough non-conference schedule this year: two trips to New England, a likely matchup with BC in the Denver Cup...do you think it's the toughest schedule in the country? |
| Adam Wodon: I haven't studied all of them that closely, but any WCHA team already has one of the nation's toughest schedules. Wisconsin has Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Western Michigan. So that's not too easy either. |
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| Dmitri (Albany): Will there ever REALLY be good West Coast college hockey? |
| Adam Wodon: West Coast college hockey? Only if the San Andreas fault somehow wipes out the West Coast all the way to Colorado Springs. |
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| John (Portsmouth, NH): Whom do you see in Div. I as flying under the radar now as a potential surprise in the national picture this season? |
| Adam Wodon: I'm sure I'll be dead wrong, but I'd like to believe that's St. Lawrence. We'll see. Among the teams already picked in the polls that might be higher, my choice for that would be Maine. |
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| Gary (Warwick, RI): If you could go to one game this year, what would it be? |
| Adam Wodon: Other than the Frozen Four, no doubt I'd love to be in Lambeau Field to see Wisconsin and Ohio State. Not only will it be interesting, it could have big NCAA implications. Just bring your hot chocolate, thermal underwear, and toques. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: That is all the time we have with Adam this afternoon. |
| Adam Wodon: Those were some great questions folks. Looking forward to another great year. See you on CSTV's debut show this Friday. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: We'll be back at the top of the hour, when we will be joined by Air Force Head Coach Frank Serratore. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: And don't forget - the hockey season kicks off on CSTV this Friday night at 8:00 Eastern when Quinnipiac visits Michigan. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: One more reminder that next week, we move back to our normal Tuesday schedule. We'll kick things off at 1:00 every Tuesday. |
| CSTV.com Moderator: See you soon with Coach Serratore. |
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