World Junior Championships

[jtwcornell91]

[I thought I should spin this off from the BU-CU thread, which was getting a little long.]

With regard to Lenny possibly missing four games to play for Team Canadia in Nova Scotia, does anyone really think there's a college coach out there who'd begrudge a player a trip to the World Junior Championships?  Cornell's not the only team in this situation, and I recall a number of high profile players over the years that have missed a couple of games to go represent their country.  (Jason Blake of UND comes to mind.)

[Al DeFlorio]

Seems to me the OSU team that beat us in Florida last year was missing a couple of players selected for the world juniors.  

IMHO, only a fool of a coach would stand in the way of a kid chosen to play for his country in a World Championship tournament.  Sounds like something a misanthropic NHL owner might do, but not a college coach.

Bobby Orr, you may recall, at the end of his NHL career completely destroyed what was left of his already badly-damaged knee playing for Team Canada in a world tournament he just wouldn't allow himself to miss.  Anyone who doesn't understand what hockey means to a Canadian--and the importance of defending the country's hockey honor against the rest of the world--had better read Ken Dryden's Home Game.

[jeh25]

I just want to see Lenny stone Chris Higgins in a shootout to decide the championship game....  :-))

[jd212]

Does no one think we can beat Maine or any other school for that matter, without Lenny? Yeah, he's good, but so are the others, and so is our defense. If we lose any games without him, it certainly won't be the goalie's fault.

[am243]

I think the real concern isn't whether or not we can win without Lenny, its the fact that Marr and Chabot have a total of zero minutes in net at this level.  Giving one of these guys their first start against a top 5 team is a pretty scary thought.

[DeltaOne81]

Did Marr not play at all with Northeastern?

[tml5]

Damn you, Whelan!  You did this while I was responding to the BU-CU thread.  

I doubt any coach would begrudge a player taking this opportunity, if for no other reason than it might hurt recruiting and the coach's relationship with a player who is obviously top-notch.  As for the universities, see my post on the BU-CU thread.  Cornell probably encourages this from its student-athletes as well - good for the school and all that.

[adamw]

Correction: Jason Blake did not play in the world juniors.  By the time he was at North Dakota, he'd already transferred from Ferris State, and was well over 20 years old.

The point remains, however, that there are countless stars at perennial powerhouse schools that lose players every year and deal with it.  You might want to go to USCHO and read any BU or BC game recap from a holiday tournament from the last 4 years to get an idea of how decimated their rosters were from these events.

[jd212]

It doesn't matter what you guys think. It matters what the team thinks. I'm sure they are every bit as confident in Marr as they are in LeNeveu and will reflect that on the ice. Remember, everyone was scared to think of LeNeveu splitting time with Underhill, too.  And as for David, he can do whatever he wants. He doesn't owe Cornell any more loyalty than does any other student. It's not like he's on scholarship.  Kudos to him for being the best Canadian NCAA goaltender.  I'm not worried about Maine any more than any other team. If we lose to them, well, then we were supposed to, and if we beat them, it's an upset. Doesn't sound so bad.

[Alan]

I thought that you sceptics of the Maine game might like to know that their top goalie Jim Howard, possibly the major reason for their ranking, will be playing for the US.
Does this even the game up or throw it into further chaos? ::nut::

I am looking forward to the game. Lenny will be missed, but the Big Red will still be a force that Maine will have difficulty with.

[jtwcornell91]

Adam Wodon wrote:

Correction: Jason Blake did not play in the world juniors.  By the time he was at North Dakota, he'd already transferred from Ferris State, and was well over 20 years old.

So who the heck was I thinking of?  Somebody from NoDak, I thought...

[adamw]

John,

Numerous players play in the World Juniors every year, so it could be anyone.  Most of the US roster is filled with college players every year.

North Dakota tends to have older freshmen, so they don't usually get hit. The teams that recruit true freshmen get hurt worse.  By the same token, Lowell's season effectively ended last year when three of their players went to the Olympics to play for France.

[CUlater \'89]

Related to the title of this thread, if not the content, I see that Dustin Brown on the Guelph Storm is on the US roster.  He is a native of Ithaca, born in 1984.  Does anyone remember seeing him play in any of the pee-wee and other youth games at Lynah or Cass?  I remember catching a few games with players aged 6-10 back in the early 90s (including some involving 2003

[CUlater \'89]

...2003 recruit Mark McCutcheon, who was also born in 1984) but don't remember Dustin Brown's name at all.

[CUlater \'89]

Sorry, my earlier note got cut off.  It should have read:

Related to the title of this thread, if not the content, I see that Dustin Brown on the Guelph Storm is on the US roster.  He is a native of Ithaca, born in 1984.  Does anyone remember seeing him play in any of the pee-wee and other youth games at Lynah or Cass?  I remember catching a few game