Subject: USA U-18 Team

Awesome. Good luck. If you need any help scouting let me know.

Pucknut and I will likely be able to cover all necessary scouting of prospects and opponents for the U18 team.

You might consider asking if usalatvian needs any help. Since I'm the U20 assistant this season, the U20 assistant won't be able to help with scouting, but it depends on if and what usalatvian wants help scouting.

The rest of the Detroit Red Wings NT players are now on the market.

I promised to talk about the potential of the Detroit Red Wings players on the market earlier. Keep this post in mind if you are bidding on one of these players hoping to get a NT player.

1) Ken Little: the best of 4 very close 16 year old centers I have scouted. One of the others has noticeably better qualities.

2) Dave Timmons: ranked 7 out of 17 year old centers right now, but only the top 1 or 2 are significantly better. The other 4 have good but not perfect facilities, so he might have a chance if he ends up on a team with better facilities. His qualities are relatively average though. Timmons is ranked lower than he could be since his training is a little off.

3) Daniel Burnside: the 6th string LW. I probably would not have added him to the team if his team were not about to fold. His qualities are average. Even so, with an OR of 881, he could be a solid prospect for someone.

4) Jeffrey Santos: the 4th best 17 year old LD (not including UD's). He's not far behind #2 and #3 and has much better qualities. If trained without technique, he could pass them pretty quickly to take over #2. Decent shooting for a defenseman.

5) Zachary Rozek: #4 among 17 year old RD's (not including UD's). Very close to #3 who has only a level 14 training facility and a level 14 regeneration facility.

6) Robby Change: he is the 1B goaltender for this season's U18 team. Depending on who has the best luck with CL, he could become the best goaltender from this age group.

7) Lew Sullivan: I have him ranked #4 among 16 year old RW's (not including UW's). His OR is a bit low due to being drafted in later in the season, but he has great qualities.

8) Skip Nugent: I have him ranked #5 (I added him back into the rankings; he wasn't considered in what I wrote for Timmons). His qualities are decent, but 4 CL at 17 is pretty bad. If another player is close in ability to him next season, I would give the other player the tiebreaker due to Nugent's bad CL.

Hello from the PPM U18 Ice Hockey World Championships in Poland! The United States lost to Germany in overtime today 1-2 and beat Canada yesterday 5-0. The United States has clinched the next round, guaranteeing a 9th consecutive season in the top division.

In yesterday's game, the U.S. defeated rival Canada 5-0, outshooting them 29-18. The United States won 47.4% of the faceoffs. The United States had 4 penalties to Canada's 2, but neither team converted a powerplay.

Goals were scored by Primo Simmons (Bouncing Pucks), Rafael Lowery (Salt Lake Karma Police), Wallace Garcia (formerly from the Cold Mountain Freeze), and two by Ivan Mecier (Slatington Serpents).

Both teams have elite goaltending, but Canada's was the only one to give up any goals. The United States built up a large enough lead that the team got to rest a bit in the third period.

I've spent much of this season developing the chemistry of counterattacks to have a new tactic to work with in the future. In addition, I hoped opponents would think I intended the tactic to play a big role this season - it seems that was successful against Canada. Matching up the best lines offensively from the United States with the weaker ones defensively from Canada seemed to have helped as well.

In today's game, the United States tied the game at 1 at the halfway point. In overtime, Germany scored with 39 seconds left to win 2-1. Ivan Mecier (Slatington Serpents) scored the sole U.S. goal for his tournament leading third goal. The United States outshot Germany 31-23. The United States won only 41.3% of its faceoffs. I suppose the U.S. doesn't have any elite 1200+ OR centers, but its other strengths, especially defense and goaltending, compensated. Both teams gave up 5 penalties and scored one powerplay goal in regulations.

The 4th team in the division, Denmark, has no manager and has lost to both of the other teams 0-4. The United States has 4 points so, and Denmark can only get a maximum of 3 with a (highly unlikely) win tomorrow against the United States. Unless the United States loses to a basically dead team and Canada loses to Germany by a total of 8 GD, the United States will carry its 4 points to the next round. Tomorrow's game against Denmark doesn't matter, so I will be resting the U18 U.S. team to the maximum extent possible. Canada and Germany will both have to expend energy because their game counts for the next round.

Only one team that had 7 points in the qualifying round ever missed the playoffs in the U18 age category, so one more win in the next round should be enough to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, the two best teams in the tournament (Hungary and Slovakia) will likely join the United States' group in the qualifying round. Based on team strength (and the opportunity to rest tomorrow), the U.S. should go into the next round as one of the top 4 strongest teams (the Czech Republic should round out the top 4). Hungary and Slovakia have a small chance to face relegation tomorrow with bad luck.

Good luck to the U20 and senior U.S. National Hockey teams. I really like the U18 team's chances this season to make the semifinals or perhaps further.

The United States lost 1-3 today to Denmark in a game that did not matter. Canada lost as well, but the combined GD from the losses was not enough to cost Canada a spot in the qualifying round (together with a win for the United States for the qualifying round).

The main takeaway is that although the top few lines are good enough to compete with most other teams, the dropoff in talent (due to a diminishing talent base) is significant after the first 3-4 lines. Whether or not that bodes ill for the future, this season's team is still a serious contender in this tournament.

Since I rested the team today, the United States will not lose much team strength and should gain 3-5 team strength on all other teams. This is enough to move from a tie for 4th in team strength possibly ahead of the Czech Republic for third.

The United States will face the two strongest teams (Slovakia and Hungary) in the next 2 games and then the weakest remaining team (Croatia) in the last game of this round.

A single win should be enough to advance to the playoffs. All the teams in the other group are close (other than maybe the Czech Republic), so I am more worried about avoiding the possibility of playing Slovakia or Hungary in the second round of the playoffs than whomever I might play in the first round of the playoffs. Teams ranked 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 in the same group are capable of playing each other in the second round of the playoffs. My second goal is to get that one win as soon as possible so I can possibly rest the team again for the third game of this round.

Good job so far, keep it going. Looks like all 3 of our teams are doing well so far.

GO USA!

A win today, against one of the weaker remaining teams (but not by enough that the RNG can't give the U.S. a loss), would advance the U.S. to the playoffs. An overtime loss combine with a Hungarian loss would also do the trick.

tough break to just miss out on the playoffs. Keep up the good work!

The roster for next season is finalized. The roster from Saturday's game had most of the players that will be starting this season, but I replaced a low OR RW with a slightly better RW, I dismissed my center (whose CL had fallen to 4 at 17) and added another 4th line C, and I replaced the 4th line LD with a promising project LD. In addition, most of the players on bench are new.

Defense, especially on the first line, is strong this season. Offense is a little average, especially outside of the top line, though Glass at least is elite. Dow might end up as the best goaltender to start for the team so far. I'll go into more detail at another time.

The United States plays Poland today in the first game of the U18 World Championships. The two teams have already played 3 exhibition games this season. The United States is 1-2 in 3 exhibition games against Poland. Poland won 4-3 in a shootout in the first round of the World Championships in season 24. The United States hasn't had the greatest exhibition season (played largely without its top players that already had good chemistry), but the team is currently on a 4 game win streak.

The United States is in a group with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Serbia. The three teams have spent a cumulative 2 seasons outside of the top division since the U18 World Championships started in season 11. Based current on team strength, the United States should be the strongest team in the group, close to the Czech Republic. With that said, I know that Poland at least did not play its starting goaltender in its last exhibition, so I expect their team strength to be at least a little closer by the end of the day. Currently, the United States has one of the top 4-5 team strengths in the tournament. The United States has by far the best defense and goaltending. Offense is on par with the other teams, and shooting is low (though Serbia and the Czech Republic are far above average). The United States has possibly one of the top 2 goaltenders in tournament and one of the top 4 defenses in the tournament. Hopefully that will compensate for the largely average offense.

Lineup:
G1: Juán Dow (Razorback Thugs)
G2: Eduardo Hedrick (formerly War Pigs)
G3: Ron Wolf (Momentum)

LW1: Quentin Tomlinson (Smart People)
C1: Ernesto Glass (formerly Detroit Red Wings(t))
RW1: Kelly Stockmeyer (Montana Miners)
LD1: Craig Peterson (Razorback Thugs)
RD1: Frank Oglesby (Momentum)

LW2: Kenny Bergman (WhaleForever)
C2: Peter Culver (Sticky Toads)
RW2: Gibson Gath (WhaleForever)
LD2: Adam Christianson (Dinamo 1983)
RD2: Jacob Littlefield (Momentum)

LW3: Morris Benkert (formerly Smart People)
C3: Quentin Brannan (formerly Bouncing Pucks)
RW3: Dan Krupp (formerly Shugar Daddies (t))
LD3: Chester Hurst (Momentum)
RD3: Brad Garberson (Smart People)(on the same Slovakian team as Morris Benkert )

LW4: Chuck Levi (Rochester Americans)
C4: Felix Hernandez (WhaleForever)
RW4: Stacy Givens (Kentucky ManBearPigs)
LD4: Wendell Lenhart (Sierra Stars)
RD4: Theodore Vazquez (Montana Miners)

LW5: Guy Raymond (formerly Doppelgangers)
C5: Dan Briggs (Razorback Thugs)
RW5: Dan Mott (Momentum)
LD5: Rodney Feinhaur (Slatington Serpents)
RD5: George Ramirez (Sierra Stars)

The United States beat Poland 4-1 today. Shots were even at 34-34. The United States won 48.3% of the faceoffs. The United States scored on 2 of 5 powerplays and killed 8 penalty kills. The United States dominated play in the 1st and 2nd, and Poland took over but failed to convert in the third when it had an advantage on tactics. The second power play unit converted on two power plays, and the Glass line converted on two even strength opportunities. In goal, the Dow, J. index rose to +3 for today.

In the other game, Serbia failed to prepare or else is conserving energy (given the strength of the group, this could be a viable strategy to avoid relegation). The United States now has a +6 GD advantage over Poland and a +9 advantage over Serbia. In the event of a tie, this significant head start could make the difference.

The United States currently has the second highest team strength in the tournament at 179 after Hungary (the United States wouldn't have to face Hungary until the Playoffs). The United States has the best goaltender out of the goaltenders that played today. It also has the third best defense after Hungary and Finland, both in group A.

With all that said, the United States plays the Czech Republic tomorrow which is already close in ability and also seems to have rested some of its better players today including a goaltender that is at about the same level as Dow. The match is still winnable, but it will be difficult. Since the two teams that lost today play each other tomorrow, even the loser of this game will go into the third game of the preliminary round on Monday in a playoff position. The winner will clinch the next round. In any case, both the United States and the Czech Republic are in good positions to advance to the qualifying round, making this game important for potentially qualifying for the playoffs. If the United States can even get 1 point tomorrow, then it would guarantee in the worst case scenario a tie at 4 points with a 6 point GD advantage over Poland.

In group 2 (part of the same qualifying round group), Germany shut out Romania 3-0, and Spain beat Canada 6-5 in overtime.

Thanks a good luck from other.

Congratulations on the win. While I would have liked to win or at least hold for 2 more minutes at the end, the result could have been worse for the United States given the shot totals. Good luck in the rest of the tournament.

It seems like all of our teams have taken a lot more penalties than our opponents have. Any idea why that would be?