Showcase Wrap-Up

The NAHL Showcase is in the books, now it's on to the Central Division schedule. We won't have to wait long to find out how we stack up against our 2 biggest rivals. The Express play this Friday in Mason City for the Outlaw's home opener, and Saturday night in Albert Lea for the Thunder's home opener. The Express then open their home schedule with a game against the Alexandria Blizzard on October 3rd.

Here's what I think I know at this point:

- The Express have a pretty solid goaltender in Adam Buegler.

- The defense played much better Saturday, but I'm a still a little worried. I think the talent level is probably there, but the execution needs to continue to improve. They need some time to adapt to Coach Cullen's system, and just more time on the ice together. It's early, they'll come around.

- The offense has a lot of individual talent, and we saw Saturday that when they play together as a team, they can light up the scoreboard. We also saw it for a stretch against Mahoning Valley on Wednesday. As with the defense, they need some time to adjust to the speed of the NAHL, and fully grasp Coach Cullen's system. This will be the strength of the team this year, and will be well worth the price of admission.

- Regarding my last two points: In an interview with KRFO Radio's Roy Koenig, Coach Cullen commented that, and I'm paraphrasing here: It takes longer to teach the system that Cullen wants this team to play, and the effort was there but the execution wasn't. That's a great point by my favorite junior hockey coach, and bodes well for the future.

- I tried to watch as many of the other games at the Showcase as I could, and one of things I noticed was that the talent level across the league seems more even than in past years. This puts more emphasis on effort level and coaching. The guys will need to bring "it" every night.

- The South Division is going to be huge dogfight this season. Wichita Falls and Topeka both went undefeated at the showcase, and Springfield looks better than I expected. St Louis lost a ton of guys and the coach from last year's championship team, but they always seem to be at the top of the standings at the end of the year. The Express will play home-and-home series against both Springfield and St. Louis this season.

- I was 7-3 on my predictions for Saturday's games, and finished 25-15 overall.


Don't forget the first "Express Coaches Show" will be Monday night at 6:05pm on KRFO radio with Roy Koenig, Coach Cullen, and some players. To listen online, you can follow the link on the official Express website.

Coming up this week, I'll do previews of our Central Division rivals, make my overall NAHL predictions, and debut the Big Kahuna NAHL Power Rankings.

Thanks for reading, see you at the rink!

--BK