Express Draft Pick - Bo Dolan

Player Profile - Bo Dolan - 5'10"/179lbs - Defenseman

1990 birth year from St. Paul, Minnesota. Dolan was drafted by the Express in May's NAHL Entry Draft. He played his high school hockey for the perennial powerhouse Hill-Murray Pioneers. He scored 5 goals and 21 assists in only 16 games, and was named Honorable Mention All-State as the Pioneers won the 2008 State Championship. He also played on Team NE in the Minnesota Elite League, and on the Section 4 Great 8 Team.

He was drafted in the 6th round of the 2007 USHL Futures Draft by the Sioux Falls Stampede, who also drafted Express Alum Tim Smith in the 8th round of that draft. Bo made the Stampede roster heading into the 2008/09 season, and played 18 games before being traded to the Tri-City Storm on December 8, 2008.



Tri-City was an absolute disgrace as a franchise last season. Money problems forced the coaching staff to recruit solely off the internet, and it showed on the ice as the Storm finished a USHL worst 11-48-1. The team has since been sold, and will have a new coach for the 2009/10 season. The resulting roster upheaval led to Dolan's release by the Storm, and I'm sure that played a part in the Express's interest in him. He attended the Fargo Force's tryout camp earlier this month, and hopefully we see him July 17th at the Express Main Camp.


My take: The Express franchise has had tremendous luck with Hill-Murray guys over the years. Dolan would join Brian Arrigoni, Dan Cecka, Ryan Guentzel, Gabe Guentzel, Vince Unklesbay, and Tom O'Brien, as former Pioneers to suit up for the Express. He was the best defenseman on the best team in Minnesota in 2007/08, and would certainly be a solid fixture on the blueline for our favorite junior hockey team.

Dolan is not your prototypical big defenseman at 5'10". He makes up for his lack of size by playing a tough, physical brand of hockey, and also isn't afraid to drop the gloves and take care of business that way when necessary. I mostly agree with Coach Cullen's attitude when it comes to fighting, but at times last year, teams took some liberties with our guys knowing they wouldn't have to answer for their misdeeds. Dolan tallied 4 fights last season, and his presence in the Express lineup would at least make the opposing teams think twice before running our goalie.






I'm excited to see Dolan playing for the Express. He's a USHL veteran with a full year of junior hockey under his belt, and has some scoring ability. He will fill the hole left by Tim Smith's departure to Providence College.

Welcome to Owatonna Bo Dolan.

See you at the rink.

--Big Kahuna

Open Tryout Camp Roundup

With three more games Sunday morning, followed by exit interviews with the coaching staff, the Owatonna Express Open Tryout Camp is now in the books. It was an enjoyable, albeit long, weekend at the rink, with a total of 15 games played between the 6 assembled teams of candidates. Somewhere in the vicinity of 30-40 players were asked to return for the Main Express Tryout Camp in July, and the rest will have to chase the dream somewhere else.

The 30-40 players that were asked back along with the tendered players, the draft picks, and some of the returning Express players will make up the 80 man roster for the Main Camp July 17-19 at the 4 Seasons Centre in Owatonna. From that group, the 2009-2010 Owatonna Express 25-Man roster will be chosen.

As is customary for the Express organization, the camp ran very smoothly. Thank you to the dozens of volunteers that pitched in their time, and a big thank you to Gayle Kozelka for keeping all of us volunteers fed throughout the weekend.

Camp Tidbits:

- Returning Express forward Zach Vierling made a surprise appearance at camp on Saturday. He made the drive down from the Twin Cities to get some off-season game action. He played 1 game with the White Team, and 2 games with the Black Team. He tallied 2 goals on penalty shots in his first game, both on nifty backhand shots.

- Sean Lipinski, brother of former Express player Matt Lipinski was in attendance for the second straight summer.

- Jake Suter, the son of legendary NHL player Gary Suter played with the White Team throughout the weekend. Gary Suter is a veteran of 17 seasons in the NHL, played in 4 NHL All-Star Games, won the Stanley Cup with the 1989 Calgary Flames, and played in the Olympics. Jake's cousin Ryan Suter is a member of the Nashville Predators, and his Uncle Bob Suter was a member of the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 USA Hockey Team.


See you at the rink.

--BK

Express Open Tryout Camp Opens

The Owatonna Express Open Tryout Camp kicked off tonight with a goalie session. 12 goalies and a handful of shooters took the ice for the session which lasted about 90 minutes. They did several series of drills with Coaches Cullen and Fink watching the action from the upstairs observation room.

The rest of the 100+ skaters will check in Friday morning for the main portion of tryout camp. Each prospective Express player will play 2 games Friday, 2 games Saturday, and 1 game Sunday morning. The guys that stand out this weekend will get invited back to the Main tryout camp in July. Good luck guys.

See you at the rink.

--BK

2009-2010 Schedule Released

Most of the 2009-10 NAHL schedule was released today. The 4 games the Express will play at the showcase have yet to be announced, but we did find out the schedule for the other 54 games.

- The Express season opener is September 12 in Albert Lea against the Thunder. This will be the only game the Express play prior to the Showcase.

- The home opener is October 10th when the Alexandria Blizzard come to Owatonna.

- Much like last season, the schedule has the Express playing primarily within the Central Division. 11 games versus Albert Lea with 6 of them at home, 13 games versus North Iowa with 6 of them at home, 12 games versus Bismarck with 6 games at home, and 11 games versus Alexandria with 5 games at home.

- Games outside the Division are: 3 game series in Topeka against the Roadrunners in December, 2 game series in late February against Topeka in Owatonna, and a 2 game series against the Kenai River Brown Bears in early March at the 4 Seasons Centre in Owatonna.

I'll post plenty more on the schedule later this week.

See you at the rink this weekend.

--BK

Express Draft Pick - Zach Sarig

Player Profile - Zach Sarig - 6'2"/205lbs - Defenseman

1990 birth year from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Drafted by the Express in the May NAHL Entry Draft. He was also drafted by the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL (formerly the Mahoning Valley Phantoms of the NAHL), in the 16th round(200th overall) of the 2009 USHL Entry Draft. Played for both Wilson High School and the Philadelphia Jr Flyers program in previous seasons. In 2008/09 he tallied 11 goals and 5 assists in 21 games as captain of his high school team, and 3 goals and 13 assists in 15 games for the Jr Flyers.

My take: I couldn't find much information on Zach, so we'll have to wait until tryout camp to get a better idea of what kind of player he is. He is taller than the average Express defensemen has been over the years. At 6'2"/205 he is the same height as Zach Tolkinen and Joe Beaudette, but 20 lbs heavier. Judging by his penalty minute totals with the Jr Flyers, it looks like he is not afraid of the physical side of the game.

The Express have a fairly full cupboard when it comes to defensemen, so competition at tryout camp should be fierce. I can't wait to these guys in action this fall.



USHL Update: On July 1 the USHL teams need to be cut down to a 25-man roster, so they have been very busy with tryout camps the last month. There are several more taking place this week. Several current Express players and Express draft picks have attended these camps, and the following is a summary at this point:

- Mike Yanis (draft pick) - attended the Sioux Falls Stampede's camp in May, and made the camp all-star game. I don't believe the Stampede announced their 30-man roster following camp.

- Dan Cecka - attended the Omaha Lancer's camp a few weeks. I heard through the grapevine that he made the initial 30-man roster following camp. Dan is a 1989 birth year, and USHL teams are limited to 5 - 1989 birth year players on their teams. We should have a better idea of his status when the 25-man rosters are announced in early July.

- Zach Vierling - attended the Cedar Rapids RoughRider's camp. I have seen conflicting reports on whether he made the RoughRiders initial 30-man roster following tryout camp. One source reported he did make the roster, and the Cedar Rapids newspaper did not have him on their list.

- Andrew O'Leary (draft pick)- also attended camp in Cedar Rapids. Several sources had him making the RoughRider's initial 30-man roster.

- Bo Dolan (draft pick) - attended the Fargo Force camp the weekend of June 5-7. I don't believe the Force had an all-star game that weekend, and I haven't seen a 30-man roster released. Another thing that could affect his status with the Force would be the coaching change the Force will make with the departure of Dean Blais. Best known for his stint as head coach with the dirty, rotten, cheap-shotting North Dakota Fighting Sioux, Blais coached the expansion Force to the USHL championship series this spring, before losing to the eventual champion Indiana Ice. Blais announced last week that he is taking the head coaching job at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

- Blake Matejcek (draft pick) - attended the Lincoln Stars camp two weeks ago. He did not make the camp all-star game.

- Ben Montgomery (draft pick) - attended the Tri-City Storm's tryout camp this last weekend, and did not make the camp all-star game.


See you at the rink this weekend.

--BK

Happy Birthday!!

Today marks the 1st birthday of the Express blog.

I want to thank all of the people that read and contribute to the blog. An overwhelming percentage of folks have been very nice to deal with, and I look forward to another year of blogging on the Express.

See you at the rink.

--Big Kahuna

Monday Tidbits

- The Alexandria Blizzard named Doc DelCastillo as their new General Manager/Head Coach. Read the article here: http://www.nahl.com/news/story.cfm?id=1022 .

- The North Iowa Outlaws named Garrett Strot as their new Head Coach. He served as Assistant Coach with the Outlaws last season under Jeff Crouse. Read the article here: http://www.nahl.com/news/story.cfm?id=1018

- Former Express defenseman Anthony Orange finished last season with the Illinois State Redbirds. Anthony left the Express shortly after the Showcase last season, and I lost track of where he ended up. This article explains the circumstances: http://www.illinoisstatehockey.com/news2.php?news_id=142423 . Anthony was a well-behaved, polite, and very strong kid, and I'm happy he landed in a good situation with the Redbirds.

- Tryout camp season is in full swing for both the NAHL and the USHL teams. The Express Open Tryout Camp is only 17 days away, but if you need a hockey fix, there are camps every weekend within an hour of Owatonna. It was interesting to see some familiar names pop up at USHL camps last weekend.

- My final topic for discussion on this post is something I have been holding off on for a few days. The anger it brought up in me was not going to lead to a very nice article, but now that I have had a few days to process it, I will give you my $0.02 worth. Former Express defenseman Kevin Wright is getting a royal screw job by the NCAA. This article explains the situation: http://www.gazette.com/articles/wright-55153-hockey-ncaa.html .

My take: I got to know Kevin back in 2005/06 after he was injured early in the season. As the rest of the team was skating and working out, all Kevin could do was ride a stationary bike. This provided me an opportunity to shoot the breeze with him, and Kevin quickly turned into one of my favorite players. When he finally returned to the lineup, he was just a role player on the team. He came back for the 2006/07 team, and played a big role as that Express team made a second consecutive run to the Robertson Cup tournament. He played well enough to earn a Division 1 offer from the Air Force Academy. What should have been a happy ending for him, has now turned into disappointment after the epic display of stupidity on the part of the NCAA.

Barely a day goes by without some sort of scandal happening in the kingdom that the NCAA oversees. Big time basketball and football recruits getting paid under the table, or "student" athletes that can barely speak english and write their own name passing the SAT/ACT tests. You don't have to even leave the state of Minnesota to see how messed up the situation is. Jan Ganglehoff wrote how many papers for Gopher basketball players to keep them eligible?? Gopher football players (some of them already convicted felons before arriving at the U of M) committing a litany of crimes in our own backyard. At the University of Iowa alone, Hawkeye athletes were charged with 22 separate crimes in a 19 month period between April of 2007 and August of 2008. For an encore, need I remind you that the NCAA is responsible for the BCS bowl system.

All of that stuff going on, and they choose to end the playing career of a kid with a 3.67 gpa while serving his country at a service academy. At some point, you would think common sense would come into play and the right decision would be rendered. All this situation is going to do is weaken college hockey by driving more good players into the Canadian leagues.

Bad move NCAA, pull your head out of its hiding place and let Kevin finish his playing career on the ice where he belongs.

See you at the rink.

--Big Kahuna