High School Hockey (Duluth, Rochester, Bloomington: houses, high schools, college)

[MN55]

A new season starts in less than 8 days. Should be interesting. Many powerhouses like Edina, Hill, and Duluth East return the majority of their top lines. Tonka has lost quite a bit from their all star team last year. Here are the preseason rankings from Let's Play Hockey:

1)Edina
2)Hill-Murray
3)Eden Praire
4)Wayzata
5)Duluth East
6)Benilde-St Margarets
7)Minnetonka
8)Apple Valley
9)Maple Grove
10)Burnsville
11)Eagan
12)Roseau
13)Bloomington Jefferson
14)White Bear Lake
15)Lakeville South
16)Holy Angels
17)Forest Lake
18)Cretin-Durham Hall
19)Blaine
20)Moorhead

Thoughts on the season?

Some interesting early season games include:
11/26 Maple Grove @ Wayzata
11/28 Burnsville @ HM
11/30 Apple Valley @ Jefferson
12/2 Burnsville @ Edina
12/4 Jefferson @ EP
12/4 HM @ BSM
12/4 Duluth East @ Wayzata
12/4 Roseau @ Tonka
12/4 Eagan @ Edina

I'll be cheering on my Pioneers!

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Blaine won't be a factor (top 20). No way no how.

[BillWallace]

Eden Prairie just got a huge boost when Chad Rau decided not to play USHL and stay with his high school team for his senior season. Quite a number of Gopher hockey fans upset by it (he's a Gopher recruit for next year) as the USHL would better prepare him for college hockey but good if you are an Eagles fan.

[MN55]

Good for Rau, I like it when players stay with their high schools all the way through - you can always go on to juniors for a year after graduating. I think he'll develop much better at EP anyways than he would have playing for Sioux Falls. The Gophers always want their players to not play senior year for their hs and look how it's been working out for them

Blaine, White Bear, and Tonka are all probably going to drop as soon as the season gets underway. Because of their names they're always ranked up there at the beggining but all have lost a lot of talent which should weigh them down, atleast at the start of the season. My pick for this year's surprise team is Forest Lake; they have a good returning batch. Look for them to win the SEC and compete with East and Rapids for 7AA.

[BillWallace]

"I think he'll develop much better at EP anyways than he would have playing for Sioux Falls."

I doubt most knowledgeable college hockey people would agree with this at all. In the USHL he'd play at least 2x as many games against much better competition while being coached by college level coaches. The Gophers struggling for 2+ years doesn't change the facts about every college pushing kids to go this route because they are better prepared to contribute right away.

[MN55]

I don't know, at EP he'll play games that mean more with a lot more pressure and a lot more fans. Sure he'll develop a lot at juniors but he'll play a year in juniors no matter what; playing college hockey a year sooner is not worth giving up a year of HS hockey to me. At EP he'll have a good chance of going deep in sections and/or state. Back in '83 I won the state tournament playing with Hill-Murray and that's an experience one will never be able to recreate playing in the USHL.

[yuppa12]

^ More attendance for high school games than the USHL? Sioux falls gets close to 3000 fans a game, not sure any high school arena holds 3000 people

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Blaine got some studs from Coon Rapids and other locations. They will have to play down (JV) for the 2010 2011 season. They pulled an "Elk River" (recruiting). So the following year they should bounce back.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by yuppa12

^ More attendance for high school games than the USHL? Sioux falls gets close to 3000 fans a game, not sure any high school arena holds 3000 people

I am quite sure that many of the high school hockey arenas hold 3000 or more people.

[MN55]

Aldrich, State Fairgrounds Colliseum, DECC, Rochester's Arena, Hastings Arena, Bemidji's new Arena, Bloomington Ice Garden, Grand Rapids Arean, Braemar, Blaine Super Rinks, Thief River Falls Arena, and probably more all hold atleast 3,000. Section semifinal and final games for EP's Section fill up Mariucci plus the state tourney draws 19,000.