This weekend marks conference tournament time for all five college hockey leagues.   Each league will crown a champion that gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

However, several teams, including the Wisconsin Badgers, have already been eliminated from the NCAA tournament discussion, while other teams’ seasons will come to an end this weekend.  Therefore, AHL and NHL clubs will start to see former college player filter into their ranks in the coming weeks.

Here is a list of eliminated teams, bubble schools and NCAA tournament locks.  Seniors from the eliminated schools, plus players who decide to leave early, can sign professional contracts and move on to the next step in their hockey careers (Author’s Note, I did not include the Atlantic Hockey Conference because only that league’s auto-bid will make the field).

WCHA

Eliminated teams:  Michigan Tech, Minnesota, Minnesota State-Mankato, St. Cloud State and Wisconsin.

Bubble teams or teams that need to win their conference tournament to advance:  Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha.

NCAA locks (teams listed 10th or higher in the Pair-Wise Rankings):  Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota.

CCHA

Eliminated teams:  Alaska-Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, Ohio State.

Bubble teams or teams that need to win their conference tournament to advance:  Western Michigan.

NCAA locks:  Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame.

Hockey East

Eliminated Teams:  Boston University, Maine, Massachusetts, Massachusetts-Lowell, Providence, Vermont.

Bubble teams or teams that need to win their conference tournament to advance:  New Hampshire, Northeastern.

NCAA locks:  Boston College and Merrimack.

ECAC

Eliminated teams:  Brown, Clarkson, Harvard, Princeton, Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence.

Bubble teams or teams that need to win their conference tournament to advance:  Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, RPI.

NCAA locks:  Union, Yale.

It’s been quite a week this week in the public opinion arena about the Zdeno Chara play, and whether the lack of supplementary discipline was appropriate.

Here’s the hit.

I think the question I want to put out there is this:  Where does finishing the check end, and where does a late hit begin?

Hamilton 3
Texas 2

Manitoba 7
San Antonio 2

Grand Rapids 5
Oklahoma City 2

Who wants it??????  Anyone?

(Admirals — you’re included in that question too)

You know how it looked like there’d be a cross-over playoff team in our conference for awhile there?  Not so sure anymore.  So far in the month of March, the North Division is 17-5-3 against the West Division.

Ouch.

They’ve made up a ton of ground in the standings.  If the season ended today, 5th place Chicago would have a one point lead on 4th place Lake Erie.  But Chicago has played one extra game.  And they’ve played four more games than San Antonio, who are just two points off the pace.

It’s going to be a photo finish.  I know that’s not particularly insightful.  But saying it is an easy way to conclude this post.  So I’m going to take the easy way out this time.

See you tomorrow.

It is officially crunch time in the American Hockey League.  Not a single team has more than 18 games remaining on their schedule, so the ceiling for the amount of points that each team can accumulate from this point forward is just 36 or less.

Starting tonight Milwaukee embarks on a stretch of six games in nine nights.  With the lone exception of Lake Erie on March 19, the Admirals will face all West Division opponents during this run and only divisional teams for the rest of the month.

As it currently stands, the Admirals occupy the top spot in the division and in the Western Conference with 81 points.  Four or more wins in the next six games or at the very least a pair of victories over the team that occupies the sixth slot, San Antonio, would go a long way toward creating a comfort zone for the playoffs.

Admirals coach Lane Lambert knows his team has a great opportunity to create some distance at the top of the ladder with some strong play.

“Now more than ever you really start to see teams move,” Lambert said.  “The games become bigger and bigger as we go along here, so this stretch of games is huge (for our club).”

So Roundtable, during this stretch of six games, Milwaukee will play three at home and three on the road, which include a pair of contests at sixth place San Antonio.

What are your predictions for how the shorthanded Admirals will handle these next nine nights?  Would anything less than eight points be a disappointment?

There were some Interweb rumors about this yesterday, and they have now been confirmed.

The Predators have recalled defenseman Teemu Laakso from the Admirals.

There hasn’t been a corresponding move on the Admirals roster, which leads me to think that Roman Josi is still on schedule to return to action tomorrow night,and the Admirals will roll with just 6 defensemen on the roster.

Kevin Klein is a bit banged up, and it’s his injury that prompted the recall.

Admirals GM Paul Fenton was in town over the weekend to catch a couple of games, and was gracious enough to give me a few minutes of his time.  We talked about promotions, development, and a few names of players that may be wearing a Milwaukee Admirals uniform before the season is done…..

AR:  Jon Blum got his first call-up recently — has this been a long time coming?

PF:  I think his development process was a long time coming.  We drafted him when he was 160 pounds, and give Jon credit, he’s put the work in.  He’s been playing 25-28 minutes a night down here, honing his skills even more.  The transition I think was seamless for him.  He was really comfortable when he came up, he looks like he’s fit and he’s ready to be an NHL player for good.

AR:  He looked like the happiest guy in the world getting his first NHL goal the other night…

PF:  He looked like it, and so did the guy that scouted him – I did!  First kid from California, born and bred there…it was nice for the both of us.

AR:  Blake Geoffrion recently made the trip too…is this sooner than you expected to see him in a Predators uniform?

PF:  He started out slow this year and it took him awhile as it has with a lot of his career (both in college and at the US team too) to adapt.  When he came up the first night he was really nervous, and I talked to him afterward and told him “you belong” .  Honestly that’s the most important thing I could tell him.  “You belong.  Be comfortable.  Play like you normally do down there.  Look at the guy across from you, because it’s somebody that you’ve played against at some level, and you deserve to be here.”  And progressively he got better every game, and the last two games scoring back to back goals for us.  Got his first game winner against Vancouver, and now it looks like he’s getting more and more comfortable each shift.

AR:  Anders Lindback played four games in five nights for the Admirals recently.  Did he get everything out of the trip that you were hoping he would?

PF:  We just wanted to continue the process of developing him.  With all of our kids, we know that they have to play.  And the battle that we’re in, and the star that we have with Pekka Rinne, it makes it difficult to get him games.  Give him credit, he came in in the beginning of the year when Pekka got hurt in the second game, and he kept us in things from then on.  At the same time, we’ve got Mark Dekanich here, who is quite the prospect as well.  Deservedly so.  It could just as easily be Mark up there as it could be Anders.  We’re fortunate to have some pretty good depth here.

AR:  Probably the question that I’m getting asked the most these days is “What’s the deal with Wade Belak?”  Should we expect to see him in Milwaukee?

PF:  Wade is just going to stay in residence with us.  Technically he’s on the roster here, but he’s just going to stay in residence with us.

AR:  You brought in some new guys over the last few weeks to help out, and you saw them produce in Chicago the other night.  What are some of your thoughts on the new guys?

PF:  It’s nice to be able to find quality guys like that to fill in.  (Connor) Shields came to us here in training camp, and when he left, I told him that you never know, you might be back here at some point.  It’s good to be familiar with somebody.  He was one of the guys we looked at for a replacement.  I’ve known the McBride kid since he was at St. Lawrence, watching some colleges, so had familiarity with him.  And same with Coulombe playing in the Quebec league.  We had a lot of good things to say from our scouts on all of these guys, and you look for people that are going to fit.  They were really good  last night…Coulombe got hit from behind, and I didn’t think he was going to come back.  That shows how tough of a kid he really his.

AR:  One of the guys on the team that’s been a lot of fun to watch this year has been Gabriel Bourque.  How would you describe his growth as a pro?

PF:  His adjustment period has been like one of these gradual climbing the hills.  Every time that I watch him play now, he gets a step quicker, a hair stronger, and he uses his sense – he’s got a unique sense where you don’t expect him to make the passes or plays that he does.  He bodies positions so well to be able to do things.  He brings energy, kills penalties, can play on any one of your four lines.  That’s the nice thing – we recognize that, and at some point he’ll get his chance too.  But we want him to just continue to play and develop his game, just like the rest of our guys have until their time is ready.

AR:  As the season winds down, sometimes we see guys from the colleges or junior teams spending some time with the Admirals on ATO contracts.  Who are some of the guys we may see this year?

PF: I’ve got some guys that are signed…two kids in Guelph….Mike Latta and (Taylor) Beck are signed contracted guys.  And if they do get eliminated out of the playoffs, they’ll be coming here.  Ryan Ellis is the same way.  I’ve got a couple of European guys that I’m talking about.  And I’ve got Ben Ryan coming out of Notre Dame.  The way that I have it right now, I think I’ve got seven guys penciled in that I could see being here by the end of March and contributing.

No huge surprises.  “The Proof” is on the list.  Dylan Hunter is in residence, and Nick Spaling will not be joining us for a playoff run.

Goaltenders: Dekanich, Smith

Skaters: Bartlett, Begin, Blum, Bourque, Flynn, Ford, Geoffrion, Halischuk, Johnson, Josi, Klasen, Laakso, Lewis, Mueller, Palin, Santorelli, Thang, Thuresson, Van Guilder, Wilson

In Residence: Coulombe, Hunter, McBride, Shields

It’s that time of the year again.

Monday is Clear Day.  The date when the AHL teams need to put together a roster of 22 players, and say that they are the only guys who can play the rest of the season and in the playoffs.

Of course, should emergency conditions arise as a result of a recall or injury or suspension, it would allow guys not on the clear day roster to play.

And then the voodoo-rosternomics begin.

The big surprise last season was that Ryan Maki was left off the clear day roster….yet he played 15 regular season games the rest of the season, and all 7 playoff games against the Wolves (including a HUGE goal to extend the series).

The surprise the previous year was that Oren Eizenman, who had been with the team for 12 days and played in just five games, made the list.  And Mark Santorelli was listed as “in residence”.

Should we expect any surprises this year?  Paul Fenton says no.

“Certainly Lane and I talk every day about what our roster is, and if we’re healthy, we’re in a good position here.  We like the team that we’ve put together, we like the atmosphere and the way that people get along here.  For the most part, you’re going to see all the players that we’ve had here this year with Lane on our clear day list.  You won’t have a surprise, you won’t have Belak on our clear day list or anything.  It’s going to be 99% of the players that we’ve had here unless something drastic happens.”

So we’ll take a stab at who we think is a lock, and who we think is on the bubble to make the clear day list.

LOCKS:

G: Dekanich, Smith

D:  Laakso, Blum, Ford, Johnson, Palin, Josi, Lewis

F:  Mueller, Bourque, Kelsey Wilson, Geoffrion, Klasen, Thuresson, Van Guilder, Halischuk, Thang, Flynn, Bartlett

That’s 20 right there.

Bubble:

Santorelli — He was a healthy scratch in Chicago on Friday night, while McBride and Shields played.  And has been scratched on numerous occasions this season.  Has he completely fallen out of favor?

Spaling:  Remember him?  He has played well in Nashville, but he started the season with us.  They could send him down if we’re playing hockey when the Preds are done, but is that enough to put him on the clear day list?

Begin:  A huge question mark around his health.  Is the chance that he’d be okay worth a clear day roster spot, or would it be better to just keep him in residence?

Hunter: Playing well, but he’s the guy that has been shuttled back and forth to Cincy a few times.  Does his what-have-you-done-for-me-lately resume put him on the list?

McBride, Shields, Coulombe:  Can any of them channel their inner-Eizenman?  Or are they better served as being “in residence”?

So Roundtable….. Do you predict any surprises?  Which of the bubble guys do you think have the best chance?  Do I have someone on the lock list that doesn’t belong there?