Linkorama: April 24th

Just a few days after the Alaska State Hockey Association sent out a mostly ceremonial "vote of no-confidence" for Alaska-Anchorage athletic director Dr. Steve Cobb, the UAA Hockey Alumni Association chose to pile on as well, with their own vote of no-confidence. All this is going on while Anchorage is trying to hire their hockey coach. Mike Corbett met with the public as the first candidate of the four they're interviewing. Corbett seems like he might be the favorite for the job, provided he's willing to put at least some level of confidence in an athletic director that nobody else seems to have any confidence in.

Last week, Minnesota held their Boys 16/17 High Performance Festivals, which is basically step two in the three step process to qualify for the national Select Festival this summer in Rochester, NY. I was there most of the day Saturday, and the event was pretty lightly scouted. Minnesota State, Nebraska-Omaha, and Michigan Tech were the only teams I saw with coaches there. The big event is the final stage next weekend, which should draw coaches from just about every team in the country. Here are the rosters for the '97 birthdates, and for the '96 birthdates. I'll save a full write-up for after next weekend, but there were definitely some very talented players, especially from the '97 age group, that I hadn't seen before.

In the Ontario Hockey League, Game 3 of the series between Plymouth and London was a barn-burner last night, with London jumping out to a 3-0 lead, before Plymouth stormed back to take a 4-3 lead, and London responded back to earn a 6-4 win and take a 2-1 series lead. After the game, Whalers GM/coach went nuclear with a rant about how the officiating was incompetent. I hate to say it, but this game was everything that playoff hockey should be, and everything playoff hockey in the NCAA isn't. With the series guaranteed to be at least five games, it means just this series will be longer than Yale's entire NCAA title run. And even Velluci's rant was pretty great. It's nice to see some reaction from a coach other than just slumping the shoulders and saying, "I guess today wasn't our today".

In the USHL, Sioux Falls shut out Lincoln 2-0 in a decisive Game 5 last night to take home their playoff series. This hasn't seemed to get much attention in the college hockey world, but how great of a job has Cary Eades done at Sioux Falls this year? Looking at what the Stampede had available on the day they took over, the transformation he's done is remarkable. His name hasn't been mentioned much for potential NCAA jobs, but seems like he would make a great hire.

The old Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx is attempted to usurp the Schwan's Superrink as the world's largest indoor ice facility, by building nine ice rinks. The plans definitely look very cool, and with one of the arenas holding 5000 seats, they have the potential to host some pretty big-sized events. I'm not sure the demand is there to support nine hockey rinks in that area.

Jay-Z woke up one day and decided he wanted to be a sports agent. His next target to bring on as a client is Seth Jones.