Catching up with Badger hockey
June 07, 2012 | Men's Hockey
June 7, 2012
MADISON, Wis. -- We are nearly three months removed from the end of the 2011-12 Wisconsin men's hockey season, and there is still nearly four months until the Badgers are back playing at the Kohl Center, but that doesn't mean the world of Badger hockey is silent.
From La Bahn Arena, the NHL playoffs, draft and combine, the 2012-13 schedule and other topics, let this serve as your Badger hockey refresher.
The most visible thing right now in the hockey world involves the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. The Los Angeles Kings lead the New Jersey Devils, 3-1, in the best-of-seven series. Presumably you knew that already.
Good for the Kings, but a downer for Badger fans is that defenseman Davis Drewiske hasn't gotten into the lineup during the playoffs. The Kings have used the same six defensemen in every game. Drewiske played nine regular-season games for LA, and so doesn't meet the 41-game requirement to get his name etched on the cup, should the Kings bring home the trophy. A game played in the Cup finals would take care of that and make his name the 17th time a Badger alum saw his name actually etched on the Cup as a player, the most of any school in the country.
UW assistant coach Gary Shuchuk was a member of the only previous Los Angeles Kings team to reach the finals back in 1993. Shuchuk and the Kings fell to the Montreal Canadians, but he still has champagne on ice from that year which he is waiting to pop open. Former Badger Tony Granato was also on the 1993 Kings.
La Bahn Arena is coming along. The concrete slab for the ice sheet was poured a couple weeks ago and every day the facility looks more and more complete. The men's and women's locker room complexes are nearing completion and swimming and diving areas are progressing nicely. It is going to feel luxurious for the hockey programs to work out of one location, not having to check a calendar each day to figure out where practice is.
The scoreboards are expected to go in with a couple weeks and the bleachers begin arriving in early July.
October 1 is the target date for the building to get turned over to UW athletics.
The 2012-13 Wisconsin men's hockey schedule is out and season tickets are on sale. If you haven't yet, check it out. Lots of twists and turns on it this season, the last for the Badgers as a member of the WCHA.
One current and one future Badger attended the 2012 NHL Scouting Combine this week. The combine gives the NHL teams a chance to interview and physically test the world's top prospects for the upcoming NHL draft that runs June 22-23 in Pittsburgh. Defenseman Jake McCabe showed he can jump at the combine, ranking among the top-10 in a handful of physical testing categories, while incoming forward Nicolas Kerdiles interviewed with more than 20 teams at the event.
If you aren't on facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, then you've been missing the "Photo of the Day." (#UWPOTD). We are emptying the archives to share photos from the history of Badger hockey.
We've also been letting Badger fans know what new jersey numbers they'll be seeing on the ice next year on the newcomers with a daily trivia-type question on Twitter.
Eight Badgers were named Academic All-Big Ten, the conference announced at the end of May.
Tyler Barnes, Chase Drake, Joe Faust, Gavin Hartzog, Ryan Little, Eric Springer and Mark Zengerle are the Badgers who boast at least a 3.0 grade-point average. You also have to be in at least your second season at your school to get honored.
