Success at the Brick?

jg2112 · Post by **jg2112** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:33 am

What are your recommendations for Team Minnesota to have more success at the Brick in future years? I'll click submit and wait.

My youngest daughter will be Brick eligible in 2020, your recommendations will help her candidacy : )

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:43 am

Have the Wild get involved vs the Blades. That way you would pull more kids from the other AAA programs. [Made/Gold/yada yada] Not bashing Blades just think we could pull more top kids with a Jr Wild type deal.

yesiplayedhockey · Post by **yesiplayedhockey** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:10 pm

I could be wrong but I thought the relationship is between the Blades and the Brick? So why would the Blades just surrender that relationship to the Wild? Isn't the Brick the Blades # 1 recruiting tool? AAA hockey is so watered down in Minnesota I highly doubt they will ever be real competitive team again. Parents have started to figure out you don't have to travel to Canada to find great hockey and you definitely don't have to drop $5,000 and 10 days of your life just for one silly tournament. Bernie has the same problem with his Pee Wee tournament in Quebec. What parent would pull their kid out of their associations hockey season just for one silly tournament? The only answer I can think of is that crazy parent who wants to Facebook grandma that their kid is playing for "Team Minnesota." Otherwise it make no sense at all. If I was guessing I'd say out of this years Brick team maybe 1 or 2 of the kids were top 20 kids in their age group across the state. How many kids going to Quebec this year would rank in the top 30? I'm guessing zero.

The bottom line is there will never be a true Team Minnesota playing at either of these tournaments and thats okay. It's just another hockey tournament . My advice is just say no. Stop living through your kid thinking either of these tournaments is really going to matter 4,5, 10 years from now.Tossing on a team Minnesota jersey does not make your kid any better. It just makes you a whole lot poorer.

Tigers33 · Post by **Tigers33** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:13 pm

Have a tournament in the beginning of May or even the end of April. Which ever team wins the tournament represents Team Minnesota at the brick. Have the tourney consist of the top 4, 6, or 8 AAA teams across the state. Might make that one tournament even more exciting to watch with a trip to the brick on the line.

The other is host a tournament in August for the upcoming brick season. Which ever team wins the tourney in August will represent minnesota the following year.

4on5again · Post by **4on5again** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:37 pm

Maybe the Brick needs to get real with Team Minnesota. Oldgoalie is right, need to get tryout for top kids without AAA interference. Otherwise, looks like homer AAA job.

we're all crazy · Post by **we're all crazy** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:47 am

Move on.

If the Blades were ever going to send up a true representation of "Team Minnesota", this was the year. Quite possibly the best 10-year-old skater the metro has seen in a while came over from the Miracle program to go to Edmonton...and he just happened to have the family ties to maybe change the approach. Instead, they went the traditional route of suplementing the current Blades team with a couple outsiders (2 from Florida according to YouthHockeyHub). Didn't watch the games, but see the team went 1-5 and the scoring workload was handled by who you would expect.

I searched the archives and there seems to be a version of this same topic every year, going back several years. Terry will typically chime in, but I don't think there's much more to say. It is what it is.

At the end of the day, what difference does it make? Would winning the Brick make any difference to youth hockey in MN?

4on5again · Post by **4on5again** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:45 pm

Just received a blanket email inviting players to tryout for the 2003 Blades team for 2016. Never see an email inviting players in a brick birth year.

hipcheck62 · Post by **hipcheck62** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 12:36 pm

4on5again wrote:Just received a blanket email inviting players to tryout for the 2003 Blades team for 2016. Never see an email inviting players in a brick birth year.

That would be one way to win. Send 13 year olds.

nobody · Post by **nobody** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:51 am

There are somewhat public tryouts for the brick teams. Why would you waste your time going if the outcome is already determined? Lets say your son is the strongest 10 yr old in MN-do you really think the blades team will accept him....will he have fun, can you flush money down the drain? Just remove the team MN and call it team blades.

The 02's this year were team MN also......AKA Bernie's team.

Mnhockeys · Post by **Mnhockeys** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:18 pm

Bernie or someone is doing it, is way better than turning it into mnh's project.

They will lure the hopeful players/parents into a fundraising event, like hp.