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I'm sure the bashers will be out in force, but it's an honest question for discussion. They have only lost 2 games all year, and one was to a Shattuck St. Mary's team that could probably beat alot of D3 schools. After watching all of the AA and A state tourney games I would have to say that the speed and talent of the Breck squad is overall some of the most impressive that I have seen in the tournament. Going into the tourney I felt Minnetonka was the best team in the state, but after watching them struggle and look vulnerable for 2 periods against HM I'm not sure they are anymore. This Breck team is deep, fast, talented and has an unbelievable goaltender in Russell. Assuming Breck defeats Hermanton, which is no gimme, I'd like to see an A vs. AA champion final game. Would be fun to watch.

Please go back to a 1 class system then we would have 1 true champion.

Keep dreaming! Tonka. Crushed STA twice! !

Factsmatter1 wrote:Keep dreaming! Tonka. Crushed STA twice! !

Breck had one bad night against STA. Based on what I saw with my own eyes last night, Tonka was lucky to escape with an OT victory over HM. For 3 periods of regulation HM was the better team, hands down.

We'll never know; Breck doesn't schedule teams like Tonka and the MSHSL isn't going to schedule a A vs AA champion. Blake, Holy Angels, Hill, BSM seem to get some top teams on their schedule but Breck is still having trouble.
Tonka could look good and win every game 9-1 too if they played Brecks schedule, league, section, and then ran into teams with maybe two lines in the state tourney. After last night I'll take Krueger over any goalie in the state and Tonkas D are light years ahead of Breck. Breck does have some good top end talent but so does tonka up front.

BBB wrote:We'll never know; Breck doesn't schedule teams like Tonka and the MSHSL isn't going to schedule a A vs AA champion. Blake, Holy Angels, Hill, BSM seem to get some top teams on their schedule but Breck is still having trouble.
Tonka could look good and win every game 9-1 too if they played Brecks schedule, league, section, and then ran into teams with maybe two lines in the state tourney. After last night I'll take Krueger over any goalie in the state and Tonkas D are light years ahead of Breck. Breck does have some good top end talent but so does tonka up front.

Ever seen Breck play????

BBB wrote:We'll never know; Breck doesn't schedule teams like Tonka and the MSHSL isn't going to schedule a A vs AA champion. Blake, Holy Angels, Hill, BSM seem to get some top teams on their schedule but Breck is still having trouble.
Tonka could look good and win every game 9-1 too if they played Brecks schedule, league, section, and then ran into teams with maybe two lines in the state tourney. After last night I'll take Krueger over any goalie in the state and Tonkas D are light years ahead of Breck. Breck does have some good top end talent but so does tonka up front.

Breck had plenty of top teams on their schedule this year as well as in years past. Last year alone they defeated TWO teams playing in the AA State Tournament. And from that same team, only TWO players were lost to graduation. This is why I think it's a valid argument, Breck could be the best team in the state. They've beaten badly some pretty good teams this year. They scheduled Shattuck, do you honestly think Tonka would have beaten them?

No, theyre like Brainerd and play a terrible schedule and hide from everybody. So talk of them being as good as the tonkas, EP's is just speculation.

Not even a question for consideration. . . many of the other powerhouse private schools have chosen to play AA. To have the benefits of choosing who you (cough, cough) enroll, and then playing A and debating if the school has the best team is ridiculous. .

They scheduled Shattuck, do you honestly think Tonka would have beaten them?

I can only compare score but Breck and STA were neck and neck all year and STA actually beat Breck. Tonka beat STA 5-2 each time so I would go out a a limb and say if Breck handled Shattuck easily, Tonka might have a chance to beat them.

woodley wrote:Not even a question for consideration. . . many of the other powerhouse private schools have chosen to play AA. To have the benefits of choosing who you (cough, cough) enroll, and then playing A and debating if the school has the best team is ridiculous. .

Breck is smart in staying in class A. They have an enrollment of 400 kids. Benilde, Holy Angels, these schools are over twice the size of Breck. Breck's gonna have good years, average and down years in hockey . It would be stupid to move to AA just because they are having an incredible 2 year run at the moment. That is why an argument can be made for this current team as being the best in the state. Sometimes a team comes along that is full of seniors and very talented. That is what this team is. It's not ridiculous to debate whether they could be the best.

masterB wrote:

woodley wrote:Not even a question for consideration. . . many of the other powerhouse private schools have chosen to play AA. To have the benefits of choosing who you (cough, cough) enroll, and then playing A and debating if the school has the best team is ridiculous. .

Breck is smart in staying in class A. They have an enrollment of 400 kids. Benilde, Holy Angels, these schools are over twice the size of Breck. Breck's gonna have good years, average and down years in hockey . It would be stupid to move to AA just because they are having an incredible 2 year run at the moment. That is why an argument can be made for this current team as being the best in the state. Sometimes a team comes along that is full of seniors and very talented. That is what this team is. It's not ridiculous to debate whether they could be the best.

Like you said in another thread - and I quote: "It's a shame too because the game wasn't indicative of the quality of hockey played in class A" Till your team plays in AA we will never know if they can play the quality of hockey played in AA! Good Luck today -

Factsmatter1 wrote:Keep dreaming! Tonka. Crushed STA twice! !

Ummm? Did u see how far STA made it in playoffs? They're not even best team in their own section.

masterB wrote:

woodley wrote:Not even a question for consideration. . . many of the other powerhouse private schools have chosen to play AA. To have the benefits of choosing who you (cough, cough) enroll, and then playing A and debating if the school has the best team is ridiculous. .

Breck is smart in staying in class A. They have an enrollment of 400 kids. Benilde, Holy Angels, these schools are over twice the size of Breck. Breck's gonna have good years, average and down years in hockey . It would be stupid to move to AA just because they are having an incredible 2 year run at the moment. That is why an argument can be made for this current team as being the best in the state. Sometimes a team comes along that is full of seniors and very talented. That is what this team is. It's not ridiculous to debate whether they could be the best.

OK, so let's debate. When any team has the ability to bring in players (I know, it's NOT recruiting), and play a schedule without any ranked AA teams, there is no logical argument that they could possibly be the best team in the state.

When you play easier games, your team does not have to demonstrate the ability to deal with adversity and they don't have the physical, mental, or emotional demands placed on players of a team that is playing top quality opposition.

Remember, this school made the choice to stay an A team. I respect that is their option. They likely are the best team in A, but to suggest they belong with the big boys when THEY MADE A CHOICE to play in A is "ridiculous"!

woodley wrote:

masterB wrote:

woodley wrote:Not even a question for consideration. . . many of the other powerhouse private schools have chosen to play AA. To have the benefits of choosing who you (cough, cough) enroll, and then playing A and debating if the school has the best team is ridiculous. .

Breck is smart in staying in class A. They have an enrollment of 400 kids. Benilde, Holy Angels, these schools are over twice the size of Breck. Breck's gonna have good years, average and down years in hockey . It would be stupid to move to AA just because they are having an incredible 2 year run at the moment. That is why an argument can be made for this current team as being the best in the state. Sometimes a team comes along that is full of seniors and very talented. That is what this team is. It's not ridiculous to debate whether they could be the best.

OK, so let's debate. When any team has the ability to bring in players (I know, it's NOT recruiting), and play a schedule without any ranked AA teams, there is no logical argument that they could possibly be the best team in the state.

When you play easier games, your team does not have to demonstrate the ability to deal with adversity and they don't have the physical, mental, or emotional demands placed on players of a team that is playing top quality opposition.

Remember, this school made the choice to stay an A team. I respect that is their option. They likely are the best team in A, but to suggest they belong with the big boys when THEY MADE A CHOICE to play in A is "ridiculous"!

Sure it's an argument. Just because school administrators made a prior decision years ago to not move up to a large school class, DOESN'T mean that this particular team couldn't be the best team. Changing classes is not something schools can just flip between every year, there is a period of years that you have to stay in one class. As far as who a team plays or schedules, that's not up to the players. They play who's on their schedule and they play well. To say that arguments can't be made about how good a team is just because of their schedule is just stupid. You can make an argument just based on what you see and facts.

The facts are this: This team beat several of your "Ranked AA" teams last year, including two who won their sections and PLAYED in the AA tourney (i need to check , but it may have been 3 teams). That same team lost only two players to graduation, has essentially the ENTIRE team back this year, is one year stronger, faster, and improved. The same goalie, coach and a senior laden squad. Having seen them in the tourney, they are impressive. Can an argument be made based on these facts that they could be the best, DESPITE not meeting your requirements of playing at least a ranked AA team, yes. I would say so.

Just because their a private school and bring in players and don't play in AA, you can't argue they are the best??? Why not? Hypothetically speaking, are you saying that you can't make an argument that Shattuck is the best team in the state because they bring in players and don't play in AA?

Thank you to any one who even thinks Breck has a chance. This annual thread by the Class A champ's fans proves Breck, and the same kind are trophy hunting. Could Breck win AA? We will never know because the school administrators and their sports boosters will never try. The one game shot is the biggest joke in history. Their are ten teams that have been watching all weekend that could win the title if it was a one game shot. Go win a AA section and then win three games at the X against teams that aren't just happy to be there.
If your team is in class A go cheer your team on. Be happy if they win but always remember they are not considered the State Champs.

Shattuck lost to Breck and inched by teams like BSM and Holy Angels who were both #4 seed (avg to above avg) in Section 2AA and 6AA. Tonka on the other hand handled those teams easily so based off scores I wouldn't say Shattuck would deserve to be #1 in AA. That's just if I were to seed them on scores.

I love how the only guy who thinks breck would even have a shot of beating tonka or edina is the guy who started the thread, this question is ridiculous tonka would kill breck.

Breck is talented and has robbed us all of the answer. Winning the class A title is impressive, but it's still is not nearly the grind of three AA games. The Hill-Tonka game last night is a great example. Put Breck in contests like that and they would not shine so bright. New Ulm would not make it to the section finals in any of the other A sections, and Warroad (a good Class A team) would compete/beat Lakeville in AA tourny and that's it. Hopefully Hermantown gives them a good game....

I'd love to see EP vs. Breck last year one week after the tournament. It would have sold out the X, and just think what could be done with the gate receipts for youth hockey in Minnesota!! It would be a great way for the MSHSL to support Youth hockey (since most if not all districts do not support youth hockey.)

This is one year for sure that we could have a final game A against AA and it would be a good game.

MB,
Obviously you haven't watched a lot of hockey to say SSM could beat a lot of D3 schools. The NCHA schools would toast them and they would struggle with the lower MIAC teams. Breck knew they had a good team coming back and elected to play a cake schedule.

Master8- What was the point of offering up the question if you were just going to argue with everone that thiknks they are not the best team in the state? You already have your mind made up. Sure, Breck is very solid up front, but so is Tonka, but what puts Tonka above everyone else is arguably one of the best defensive units we have ever soon. Move up to AA, or schedule these big AA schools if you want to make a case for being the best team in the state.

The 4 ranked teams in the class A tourney would have been good additions to a 1 tourney championship tourney.

Seriously time to consider a 1 class 16 team tourney for THE MINNESOTA STATE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP.

nipeshow18 wrote:Master8- What was the point of offering up the question if you were just going to argue with everone that thiknks they are not the best team in the state? You already have your mind made up. Sure, Breck is very solid up front, but so is Tonka, but what puts Tonka above everyone else is arguably one of the best defensive units we have ever soon. Move up to AA, or schedule these big AA schools if you want to make a case for being the best team in the state.

why is everyone on the tonka bandwagon? they have alot of talent and having three D1 players on their defense is impressive to say the least. but to be honest, HM was the better team. they were lucky to win that one in OT. i think it's a myth to say that just because these schools are class A they would be "killed" by the Tonka's or Edina's of the world. that's just completely false. I just don't think it's impossible to consider that some years there will be A schools that have the talent to be the best in the state. AA backers automatically assume that can not be possible.