Saturday Morning Special - Feb 12th

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This morning we welcomed back a couple of regular contributors to The Pipeline Show while two others guests made their first appearances on our program. As always, we covered the CHL, NCAA, the NHL and the draft and we also helped set up the newest show at the TEAM 1260 in Edmonton.


We kicked off the Saturday with a somewhat heated discussion on the New York Islanders / Pittsburgh Penguins game from Friday night. The game featured several ugly incidents and will result in fines and suspensions. Dean and Guy differed slightly in their perspectives of what happened.

Friday's action in the CHL and NCAA was covered before the end of the first segment.

The Annual Beanpot tournament began last Monday and concludes on Valentine's Day. Joining us to talk about that major NCAA event was Jimmy Connelly, the senior writer from USCHO.com who also broke down the recent games in Hockey East. Is Boston College the clear cut favourite or can a team like Merrimack put an end to Beantown domination in the national tournament. Are the BU Terriers still relevant or is it too much to consider them a Dark Horse?

In segment 3 we welcomed Dan Sallows to the show. The independent evaluator is based in Vernon and has a free site dedicated to providing information and his opinion on hockey prospects. We chatted with Dan about Ryan Strome vs Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the AJHL and BCHL, as well as the top rated blueliners available in the WHL this year.

At the top of our second hour we were joined by the Jon Keen, the voice of the Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers are in Whitehorse to take on Vancouver, part of CBC's Hockey Day in Canada. Jon helped set the scene in the Yukon but also told us how the Blazers are looking as the playoffs draw near. Dylan Willick, one of our guest bloggers this year, Brendan Colin Smith and Cam Lanigan were profiled.

Daren Millard joined us for his regular Saturday segment and we again tossed around thoughts on the PGH/NYI rhubarb from Friday night. Michael Grabner is having a terrific season for the Isles after being claimed off the waiver wire early this season. And more.

Finally, Allan Mitchell (or "Lowetide") showed up a few minutes early to help us set up the new show on the station. "Nation Radio" made its debut and will be heard every Saturday right after Dean and I are done. Today Allan took some friendly jabs about his legendary support of Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Slava Trukhno before delivering the knock out punch in regards to the size of our readership compared to his blog(s). Remember to keep listening on Saturdays for Nation Radio at the conclusion of The Pipeline Show.

If you missed any parts of the show, have no fear. You can always check out the interviews conveniently broken up by segments, in our media archive. Subscribe to the free podcast/RSS to stay on top of each edition of The Pipeline Show. You can find today's archive HERE.