Three Stars, April 18-24

Blogs that seem to know what they're doing have posts on a daily or weekly basis where they run down pertinent information from elsewhere on the internet.

Normally, I'll just tweet links that I don't deem worthy of a full-on post. But at the same time, I realize that somewhere less than 100 percent of you are going to sign up for Twitter just to follow me (as much as I recommend doing so). Plus, there are a lot of times where I have more than 140 characters I want to say about something.

So that's where this post comes in. There isn't enough stuff out there (especially right now) to justify a daily post, but every Monday I'll gather together the best of the week that was and stick it under an umbrella with a cheesebag hockey-themed title. My three favorites are the three stars, and the best of the rest is self-explanatory. The first star dictates the picture (or video in this case) at the top of the post.

Sound good? Too bad, not your blog.

3. Men's hockey program nabs Gadowski, former Princeton coach, to lead new team
(The Daily Collegian)

Guymania hasn't yet moved beyond the "take a few snippets from the press release and get something up in a timely fashion" stage of the news cycle (guilty), although I expect that to change after today's press conference. This article from Greg Garcia, however, is an exception to what I just said. Read it and be excited, we hired a great coach.

Also, turns out Gadowsky was at that Flyers-Sabres game with Joe Battista and Terry Pegula - the one that caused me to rethink the whole "offer Friday, announce today" thing. Huh.

2. Women's ice hockey deals with concussion issue
Concussion program costly for Penn State
(The Daily Collegian)

These two outstanding articles from Christine Newby follow up the news of concussions ending defender Kate Christoffersen's career. The first looks at the steps the Lady Icers are taking to combat the issue, as well as some exploration of the causes behind women's hockey having the highest rate of concussions of any college sport, ahead of football and men's hockey. The second reviews Penn State's concussion program and why it isn't fully utilized by the team (hint: it starts with "m" and ends with "oney").

Christoffersen's fateful concussion was just one of three sustained by the team on consecutive weekends in February.

1. Penn State Icers 2010-11 Highlights
(YouTube)

Steve Penstone does his usual stellar work in putting together 4:44 of Motley Crue-fueled goodness. He even managed to get quality clips from the games where he had to broadcast rink-side (at Robert Morris, ACHA National Tournament).

Best of the Rest

NCAA an option for Canadian juniors 
(Edmonton Journal)

Paul Kelly and College Hockey, Inc. are taking to the streets (or the hotel/conference center meeting rooms, whatever) to spread the gospel of the college route vs. the major junior route up north.

Be afraid... be very afraid...
(College Hockey News)

Dan Myers is a noted anti-Big Ten/anti-change of any kind guy, so a lot of this piece isn't all that surprising. What is: the rumors (calling them "rumors" is probably generous at this point) about the non-Big Ten western powers forming their own conference, meaning there may be bigger scapegoats than Penn State when it comes to "ruining college hockey."

I'm still not sure what people mean when they say college hockey will be "ruined," anyway. Those who say that Division I will whittle itself down to 15-20 teams are being ridiculous, and I personally don't think another mid-major conference or two would be such an awful thing. Some people claim to be advocates for the little guy, while at the same time endorsing a status quo that sees Minnesota State get stomped by North Dakota, Wisconsin, Denver and the like a few times every year. In a smaller conference of peers, they have a real shot at an autobid (and more autobids for mid-majors means fewer at-large bids for the big boys). When are they going to the NCAA tournament next out of the WCHA? And it might even help their budgets as they step out of attempting an arms race with schools with infinitely (not literally, it just seems that way) more resources.

Reason to Cheer
(Inside College Hockey)

I considered removing this after we didn't hire Scott Sandelin, but decided against it, because this 2004 article is pretty great reading on the guy who came in second. Turns out his Penn State alumna wife is also a breast cancer survivor.

Beaver Stadium may not get NHL Winter Classic in 2012
(Examiner.com)

At least we're smashing the pipe dream early this year.