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From Ken Daneyko to Mike Brennan, my favorite players are often defensemen, the more D-oriented the better. It didn’t feel right to highlight the high scorers in the earlier post on completing the U20 camp galleries, especially since the US D shut out the Russians in one game and held them to only 1 goal in two others (the Russians scored 6 in Friday’s game, but that’s just being a polite host, right?). So here are the 10 defensemen who took part in the full camp. Posted previously – Cam Fowler and John Moore.

John Carlson (Washington Capitals):

Adam Comrie (Guelph Storm/Florida Panthers):

Matt Donovan (University of Denver/New York Islanders):

Jake Gardiner (University of Wisconsin/Anaheim Ducks):

Nick Leddy (University of Minnesota/Minnesota Wild):

Aaron Ness (University of Minnesota/New York Islanders):

David Warsofsky (Boston University/St. Louis Blues):

Chris Wideman (Miami University/Ottawa Senators):

The Hockey News’ latest hot list “Beefing up Broadway” highlights 10 players currently in NHL training camps starting with Richard Panik (Tampa Bay Lightning):

At 2, they have Bobby Sanguinetti (New York Rangers):

At 3 is Nick Petrecki (San Jose Sharks – who, of course, should be at the top of the list as a former Boston College Eagle) – previous blog gallery.  At 4 – Mike Murphy who I have not had the chance to shoot, followed by former Michigan Wolverine Aaron Palushaj (St. Louis Blues) – previous blog gallery – and at 6 Simon Despres (Pittsburgh Penguins):

Coming it at 7 is Brandon Saad, the second of the three I haven’t shot, 8 is Tomas Kubalik (Columbus Blue Jackets) – previous blog gallery and at 9 is Kyle Clifford (Los Angeles Kings):

Rounding out the list is Alex Petrovic.

Aaron Palushaj celebrated his 20th birthday and 7 points (leading scorer) during the tournament.  Palushaj signed with St. Louis after his sophomore year at Michigan. NHL.com profile.

Phil McRae was tied for second in scoring (Jack Coombs) and is one of the players being featured in a Blues Rookies special on Fox Sports Midwest.

Article discusses changes made in 2002 both structural and mental – “…Boustedt said it used to be acceptable for Swedish junior teams to finish in the top four in international competitions. “Now the only thing the players are going for is gold,” he said. …” 

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to shoot a number of the drafted kids – click for a full list of 2009 National Hockey League-drafted players available in my archives.

I’ve included some of the Swedes in the gallery below:

• 002 – Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
• 006 – Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Phoenix Coyotes
• 010 – Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson, Edmonton Oilers
• 017 – David Rundblad, St. Louis Blues
• 020 – Jacob Josefson, New Jersey Devils
• 023 – Tim Erixon, Calgary Flames
• 024 – Marcus Johansson, Washington Capitals
• 034 – Calle Klingberg, Atlanta Thrashers
• 040 – Anton Lander, Edmonton Oilers
• 046 – Robin Lehner, Ottawa Senators
• 087 – Simon Bertilsson, Philadelphia Flyers
• 088 – Mattias Lindström, Carolina Hurricanes
• 143 – Peter Andersson, Vancouver Canucks
• 181 – Viktor Ekbom, Pittsburgh Penguins
• (left out Philip Samuelsson as he has now played in a IIHF game as a member of Team USA, but a number of photos in the archive which will only grow as he is joining Boston College this Fall.)

Unrelated Pt. 1 – Is there a way to make a single-spaced list w/o bullets on Wordpress?

Unrelated Pt. 2 – The televised Sugarland concert from Lexington, Kentucky (in Boston on WCVB) was terrific, much better than Soundstage concert televised earlier this year on WGBX – both are staying on my DVR which is handy since I keep their cds in my car.  Apparently tonight’s concert is going to be for sale tomorrow, but only at Walmart :-(.  Maybe they’ll include their REM cover on their next regular album.

I still don’t understand using “Joey” for an audience singalong.  Am I totally misunderstanding the lyrics? The song sounds like her friend “Joey” was killed while drunk driving.  Am I wrong?   Of course, I don’t understand why people would be yelling out during “Stay” either. 

Okay, while looking for a link for Sugarland’s website to use above – only found the “fan” membership site so grabbed the CMT artist link and discovered this:

I think I’m going to have to make an appropriate charitable donation to assuage my guilt over buying from Walmart.com – it not only has Love Shack, but several other covers, I even like the Beyonce cover judging by the mini-clip on Walmart’s website.  Thank God I’m a Presbyterian and therefore can sin (shop at Walmart) with zero need for confession or worry about going straight to hell :-).