Spring is here.....Kinda

Hey everyone, it's been a long month and I should have been writing more but I guess I got a little lazy here. Spring is in the air here in Boston, but you never know when that will change and it'll be 30 degrees again for a couple days. Minor league hockey playoffs are starting up and in the AAHA Battle Creek swept Evansville 2 games to none and Chi-Town swept Chicago also 2-0. So the Revs will faceoff against the Shooters in a best of 5 series starting this coming Friday. In the EPHL, Brooklyn will play Jersey in the first ever championship series. The rest of the leagues are winding down their regular season and I will blog about those also as the playoffs begin.

Here in Boston I started working out about a month ago to get ready for where ever next season takes me. It's tough following the scores on the computer and not be playing in the games, but things happen. Good luck to the fellas on the Revolution and also to Nigel Hawryliw, who is playing for Chi-Town. I also have to say hi to Kaitlin and Haili, 2 former Revolution interns, who wore a "We Miss Hutch" t-shirt to the game last night and sent me a picture of it. I got a good laugh out of it and I'm sure others did as well.

The end of March also brings tryouts for the Neponset Valley River Rats organization. I've been down in Foxboro all week evaluating different age levels and trying to put together the U-18 midget team with my buddy and head coach Scott McDougall. Putting a team together is never easy, especially at the lower age groups. Trying to find the right piece to the puzzle can be agonizing for coaches and it doesn't help knowing that you're going to break some kids hearts when you tell them there is no room on the team for him. It's funny to look in the stands and see the parents all watching their sons with nervous faces hoping their boy is the next Sidney Crosby or Mike Green.

Speaking of NHL players, how great are the playoff races this year? Every night it seems like the playoff picture changes. The Eastern Conference is starting to shape up and in my opinion I think Florida will beat out Montreal for the 8th and final playoff spot. Boston had a big win this afternoon to pull away from New Jersey and have a somewhat comfortable 5 point lead for 1st place in the conference, the win also clinched the Northeast Division. The Western Conference could be a blog in itself. Just 5 points separate 7th place Edmonton from 12th place Dallas, with Nashville, Anaheim, Minnesota and St. Louis sandwiched in between them. I'll write a blog on that race in the middle of the week when I do a little more research on the teams.

So long for now

Hutch 9