Tuesday Morning Coffee

• All Habs Magazine recently ran a nice feature on North Dakota forward Mark MacMillan, whom Montreal selected in the 4th round on the 2010 NHL Draft.
• USA Hockey is set to release its World Junior Championship preliminary roster this morning, and the United States of Hockey expects North Dakota forward Rocco Grimaldi to be on the list. Team USA's pre-tournament camp begins December 16 and the WJC begins December 26 in Ufa, Russia. The tournament runs through the gold medal game Januray 5th.
• The International Ice Hockey Federation has published a series of articles examining the role of college hockey within the overall bounds of the sport. On the men's side they covered the NCAA's increased ability to develop professional players, while they also examined the elite level of play NCAA women's ice hockey brings to the international stage. UND women's coaches Brian Idalski and Peter Elander are prominently featured in the women's article.
• Despite playing in just eight of Toronto's 21 games this season, Matt Frattin is tied for the Marlies' team lead in goals with seven. The Winnipeg Sun took a look at his strong return from injury, while TSN says the former Sioux star has a lot of extra eyes watching him.
• Norfolk Admiral teammates Matt Smaby and Emerson Etem share the Shattuck-St. Mary's connection.
• Jonathan Toews will be part of the group of players that will meet with team owners in the hopes of  breaking the NHL lockout stalemate. Toews recently commented that the players refuse to get pushed around by the owners.
• Looking past the lockout and the all-too-real possibility of the cancellation of the entire season, Sportsnet has listed some of the top potential free agents for 2013, and Travis Zajac is in their group.
• The always entertaining Mike Commodore spent an hour discussing a wide range of topics on the Cabbie Podcast.
• UND recruit Christian Evers and the Omaha AAA U-16 Lancers rolled through the NAPHL Blaine Showcase this weekend with a 5-0 record, outscoring their opponents 24-4 along the way. Evers, a 6'4" 195 pound defenseman, finished the showcase with five assists in five games. The Lancers, who have yet to lose an NAPHL game this season, are coached by David Wilkie, the father of North Dakota recruit and current USNTDP Under-17 team forward Chris Wilkie.