The Sicatoka

Depends on who you ask. Knowing what I'm doing this weekend and next: No.

Top four PWRs get the top four seeds. Next four get the two-seeds. Etc. Etc.

I hope that is a very loud, very eye-opening, wake up call to the hockey players who play home games in The Ralph Engelstad Arena, and I'm not talking about Shantell Rivard's players.

(This may sound really bad in a way to some. Apologies in advance.) The folks in Grand Forks and Fighting Sioux hockey fans become so "attached" to the guys who don that Sioux jersey it just feels like they are "natives sons" to Grand Forks. Look at all the attention guys like Brad DeFauw got when he made his first appearance in The League. Thus, maybe the luster comes off a bit when "another" guy we all associate with Grand Forks makes it into The League. It's no disrespect intended toward Mr. Olson's accomplishment. (Bravo to him.) I think we're all just .... I don't know, used to it, when a guy gets there and really don't see how big of an accomplishment it really is.

Here is the link to the Roger Thomas interview soon to be in the published edition of UND's "Dimensions" magazine.

If you're in Fargo, why aren't you going in person? The students will be on Spring Break. There should be seats available.

From the NCAA:

There's this guy in red named Suter that worries me.

Don't be bad-mouthing dome teams: The Alerus Center - Home of Fighting Sioux Football

Seven: North Dakota South Dakota St. Cloud State Minnesota State (Mankato) Nebraska - Omaha Augustana and newcomer to the NCC Minnesota - Duluth

Be nice to "Back to Back." That material works great with their elementary school classmates.

Yup. And do some prep work: - Do sound check levels before using a cut. Don't have to dial it up or down when it's playing. Know where to have it set, set it, and play it. - Have 15-20 second cuts from songs ready for short breaks. Have 65 second cuts for TV breaks. And don't use the long boring slow dull 30 second intro to a song; instead, lose the intro and grab the high-energy cut that comes after it and use that in the breaks*. * For example, and not that REA has done this, don't use the quiet slow guitar intro from Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Don't be locked into using a song from the beginning. Grab a fast, loud cut somewhere in the song, in this case where the lyric "... off to never-never land ..." bites in and goes to a hard guitar riff. By the way, that proposed "Enter Sandman" cut is what I'd run as an opponent heads to the sin bin "to feel much shame."

Why speculate about what ice times were available: http://www.maxsolutionsonline.com/ENGELSTA...2762&center=378

Enough said.

Sorry, I can't control the routing of I-29 (not any more at least).

The few times Anderson did "throw 'em" the other guy got the worse end.

Driven past all the NDSU stockyards at 19th Avenue North and I-29 lately given the recent thaw? "The Grand Cities" can't approach that level. "Malodorante" indeed.

And that's still twice the rest of you.

No, no, no. Thomas Vanek is college hockey's "Randy Moss."

When The Great One was in Edmonton, he had a whole posse of bodyguards: "Cement Head," McSorley, and don't kid yourselves, Glen Anderson was out there not only because he had a great shot, but he could also deliver a great (right cross) shot.

I hope you're kidding around. PS - Sioux is easy to spell. Remember it this way. Between S and X you can put the vowels in order: S-A-X S-E-X S-IOU-X!

Just like after any other regular season series, after Saturday's hockey game UND had no obligation to Tech until Thursday afternoon. (The road team gets a WCHA mandated skate on the game rink on Thursday.) Everyone knew that going in. UND let them keep their stuff in REA until Monday. UND advised them to get rooms at the casino in TRF plus MTU would have had REA-TRF all to themselves (ice, weight room, everything) this week. Tech made the decision that they decided was best for them.

Do I have to give the "The Odds 101" lecture again? The odds are set so The House breaks even no matter who wins. Minnesota's 8-5 means that yes, they have a contender, but they also have a lot of fans willing to "lay down" on them. More people putting money on a team means that The House has to shorten the odds. It's best looked at in college football: Say Ohio State is playing Toledo. OSU has a huge following. Everyone wants to bet on OSU and no one on Toledo. That will imbalance the books for The House (they'll have to pay out) if OSU wins. How do they level them? Offer points to people to bet on Toledo. More money on Toledo is more money to balance the books. The odds are set such that no matter who wins The House doesn't lose money: A fans pay B or B fans pay A; and of course The House takes their "handle" off the transaction.

Ballard? Five-on-five - I'd want him out there with a defensive defenseman to cover his runs to the offensive end. That's normal for any offensive minded defenseman. Power Play - Yeah, you want him out there. He's most dangerous with time and space, like the power play. Penalty Kill - Forgive me, but I'd take North Dakota's Schneider, Jones, Fuher, Greene, or Marvin (yes, Lee Marvin, watch him PK some time) over Ballard on the PK. He seems out of his element in that mode.

The regional at CSP is a Friday, Saturday, Monday final regional. Then, the Elite Eight isn't for 12 days after that. It'd be easy to shift that around a day or two and still give the regional champion time to rest and get to the Eight. Never worry about working out schedules when home playoff games are at stake. It just happens.