HockeyFan31

I understand that. The same could be said of Minnesota in the scenario you laid out. What I'm saying is other fans would complain about a "home game" for Minnesota exactly like they are about Providence this year. I like your idea of having Mankato, Duluth, or St Cloud hosting in Minneapolis, I'm just saying it's likely not without flaw. UND is basically 50/50 with Gophers fans in past regionals I've seen at the X, for example. IMO UND isn't aren't a fair comparison for Minneapolis with the number of alumni that live in and around the Twin Cities. I think UND would be in the same discussion as Minnesota for a potential Minneapolis regional where other fanbases would cry about how unfair it would be to have UND get a "home game" even though they aren't the host.

Then you'd run into the Providence scenario that Mankato did this year. If any of those schools bid and hosted in Minneapolis, just just know the NC$$ would place the Gophers there (if they qualified, obviously) and then fans would be crying just like they are this year about Providence. Hell, it would even be considered an advantage if UND was placed in a Minneapolis regional in that situation.

And all the multi-use arenas out there just keep open weekends during college hockey playoffs in case the team that plays home games there ends up hosting in the first round? I don't think so.....

Sure looks different in your picture than what I've seen in the past

DrunkHockeyGuy has really changed his appearance over the years.

For me Duluth fans have more than made up for the irrelevancy over the last decade or so and for that reason my disdain for them has grown. Quickly.

It shouldn't matter what conference they're from. I'd say it's encouraging that a team who has historically not been a college hockey power, like Ohio St, is putting forth the effort and resources to become nationally relevant. It's good for the sport IMO.

Truth. Sandelin has turned quite whiny in his time there, though. He's had some divers disguised as hockey players too.

I agree that I don't see it, and my follow up question is who would host?

True. Curious to see how Ohio St plays coming off of a "bye week" after losing in the B1G semis and a week off prior to that with their actual bye in the first round of the B1Gs. Could be a "rested or rusty" situation. They've been stumbling of late as well though.

From what I saw Gopher fans were ripping the upperclassmen to start the year. They turned into 4/5 of the top PP unit and received great praise from Motzko after the season ended. I hope they pull a usual St Clown but they are freaking loaded. I hope not. But I don't want to see UMD win another so it's looking like a lose lose if the tourney plays out the way is looks like it will. I think it would be tough to pick against SCSU or UMD, but in a one and done format you just never know(and St Cloud knows that better than most).

Depends how focused Motzko is on the task at hand. Cloud fans will tell you he was already distracted by the Minnesota job last year which was the sole reason the Huskies got knocked out in the first round (again).

QFT, expect for the number of opposing fans when UND is there. As Mafia said, UND definitely gets a couple thousand fans into Mariucci.

They have a handful of losses to bottom ten in the PWR teams, not unlike UND losing to Canisius or Minnesota's losses to St Lawrence and Ferris St. So while Bowling Green has beaten some good teams this year, I have to imagine those bad losses are dragging them down a bit. I agree, though, that it's hard to believe a team with single digit losses out of any conference would be on the bubble.

I don't think including it in season tickets would have been the difference between a sellout and the abomination that was seen at Mariucci on Friday and Saturday. Like I said though, you may have guilted a few more people into showing up and/or had more people selling off for cheap or just straight up giving their season tickets away for whatever reason. Either way I don't think it would have been that bad. Still wouldn't have been great, that's for sure. I don't disagree with your point, but those Michigan St games were regular season games. Those "attendance" numbers are likely tickets sold, not actual butts in seats. Those games were (obviously) definitely included in season tickets and I'm guessing a fair amount of those tickets went unused that weekend. I also don't disagree that they are probably quite a few fair weather Gopher fans. But I think we can all agree that Gopher fans have a lot more entertainment options in the MSP area than UND fans do in Grand Forks.

I could be wrong but I think they are arguing that the U is not really willing to change much because they are technically selling 8000+ tickets. I don't think anyone is excusing the fans for not showing up, anyone with eyes can watch games on TV and see there aren't actually 8k people at Gopher games. Fans not sowing up is a completely different discussion IMO. I think people are just pointing out that the U is making their money on tickets sold and don't seem to want to change the perception of the program and the atmosphere in the arena. Instead they are just laughing all the way to the bank(I assume). As others have noted, the biggest fault on this last weekend was not including the playoff series in the season ticket package. In the WCHA years it's my understanding that the first round would get refunded or applied to next year's season tickets if the Gophers missed home ice. That said, the B1G has a goofy playoff system with all games being played on campus. So do you include what could potentially be 2-3 games/weekends in season ticket packages? That all gets confusing considering the #1 seed gets a weekend bye and all kinds of other scenarios. But overall I think that's a bad excuse, include all scenarios and figure out the refunds or application to the next years tickets or just have the extra amounts go as a donation to the athletic department or whatever after the fact. Lastly, yes, they did go up against the state high school tournament but I go back to not including the tickets in the season ticket package. I think you could have guilted at least 4-5K into showing up because the tickets were already paid for. I know some Gopher season ticket holders also have a long tradition of going to the high school tourney and have had tickets in their family for forever, but they could have at least tried to give their Gopher tickets away for free even if they only wanted to go to the high school games.

Fair points. I have also always thought Nebraska would be one of the next from the B1G to make the hockey jump with their arena situation and, again, a football program that can basically fund their entire athletic department.

I could be wrong on this take, but Penn St also has a football program that can darn near finance the rest of their athletic department. Illinois does not have that and their basketball program being down doesn't help either. I still think there is a good chance it happens for Illinois, but I'm not sure it's as much of a slam dunk as Penn St was.

I think it's asinine that some teams play regular season conference games outdoors with points on the line. I can't imagine the Frozen Four, a national championship, could be hosted outdoors.

Think so? Danton Cole is only in his second year. They gave garbage Anastos four and the only thing he did was somehow finish 2nd in a terrible B1G that only got the conference tournament winner into the tourney that year. They were only a game over .500. I would bet he gets another year or two, if for no other reason than MSU cares more about basketball and football to probably even notice how (below) average their hockey team is.

Omaha is still our group's favorite trip. Although that was a number of years ago before the new arena. Still would love to see the new arena someday. I can't speak to hotels because my aunt, who lives down there, let us crash at her house. If you end up in downtown/Old Market/whatever they call it, we had a blast at Dubliner Pub and Billy Frogg's. Don't remember a ton besides that but there are a ton of bars and restaurants in that area.

They have the individual game available for bets? Sweet!

^^That's an interesting take on the Vegas game^^

Sorry to be a smarta$$ but seeing as you posted this in two places...... You could maybe check Stubhub and see what tickets are listed for on there. Just a thought......

I like the way they play too when I've watched. Wide open, end to end hockey.