mksioux

So much for playing with desperation.

Matt Smaby - "Last night we didn't show up in the hurt column."

On the pre-game interview, DH critical of the UND forwards last night. Says they need to use their size and pressure more. DH says MN played with desperation last night, and now UND needs to play with desperation tonight. JPar in net again.

And of course Gopher fans wouldn't say anything if a Sioux player did that. By the way, I've never seen a UND player do it. I've seen Blaker do similar things, but I was never fond of his antics either. I thought that was classless too. As was Ovechkin at the world juniors last year. Half the content on message boards is criticizing players for one thing or another. Just because I have an opinion that jersey popping is classless doesn't mean I have thin skin. It's just an opinion. I like hockey, in part, because it's largely without the trash talking, chest thumping, and showboating of the NFL and NBA.

Hey, it takes a french fry feed and a parade to be able to get up for a game against Western Washington or whatever other no-name school they bring in for that.

Agree to disagree.

I hate to steal PCM's thunder and play the role of the old fuddy-duddy here, but here it goes: I know it's 2005 and things have changed, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Here is his explanation as quoted in The Herald: Whatever. I'll just chalk it up to immaturity on his part. Or being old-fashioned on my part. And because it's just a matter of time before Gopher fans arrive and start talking about Jason Blake, I'll beat them to the punch. I don't ever recall him popping his jersey, but I'm sure he did something similar back in his UND days. Everyone I talked to that met Blaker told me he was an arrogant jerk. So saying Blake did it too, doesn't mean much to me. (And I'm not going to even mention Hauser flicking off the UND bench in the 2002 wcha playoffs. Oops, I just did. ) And I'm sure we'll learn about all of the classless acts ever committed by Sioux players against the Gophers now. That's fine. But until I hear otherwise, I'll just assume there are none. To be fair, I thought the same about the Maine player shushing the crowd in the 2002 NC game. For Sioux fans that thought that was a cool move, you probably shouldn't be posting in this thread. Fortunately for that Gopher team, they made him eat humble pie by the end of the game. Unfortunately for the Sioux, they couldn't do the same to Irmen last night.

You do realize that's the same type of justification Randy Moss gave for fake mooning the Lambeau fans, don't you?

I thought North Dakota kids were supposed to be modest?

I just can't get up for another season of "pipes". I'll just pretend they didn't happen.

If Dubay won you over I think he should be a politician.

Actually, the Sioux hockey playoff games are much bigger than the Minnesota games. But I assume you mean other regular season games. It used to be Sioux-Bison football. Now I'm not really sure what it is. The fans seem to like when Wisconsin comes to town...or whenever a top-notch Hockey East school makes the trip (Maine, Boston College, etc.). Personally, whenever the Sioux play Wisconsin in Madison are the games that I first circle when I get the schedule (but that's primarily because Madison is such a fun road trip). Beyond that, it depends on the times (for example, there was quite a buzz for the Denver series this year because of the national championship re-match, the Paukovich/Bina incident, etc., but there are other times when the Denver series is just another series).

Based on the overall vitriol between the fans, I DO think they see it like we do (or pretty close). That was my point. But you're right in that it's unbecoming to try to convince them of our "status" (and there's no need because the program speaks for itself). Despite my recent posts (where I got sucked in), I have a history of trying to downplay the rivalry with Minnesota. I think UND can stand on its own and should not be hyping a rivalry that's not fully reciprocated. Back in 2001, I was a big advocate for inviting someone other than Minnesota to open up the Ralph. I thought it would have been a real cool move if we had invited Wisconsin or Minnesota-Duluth instead. Having said that, there's no way the attitudes toward Minnesota are ever going to change amongst the students and alumni. Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood because -- despite having tickets lined up -- I couldn't make the trip up to GF this weekend.

I would guess Senser's wants them to have it at their Roseville location because the Bloomington location is usually more crowded. They probably don't want Bloomington to become overcrowded (and thus, turn business away) and It's probably easier to accommodate the alumni association at the Roseville location. Just a guess (having been to both location for games).

I realize it takes money to be a part of a club team. But that doesn't seem to stop students from St. Cloud, Duluth, Mankato, Minnesota, Denver, NDSU, SDSU, Minot State, etc. from starting a club team. I doubt UND students are poorer than the students at those schools. So I don't think money is the reason.

Harvard beat UNH at UNH last night 1-0. Without Lee, Chorney, Oshie, and possibly Toews, I think the Harvard series is going to be much more difficult than most people expect.

In browsing through the three divisions of club hockey on ACHA.com, I started to wonder why UND doesn't field a club hockey team. UND has a very competitive intramural league with many talented hockey players. I imagine fielding a club team wouldn't be too difficult and one would think they would be competitive immediately. The fact that UND has DI varsity hockey should not be an excuse because Mankato, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Denver, and Duluth all have club teams. Does anyone know whether UND has ever had a club team (for men) or if it has ever been discussed?

That doesn't sound good. I sure hope that's not the case.

To be bipartisan, Florida's governor and attorney general were also quite vocal about the issue. ND's governor and attorney general (both republicans) are supportive of the name, but have not been vocal. The Herald editorial board had to prod a position out of Hoeven. The only position I've heard about the AG is through comments made by University officials. (someone please posts links if I'm not giving them enough credit) Some on this board at the time said North Dakota was taking the correct approach - cautious and thoughtful. I couldn't disagree stronger. Public opinion was strongly on our side and the NCAA was reeling from the bad PR. That was the time to strike. Strong words from the politicians, threatened Congressional hearings, the (very public) establishment of a litigation fund, etc. might have prompted the NCAA to cave to UND like they did to FSU. The "intellectual" left has since had time to gear up and wage a counter-offensive. The public generally has lost interest in the issue. The smartest thing the NCAA did (which was terrible for UND) was remove FSU from the list. It would have been very interesting to see where this issue would currently be had FSU remained on the list. I have a feeling we would have lawsuits to track and perhaps we'd even be watching Congressional hearings on C-SPAN2.

UND's media relations release: http://www.fightingsioux.com/files/830.pdf

Per the Herald today, Toews will miss the Bemidji State series to attend the evaulation camp.

We need to start asking against whom we continue to have unprecedented success. That's my point. My position is that UND is a flagship school with a proud history and tradition and it should get back to playing schools that are similarly situated. I'm not saying it has to regularly play Wisconsin or Minnesota, but the Montana schools, NDSU, etc. is not too much to ask. Every UND fan I talk to (besides those that post on this board) wishes UND could play the old rivals and NOT the Mesas, Winonas, and the West Chesters of the world.