tnt

I don't think that was deemed to be a fight and a lengthy suspension proves that you will be punished for attacking somebody like that. Like I said, if you have a problem with hockey as it stands now, maybe you should boycott it to effect change. By the way, have you ever watched boxing, and do you advocate that sport be banned?

So you're saying that Commodore was being assaulted, so he had the right to fight back? Or is self defense only acceptable outside of the game?

Rightly or wrongly, fighting has been a part of hockey and some fan's entertainment forever. Is boxing any different? The fact that there is more trauma in boxing because it is a cumulative effect should mean that boxing is a more brutal affair. We have had deaths in boxing. Everybody knows that hitting in hockey results in much more injury than fighting, in fact you would be hard pressed to find many bad injuries from fighting. Does that make it right? No! But let's not be naive, it is part of the entertainment value for some fans, much as boxing is. The thing about hockey is you don't have to fight if you don't want to, it is up to the individual, and we see some that instigate, then get the heck out of there. What happened to Brooks is an example of somebody who chose to instigate but chose to engage also. Is what happened to him regrettable? Definitely! But he knew what the consequences could be when he chose to engage, just as a boxer knows from examples like Muhammed Ali what the consequences could be if he chooses that as a career path.

Self defense, so a slap would constitute a reason to retaliate? What about several crosschecks? I believe you rule out words and gestures, because that is what you do, you taunt people, then wonder why people retaliate in kind.

Jack Rowe was 2nd star of the game with 4 assists in a 6-5 shootout loss to Waterloo.

I can't respect somebody that obviously has problems with the game of hockey such as it is, yet continues to watch the sport. I would think you should boycott the sport and if you and enough people do that, then the game will get cleaned up. Put your money where your mouth is.

So if somebody comes up to you and slaps you several times, or if somebody slaps your kid several times, you will always turn the other cheek?

No, it is not a necessity, but if you watch that tape, Brooks almost was taunting Commodore to do something. Not smart.

Exactly, the WCHA refs do what WCHA refs do, they officiate the scoreboard. Since they didn't think it would lead to anything, they didn't want to penalize the Badgers when they had already just gone behind. Too bad the head of officials wasn't here tonight ... wait, he is the biggest part of the problem. OFFICIATE THE GAME, NOT THE SCOREBOARD! The Sioux work hard the whole first period to get that slim lead, only to lose it 10 seconds later from a call that they just refused to call can be very disheartening. Let's hope it doesn't take the wind out of the sails.

Hopefully the Sioux tell him there is a chance they could play another game in his home province at the MTS Centre during his tenure here. If all the other great things about UND don't attract him, don't know if that would add enough, but worth the breath to tell him.

The difference was that we had most of the horses in the stable during those runs. Be interesting to see if they can still make a run without some of the thoroughbreds.

Wonder if the Sioux are interested in Bryn Chyzyk of the Force. He won the MJHL rookie of the year award a year after Brendan O'Donnell did and also is listed as one of the best recruits left available in the USHL. Has put up decent numbers with the Force. Also saw that other Sioux winning the MJHL rookie of the year award were Jason Gregoire, Russ Romaniuk, Jim Cahoon and Bill Kriski. Bobby Clarke even won the award with Flin Flon. http://ushlhockey.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-uncommitted.html

Don't want to call it taking a chance because Randolph has a pedigree as a coaches kid, but Blais sure seemed to come out great with Archibald when it was thought a year of juniors would be necessary. If it works out great with a coaches son, you might have an in for future players, if it doesn't ...

Andrew MacWilliam said that growing up where he played youth hockey they had stop signs on the back of the jerseys. We shouldn't have to do that at the college level. The two hits on MacWilliam last weekend were dangerous, but I don't think that these kids were out to hurt anyone. I think many of these guys get caught up in the college atmosphere and want to make a big hit. I worry that we make players on one team or another evil when something happens, when most of the college players could probably say "save for the grace of God, there go I". It scares me to see guys like Rodwell and Pattyn going recklessly into the corner at 100 miles per hour, because if a guy turns on you, or if he doesn't get to the boards before you hit him, you have the potential for injury. Those are the kind of hits that happened to MacWilliam last weekend, and circumstances were such that no injury occured. I don't think there was any intent there, but guys are going to have to have a little more respect when they go into the corners with speed, or I fear we are going to be talking about more injuries and more finger pointing.

3rd period, 1:30 or so left in the game.

I'm not talking about the hit on Saturday, I'm talking about the hit on Friday. MacWilliam got hit on Saturday from behind that was called for charging, and was also hit on Friday that went uncalled. So are we to determine out of this that it is o.k. to charge someone from behind against the boards?

Might want to check your tape on the hit on MacWilliam at 1:30 left. Come back here and tell me that wasn't a penalty, and we will see where the safety problem comes from. That might have been the most dangerous hit of the weekend, and if it wasn't a sturdy guy like MacWilliam getting hit, it could have resulted in an injury. Your attention probably wasn't drawn to it because it is like we said, the announcers just call it a hard hit. If that same hit would have been made against a gopher player, the announcers would have been calling bloody murder.

The one on Blood is the one that Gorg said "that one wasn't as bad as the one by Kristo", and the one on MacWilliam is the one with about a minute or so left that LaPlanta called a hard hit that had MacWilliam limping trying to get off the ice.

I know of four, Parks, MacWilliam on Saturday, Blood and MacWilliam on Friday. One on Panzarella on Friday was close, but I would give the benefit of the doubt to the refs on that one.

The whole point of this thread isn't to talk about homerism, because we all know that exists everywhere. But when you act like safety is your number one goal and fail to see or address hits from behind when it involves the team you are announcing for, you aren't helping move the safety of the game forward. I know fans of both teams will see things two different ways on occasion, but when it comes to announcing on all sides, the more you can call a spade a spade, the more likely hits won't be excused. I think Andrew MacWilliam expressed it best when he was saying that hockey is a fast paced game and bad hits are going to happen because you don't know what the other guy is going to do and you don't always have time to react. From my point of view if you can remove the hits like Kristo's and the two that charged MacWilliam from behind, you will at least be making progress.

Is the NCAA taking their cues from the WCHA leadership. Something that happened last season! Really?

I have to say that at least LaPlanta isn't quite as over the top as Mazzocco, Woog or Gorg. He at least can appreciate and express some virtues of Sioux hockey. I just wish they would be a little more responsible in pointing out things like checking from behind on both sides. When you have Gorg saying that punching the gopher player in response to the check from behind was crossing the line, then not saying anything about Hansen's slash in response to Blood's perceived (I didn't see the replay) shooting the puck towards the gopher player during the course of play, just smacks of rose colored glasses. You wonder why some gopher fans who only get that point of view thrown at them can have a distorted view of some of these skirmishes.

I think Anthony LaPlanta talking about safety in hockey is kind of amusing. They talk about calling everything from behind, yet they refuse to condemn the hits when it comes from a Minnesota player. It becomes borderline when a Minnesota player does it, or they just call it a hard hit. The fact that they say they are starting to call it now, and show Kristo's hit from behind and the CC hit from behind on Rau, and fail to show the Minnesota hits from behind and those that went uncalled, only shows the reason that this issue isn't tackled correctly -- because it is only cheap or bad if the other team does it. There were plenty of hits from behind and knee to knee hits today in the action, but not once did I hear the word cheap or dirty. I guess they reserve that for teams that play against Minnesota, and since these players are all part of the Minnesota culture right now they won't stoop to that level. Until we get to the level where coaches say they deserved that penalty like Hakstol did with Kristo we are only going to see the same partisanship that we get with politics.

Zane Gothberg first star with 37 saves in 38 shots in a 5-1 win. Paul LaDue was 3rd star in the loss scoring the only goal for Lincoln with 6 shots.

I don't know about slim chance, because it all depends on what Florida thinks of Knight. If you are Florida do you risk him staying his Senior season and becoming a free agent. Would have thought slim that Hextall would have left last year, but Phoenix wanted him in their organization. My worry is that when it rains it pours, and this past year has been about as bad as it can get with injuries and defections. Hope the string of bad luck ends with guys coming back and a great outlook for next season, but who knows.