tnt

In the sense that it is about one organization telling the people "we know what is right for you", it is kind of a liberal position. Liberals want big government and oversight. The NCAA is exactly the same. That said, I don't think the nickname is a black and white issue as evidenced by the overwhelming bipartisan support for the nickname from both sides of the political spectrum.

No, they don't come in to ride the pines --- unless they aren't able to perform up the level required of them to be in the lineup. I am sure Fienhage didn't come in to ride the pines either being a high draft pick, but he is. Just because you are highly touted does not mean you will automatically see playing time. David Toews hasn't got to play as much as everyone thought either, but I don't see anyone pleading his cause. Ben Blood stepped up after he didn't get playing time last year. That's what is required -- stepping up.

I find it interesting that Major Juniors bills itself as the next best thing to sliced bread, yet seems to want to take in NCAA hockey players that aren't getting playing time. Hmmm.

The MacNaughton cup last year, the Broadmoor trophy this year, what's left for next year?

Yes, remember when Toews missed some games because of a concussion and blamed himself for having his head down. I guess that is what you would expect from someone who isn't prone to whine about anything. Interesting to know Mr. Lunsetter's background. Would have been nice to have that thrown in at the end of his editorial so everyone can understand where his jaded perspective is coming from.

I see on INCH's wish draft list they say that Sioux fans' biggest concern is goaltending. I would think it would be healthy defensemen. I think the worry of any team is that their goalie will have a bad game at the wrong time, which has happened to the Sioux in the NCAA tournament a few times in their last game. That said, I don't think the goaltending was a worry beforehand, bad games just happen to even the best goaltenders, and in a one and done tourney, it's game over. I don't know of a goalie that isn't susceptible to a bad game every now and then, as indicated by Marc Cheverie last weekend against Wisconsin. Oh, and by the way, they have the Sioux logo in the place where Bemidji States logo is supposed to be. They must like the logo too.

I guess the people who post stuff like that when things are going bad, then turn around and trash talk about how great and unbeatable the Sioux will be on the way to number 8 are the posters that bother me the most. To me you can't have it both ways, but then again I guess you can. Everybody gets frustrated at certain points of the year, but I guess from past experience, you would think that there would always remain a thread of hope and trust that the ship can always be righted as it has been continually in the past. Just like I never count out other teams ability to turn things around, I certainly wouldn't count out ours with the track record they have had.

But they also have set a precedent that if you hit someone like this, you can retaliate with a hit to the head yourself. I guess in the league's eyes that is better than just dropping the gloves.

I guess I have a problem with the league refusing to go on a local radio station to explain the decision. Wouldn't you want it known what the consequences are going to be for specific behavior? Maybe they just want to continue to arbitrarily decide who they will suspend and who they won't without giving any guidelines to follow. I find it odd that they won't explain to Sioux followers or anyone interested in this decision on the radio, yet they have no problem sending Greg Sheppard on with Doug and Frank to explain why a goal was taken away from the gophers against Wisconsin. And you wonder why people would think there is a slant to things in the league. I still think Hakstol should walk out on the ice after a bad call and see what the league does to him. I suspect we would find out in a hurry the inconsistency and disparity in the league's judgement.

Yeah, I could see Hill doing it. I wouldn't be surprised to see the University ask Lucia to change one or both of his assistants.

Yeah, but every gopher fan that keeps their tickets will be cheering hard against the Sioux.

You haven't been watching as many games toward the end of the season then, because he is much more comfortable jumping into the play, indeed stickhandling around players in the offensive end than he was earlier in the season, which obviously makes sense. Traditionally, that has been the case with even defensemen that had the offensive label coming in. Derrick Lapoint learned the defensive end first, and it has served him well as he now jumps into the play much more often. Another example of that is none other than Ben Blood. In fact, with Blood doing much more rushing than he did last year, it kind of makes sense that MacWilliam needs to stay back and hold down the fort.

Have you watched any games this year? You aren't the one that was questioning why the Sioux would be interested in him coming out of juniors and are just trying to cover for that are you? No one is making him out to be the second coming, but he is far more advanced than anyone would have guessed at this juncture and is one of our most dependable defensemen. Dependable and freshman don't always go together well in the same sentence.

The question now is do they change the way do business now and charge Fighting Sioux club members next year to go to women's hockey games, or do they wait until people are hooked on the new product and grow a following?

Friday: Gregoire Saturday: Hextall

Let's add Evan Trupp to that list in Duluth a few years back. I believe it was a knee to knee hit. Incidentally, Chay Genoway was also out of action for a bit from a check from behind in that series but was able to return by the national tournament, maybe a little earlier.

I don't have a problem celebrating a game winning goal as long as it isn't in someone else's face. Kristo likes to celebrate his goals a bit too.

Didn't hear Gorg talk about Knight's hit, but it wouldn't surprise me. I used to respect Gorg for his knowledge, but the more I listen to him, his knowledge is based on X's and O's and even that sometimes appears to be a load of crap. I did hear someone call up and talk about how nice it is to have players stay in college like Jonathan Toews, and there was no response from Gorg that he was only there 2 years and left after he was 19 years old. He has become another gopher tool that doesn't respond to things like Brian Schack's two attacks from behind, but focuses on when the Sioux stick up for their own. Of course, he believes in that when it comes to the NHL, but doesn't when it comes to college, or at least when it pertains to a team that he doesn't announce for. He doesn't have a whole lot of knowledge about the college game outside of the gophers.

Frattin on Friday Kristo on Saturday

I hope the fact the Sioux are now tied with CC doesn't cause the Sioux to feel comfortable again. I think they really need to get that Friday game, because the Sioux don't need to give CC any confidence when they have lost some recently. If CC won on Friday their confidence would be up and they would smell home ice the following night. I really hope the Sioux look at this as an opportunity to keep their pairwise ranking and gaining home ice at the same time.

It looks like it would go to league games if they split and both scored the same number of goals in the series.

I think if we split and tied on total goals in the series, we would have an advantage on total margin of victory for the rest of the WCHA schedule.

I know it would be a rivalry series with Denver, but it might be possible that Denver could already have clinched the WCHA title, and there will most likely be a letdown after that. I would think we should be able to beat Tech at home, but stranger things have happened with more talented Sioux teams.

I think it might be head to head goals against, but not sure. It would be nice to put a licking on them on Friday just to take a little pressure off.

Should they split this weekend, and then finished tied at the end of the year, what are the tie break criteria beyond head to head and league wins?