tnt

Nevermind, found this article. http://www.pittsburghaviators.com/news_article/show/113950?referrer_id=356610

Did I miss a women's hockey recruit somewhere along the line. I see the name Gracen Hirschy listed as a defensive recruit, and don't remember hearing that name before. Anybody have any info?

One only needs to look at the fans reaction to fighting in every arena across the country to know why it is still a part of the game. I probably agree that those who fight all the time might have physical problems, but just like smoking, they choose to do it. There are things that cause greater ills in society, yet I don't call for a ban on the internet, smoking, alcohol, television. What about Facebook, people are bullied on there. But that is what parents are for, to explain right from wrong and give their kids a sense of self esteem. As for fighting in college, it happens so infrequently anyway, and it is not staged like it is in the NHL. There will come a time when fighting is no longer part of the game, because of somebody getting cut by a skate or banging their head on the ice, resulting in serious injury. There will also come a time when people want some sort of ban on checking hard. Remember when you could love a good open ice hit? I fear that we are moving to a place where you will be considered barbaric for liking the hitting part of the game, and I am not talking about cheap hits here.

I guess I would disagree with that. Don't see near as much of the checking from behind in the NHL. Don't think fighting helps in that regard either, because the USHL has a lot of cfb. I actually think that the bad hits are a bigger instigator between fans than fighting is. Just look at the threads from the last Sioux/gopher series and it was still all about the hits and yapping.

If you're going to eliminate fighting even more in college, then you need to find a way to eliminate it in the USHL, which if you are looking to develop players for the next level, it would start with the USHL. If you start removing it all the way around, perhaps Major Juniors will be the answer for a lot more players than are leaving college already. I don't care one way or the other about fighting, but what bothers me is the crowd that tells people what is good and what is not good in entertainment value, especially when it doesn't effect society as a whole. Just as I don't believe people have the right to tell me that I am hostile and abusive because I like a sports logo and nickname. I don't think people are out beating up other people because they see it in a hockey game, no more than it does if you watch boxing. I think the World Juniors cleaned up a bit after the brawl where they had to shut out the lights to try and stop the fighting. College hockey is getting harder and harder to watch because of all of the after the whistle pushing. This weekend against Wisconsin was brutal watching fake tough guys pushing and then somebody pushing back. I guess face-washing and chattering doesn't really do it for me either.

You and PETA seem to know what is best for everyone in society, and soon if there are more bad injuries in hockey I am sure there will be a fringe crowd that will want hitting banned in hockey too.

Exactly, you didn't even see the incident, yet you are spouting off like you are an expert. You said that in society if somebody slapped you, you could respond in self defense, yet you think because you are in a game you shouldn't be allowed to do so. I think everybody can see where you are coming from now since you think boxing should be banned.

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.