MNHockey9

To get off the subject of Fargo vs. GF hockey, I want to know who the best players are in the state of ND. I want predictions on Mr. Hockey and All tournament teams, try to include some of the western players also.

Moorhead 5-2, South will put up a good fight in the first couple of periods then Moorhead will pull away.

That canuck deserved that cheap shot from Jack Johnson, the canuck clearly slashed him right before he elbowed him. I would have done the same thing.

I can say whatever I want on this website.

Well, the point is that obviously, college hockey players come from high school programs and there are a lot of high school programs in North Dakota - from the east and west - that have produced good high school players that have gone on to play college hockey. An indicator of the talent pool in high school is the production of college players - that is why I brought that into the discussion to broaden and deepen the basis of the analysis. Minnesota has more quality players than North Dakota on an absolute basis - because they have a larger population base - that is a simple statistical fact. Minnesota hockey is nearly 10 times bigger than North Dakota hockey. Your comment that overall MN is 10 times better than ND hockey is meaningless because you have not specified any measurable criteria for arriving at your conclusion. It is just a subjective pronouncement. Your comment about North Dakota hockey out west is profound. Tell us something new please. The programs out there have not been around for that long. The infrastructure of support, fan base, tradition, culture has never been there and probably will never develop to a very high level. So-should they quit playing hockey because they are not as good as Duluth East or Bloomington Jefferson? In Minnesota there is a tremendous synergy of variables that works in powerful ways to make the state a great source for high school hockey players. If you reproduce those variables in other parts of the country you will have similar results. Why run down another area because they do not have those synergies? You could take the same situation and say for example, "I'm from Texas/California and Minnesota high school football is a joke." Or, I'm compared to California, Minnesota track and field is a joke and they can't compete with us. Without some understanding of the demographic issues, culture of support for the sport etc, the discussion just falls to the level of emotionally based pronouncements - we are better than you are - blah, blah, blah, rather than insightful contributions such as - Here are various ways to improve the infrastructure of the sport so it can be played at a higher level.

No it does statisically support my answer your telling me that in every section of MN hockey they have 600,000 people give me a break buddy, you are getting all worked up about nothing. Chill out. Anyone can talk about anything on these threads.

MNHockey9 is just another example of the analytically impaired, emotionally stunted, little braggarts that surface from time to time on high school hockey boards. Sometimes we even have locals who act like that. In any case, as pointed out above by NDHockey1 the North Dakota Elite team finished tied for second this year ahead of 7 MInnesota section teams and Shattuck and Wisconsin. That was a team composed of all North Dakota kids. The Elite I team had a great ending to their season as well playing for the championship of their league. That team was approximately one-half Minnesota and one-half North Dakota kids. the North Dakota kids contributed 107 points and the Minnesota kids contributed 108 points (total goals and assists). As NDHockey1 points out, if you create North Dakota teams based on community population sizes as in some large Minnesota cities you would have teams just as good as many of the top Minnesota teams. Also, if you match some of the weaker ND teams with Minnesota communities with shorter hockey histories and level of community support and hockey culture the performance comparisons will be similar in most cases. Also, if you happen to go to one of the Gopher Hockey sites (Gopher Puck Live) you will see the big write up on how two North Dakota kids playing for the Gophers led the U of M to two wins over a great team like the UND Sioux.

Did I say that every team couldn't compete in MN, NO, I said a couple of teams could compete in MN. You could take a couple of teams in ND and they would pot up a fight. You take Red River HS and Fargo South HS they could compete. You mentioned that Red River beat EGF, give me a break, EGF is terrible. You combine Red River and Central this year and you can take them up and play the Holy Angels, we will see how that goes. Also with your Elite League comment. North Dakota puts 1 team together for Elite 2. How many does MN put together, 9.

North Dakota hockey is terrible compared to MN. Only a couple of teams could compete in MN. Just thought I'd let everyone know because all of you are crazy about ND hockey.