mwade

FYI, the US teams didn't wear letters indicating who was captain of the team the way the Swedes and Finns did, but today at least (and maybe the other games, just can't remember) Chorney was the one to exchange whatever they were exchanging with the Swede captain before the game. He also handled a good bit of the ref talking/listening for the blue team. The biggest positive was that he fulfilled this duty. The white team today never did with the poor Finn captain waiting forever for someone to come over. Just like last year, the only game lost was the final game in a shootout to the Swedes. I think it was also the blue team last year, but not 100%.

You'll like Forney. No comment on the penalties as I honestly can't remember who took what as there were so many of them. Lots of delay penalties - the glass seems pretty low esp. at the ends so that may be a factor. Nearly ran out of frozen pucks in one period. Penalized players on all four teams whined equally about the officiating so it must have been good :-). Lee showed up injured and, I believe, is back home now (that sounds bad - he came to camp to show commitment despite having an injury that would prevent participation). Players should be required to wear their name (or #) on the front of their helmet at all times, especially practice! I think I can recognize about 12 of the guys at all times and a few others some of the time, but the rest I have no clue if a number isn't visible. Some of the shots I liked best from today I couldn't use since I couldn't id the guys (it isn't bias dictating my choices, but ability to i.d.). Not sure when the Wednesday and Thursday pictorials will be on the USCHO front page, but I believe I may have managed to NOT screw up a North Dakota i.d. for the first time :-).

Aaron Schneekloth and Brad Williamson - http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../607210378/1006

A gallery of the haircut. Gilliland has numerous other Canes galleries; he is either the or one of the team photographers.

Sorry, I was not able to obtain permission from UND or Minnesota to sell prints including their student-athletes. Basically in my galleries, if you see "Buy Print" - I have permission and you can. If you don't see that option, check the gallery description and it will tell you if I got a "no" or if I am waiting to hear back from one of the schools. -Melissa

Thanks. In all the equipment, Parise just really looked like Stafford - or maybe not. I really have some sort of issue when it comes to the Sioux.

Started off the season behind, but am finally catching up - should actually finish before Lake Placid rolls around again. 12/9/05 - Minnesota at North Dakota 12/10/05 - North Dakota morning skate 12/10/05 - Minnesota at North Dakota I think there are a few ?s and based on my track record with North Dakota I'm sure there will be at least one ridiculous incorrect identification. If you are bored in the off-season, play the "find Melissa's idiotic mistakes" game :-). I found the first one - I updated my home page and game listing and never uploaded it. -Melissa

He's out on the ice now

I don't mean to complain about it here. The NCAA is fine with print sales for personal usage, not for something like a bar that might hang a bunch of pictures and give the impression of some sort of endorsement by the student-athletes (the NCAA assumes that the public is extremely gullible and well, a lot of people are so can't blame them). However, the student-athlete is wearing the school sweater and the school has full control over their logo (logo is probably not the right word, but you know what I mean) and therefore has the right to say yes or no. It's not really an East - West thing. I've had some schools completely neutral, they say sure and that's it; others (and naturally I never choose games where the opponent feels the same and don't like their buildings) that are very enthusiastic as they see it as a positive and others who say no. UND happens to be one of the "no"s. I may not particularly like it, but I have no desire to get into an adversarial relationship with Media Relations which was given decision-making responsibility in this case. BTW, I do not decide which games to shoot based on this. I'm BC-heavy, because that's "my team" :-) (plus if you think I have talent at screwing up UND captions, you should see how good I am at getting lost. Conte is one of the few rinks I don't have issues with - I didn't have an issue with finding the Ralph just with getting unknowingly stuck with a rear-wheel drive rental and experiencing my first spinout on the ice). I actually don't check with a team until after I've shot the game as, in my mind - not necessarily others, to do otherwise might falsely give the impression that I'm shooting for sales, not game coverage which naturally is the reason I'm there and given credentials. All the extra solo shots are because I try to upload atleast one solo per player for each team for USCHO's use with features or game stories that aren't being covered by a photographer. I'm actually mental enough that when I get a decent order for a prints featuring a particular player I tend to not take as many of him the next game as I worry that it will look like I am either favoring him or trying to get more $s out of that customer. I'll get the images online eventually both for fan enjoyment and for editorial usage. I'm just so far behind at this point that after dealing with post-season photos, I'm going to prioritize those where both teams have provided an okay first. That's all.

Clearly my subconscious has some issues as it seems bound and determined to make sure I BADLY miscaption a Sioux photo every single freaking time. Let's see, just this season we had Taylor Chorney correctly identified in the USCHO U-20 pictorial, but either headed to a different school or drafted by a different team (I think the school), then the image of Smaby being tossed by Boyle and having his full nameplate visible being accompanied by a "Zajac" caption. Yeah, the Stafford/Prpich thing wasn't good, but atleast it wasn't like I mixed up Brian Lee with one of them :-). Now this. Maybe when I get shots from the Minnesota series (December?) online, it can be a game - who can spot Melissa's mistake first . That will be a while though as it's priority has dropped a bit since I can't sell prints of players wearing the Sioux uniform.

I've got photos up now from the Semi against Boston College. Unfortunately I did not receive permission for print sales involving North Dakota so that's while you will only see the "Buy Prints" option next to images that only include BC players. -Melissa

Thanks everyone. I've made the correction. I didn't even look it up before, just assumed since he had a painted mask last year (even if it looked plain white from a distance) that he would this year (plus #2 more likely than #3 bias). Note that I did get the maskless photo right w/o looking though. The funny thing is I didn't go to the media guide very often at all for the Sioux, but the majority of my Maine practice pics that aren't of Bishop are being marked "Maine ?" and I shoot Hockey East 90% of the time. Can't wait to work on the Wisconsin ones seeing as I can only recognize Earl, Skille and Elliott. And yes, that does explain why there were several shots of Skille on USCHO during the F4 despite the fact the other guys maybe deserved to be highlighted in the pics more.

Wanted to wait until I had everything up (BC game, plus practices and games from the Minnesota series earlier this year and print permission) so I wouldnt "spam" everyone, but here is the link: http://photoshelter.com/user/hockeyphotography or http://hockeyphotography.com (I just don't always get the main index updated as quickly). -Melissa

Thanks. That's who I originally guessed, but then I was flipping through the media guide for something else and his picture there has him in a black cage instead. I didn't think guys usually switched so I assumed I got it wrong.

Would you mind changing mine from "devsrule" to "mwade"? Thank you.

So I don't screw up another ID - pictures didn't match clearly to media guide. Although since it's for the practice shots, I atleast wouldn't be able to type one name while the real one is clearly shown across the kid's shoulders. thanks, -Melissa

Sorry about the mixups - apparently I am jinxed when it comes to Sioux-related captions. I screwed up one on Chorney back in August I think. Other than it being extremely late, I have no excuse on the Smaby. I thought I checked the box score to figure out the Stafford/Prpich one though. FYI, Mike Mohaupt has some pictures online - not sure if they were all printed in the Herald or not.

David Hale was finally called up (Dan McGillis sent to Albany). This is my one night home between Christmas trip and the Denver Cup so while I came close to changing my mind based on the callup, I didn't. There is some bad news - he got stuck with #2. That is not a good number for D with the Devils; they either suck or have bad luck/don't last with the team. Sometimes they suck and don't last. Hale is the third guy to wear it this year - hopefully that's it.

I tried searching and couldn't come up with an old thread (although I'd swear I started one when I thought I'd be able to come out for BC's series a couple years ago). I'm hoping to come out, possibly in December and had a couple of questions: 1. No direct flights from NY? Am I just missing them or is there no direct flight into Grand Forks, Fargo or Winnipeg (I remember them being suggested last time - now assume the second 2 were to save $s if not using miles) 2. Hotel? I'm not currently planning on spending any time sightseeing, so would just as soon go without a car if possible. I'm cheap, but I like high speed internet (although it is presumably available in the arena so I can live without). thanks, -Melissa

It's not USCHO's fault - it's mine and they have corrected it. Have no idea why I typed that, but I should have taken more time to re-read the captions that I submitted (mine were all boring - player ID (Fall team - draft team)). Glad you liked the Paukovich shots :-).

Anyone know why David Hale isn't on the Devils' website? He must play and DeMarchi must make the team as I can't deal with seeing Bad Vlad Malakhov or Sean Brown on the ice for the Devils.

This is regarding pay limitations not holding on to rights.

Thanks. I just saw a shot of Marvin with beard so it is definitely Zajac. I'm having issues FTPing right now so the ? will probably remain until Tuesday when the support people are available, but I've entered it that way on the index. I just screwed up while I was copying over captions for the index by just writing Schneider and Greene instead of Andy S or Cory S and BC Matt or UND Matt so I'm moving a bit slower. Since I need to write a paper that's due tomorrow I am sure to finish this today since I am very good about procrastinating about the important stuff.

I've got UND/BC online now - http://devsrule.com/2005_03/050326/index.html I got there late (covered the Amherst games first so it was 3-0 when I got there, 4-0 by the time I started shooting). Haven't finished updating the index, but I only have one UND ? where the kid would be identifiable - http://devsrule.com/2005_03/050326/050326-35.jpg Happy Fourth! -Melissa