farce poobah

Vancouver totally needs a new coach. Every year they win a ton of regular season games with speed, skill, and diving. Then in the playoffs they turn into total effing goons. In past years, they've gotten away with it, but in game 1 tonight, at least the first 35 minutes, they are getting sent to the box. Again and again. After getting charged from behind, Matt Greene shows characteristic smart restraint and refuses to get sucked into a penalty. Go Kings. Send the divers off to golf season.

Monique with a 6-point night. Jocelyne with 3 points. USA rolls 9-2. Time will tell ... if this was rope-a-dope by the Canadians or Team USA is really that good. http://stats.iihf.co...1A04_74_3_0.pdf

Today they start. Canada-USA tonight. Michelle Karvinen with an assist and +1 earlier today.

Him too. Wouldn't trade Grimaldi for either, however.

If that's really our lineup next season - no more departures - next year's Sioux could be a lot better than this year's Sioux. Much more high end talent, much greater upside. In goal: The biggest question mark. Even there though, a proven veteran from UAH, an elite talent (Gothberg), and a guy the team can rally around (Maris). With the strength on defense, we need a guy who can make the first stop and put the rebound in the right places. I think we have that. On D: the strength of the team, once again. 5 returnees from this season, an elite recruit, and the chance to put some defensemen back at forward. At Forward: With Knight at center, we will once again start shifts with the puck 60-65% of the time. Better speed upfront, with Kristo one of the most explosive skaters - first two strides - I've ever seen at UND. Overall, more talent than 2011-2012, but do the newcomers have as much heart as the departures? Time will tell.

Was the WCHA down this year? Not before teams started getting crushed with injuries accompanied by early departures. Denver, down 3-5 guys for the end of the season, and Zucker playing with 1 arm in the regionals. How much difference would Beau Bennett made in their lineup in that close game vs Ferris State? CC, UNO, St Cloud all would have been potentially formidable teams in the NCAA tournament but for losing multiple players for long periods of time. And I don't need to remind people on this board about UND. BC hasn't had a star-caliber player go down with injury this season. If we put a fully-stocked Denver, CC or North Dakota up against them, I think its a competitive battle. (Remember CC took out BC just 12 months ago.) But hey them's the breaks. Go Ferris.

Personally, I would have a different definition of "cool". Cool is someone that picked their own path, and doesn't try to be something they aren't. Several of their list are impressive or even awe-inspiring (LSU baseball, the Ralph). Griz stadium is cool, and App State. I've had the fortune to be at several stadiums that I would call cool, but I don't know they qualify as "never heard of". For example: * U of Minnesota's Williams Arena, the Barn, is cool. An elevated floor? Cool. * the old Broadmoor Arena, was cool. (RIP) * Dane County Coliseum. Beer garden? NFW! Cool. All that said, it is way cool to go to games at the Ralph for 11 seasons and counting ...

Among the locals, I think there was some frustration with not making the NCAA (1 in 13 years) or even the WCHA Final Five for several years. Jutting was Don Brose's handpicked choice a decade ago, and one could reasonably conclude he's had a chance to make it work. I think MSU Mankato has a number of advantages going forward, including an easy commute from the hockey suburbs on the south side of the Twin Cities. Your kid can get more quality ice time and you can be home by midnight on game nights. They certainly have had a string of high quality players come through there in the past years, but the lack of development of the rest of the roster was apparent ... David Backes, Grant Stephenson, Shane Joseph, Ryan Carter, Travis Morin and the top guys couldn't carry the load alone. As to replacement coaches, Guentzel and Johnson are good guesses. I don't see Eades making that move, but I could be wrong. My money would be on Eric Means. Was assistant to Jutting, now the women's head coach.

In the mid-1980's, when the WCHA had only 6 teams, and 7-team Hockey East had just split off from the ECAC so there was a tiff going on, there was a good opportunity for both east and west. As both conferences added members, that ended.

Last year, UND came into the Frozen Four on a 15-game unbeaten streak. Our performance in the regionals was even more dominating, with a 12-1 combined score. But, as we all know, "Hockey is a funny game."

One of the year's best articles: "The midnight gesture of Shawn Hunwick" http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/final-gesture-shawn-hunwick

10 nonconference games leaves UND with: * 1 Hockey East series * 2 WCHA series (Bemidji, the Alaska schools, Mankato ... don't expect UND to play the UP schools often) * 1 Big Ten series (I would love to see Michigan more often ... it was a great rivalry back in the olden days) * 1 "floating" (based on opportunities that arise)

I agree there will be rivals. CC and DU in particular "need" it. Western Michigan and Miami, as MAC rivals, will definitely want 4x. I think SCSU would like to get UMD 4x, but I bet UMD would rather get UND as a rival. At the end of day, I bet we're paired up with Nebraska-Omaha, which is just fine.

So, we have a 6-year rotation on the schedule (or so it would appear): * A "rival" that we play 4x every year. * The other 6 teams, we play 2x in 2 of 6 years and 4x in 4 of 6 years. In other words, a home series in 5 of 6 years ... that's enough to build real rivalries. (The old WCHA was/is getting pretty watered down.) I really like the 10 nonconference games. It will do a LOT to help UND hockey - and other sports especially football and basketball. PS Its time to adjust RPI and PWR for road wins.

Yesterday was strange - we scored on two "bounces" and an ENG. But we had a load of Grade A chances that didn't get converted. I will be there again too.

I'm hoping for a good clean game. I have no illusions that we are more talented than Minnesota. Nor any illusions that we outplayed Minnesota last week; there were a month of good bounces in that WCHA semifinal. But as the ESPN broadcast team said yesterday, "Good teams have good players. Great teams have great teammates." If we have an edge, its that intangible.

I got eliminated sooner than usual this year. Lasted all of 5 whole hours. Go SIOUX!

Yes, but as a shadow of his normal self. Upper body injury.

Street prices tomorrow - around face. Not above, but not a lot below either because I think most of the tickets sold are Gophers season ticket holders (who will show up for the most part) or people who bought this week.

The just started selling single game ... $57 for both games Saturday.

2pm cdt

UMD, Minnesota, Michigan, Miami * Well rested UMD proves a tough matchup for BC, just like CC was last year. * Well rested Minnesota emerges from the group of death. * Michigan. Argh. I hate to pick them but have to. DU just too depleted. * Miami an easy road through the anti-group of death.

I'm not an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last month. Going into the weekend, UND trailed a number of teams narrowly - and I mean narrowly - so that 3 "high impact" wins against TUC's raised UND's "TUC" comparison factor plus raised UND's RPI by enough to change 7-8 comparisons. It also helped that 2 wins were against "head to head" vs teams we had trailed (DU and MN), helping to flip those comparisons. I leave the real explanation to the experts.

There's a lot of that out there, on both sides. We just hear about the ugly stuff ....

I still get chills thinking about the sustained ovation for Dean Blais last year.