farce poobah

Dean Blais was a UND coach when Dad played.

SCSU at Mankato has a penalty clock too. Purple Barney 4 Jan Brady Jr College 2 ... midway through the third.

LOL I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

Nice first period. "Old fashioned" Sioux hockey with good coverage, good poise with the puck, physical but only at the right times. This is a step forward for this team. I am liking the split of Nelson off the line with Kristo and Knight. Macmillan is a better fit. Plus it strengthens the 3rd line ...

Its an omen: Stafford with a goal, Oshie with a goal, Toews with an assist. Next - the current Sioux ring one up.

To the substance of the quality of play, it continues to make quantum leaps. The one timers this weekend were a thing to behold.

I should have said I don't think the women will fill the Ralph this year, but relatively soon. Sioux fans will support a competitive team, and this is a hockey town. Put the two together. The ongoing high attendance bodes well for future recruiting ... combine facilities and coaching with the chance to play before some bona fide crowds, and UND will win even more recruiting battles.

I continue to believe that, sometime in the relatively near future, the women will fill the Ralph ... The trajectory is continuing to move in the right direction - and the schedule hasn't gotten to the rivalry games at home yet.

As someone who was born into the capable hands of Dr. Delano, I can say unequivocally that Beth Delano is exactly the kind of person that we can all aspire to become. UND could do a lot worse in terms of role models.

The Denver Post articles are a good read. Not very much homerism, not overly romantic, lot of fact based writing.

Back in 1982, when he played for the Badgers, the UND student section told him he had a face only a mother could love, and even then only after a couple beers.

The result was quite painful. But for 30+ minutes, I thought we deserved better than to be 2-2. Chemistry on finishing was missing or we might have been up 2-3 goals. Looking at the boxscore for tonight http://collegehockey...es/mbc_ndk1.o08, and I would say its unfair to pin the blame for the outcome on any single player or line. Only 2 guys ended the night even or plus: Knight and Kristo, and it was not a particularly good game for them ... even though they created a lot of chances to be sure. Grimaldi is worth the price of admission. His anticipation and quickness, even with an injury, are outstanding. He needs to be on a line with a couple finishers. Eidsness was good. We have a lot of work to do, especially defensive zone coverage where three of our lines got schooled tonight. I predict a wholesale shakeup of line combinations for next weekend. Of course, I'm not really going out on a limb since the 3rd period was pretty much a wholesale shakeup of line combinations. For the first time in a while, I'm disappointed in the turnout. Only 9400 for a marquee game vs Boston College?

A few impressions of game one: 1. Anyone who beats Air Force has achieved something worthwhile. They are good on their skates and play good team hockey. 2. For the first time in oh, let's say years, we struggled with defensive zone coverage. The defensemen were generally good, although someone (I'll leave unnamed) overskated a puck in front of Dell that led to a AFA goal. But my observation was around team defense, and the large change in forwards combined with the lack of game experience meant there were more openings and gaps than I saw at any time in the last two seasons. 3. That said, UND fans should have every reason to expect a solid team defense emerge as the season goes on. The rookies are strong on their skates, read plays, and not afraid to mix it up. That goes for all of tonights freshmen. Prototypical Sioux forwards in the making. 5. Dell was good. An unfortunate bounce led to one goal. And he made the game saving stop in the 3rd period (either AFA was up one or it was tied), getting a left pad out on an attempt from inside the crease. Phenomenal goaltending. Maybe I take his night in night out excellence a bit for granted. 6. Up front, pretty much what we were predicting in the offseason. 7. Top line needs a nickname fast, because they will be pulling down the headlines all season long. Kristo is much improved, with puck distribution especially better. Combined with his incredible soft hands and slippery skating, he will be on a lot of highlight reels. Knight showed some great hands too with that first goal, batted out of the air. He won a lot of faceoffs tonight, and expect that to continue. Nelson looks a lot quicker - last year he had a lot of great ideas but didn't get them executed in time; tonight he showed a lot more quickness. All three could be Hobey Baker top ten before its all said and done. 8. Rowney looks better and faster. Mario looked good. Rodwell was quiet, except for a number of body checks delivered. Third and fourth lines need some game time experience. Too bad we jump right into the fire, because there is a lot to like there but they did struggle at times with AFA's puck possession. A bit too ready to throw the puck backward into the slot without a clear target; I expect to see more cycling / riding time from these lines in future games. 9. On the road, we will have to mix up the lines (or suffer the consequences of getting mismatched). 10. We miss Grimaldi. Pretty thin on playmaking after that top line. 11. Boston College also looks to have some holes, but will be formidable. Both UND and BC might be there at the end but I expect both to get dealt some harsh losses during the regular season. Michigan State lacks skilled players / finishers / but has solid skaters and defense. Expect BC near the top of HEA and Michigan State to finish 3rd quartile of CCHA. Expect AFA to be at the top of AHA again. 12. As to the Sioux, we looked better than I expected at times, and worse than I feared at others. The nights of dominating start to finish will be a lot less common, so we have to keep watching for progress and the build of systems and talent over the first 20 games. I predict another later-season run. 13. To Saturday, I predict UND and BC will be essentially even. Someone gets a bounce, or someone makes a great play to win it. 14. I'm dang glad its October.

Wow - a 29-player roster, with 10 freshmen. Hope there's some redshirts in that mix, and/or some people who had playing time last year will get less this year. Nice to see Karvinen - presumably this means the Clearinghouse issues have been resolved favorably? Go Sioux!

Good insights, as you often have. I agree that a full merger of WCHA and CCHA is highly unlikely. BUT the WCHA has a couple strong reasons to collaborate with the CCHA. First is autobid and second is money. First, autobid. The WCHA 6 can't sleep all that well ... after all if one member gets poached or goes under, then they lose autobid. So Brucie wanting 8 members makes a lot of sense. This creates common ground with the "remaining CCHA four" who probably want to ditch UAF, especially since the 4 AHA schools have no loyalty there at all. (Sidebar - I'm assuming for the moment that Notre Dame and WMU go "somewhere else". And therefore the remaining CCHA four might choose to abandon UA(F) and create a "new conference" with the 4 AHA schools. Its an unlikely marriage, but one where each side has strong motivations - they need each other.) So in my little scenario here, the Chicago meeting had two topics, one of which was basically the CCHA 4 telling the WCHA/McLeod that they want WCHA to take UA(F). McLoad's comment: could be interpreted as the WCHA pondering whether to take UAF to get to 7, or whether they wait for a better offer later. Second, is money. This quote from McLoud hints at it: I think they talked scheduling agreements between WCHA and CCHA. Both sides need home games and revenue, and lots of it. AND, they need negotiating leverage on home games with the remaining western powers. Candidly, W/CCHA are facing the likelihood that the Big Ten schools will never go on the road to play them (I'm looking at you, Wisconsin and Minnesota who havne't played road nonconference games unless its been a Big Ten playmate.) and while NCHC schools have been relatively obliging historically, the financial leverage and PWR leverage rests with the NCHC. So getting home games is - I think - motivation for the W/CCHA to talk scheduling agreement. Bottom line, I think we see all this happen around the time of the CCHA meetings 8/16, or within a short period thereafter: 1) Notre Dame and WMU "announce" intentions on August 16th at the CCHA meetings. (Might be a couple days before it goes public.) I hope they come NCHC, but that may be wishful thinking. (If they announce something else, Miami becomes a flight risk for NCHC ....) 2) The remaining four CCHA have a chance to save face by announcing their intentions at the same time. Ideally, they want WCHA to announce its taking UAF, AND they want to announce addition of the AHA four (or creation of a "new league" and the disbanding of CCHA). 3) WCHA announces whether its taking UAF; I think they will say yes. 4) There's a small possibility that Lake Superior State goes west, keeping proximity to NMU, MTU, and even UMD.

You aren't the only one who's Freudianally slipping back to getting Frattin, Genoway, and a cast of stars back on the team. From fightingsioux.com http://www.fightingsioux.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=205235876 "Click HERE to view the entire 2011-11 men's hockey schedule."

The Lake Erie Monsters ... http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/blogs/118054484.html I have no other comments.

That plus its not conceivable that Andy Murray would take a job coaching a team destined for the remnants of the CCHA.

Versus would be outstanding. Probably the biggest is the rush to compete that might come from other places (BigTen TV might show more hockey, maybe ESPN_U would go a bit more often).... ... exposure is good. ======================== Plus, on Versus we get to hear about how all these players grew up wanting to be Sidney Crosby (I keed, I keed)

From my experience, videoconferences work well for "team meetings" of colleagues and coworkers who share common ground and common interests. For meeting with neutral or adversarial parties, face to face is still far superior. Plus, going to Indy is a powerful signal from the state of North Dakota.

Speculation is fun. Strategically, it seems clear the conference is looking for a bigger footprint. Bigger presence in the big-population states in the midwest. Big-time schools. NCHC needs New York (Syracuse), Illinois (Northwestern? oops they would go B1G, OK think of someone else in Chicagoland which is hockey-crazy right now). Iowa State would fit pretty well. Missouri (Lindenwood), Pennsylvania (Pitt? hey they can't let Penn State one-up on them). Canisius is a terrific Jesuit school in a major hockey market (Buffalo). UConn, if they ever put their mind to it. How about Rutgers? Last, if you're going to have a national presence in hockey, you need a significant presence in New England. BC would be the girl everyone wants in their conference, and their other encumbrances are not a problem like for other schools out there.

So the Western logjam is broken. In a span of a few months, we've gone from "no room for anyone, even a solid existing program like UAH" to "we're desperate to save our auto-bid!" In the near term, the Minne-WCHA is looking for member #6. UAH anyone? And depending on what happens in the CCHA, they may be looking for #6: Robert Morris? Niagara? Mercyhurst? But what is exciting about this is the potential this creates for adding big names and population centers. Unlike the NHL which went all the way to the deep south, and is now retrenching, I would think college hockey could have a footprint where hockey at other levels has had a long presence: * in the Twin Cities: St Thomas, or Concordia-St Paul .... * Iowa State: long rumored ... * Chicago: Northwestern, maybe? * St Louis: Lindenwood will probably be going D1 in "everything" as soon as possible. * Syracuse: excellent addition to the CHSL. * even UBC, if that comes to pass. * or pick a major metro area, with a school that isn't overly wedded to football, and you've got a candidate. By itself CHSL doesn't make all that much sense. But I have a strong hunch the key plays in this chess match are yet to come.

It's Fire on Ice. No, really. Fire ON ice.

What's the penalty? In this case, political. At the time the law was passed, the SBOHE blinked because the "court of public opinion" says that North Dakotans overwhelmingly support Fighting Sioux as the nickname. (Phrased that way, it is still overwhelmingly in favor.) Had they come out then as appearing not to support "Fighting Sioux", it would have simply given more ammunition to the power-grabbing ambitions of Carlson and the legislature. So in this case, the penalty to SBOHE was political. We'll see how far the pendulum swings in the court of public opinion toward not wanting to risk UND athletics in their entirety ... and how far the court of public opinion places blame for this fiasco on Carlson and the legislature. With all that said, your original premise - what's the penalty? - is spot on.