farce poobah

Wodon argues the Pairwise is not a good way to select teams for home ice, so lets keep the status quo regionals. That's a major error of logic, and any middle-school debater would tear that argument to pieces. My preference? Let's start with Schlossman's round of 16 at 8 rinks, followed by a round of 8 at 4 rinks. I think this, all by itself, and regardless of how the home teams are awarded, is vastly better than current. Since everyone can host a home game, the only exclusion I can think of is an arena that doesn't allow broadcasting to the standards of ESPN's contract. At the team's option, they can select an arena that's not their regular home arena. Home ice can be selected by a variety of mechanisms. I would favor giving the Automatic Qualifiers home ice in round one; and randomly selecting the last two home ice, and all of the visiting team matchups. (Process should have a sequence of selections to avoid interconference matchups.) Have the Selection Show be a live and interesting event with some real drama! Part of my rationale in favor of this random element is to avoid incentives where at-large teams can benefit by losing in conference tournaments. Importantly, it becomes harder for any conference to argue against solely on the grounds they never rank high enough to host. This may increases the votes in favor of the new regionals structure. Alternatively, award all the Round of 16 home ice by random selection. Or a third alternative, a weighted random selection where the PWR ranking gives you better odds, but not certainty, of hosting regional games. (Similar to NHL draft lottery.) For the round of 8, I would prefer the serpentine 1v8, 2v7 etc.

I’ve met the Grand Poobah, and worship the ground he walks on. With all due respect, ”Adam Wodon, you’re no Grand Poobah.”

Count me impressed you went back to 2001. Looks like UND's lead over Wisconsin as #1 is safe for this year. Next year, if Hastings keeps the momentum, might be a close battle.

Longer run, it helps our RPI and our comparison vs BC if BU beats BC. And yes, I would like more distance between UND and #4-8. Too easy for the rankings to change quickly. (See DU dropping to #8 as case in point.)

BU getting the jump on BC early 2-0. Game on ESPN plus for those interested. (Or NESN I imagine if you're in their range.)

Well, the KRACH rating for both teams, accumulated over the full season so far, implies 80% chance of SCSU beating Miami. So by that measure, a sweep is 64% (80x80).

Cam Rowe would be a good pick. Omaha's Simon Latkoczy with the only sweep would be a conventional pick.

Eddie Belfour was robbed!

Watching Western play Denver just like we did. Skate hard on the puck, no space or time to make plays, and challenge DU weak goaltending.

This is excellent. I would pay extra if they did just natural sound all the time.

I predict the A game from our goaltender tonight. He closes the door on his former team, figuratively and literally.

The Big Show might come calling, for sure.

Its been a decade plus of UND leading the national attendance stats. Would not be surprised if UW leads the nation next season.

In Madison last night, attendance of 13,500. Mike Hastings paying dividends already.

One of those nights where the stats tell a big part of the story. Suggesting Miami worked harder than us tonight. Blocked Shots: MIA 28 UND 8. Face offs: MIA 33 UND 24. For once, the plus minus (attached box score) give hints as to who was effective tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some line juggling Saturday. The long breaks in the 3rd period helped Miami's short bench keep some legs later on. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/final/20240202/ndk/mia/

Jim Hiller hired , bringing the count to 14 NHL head coaches who played NCAA

Greg Johnson was robbed!

Jim Archibald, 1984-1985 4.80 PIM/game

Total travel for that UND scenario ... better than most years, but its still 1800 miles, round tripping and all. At least the Badgers did have to leave town... to go to Green Bay for regionals and Milwaukee for the NCAA. Total travel ... under 500 miles. Minnesota 2003: didn't even have to leave town. WCHA in St Paul, regionals at Mariucci, and Frozen Four back in St Paul. Argh. CC hasn't won a NCAA title since last the tournament was held at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs. (They did come close ... 1996. Sigh.) Denver is another that won a hometown FF. BU of course. Never even left hometown. Over and over, the arguments for moving teams around from one regional to another really only favors the Boston schools, and the NE teams. So its not surprising that the NE based mouthpieces like Adam Wodon, don't want any change to a system that favors them. I say lets make sure the Frozen Four never offers a team a home crowd advantage. No more Boston, Albany, Providence (St Paul, Denver)... yes to Tampa, Dallas, Las Vegas. If the Regionals have to be "neutral ice", then the Frozen Four should be too. /end rant

Watched the end of it. ... I suspect the ESPN/NESN stream missed the penalized incident. First, BU with the hard pass up from their own zone to their bench area, where the camera missed which team played the puck, and missed showing what (i think) was a change behind the play. Then two seconds later, the freeze frame on the stream which showed two BU players (one of them extra) one step from the bench. I doubt that was what was actually called .... but I left being unsure where the infraction occurred.

There's never been a season with 3 Eastern teams as #1 regional seeds. Is this the year? I think not ...

CC in a battle - maybe an epic battle - for home ice also. Fun.

So, we started the year with 8 new defenders, and a "new" guy, Dillon Simpson, hired to coach the D. Couple months together, they're playing very cohesively, with each other and with the forwards and goalie. If there is an Assistant Coach of the Year Award, I have a nominee in mind.

My $.02 on Perron. And my flashback goes further back in Sioux history than Bochenski. I'm getting Dave Christian vibes. Both came in as 18 yo freshman, as smaller players, into a lineup filled with excellent players. Both skate very well, have great hands, can pass, and can score. Flashes of brilliance as freshmen interspersed with stretches where the play went somewhere else. Christian finished 9th on the UND team in scoring. Which is where Perron is now. I predict (like a lot of other people) a long and distinguished career for Perron. Keep the faith bro.