farce poobah

Someone has to finish last, so here goes: Gaudreau - Calgary Tkachuk - Calgary MacKinnon - Colorado Landeskog - Colorado Huberdeau - Florida Barkov - Florida Andersson - Calgary Makar - Colorado Ekblad - Florida DeAngelo - Carolina

Very interesting, and unsurprising. To me, looks like Eastern hockey conferences are now going through what Western conferences went through a decade ago: a logjam, where the existing conferences are full. (ECAC at 12 isn't going to be adding anyone, Hockey East at 11 might add one, and Atlantic Hockey is up to 11 (with Robert Morris already returning next season). The solution seems clear: someone out East is going to have to break off or split up. (Or alternatively, the independents will have to gather together.) The easiest-to-see is the western NY / Lake Erie schools (Mercyhurst, Canisius, RoMo, RIT, Niagara) who would need just one more to get a small-footprint conference with less travel expense than today. The other observation is that conference alignments are usually multi-sport and so "friends helping friends" is pretty common. But I don't know who will speak up for Stonehill, Utica, Long Island, Lindenwood etc. (Augustana, with Sanford Health money talks.)

Yup, and his 2.94 GAA puts him right in the middle of the Big Ten goalie stats, and the .918 save percentage is solid. Clearly, UND coaches saw something, and I'm not going to second guess that, for sure. But proven against NCHC competition? Not yet.

The unproven spot is goaltending. But we have an excellent goalie coach. and most of the NCHC is going with unproven goaltending too.

My compadres had a large repertoire of songs to sing at the end of a winning game. Fortunately for us, the Fighting Sioux had a lot of wins during the day. My faves? Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie - band was good with this one. 50 Ways to Leave as a Loser - "hop on the bus Gus" and a lot of made-on-the-spot lyrics Would love to hear those agin at the Ralph sometime ... (With apologies to Paul Simon and Burl Ives.)

Phil Kessel (TOR 2010-11) is on line 1 for you. Nick Bjugstad (FLA 2013-14) is on line 2.

"He plugs up the net for us, so nothing can get through" - Heavy Metal Hockey, 1987.

Since this is a Western college hockey board, I'm not surprised people are generally in favor of home ice regionals. Nearly 75% of the four team regionals would have been out West, going back to 2015 (when Miami would have hosted! **). Three West, one East. Sounds fabulous to me. A chance to see regionals in person. But if you're in charge of a program out East, are you going to vote for that? Highly unlikely. They've got it cozy "as is", with 40 mile bus rides. So I can't see a change to that approach drawing even half of the votes. Unless of course, someone can tickle the NC$$ hierarchy and get pre$$ure applied to force the Regionals to be profitable too. That external pressure - from outside the coaching fraternity - seems necessary before minds change and the structure of regionals changes. Otherwise, let's just play the whole tournament in one site, preferably a warm weather site where college hockey seeks to grow (Vegas, Arizona, etc). And yeah fans get some time in the sun between games. One weekend of Friday-Monday for the Rounds of 16 and 8, and the next weekend for the semifinals and finals. ** Among the NCHC, only CC and Omaha wouldn't have hosted a four team home ice regional.

#NorthDakotansForGlobalWarming

I like your optimism.

All the future kids who are thinking about signing a LOI for UND.

One aspect of filling the roster with recruits (or keeping players) that hasn't been mentioned in a while here is the limit of 18 scholarships. Money talks, or so I heard from Barry Melrose. This applies - perhaps - and I have no inside info on either - to both the Scott Morrow situation and the Cole Spicer situation. For Morrow - the top three defensemen get full rides, I'm sure. Below that, I bet it gets split in some declining percentage (80-60-40% of a full ride as the defensive depth chart gets filled in. Very possible we offered an 80% ride (because hey Sanderson, Frisch and Kleven are getting full rides - or so I guess), and he / family went to a place that really needed him and offered better. Or it might be simpler and he wants to play somewhere so that his family (from Connecticut I think) can watch his games. For Spicer - similar thing. Splitting 10 scholarships (or so) among 15-17 forwards leaves some great talent on partial scholarships. Guessing the top six forwards are on full rides, and guessing those are already spoken for with Gaber, Schmaltz, etc, and probably including new recruits. (Also, given Hain and Senden were on the roster for Covid-shortened season, their schollies may not need to result in a cut somewhere else.) I do not envy the coaching staff trying to split up the $ among the impressive collection of talent on this roster. PS another benefit of NIL would be (1) getting more full ride-equivalent dollars into the roster, and (2) competing with Major Juniors.

The banners are already hanging.

Condolences on a tough loss. I may be more optimistic about Western Michigan's future ... Fersch and assistant Jason Herter both have good track records of managing and developing talent. Guessing 22-23 is a rebuilding year (but with the portal who knows), and 23-24 another year of contending for Western.

Omaha is interesting. They have a lot of institutional experience - Gabinet played there, Mike Kemp is still on staff (their first coach), Asst Coach Dave Noel-Bernier is an "original Maverick". Gabinet was groomed by Kemp and Blais to replace Blais. Since I have high regard for Blais ability to assess talent (he tapped Hakstol, after all, and hired Brad Berry 20+ years ago), I wonder about Omaha's assistant coaches, and whether they should get more non-UNO thinking. Bottom line - they should be better than they have been.

In 2017, they locked him down to a 10 year contract. Not sure if he has any out clause, that would enable him to leave early.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some coaching changes. The most visible is at Michigan, where Mel Pearson is facing investigations, his contract has expired, and they haven't announced anything. I wonder when someone comes calling for Todd Knott from MSU Mankato; his recruiting eye and relationship skills have filled the roster with late bloomers. (Reminds me of UND in the late 1990's.) https://www.mankatofreepress.com/sports/local_sports/knotts-recruiting-chops-have-shaped-msu/article_263b5c6a-b570-11ec-be3d-df432729c2f4.html At Notre Dame, Jeff Jackson is 67 years old. Just sayin'. At BC, Jerry York is 77. Just sayin'. Wisconsin is due for another revamp (years of underperforming), but perhaps it's just an assistant or two.

Will the NCHC go on a run? Probably, because the league attracts quality. But, there's a lot of uncertainty in goal, which I know is the most important position in hockey because Barry Melrose told me last night. We may start 22-23 with new goalies at the top 6 teams from 21-22. Hrenak - gone. Driscoll - gone. Saville - gone. Brandon Bussi - gone. Fanti - gone. Chrona - probably gone (but who knows). I expect the East to be improved. They were hurt this year by their 20-21 (panic) season cancellations or vast cuts in games played.

Nah. They had plenty of chances to make it 2-0. But credit to DU, for tying it up.

Denver’s ace in the hole? getting NCHC refs to give them four straight power plays. Oh wait it’s eastern refs.

Why is Denver using our power play?

Three SOG for DU. A season low?

One MSU change I expect between periods is better placement of dump ins. Too easy for DU to counterattack.

I was responding to a comment about why St Cloud State was invited to NCHC instead of Mankato. Those invitations were 10 years ago. Since then, yeah they have grown the program a lot.

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/reports/teamHistory/Minnesota-State/35 Take a look at Mankato's record through 2012, when these deliberations went on, pre-Hastings, and tell me you would pick them.