farce poobah

Bad news: CHN just picked Denver as their Team of the Week. Which means they get swept this weekend.

Of all the Olympic athletes that seem like regular people, the US Curling Team seems like the ones most likely to find at the local tavern/cafe, to share a beer/coffee with.

I'm a little surprised Bobby Brink isn't with Team USA in Beijing. Seems like his game would transition well to Olympic ice and European opponents.

That was certainly another good example of the classic "home cooking": call penalties on the visitor until DU gets ahead.

This was the worst example of home cooking I can remember. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/final/20171118/ndk/den/ Denver 1-2 UND 8-27. After UND won Friday night, "home cooking" made sure that didn't happen again.

I thought our forwards gave extra attention to defensive support / assignments in our own zone last night. Very few times an Omahahaha player was wide open. We still need to cut down turnovers in our defensive, which are what gave Omahahaha some long stretches of riding time. Overall though, the best I can say is that we didn't seem to miss Sanderson as much as I had feared. Good job boys.

Generally, I like KRACH as an excellent objective method for this kind of prediction. There's always something, though. Other factors that can't be measured objectively: This includes (1) Denver playing AT Western Michigan -KRACH doesn't (typically) factor in home-ice advantage, which in the case of Western is significant. (2) The wear and tear of short-intervals between games ... such as St Cloud's Tuesday games in the middle of weeks with travel. Hard to see St Cloud doing as well as their KRACH would indicate. (3) Lineup absences, which are pretty significant for some teams (Olympics), and unpredictable factors like covid and injuries. (4) Teams gelling as the year goes on, and I hope UND fits this category. St Cloud and Western have guys that have been linemates for years plus, whereas UND is still getting the hang of playing together. This also applies to teams with a lot of young guys in the lineup, as freshman learn they contribute more. That said, I still like our chances of winning the NCHC again. But with all that said, it would be hard to bet against Denver, still.

During this streak, BC has not played anyone in the top ten. So the 8 losses include #54 Maine, #28 New Hampshire twice. Looking back on the season, the enormous anomaly in their schedule is a win over #3 Denver. Otherwise, the obvious problem with their roster is that only 10 guys have been drafted. So, yeah they need more ...(insert phrase of the week here) ...

When your own fans turn on you, it's time for major changes at Michigan. Not just hockey.

Denver has to go to Western. Tough place to play, and Western is a tough matchup for Denver. If Western were to sweep that series, those two are basically even. I'm staggered by the possibility that the first round NCHC series might include national #5 St Cloud vs #9 UMD.

This a year where finishing #1 or #2 really helps your odds of getting to St Paul. Finishing 4th gives you a real nightmare opponent. Omaha as the 6th best NCHC in the Pairwise is also a tough out. They have beaten some good teams already.

Some years, by the start of February's games, things have settled. Not this year: the rankings by RPI (which drives Pairwise to a great degree) are thinly sliced between teams, a bunch of top talent is heading to the Olympic Games (but not evenly spread among top teams - some top teams are hit while others aren't), and there's still a pandemic threatening to cancel games and wreak havoc with schedules (take a look at how difficult St Cloud's February is - well at least on paper and if they actually play 10 games in 23 days that's as tough as I've seen). So ... let's start with the PWR, Sunday morning 1/30/22, using CHN as a data source: 1. Michigan (betcha money they don't stay there) 2. MSU Mankato (no head coach and no top scorer for the Olympic duration) 3. Denver 4. Western Michigan (can't believe Ronnie Attard wasn't picked to represent Team USA) 5. St Cloud St (no head coach and down two players) 6. Quinnipiac (still only one loss in regulation ... to #12 below) 7. Michigan Tech 8. UMD (one player to the Olympics) 9. UMass 10. Ohio St 11. Minnesota (down three players to the Olympics) 12. North Dakota (down one key player) 13. UMass- Lowell 14. Providence 15. Notre Dame 16. American International Since American International makes the top 16, let's assume they get the Atlantic Hockey autobid, and let's assume Quinnipiace gets the ECAC autobid too. And, let's assume there's no upsets in conference tournaments that get someone else in. Worcester Regional: 1. Michigan vs. 16. American International 8. UMD vs 9. U Mass Comment: Holy Cross is hosting, so putting their conference mates there makes some sense. So does putting U Mass as a way to sell tickets. Allentown Regional: 2. MSU - Mankato vs 15. Notre Dame 7. Michigan Tech vs 10. Ohio State Comment: two Big Ten teams may help attendance there, and the top seed Mankato doesn't have to face a lower-seeded home team. Loveland Regional: 3. Denver vs 14. Providence 5. St Cloud State vs 11. Minnesota Comment: Denver as host gets to stay at home. Swapped #6 Quinnipiac into Albany regional below since ECAC hosting there, and to avoid a first round matchup of #5 St Cloud and #12 North Dakota. Albany Regional 4. Western Michigan vs 13. U Mass Lowell 6. Quinnipiac vs 12 North Dakota Comment: ECAC hosting, so I'd expect Quinnipiac to be sent here. I'd bet lots of money the final brackets look nothing like this, but for now ... its a hint of how things might shake out. Flame away!

Continuing the theme of ragging on St Cloud, let's go back to their 2018-2019 team. NCHC Regular Season Champions, finished the season with 30-6-3 record. An exceptionally good team. On the big ice, 21-0-1. One the regular ice, 9-6-2. (which includes a first-round exit in the NCAA to American International).

Longer term, it should help CC.

Vs St Thomas 12-2 at home, 2-0 on the road. Over the course of this season (as it has been in the past), St Cloud is Jekyll or Hyde, based on the size of the ice. They are exceptionally well set up for Olympic Ice, and apparently not as much for Regulation NHL ice. This season: Olympic Ice: 9 (regulation) W, 1 (regulation) L, 2 OTL. 56 goals for, 20 goals against. Net +36. Regulation Ice: 4 RW, 4 RL, 1 OTW. 19 goals for, 23 goals against. Net -4. I hope the trend continues tonight at the Ralph. PS Perhaps they could help their NCAA success by changing their rink size.

When the game was close, Hellsten made a couple nice saves. Set the tone for what came later.

Slapshot Sports going for the clickbait headline. The referees didn’t call that a penalty. (And the TSN announcers are of course going to want a penalty on the American opponent.)

The best January in UND hockey history? 10 wins, 0 losses, by the Hrkac Circus 1986-1987. The worst January? A couple years of just one win (back in the 1960's and 1950's). No team has ever gone winless in January.

Outside in Mankato, 3 SOG for Tommies. 3-1 MSU halfway through. Snowing, windy, reminds me of playing outdoors in Grand Forks. well, except for the crowd of 10,000.

I haven’t heard any credit given to Western Michigan in the comments. Let me be the first. That’s a solid club. betting their postgame coaches comments note they were rusty to start, but got better as the game went on. Also probably not happy at giving UND so many good scoring chances, and need to tighten up tomorrow.

Regulation, but with the main camera set low, it certainly compresses the width, and length to a degree too. They may also be running a wider angle lens too.

Can’t believe they win with hardly any blue chippaz

Western looks rusty … we should take advantage soon, and stop their mojo before it starts.

While we’re at it, let’s overturn the semi based on the clock not turning on soon enough a couple times. * * I have only anecdotal evidence to support this assertion.

Upset alert: End of 1 period St Thomas 1-0 MSU Mankato. Goalie saves: 12 Berger, ST, 0 Mackay MSUM.