farce poobah

Wouldn't want to risk crowd noise drowning out the Personalities.

NHL is certainly already campaigning ... Recent statements by their higher ups included quite pointedly the fan polls (not sure how scientific those were) of USA and Canada fans, which showed majority against. If players leave anyway, certainly the NHL will play the card "giving the fans what they want".

Link to the NHLPA response blasting the NHL: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8hhxXkXoAESfYY.jpg

Sure we could save women's hockey. It would just take 31,000 people donating $1,000 each to generate that $31,000,000 endowment noted above. But the harder part is finding funding for the corresponding men's sport so UND doesn't have Title IX issues. Double edged sword, that one is.

Having been on the management side of layoffs, I agree with others who earlier point out how hard it is to send zero signals in advance. (Because if you send those signals, the grapevine goes bonkers and everyone stops working until you Tell.) I agree with multiple posters who have said UND's formal announcement needed a broader and deeper recap of (1) the problem - find a couple million while meeting the competitive needs of (1b) a new conference for most sports. (2) The options of cutting that size amount from budget were very limited, and all the other options had worse consequences: more reductions in participation, risk of failing conference minimums etc etc. The absence of those critically important facts is what allows the journalism covering to tell "what they heard", and UND allowed that by telling less than the full story in their formal announcement.

If practice was cancelled for the day of the announcement, that would have been an enormous clue.

So what I hear you saying is that NDSU should start women's hockey.

I can't support all the items on the USA Women's National Team list. But its clear USA Hockey did some incredibly dumb things that got it to this point. Take that list of "incidental" things: fly business class, a companion can accompany you on trips, etc. They gave those to the men but not the women. So on the way back from Sochi, the men flew first class, but the women were in coach. Also glad to hear of late breaking news of an agreement. This too is best for long term progress of hockey in the USA.

The bad news is two conferences will claim them.

Lowell changed lines and never got their coverage sorted out before Notre Dame scored.

... I'm just really happy they aren't playing the Gophers today.

Its code for "our nickname used to be Chiefs".

If I were coach (and its good I'm not), I would have had talks with Jost about Captaining the 2017-2018 UND team.

So it's 5 am and I can't quite get to sleep. Keep replaying the game, the key moments. Torn between a strong admiration for the effort from UND boys vs BU and the what ifs.... just one post, one bounce, what if Hoff had just held his leg back instead of taking a stride, what is the definition of indisputable evidence, and so on. Seems like this happens about every 5 years. Last time was 2011 v Michigan. Before that 2006 vs BC in Milwaukee. The games where the boys left it all on the ice, outperformed the opponent but the scoreboard contradicts what reality should be. Thanks boys for a great ride. Sleep will come. Eventually.

So we are 1 game in and my bracket is no longer perfect. Someone else will win the billion dollars.

Zero shots on goal for BU in OT1. Wow.

Seems to me that Panzarella showed up big time in this same building, just two years ago. Next. Man. Up.

Going for the unconventional pick. Team that's never won it, that's not a #1 seed, but plays sturdy disciplined hockey, has a couple great scorers, and very solid goaltending: Western Michigan.

I'd rather donate the tickets myself to a good cause and there's lots of them. I'm fond of big brothers, who've received their share of tickets over the years.

#betterdeadthanred

I view the fundamental "must have" is a playing surface that is standard or better. On this, Target Center still fails. The ice is substandard, resulting in poor quality of play and random puck bounces then start to dictate games. Or worse yet, dictate how teams play because the ice is so bad. Boards and glass are 1980's quality, not modern at all. Get some seamless glass and modern boards. I worry about injuries at an obsolete arena like that. Also, the Excel is hosting NCAA Frozen Fours. And regionals. Familiarity with that arena becomes a competitive advantage. This is a no brainer. Move it 15 miles east.

I thought Michigan played like they were loaded. IYKWIM. nudge nudge wink wink

Yeah, I am in wonderment too. The play was just like the one in a Wild-Blackhawks game where Parise appeared offside but was called onside. I think the refs are Overthinking It. The rulebook doesn't allow an exception to offside for this situation. To the contrary the rulebook seems to me to clearly define it as solely based on where the player is when the puck completely crosses the line. (From the 2015-2016 NHL rule book. Couldn't find the 2016-2017.) Rule 83 – Off-side 83.1 Off-side - Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone. The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play. A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the blue line regardless of the position of his stick. However, a player actually controlling the puck who shall cross the line ahead of the puck shall not be considered “off-side,” provided he had possession and control of the puck prior to his skates crossing the blue line. It should be noted that while the position of the player’s skates is what determines whether a player is “off-side,” nevertheless the question of an “off-side” never arises until the puck has completely crossed the leading edge of the blue line at which time the decision is to be made. If a player legally carries or passes the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in such defending zone, the off-side shall be ignored and play permitted to continue.

I see the game is on ESPN2, so I'm guessing ESPN requested.

I want to hear the roar when we end UMD's season on Saturday evening.