farce poobah

They play like its 1985.

Hmm. I wonder why?

Gornall!! with the Poganski look-alike. Backhander. Top Shelf. Wow.

I am wishing the basketball game had lasted another 60 minutes.

Talking head: "Minnesota's Don Lucia chose to be the #3 seed in Cincinnati instead of the #2 seed in Fargo. Don, what were you thinking?" Lucia: "Well, our guys have more experience playing in quiet mostly empty buildings. Fargo would be too noisy." Of course, we'd all know a week later whether Minnesota made a good choice or a bad choice. But letting the teams choose where they play would end the accusations that the Selection Committee screwed over a higher seed ...

Thanks for all the conversation ... I guess what started it all for me was the reaction out of BU if they got sent to Fargo (instead of 50 miles to Providence or 70 miles to Manchester). ==================== Which brings me to an idea that would make the selection show more interesting. The talking heads fill in the bracket with teams that have to be placed (hosts). Then, the highest seeded team picks where they want to play. And so on down the list until all the spots are filled. I think that would make for fabulous drama, and the bulletin board material coming out of it would also be fascinating. "The #1 seed is Duluth. Scott Sandelin, where do you want to go?" "We'd like to be in Cincinnati as the #1 seed, please." and so on. =======================

An interesting "what if" ... if UND is a #4 seed, does the Committee still send UMD (or DU) to Fargo? If I'm Scott Sandelin, I'd welcome a nice quiet neutral Cincinnati. Or even a half-full building in Providence or Manchester.

The Big Ten?

Because ESPN3 is available nationwide or nearly so. Much better exposure for UND Sports to have ESPN 3 than anything midco can come up with.

Get one and the floodgates will open.

Penn State gakks away a lead and loses to #42 Princeton.

Miami gets a penalty shot goal ... (yeah penalty shot). lead 3-1 early 2nd. Solid night from Miami who need some wins to have a chance to move onto the bubble.

Congratulations to Jonathan Toews on becoming one of the NHL 100 Best! In reviewing the list, I see 9 US college hockey players on the list, a bit better than I would have thought: Chris Chelios - Wisconsin Ken Dryden - Cornell Tony Esposito - Michigan Tech Brett Hull - UMD Duncan Keith - Michigan State Brian Leetch - Boston College Joe Nieuwendyk - Cornell Jonathan Toews - UND Adam Oates - RPI (Did I miss any?)

Agree about Tomek.

Maybe if we didn't have "the winds", we wouldn't get kicked out of all the faceoffs.

Not sure which conference these refs are from , but their definition of interference seems different that what we've seen most of the year.

UMD putting on a frickin clinic in the 2nd period. Shift after shift played entirely in the Gopher end. Just 2-1 however.

It will be interesting to see what attendance they can get on Saturday at MSG. (Carrying an asterisk because a bunch of fans will come for basketball and see hockey while there, but....)

I think its clear that the Summit BB tournaments should move to the Target Center.

Lolz. Everytime this comes up I think of the Big Ten Champs banners hung at the old Williams Arena, back when U of Minnesota was desperate for banners.

Speaking of mediocre teams, one delivers a shocker tonight. Merrimack 3 BU 1. Also, in a non shocker, BC 2, UConn 1.

The newest RPI statistics show which conference is best overall: 1. NCHC 55.26 2. Big Ten 52.95 3. Hockey East 52.05 Source: Siouxsports.com

A lot of teachable moments the last couple weeks. I hope the players get their heads around them. I would put bad penalties at the top of the "preventable" list. (Better shot blocking #2.) On multiple penalties last night, we put ourselves in positions that simply can't happen. In period 1, Shaw gets his stick and then arm in a place it just can't be, leading to a penalty when the UMD guy uses that to his advantage. In period 2, Wilkie puts his stick parallel for an instant where it simply can't go. (And yeah the UMD guy grabbed the stick which should have been a penalty too BUT Wilkie just can't do that.) Then in period 3, Wolanin's hit which simply can't happen. And these are guys who should know better; game-seasoned Sophomores. Beyond that, its now three games in a row with late third-period penalties. All due to loss of composure or concentration (none of them stopped an imminent goal / opportunity). All preventable. This has to stop and I wish the coaches all the best in addressing it.

Siphon has drawn it empty. Now its just a giant sucking sound.

Gloves were a good spot to bring in frozen Gophers. "Someone I know" got patted down regularly: waist, jacket, hip pockets and even boots, but somehow the gloves were never checked. Another guy I know brought in a goose in the back of his bib overalls. Was frisked on his jacket pockets and hip pockets but not his back. The other thing that made tossing Gophers easy back in the day was that the glass was so low. A real throwing motion was hardly necessary ... could just be part of the motion to rise up and celebrate a goal. (Low plexiglass made it way easier to give officials advice too.)