burd

Prpich and Hextall were great guys, but not captain material, IMO. Simpson was captain material.

He get an offer on GPL?

It's decided then--he stays. Who's gonna let him know?

I think it is true his uncanny ability to dish the puck was wasted somewhat. Put him on a line with high end scorers and his points go way up. Plus, I think he will start hitting the net more himself. His skills are suited for a very fast moving game. I can't say I've been disappointed in Rocco. His work ethic is great, and he seems to be a good locker room presence.

In the first couple games at UND, I thought he showed offensive zone skills that would make him into a regular. Didn't happen. Hope he finds it next year.

Oddly enough, I think there would be more cranky UND fans if they had gotten by Minnie. If Union did to UND what they did to Minnesota, some fans would have concluded the season pissed off at coaches and players for taking a licking at the FF.

We have a winner. Post that on GPL.

On the money issue, a lot of private schools do not give merit based aid or athletic scholarships but are basically applying a fiction to "need based" aid. My daughter went to Columbia and got a boat load of "need based" aid, though she didn't qualify for a penny of need based aid at public universities, even those with pretty large endowments, like Wisconsin. Union is not an ivy, but they probably have a large enough endowment to put money where they want to. And now that the trustees are enjoying a NCAA title, it might get even easier to toss endowment money that direction. It's still quite an accomplishment to do what they did and a nice thing to have another player in the title hunt.

I'm not sure how one would rate the quality of opponents for each since Dec. That has to count.

So is there a ritual or voodoo ceremony to appeal to the god of deflections, pipes and bounces?

All I know is that I heard the rink noise from here in Wisconsin when HC scored the game winner and it was dead quiet when BC beat the Badgers in 2000.

Pathfinder, You have found a lot of us around the country from your place in the mountains of southwest Colorado, and I think I can safely say that all of us are extremely grateful that you did. Those memories are rich, and you do us a favor by sharing them.

Yeah, the ice fog. The inside cover of Fight on Sioux has a great pic of a Bob Peabody looking back from his net (no mask). You can see his breath, and the background is a little fuzzy from ice fog. That place was a pure hockey experience.

When did the first dead gopher/badger go on the ice. I don't believe it was a tradition in the early 70s but maybe we just never scored a goal against those two teams during those years.

I grew up in North Dakota and played hockey (poorly), so of course I was a Sioux fan from the start. But the game that got me hooked on the passion of Sioux hockey took place in the old Barn during the '71/72 season against the Gophers. Students filled the west end in that rink, and there was actually chicken wire above the boards, not glass. The cymbals player would crash his symbols in the face of opponents if they got shoved up against the wire in that end. Bill Butters played for the gophers and was hated by Sioux fans. He played a physical game and got in a lot of fights. At some point, he got in a fight with a Sioux player and ended up getting tossed from the game. The crowd was real rowdy and booing Butters even before he got tossed. Players exited the ice in the southwest corner by the student section in the old barn, and there was no barrier to keep the fans away from the players. Butters got into a fight with fans just below our seats, and it almost became a "water bottle" situation. We were half crocked, of course, as were most. People wore those big air force parkas in those days, and it was so easy for fill the sleeves with beer cans or wine flasks. The place was cold, but it was very intense. I don't know how many attended those games, perhaps 2,000, but they were in the walkway up in the rafters, and with the cold, you could not just sit quietly and watch. It was an active experience. Throw in a fight between a hated gopher and Sioux fans, and it was a blood-pumping experience. I also have a very vivid memory that is just as "Sioux" but does not involve an actual game. It must have been the spring of 1972 when they were still building the old Ralph. A friend of mine, Larry Drader, who played for the Sioux, said he wanted to show me the construction site. We went over past Mem stadium and sat on the bare concrete in the bowl above the playing surface. I remember Larry just sitting there looking down, lost in thought, as if he were in a trance. He said he could visualize everything, including the finished ice. That new rink was something new for many players who had grown up skating in cold air rinks, many of them made of wood. It was a dream for us students too, though we thought at first that it was too comfortable and quiet, just as most fans felt about the new Ralph. Things change, but the good stuff keeps going.

That's true but not the whole question. The question, if you are dissatisfied with our failure to win a title, is why you think we have not won a title and whether there are coaches out there who you are reasonably sure can fix that "why." Most of what we hear is continued frustration that we haven't won a title since Hak came. I don't mean to criticize your comment Old Time, and I have no problem letting a coach go if it is evident he is not doing his job. Hak is paid very well and he understands that is paid that money to perform, the same standard he holds his players to. Recruited players don't see the ice if they are not producing under coach Hakstol, and I'm sure he would be the first to say he should be held to the same standard. But merely venting our frustration that we have not won a title under him only identifies the frustration, not the solution. The loudest vices asking for his firing go on and on about what Sioux fans are entitled to and say practically nothing about what, precisely, they feel he is doing wrong, if anything. Other than not winning the big one. But hey, today is a good day. Our team is headed to the frozen four. We all want success for these kids. To us, it is entertainment, but to them it is much much more. As with most of you, I feel very fortunate to be a Sioux fan.

That's funny. I was not brought up to look for taint in a men's hockey player.

The 15 draft choice argument is analytically shallow. It says something but not much on how those players progressed after the draft. People agree almost without exception that Hak is a great developer of talent. Many, including myself, have been slow to believe he is a very good game coach, but if those draft choices failed to live up to their draft number, it is not on him, IMO. You have to be good to be drafted, obviously, but there are drafted players and there are drafted players who will be successful at the next level. Suggesting that any coach should be able to reach the FF with 15 draft choices is, without more, not an argument worth listening to. IMO

Hey Goon. Thank you for putting those goals up over the course of the year. It's the only way I see some of these, and it's very much appreciated.

Good ol' upper Midwest--everybody looks related. Except Stephen Hawking up there by his hand.

Win to get in. Win to get in. Four in a row. Three in a row. Two in a row . . .

So the pope and a Sioux fan go into a bar . . .

Win or lose, this stuff is why we love this game. Essentially sudden death now.

It's embarrassing reading this thread. We're better than this, guys.

We know you're nervous, vikes, but for heaven's sake take a Midol