jimdahl

Wrong argument, Dave. I'm still arguing that Crosby isn't the overwhelmingly dominant player of the generation that Gretzky was. I've already said that Crosby is the best player in the league right now, and I've said he's certainly in the hunt for the best of his generation, but you can't credibly say he's overwhelmingly beyond a shadow of a doubt the best of the generation when he hasn't even been the best for the majority of his NHL career. I couldn't agree more. That's exactly the argument I've been trying to make, so I'm thrilled to see you coming around to agreeing with it -- who are we to think we know better than the players and writers which players are the best? Since Crosby joined the NHL, here's what the players have voted on, in terms of best player awards for which Crosby was eligible: Calder to Ovechkin in 2006 Pearson to Jagr in 2006 Pearson to Crosby in 2007 Pearson to Ovechkin in 2008 Pearson to Ovechkin in 2009 Lindsay to Ovechkin in 2010 Crosby sure doesn't jump out yet as the overwhelmingly dominant player of his generation the way Gretzky did (I already listed Gretzky's awards above). If he can keep up this level of play maybe he will in five or ten years, because at this point I would sure bet that he gets this year.

Thanks Snake. Indeed, I thought by so deliberately stating "the players and writers" it was clear I was combining Pearson/Lindsay and Hart trophies, not just Harts; but in hindsight, I can see the misunderstanding. But hey, the good news for Dave is that if the season ended today, Crosby would be nearly a lock for both, bringing him within one. Not quite yet the "overwhelmingly dominant" player of the generation the Gretzky analogy implies, but certainly in the hunt for "best".

A little more from the SC Times... Huskies' Mosey out on rules violation

If you just read the newspaper, you wouldn't think anything was untoward about this at all.... Hepp Leaves SCSU, goes pro - SC Times Ok. However, the student run radio station acknowledges message board rumors, but admits they can't confirm.... Three Men's Hockey Players Off Team-Mosey Dismissed For Violation of Team Rules - KVSC Though they do note in their Twitter feed that Johnson's departure is likely coincidental:

No doubt -- there's a reason Buff came up in the earlier game about picking one player to build a team around. Having their leading scorer playing at defense hasn't really hurt Atlanta in the standings, either. It'll be interesting to see what happens in coming years, because his breakout kind of feels like a fluke to me, but Dudley is sure looking like a genius for now. Buff's having an awesome season and certainly has to be drawing some attention for the Norris if he keeps it up.

Exactly -- you simply don't like him. That is, I've thought, the best explanation for why there's such a big gap between your perception of his talent and the opinion of the players and writers who have given him 5 MVPs in as many years.

Good eye, it took me a long time to even find where they deviated in the teens. It turns out I picked up a bad score for the Bowling Green vs. Holy Cross game. That had such minor implications that it escaped my attention. Entirely my fault, in that I've even got it set up so the system sent me an email (which I hadn't yet read) noting that USCHO and CHN were reporting different scores for the game. Fixed.

Mankato made a huge leap in RPI and ascension to being a TUC, with wins over Notre Dame and Brown. With UND's wins over Mankato, that's a nice boost to UND's TUC, and enough to flip the comparison with BC. It's a nice reminder of how volatile things can be when the team you're watching isn't even playing, particularly when the TUC cliff gets involved.

Yeah, is this thread HIPAA compliant? Was JFR authorized to release her injury status?

Ovi is a showboater, and I really do understand why a lot of traditional hockey fans don't like that. I personally think it's just what Washington needed, but can't blame non-Caps fans for disliking it. Crosby, however, is widely disparaged as a whiner and a diver. You can disagree with that reputation, but if you follow the Pens as seriously as you claim, you've clearly heard of it. My personal favorite -- when he asked the ref if they could get the fans to stop throwing hats after Ovi's playoff hat trick

It's tough to argue that Crosby has been the best player in the league in this generation when at least one other player from the same generation has won way more individual accolades (MVP votes from the players, MVP votes from the writers, first all-star team votes, and scoring titles). Crosby has some impressive team trophies, which is the ultimate goal of the sport, but there's still plenty of room for debate about what individual player has been the best. No doubt Crosby is the best offensive player so far this season, and if he keeps it up will likely get himself a scoring title and an MVP or two. To be called the best of this generation will require him doing that more than twice. To be compared to Gretzky would require him to pretty much own the league for the next ten years.

As has been discussed elsewhere, the Sioux are in the rare position of being in good shape for a tournament bid before New Years. I hope that means we're looking forward to a Spring of watching the Sioux scrap for a #1 seed, but either way there will be rankings to watch... UND individual comparisons ...and I found myself wondering about this #2 vs #3 game, so thought it a good time to start a thread. Though the Bulldogs are currently a spot above UND (PWR), UND is actually winning the comparison by virtue of the RPI tie-breaker. The H2H will clearly take over after tomorrow's game, making it a must-win for UND to remain #3 going into the new year. As to the possibility of UND climbing if they win, here are the 3 comparisons UND is currently losing-- Boston College has TUC (.6364 to .5769) and COP (.8 to .4167). A win this weekend should only make up about half the difference on TUC, not enough to flip it. Maine has H2H. No opportunity to flip this one until TUC or COP come into play. Yale has RPI. UND's last win over UMD contributed something like .696, so it seems like UND would only rise to something like .586 with a win, not enough to take RPI. Bottom line -- a loss almost certainly will lead to a drop, a win at best maintains the current ranking (all other things equal).

Your pick was a foregone conclusion, but this is a bit much. Sid's great, but you and the NHL try almost too hard to convince people of that, which probably hurts your cause. After hearing him hyped as the next Gretzky for much of his youth, I haven't really heard it much after his first couple years in the league. Now that some results are in: Sid after 5 NHL seasons 1 Hart (writers' MVP) 1 Art Ross (scoring title) 1 Pearson (players' MVP) 1 Stanley Cup Gretzky after 5 NHL seasons 5 Harts 4 Art Ross 4 Pearson 1 Stanley Cup One thing they do have in common, neither got a Calder (though for Gretzky it's because he was ineligible, not considered a rookie). Sid is one of a few great young players in the NHL right now, but he's no Gretzky.

I think the most interesting part of the game of having to choose a single player is deciding which position is most critical. You get (who you think is) the best in the game at one position, but then have to build around him with unprotected players. As a real owner I'd want scoring, because that puts butts in the seats (though in all fairness, the Wild took a decidedly different approach). In this game, where all you care about is maximizing the chance of a championship within 10 years, it sure would be tempting to take a goaltender. But goaltenders also seem higher risk -- it's easy to guess which young forwards will still be making an impact in 5-10 years, but I feel less confident about Quick or Pavelec...

Is this the right one?

Cool. I think I figured it out (minimal effort, based on the clues provided, I swear), but am hesitant to "out" him without approval...

My read on Washington is that Boudreau decided the old formula wasn't winning playoff series and is trying to make the Caps more defensive. Needless to say it's been a tough transition, but even after a month-long slump Ovechkin is still T-6th in scoring in the league. It's just been easy to miss, especially if you're watching the highlight reels instead of the games, because instead of flashy goals he's mostly getting assists. However, Crosby has certainly finally broken out and delivered on some of the promise all the experts saw in him. It's been pretty difficult to make a case for him as MVP in any of his previous years, but if he can keep this up...

http://video.kings.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=731&id=88738

Can we keep this thread on topic? Anyone who really wants to talk about moderation is welcome to do so in the admin forum. Otherwise, keep the personal conversations out of the public forum, please.

I don't have HBO anymore, but the local media coverage says the storyline is pretty much the predictable Sainted Crosby vs. Evil Russian. That's to be expected, but apparently watching Boudreau rip into the Caps mid-losing streak is a riot. In anticipation of the Winter Classic, Crosby and Ovechkin on Price is Right on Monday. The Post got the footage in advance: Ovechkin, Crosby on the Price is Right (<- this has the video)

A year or two ago, I asked for feedback on the mix of forums on this message board. One idea that a few people liked that stuck with me was having a separate forum for non-UND sports. We actually already had one, but it was mostly focused on local high school hockey, which had previously been dominating the community forum, so we hid it away as a subforum of that. Now that the high school sports traffic has moved on to its own forum, reviving this for things like NHL, BCS football, etc... makes a lot of sense to me, because everyone who comes here is a sports fan. I still expect there to be some NHL talk in the UND Hockey forum, and so forth, and that's fine for now, but I thought a central place for it might actually encourage the conversation. I'll kick it off with an NHL 2010-2011 thread -- what's up with my poor slumping Caps? With essentially the same team that won the franchise's first ever Presidents Trophy, they've now lost six in a row and yielded the league lead to the only team worse than the Penguins -- the Flyers The pundits say that everyone studied the Montreal tape and figured out how to slow the Caps down, by holding them to perimeter and stopping them from getting off inside shots. That sounds ridiculous to me, in that wouldn't your defensive strategy always be to hold the opposing offense to the perimeter? Hopefully the boys can turn things around before the Winter Classic, starting with Anaheim tonight!

To be devil's advocate, a decade ago (pre-Hakstol) it was 7 titles in about 53 years for one every 7.5 years, Denver and Minnesota were a couple more behind, Wisconsin and BU another one back each. That's what makes the drought so hard, we used to be climbing up on Michigan and have a pretty commanding lead over our WCHA foes, but now that's evaporated.

Subpar sales lead candy-maker to send employees to Fargo as punishment

They always claimed that, but once Five Guys spread outside the East Coast, In-N-Out opened a new office in Texas to study expansion. I think they're going to start in 2011. I think the burgers are really carried by the "choose your own toppings" (they insist on overcooking the meat itself) , but the fries were the real inspiration for the place. The guys who started it in Arlington based the idea off the thick cut, peanut oil-fried fries with malt vinegar that are popular on boardwalks up the East Coast (I think they were specifically inspired by Thrashers out of Ocean City). The regional popularity of the fries (born out by the neutral to negative comments about them in this thread) always made me assume the idea wouldn't scale outside the East Coast, but I guess they knew better.

Previous discussion on the topic: What happens to SiouxSports? SiouxSports.com Name In the long run, we want a name that associates itself with UND athletics. There would be no point to running a site named SiouxSports.com when the (e.g.) UND RoughRiders were out there; only old-timers would associate the two. That said, as mentioned in one of the linked threads, I don't think we're under any particular obligation to discontinue use of the name at the same time as UND (I did not participate in the settlement agreement). Joining UND in going to an interim name has its pros and cons, all of which may not be apparent yet, so we'll see.