jimdahl

I don't think the moderators try very hard to enforce thread drift, especially in the off season, but people did make an NHL playoffs thread. Updates on former Sioux certainly deserve to find their way into this thread, but it would be nice if everyone did their best to sort other NHL playoff talk into the appropriate thread so disinterested parties could avoid it.

And me. Believe me, I understand the challenge. Anyway, here's something different. Manvel, ND: Population density 1136 persons/sq mile, Near college/university: UND

I remain immensely proud of that one. Note that I didn't just get lazy and use the date, as has become so common lately, but actually managed to combine elements of the date with a sports statistic. That's what we had to do back in the 1400s in a world with only 12 months. I personally peaked on the next couple pages somewhere around here, but I was still quite green on filling in for MD and devoting more time than is sustainable.

To be honest, I remember the local press being pretty quiet on the issue (also somewhat surprisingly to the consternation of Bison fans) so it's a pretty small sample. I recall the opinion coverage being somewhat mixed, but whether it was "nearly as critical" or "noticeably less critical" is a qualitative matter of degree, so subject to our own biases and expectations, I suppose. That doesn't affect the usefulness of my response to NDSUguy's question, which is that there were definitely lots of questions being asked by UND stakeholders and there still are a lot of Sioux fans who don't support the move (e.g. check out the nickname forum this week). The reasons are those I listed above.

A lot of people, including some on this board, actually preferred to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. The local press was (somewhat surprisingly, but to their credit for consistency) nearly as critical of UND moving as they were of NDSU moving. There was a lot of second guessing the potential for competitiveness in any sport other than football, concern about change itself expressed as nostalgia for the "good old days", and big worries about budget impacts (and not just from the Bisonville forensic accounting team).

No doubt the Penguins dominated 20 minutes last night. Unfortunately for them, it was a 66 minute game. In all seriousness, quoting SOG from the box score isn't convincing because not all shots have an equal probability of becoming goals -- we all saw the game and though Varly had a good 1st period, there really wasn't a "hot goalie" on either side. Varlamov kept it close in the 1st and was statistically the better of the two, but with a hardly stifling 4 GA and .905 SV%. It was an exciting game featuring two great offenses trading blows, but neither so unstoppable that a 4-5 final should invoke such a platitude as blaming an OT loss on a "hot goalie". On a different note -- the Pens/Caps series still being alive leaves me torn who to cheer for tonight. I'd rather the Caps face the Canes, but would otherwise prefer to see the Bruins advance. So, I'll throw my hat in with Goon and hope the Bruins win this and force a game 7, to keep all options open.

Playing the "my team's better but hit a hot goalie" card after THAT game? I'm no longer sure we're even watching the same series

1145 WBB: Career rebounds by Jenny Crouse 1995-99 (#1 all time)

I was ready to say it was great even when I was pretty sure it would end with a Caps penalty in OT leading to a season-ending goal. These teams have been very well matched. There's no doubt the Penguins have better playoff legs, they adjust much better to each new situation (knowing what penalties will be called, going on the attack when down, etc...) I was pretty disappointed at how flat the Caps became when they got the lead -- when they were on the attack in the 3rd the puck spent a total of 30 secs in the defensive zone, whereas once they had the lead it almost seemed like they quit caring about clearing and were happy to try to block shots for 5 minutes until the end of the game That's 3 out of 3 OT games in this series in which the Caps have scored the game winning goal

A month later isn't ideal for all the outdoor activities, but glad they got it done.

The Lady Sioux swimmers and divers took 2nd at the final (2008) NCC tournament with 1146.5. 1st place University of Nebraska-Omaha scored 1148. BTW -- the men took 1st.

Discount an obvious pro-Caps bias all you'd like, but I did replay the slo-mo a few times and am pretty sure you and DaveK and spot on -- Ovechkin drops his shoulder with the intent of clipping Gonchar, which results in his shoulder and knee jutting out. At the last second Gonchar decides to try to shift away (unclear whether he saw the shoulder coming or not) and Ovechkin ends up kneeing him. Malicious? A little bit, in that it was intentional contact. An intent to knee a guy in the leg? Most likely not. Deserves a penalty? Sure, one guy did knee another. Deserves more than two? Probably not, but it wouldn't have been an outrageously bad call, in that the NHL does explicitly consider injurious result (but it also considers reputation of the player, on which Ovechkin is pretty clean). On a different note, I was pondering as I was just walking in from the grocery, I think the team that has scored first has lost every game this series. Go Pens

There's a benchmark for the Texas Tech game

I accidentally just noticed that this network is available on my cable. It's called UNVSP and is currently replaying the Canada game. A quick check on their website reveals that it's not available on any of Midco, DirecTV, or Dish, so probably no good for Grand Forksians; but, people in other areas (particularly who share my cable provider, Comcast) may want to double check. bracket Coverage doesn't look live (10et and 2et), but is instead delayed until 6pm and 9pm (ET).

I was really surprised to see him moved off the sports beat, so following that this isn't much of a surprise. Is his KFGO show sports, local events, or what?

Free beer Mayor Walaker comes through on his promise and "buys" everyone a beer (though it's not actually costing him anything). I haven't seen Dixie's eponymous beer (though perhaps in Louisiana), but the Blackened Voodoo has long seemed somewhat nationally available. Beer Advocate: Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager

The Caps did a good job of negating Crosby from camping in front of the net, which is how he earned all his previous goals, but managed to make the penalty differential even worse. Varlamov continues to astound. The Penguins definitely deserved that one, which is why it would have been so nice to steal it and put them away. I'm so used to Crosby being a finesse player and Malkin having been invisible in the playoffs that I was a little surprised to see Pittsburgh summon that sort of intensity for that length of time.

Job Opportunity Index: North Dakota Ahead of the Rest Fits with all the reports that ND's employment has been, relative to other states, much less affected by the recession.

UND bookstore has them with the UND flame logo, but I haven't seen one like that with the Sioux athletics logo.

We probably should have started an NHL playoffs thread instead of hiding out in the former players thread, but nonetheless -- I know what you're saying. Game 1 seemed just like game 1 of Washington-NYR but with Pittsburgh as Washington and Washington as NYR. Pittsburgh fans (and players) have to feel like they should have had that one, whereas I kind of feel like the Caps managed to steal it. If Washington can dig that hole deeper it becomes very hard to climb out of, but if the Penguins can tie it up then they'll likely have been the better team for two games in a row, worrying for Caps fans. I feel like Washington was a lot deeper on offensive opportunities (which redwing77 should like -- team sport and all that) and the penalty kill was sharp. Of course the penalty kill wouldn't have had to be so sharp if not for the imbalance in PIM and what was with the defensive breakdowns? The defense was really pretty good against the Rangers, and needs to start stopping a few more of those shots from reaching the goaltender. Whatever the Crosby containment strategy was, it could use some work. Fortunately, Fleury looked a lot softer than Lundqvist, so outscoring Pittsburgh seems like an ongoing possibility even if the Penguin top line can't be completely shut down.

I suppose I could have dug up an Alerus or Canad Inn thread, but this article touches a lot of different ground. Gershman: GF back in convention game

Fastest goal to open an OT (men's hockey) was Jim Ridley with a goal at 0:12 vs the Gophers on 1-11-57.

I think that's how the rest us of have felt about the Red Wings for the last 10-15 years

I don't think that's really been true since game 1 (in which they definitely seemed to be trying harder to turn every play into an offensive opportunity than play the position, though there were also a couple times key defensemen just got undressed). If anything, I would say the Caps struggles in the subsequent few games were offensive -- NYR had managed to shut down the top line and no one else seemed to think it was their job to try to score. Credit to Coach Boudreau for not letting the series be decided on Ovechkin vs Lundqvist. The offensive turnaround has been on the back of contributions from second lines and defensemen.

Ah, didn't go back far enough, thanks.