Yote 53

Sorry, but you are wrong. All three are identifiable nationally. There is no mistaking Coyotes, Jackrabbits, or Bison for some other school. They are instantly identifiable as being Dakotan. Hawks is just another hawk name like the 100's of other schools with hawk variations. UND is better than to be lumped in that crowd.

The nickname process ran amuck when they had a large committee and the process was so open and there were all these votes and run-off votes. Way, way too many choices. Way, way too many voting periods. The process was completely F'ed up. It was inevitable that a generic Hawks was chosen. The pizza example is a great one, you guys ended up with a frozen Jack's pepperoni pizza. Now that you've all seen what arguing over this gets you people may be more open and there may be a more cooperative effort in a new nickname process. The first area it went wrong is the committee violated their first rule, that the new name and logo be unique and identifiable with North Dakota. Fighting Hawks should have never been on the list to begin with along with about half the other names they came up with. Start the process over. Small committee comes up with 3 nicknames. The nicknames must be uniquely North Dakotan, nothing generic. Put it to a general vote. Coyotes, Jackrabbits, Bison...all uniquely Dakotan. Hawks just doesn't fit with that.

From an outsider's perspective, who comes here from time to time to read up on this never ending controversy, here are my observations. The Sioux Forever people are never going to accept the Fighting Hawks nickname. The Fighting Hawks nickname is the epitome of everything they opposed because it is such a bland, PC nickname. The only thing worse would have been to make the nickname a color, instead you picked the second worse possible option, a variation of hawk. It was like throwing a big F-U right in the faces of the Sioux Forever crowd. You all want to move on? The Sioux Forever people need to accept that the Sioux nickname and logo is never coming back. In return, the Fighting Hawks nickname and logo needs to be killed and buried and a new, more appealing nickname chosen. You will get much more acceptance in the long run. UND went from, basically, one of the most unique nicknames in college athletics to one of the most meh nicknames and one of the worst logos. That's a hard fall. The best part is if a totally awesome nickname and logo was chosen it also would not have been accepted. The Fighting Hawks name and logo is actually the perfect sacrifice to transition from Sioux to a more permanent nickname. You want to heal this gaping wound this is what you need to do. Announce the Hawk as transitional, kill it, and come up with something else, something unique, historical, and North Dakotan. Instead it looks like the administration is doubling down on force feeding the new nickname and logo with the addition of a mascot. That isn't going to work, it's just another flashpoint of contention.

Wild just fired their GM. Looks like the Wild are going to be blown up and the rebuild process will start.

Along with all the answers already given VGK also gets good matchups because of their roster lineup. Their roster is made up of 2 & 3 line guys that have talent and were just under the top line guys. So when they matchup against another team, while they may not have a top line they also don't have a 4th line. It's four 2nd to 3rd lines matching up against the other teams 1-2-3-4, same goes with their D pairings. They were also able to construct their roster and contracts from scratch knowing how the current salary cap system works. Look at all the teams that are in salary cap hell, or can't ever seem to break out because of a couple of bad contracts on the books. The downside for VGK is they really don't have a lot of minor league depth. It's going to take a while for them to build up a system of young talent. The first couple of seasons they should be solid, it's in a couple of years when their first homegrown talent comes through that will tell us if they have staying power. VGK might be the blueprint for Seattle but if I am a few NHL clubs I might not be too thrilled about those expansion draft rules. I'm thinking of places like Buffalo where they just have to be saying "are you F-ing kidding me?" when they see the success in Vegas while they have struggled for years.

Agree 100% with the article, recruiting is happening way too early. I am still trying to figure out how a 13 or 14 year old is even in a position to give a verbal commit. According to the NCAA D1 Hockey recruiting rules a coach can't even call you until Jan 1 of your sophomore year. I realize that you can call the coach at your own expense, but how awkward is that? Oh, I'm sure there is back channel communications advising the recruit to call the coach. Bunch of shady crap. Maybe I am just the stupid one, my oldest is a sophomore I better get working the phones. I also fail to see how well these players can be projected at such a young age. I am watching it happen right now, one season can be a huge difference for a player in terms of their development. How these guys can project 5 years out is beyond me. The system leads to a lot of late developers falling through the cracks and many early developers not reaching their full potential because of the reasons stated in the article.

Don't know how your insurance works but I have my choice of where I want to go, both of them are in my network.

It's not just that though, Sanford would take a huge hit financially. How is it going to look when Sanford throws $100 million plus dollars at, what will be viewed as, essentially, buying a university? The people in South Dakota won't look to kindly upon that. They especially won't look too kindly when they get their medical bill from Sanford. People will make the straight line conclusion that they are getting gouged on healthcare costs so that it can be spent on a pet project. Whether any of that is true or not that is how it will play out, and perception is reality. Avera Hospitals will be right there waiting to pick up the estranged customers. This has bad optics written all over it and that is another reason it should not happen.

Don't you think you are giving the XDSU's too much credit? By saying what you are saying you are conceding that NDSU wields the big stick in your state and that they are Big Bro and you are Little Bro following them around. USD played the game right when all that went down. We knew what kind of power we wielded and we were in a position to leverage and get what we wanted. UND jumped the gun by a day, but maybe the BSC is exactly what your administration wanted. In hindsight I wished we had collaborated more and swung all 4 Dakota schools in one direction or the other from the beginning. I think now it would have been better for all 4 of us to go to the BSC. Then when Idaho moved back into the conference we would have had an inside position to form a BSC split with the state universities forming their own conference with the Dakotas, Idahos, and Montanas forming the core of the conference.

Hope and a prayer. Sioux Falls media stoking the fire isn't going to be enough to turn Augie into something they are not.

Where is the best place to find tickets for this weekend? I read on here that passes bought on-line are not transferrable, that true? I'm on the fence about whether I'll head up to Sioux Falls or not, but if I can convince my wife maybe we'll go. Ticketmaster? Stubhub?

Don't think Denver moves. They have a unique sports offering and the Summit just kind of let's them do their thing and doesn't make them line their sports offering up with the conference. They have a pretty decent setup right now. With UND coming in and UNO already here there is some cross conference familiarity with the schools. What makes the WCC so much more attractive? All the Gonzaga NCAA Tournament money they brought in? Would they even get a share of it being the new school? Is it worth the money to change everything?

I just like talking hockey and shooting ideas back and forth. The discussion, just making hockey bigger and better everywhere. I know I don't know everything and there is no one size fits all answer. I do believe that it all starts at ownership and recruitment, that is why I identify with the more linear approach because it puts the onus back on the school and community to recruit and develop rather than just working with what they are handed at HS, or the HS is at the mercy of the luck of the draw as far as school boundaries go. Tier 1 already exists in the form of Team North Dakota. I agree that I don't think a full season Tier 1 team is necessary in NoDak. You have players up there on HS teams that are getting invites to the NTDP and are committed to D1 schools. Visibility isn't an issue. Where I live it is a big issue and if you want to have any chance of making it to even the NAHL then Tier 1 is your only route. High school hockey exists but it is not even looked at. I spoke with a Junior hockey coach last season and we were discussing a player that was at his main camp that was from my area. He said he liked the kid but he came out of nowhere, that he spent one year playing Tier 1 U16 and before that he was playing Rec hockey somewhere. Just needed to see more out of him before he took him as a 17 year old. That Rec hockey league was the Midwest HS Hockey League. That's how our HS hockey is viewed. I don't think it's fair, there are some pretty good players in that league, but it's the reality of what we deal with.

Perhaps there would be more high school coaches involved and they would take more ownership if the programs did have a linear structure. You mentioned Moorhead, that is what happens there and in many other solid programs because those coaches know they need the Jimmies and Joes coming out of youth hockey to be competitive on the HS level. Agreed that combining and playing at the AA level will produce higher end players as those players will be challenged. Where the problem arises is when they break off at HS, you run into depth issues. It's difficult to foresee the future and know the right moves to make. I know one move for sure, recruit as many Mites as possible and don't stop recruiting. With a large enough base of players the talent will rise to the top. The more players, the more talent that rises.

The flip side to this is that FYHA develops kids through Bantams and then they get scattered amongst how many different teams? Somebody mentioned how the Fargo area just doesn't produce hockey players. I disagree, they do, the problem is the best players get scattered all over the city once they hit HS. The exact same thing happens in the Twin Cities with high schools that share a local youth hockey program as their feeder system. The best HS programs are the ones that are linear in nature, where there is one youth program feeding one HS program, with the exception of the privates which I will not count in this situation. That happens right now on the other side of the river in Moorhead. You trying to tell me that the kids are different or there is some sort of special water on the other side of the river? No way, so why is it? It's due to exposure to a high level of competition through each level of a player's youth career. Players that don't make the top team and get buried down on the B2 and C teams, or even some B1 teams, just don't receive the same level of development that the top players on the AA & A teams receive. They also don't have the same general level of desire. These kids aren't stupid, they know where they rank on the pecking order by the time they are placed on a Squirt team, they start to lose that extra bit of grit and desire that players on the top teams have as each year passes and they remain placed on lower level teams. The answer is to either make the feeder system linear, one youth program per HS, or for FYHA to field multiple top teams at each level, enough to match the number of HS they are feeding. Yeah, the teams will lose, but that is in the short term, development will happen and by Bantams the teams will be competitive. It's not any different than a co-op situation. When you resort to co-oping the writing is on the wall that the two individual programs are dead and will likely not be returning as the people settle into the new norm and become comfortable, or complacent, with it. FYHA is just co-oping right off the jump. There are many who would say that youth programs should not exist to feed HS programs. That their purpose is to provide recreational opportunities for kids. Okay, I'll listen to that perspective, and I almost wish it was that way, but I think it's a little naïve when you look at the rest of the youth hockey world. So yeah, a little off topic, but some food for discussion.

USA Hockey Tier 1 - Team North Dakota You already have a Tier 1 team in the state, but it is before & after. Now, you talking about establishing a full season Tier 1 Program?

South Dakota hockey teams are not very good, and they are getting worse. The state changed the age bands to comply with USA Hockey, a mistake, IMO, because it will make it even harder to compete with ND and MN teams and SD should want access to playing good, competitive programs from ND and MN. The problem is the youth teams, when they travel out of state, play down as much as they can. You have programs like Sioux Falls who will send their top teams to Minnesota B2 tournaments. Sioux Falls has a HUGE number of kids playing in the program. I'm talking about the same size or maybe larger than FYHA, but you would never know that by looking at the quality of play. I understand Sioux Falls now fields "Gold" teams that play MN A, but we'll see how long that lasts. It just seems to be a race to keep everybody the same in that state so everybody can be even for state league play. It's a very insulated hockey culture and any player that aspires to play at a high level, the only option is the AAA Jr. Stampede. SW Minnesota is getting a lot better at hockey. In recent years you've had Luverne coming out. LDC won Section 3A this year and they have some good young players coming through. If you look at the Minnesota youth A rankings you will see a surge of southern Minnesota towns in the rankings the last several years. Hockey is a numbers game and there are more kids playing in southern MN towns. Would not shock me to see a Class A champ from Section 1A or 3A in the next few years. Class AA is for the Metro schools, Section 7AA and Section 8AA. Unless something seriously changes in Rochester, the farthest south a AA contender could come from would be Lakeville or Farmington, and I consider those Metro. For every other ND town not named Grand Forks or Fargo I agree that there is nothing wrong with Bantam A hockey. Technically, it is all supposed to be A hockey and then breaks down into AA/A for MN State tournament play, but we all knew what was going to happen once the cat got out of the bag. I was just saying in my original post that NoDak towns have the opportunity to travel east to play just like anybody else.

Back to the topic, would be awesome to see the ND State High School tournament on Midco Sports next year. The South Dakota and Minnesota tournaments have been broadcast the last few years. BTW Midco, that's a good thing and a big feather in your cap. Congratulations, and big thank you for bringing those tournaments to us. You know what's not? Dropping BTN. Not a good idea, but that's another subject.

You realize there is nothing stopping any North Dakota town from travelling over to Minnesota for youth hockey tournaments too. They could even schedule a trip to one of the gazillion tournaments in Winnipeg each year if they want to increase their level of competition. There is plenty of competition out there, you just need to schedule it and be willing to drive a few miles. Bismarck youth hockey teams (as well other ND towns like Devil's Lake) are regulars in tournaments in Fargo and Grand Forks and those tournaments are full of Minnesota teams. Moorhead tournaments are an option too. Been to all three places multiple times and those tournaments are a cross section of ND, northern MN, Twin Cities Metro, and Canadian teams. Travelling for youth hockey, unless you live in the Twin Cities Metro, is a fact of life.

The Canadians know this isn't their best. They aren't going to get too worked up over not winning gold but losing to Germany when the path to the gold medal game was laid out before them, that has to sting. They should take comfort in the fact that they won't get their pants pulled down, behinds spanked, and completely embarrassed in front of the world by the Russians though. So at least they got that. We should all be hoping for a Russian domination of Germany in the final game. Maybe then the NHL will come to an agreement for China. Personally, I am cheering hard for Deutschland.

I completely and 100% support this Canadian woman. She didn't cause a scene, she was not disrespectful, she didn't throw the medal into the stands, she simply removed it. I can completely understand the emotions and the reason why. It probably felt like a boulder around her neck after losing such a heartbreaking game.

Well yeah. They aren't going to announce the name of the move but I bet there were more than a few who tried it in practice. Honestly, it looks cool on TV but it is a pretty simple move to pull off, fake shot, backhand, forehand, and in. I've seen Pee Wees pull it off. I'm all for Star Spangled Dangle

O/U on how many kids will be hitting the ice and trying the "oops I did it again" move today at hockey practice.

There were 49 Americans taken in the 2017 NHL Draft with 6 in the first round, I think that would have been a good place to start in forming a young team. Yeah, Casey Mittlestadt would have been my first pick for the team because he is a darn good player (set aside the Gopher hate). Donato, Terry, Greenway, and Borgen are already on the team and have been amongst the most impactful players on the team. You don't think we have the depth in talent in the NCAA ranks to fill out a team that would have performed equivalent to this one? Keep in mind, we may have made it to the quarterfinals but the only team we have proven we can beat so far is Slovakia.

All NCAA team. USA Hockey really missed the target on this one. Even if the kids don't win it harkens back to the days of the 1980 team. Sell the nostalgia, underdog angle. Opportunity to showcase the young up and coming American stars and the growth of the youth game in the U.S. There would be enough top NHL draft talent on that team that they would be skilled enough to compete.