PCM

I know that you're trying to be funny, but Wes Dorey was actually a pretty good player, although he never fully lived up to expectations. If you knew the full story on Wes, you wouldn't make jokes about him.

Here's another question: With Parise gone, will Brandon Bochenski be remembered as one of the all-time greats in Sioux history? If he stays and nobody else leaves, he'll be in position to do that. He's already tied for 19th in all-time scoring. Another 60-point season would put him in the top five.

Not that this necessarily means anything, but... From the Virg Foss story on Zach Parise in today's Grand Forks Herald: Tim Hennessy said yesterday that there really is no advantage for Bochenski to leave early. Here's what Brandon said back in December:

I doubt it. As Taz Boy says, I'm sure it has more to do with the money and living the dream of playing in the NHL with a perennial Stanley Cup contender.

Which was my point. Nice to see that you got it.

Have a good laugh, but I know what Zach thought about WCHA officiating.

What's weird is it doesn't seem all that long ago that we were arguing about whether Blais was overhyping Parise before he even started his first season. Now he's gone after two seasons and we're arguing about how good he really was.

The way Blais and Hennessy talked on the radio, I was under the impression that Parise flew out of Grand Forks this morning.

You don't know. I don't either. But I do know that hockey has a bad image because of the fighting. All it takes is watching one NHL game and seeing one fight. Of course, it doesn't help that wild hockey fights almost always make the sports highlights. That's the only exposure to hockey that many sports fans have, and that's enough to fuel their perception of the sport.

Yes. And when we get to the game that will send us to the Frozen Four, I want our players to bury their scoring chances. Unfortunately, Blais can't do that for them.

Don't kid yourself. It might be more of a net gain than a net loss. Hockey has a bad image because of fighting. Many people refuse to watch hockey because they don't consider it a serious sport. (Think of the Rodney Dangerfield's famous hockey joke: I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.) For some, hockey is on the same level as professional wrestling.

Actually, I don't think that's a valid criticism. Nationally, the Sioux power play was at 17.4 percent, which was middle of the pack. In WCHA play, it was 21.3 percent, third best in the league behind Minnesota and UM-Duluth. The Sioux didn't score their first power play goal until the seventh game of the season and were 0-26 up to that point. Throw out the first six games of the season and the Sioux power play is at 20 percent, seventh best in the nation. While the power play did start out slow, it did show definite improvement throughout the course of the season. UND also had the top penalty kill in the WCHA and one of the best in the nation. Overall, I'd say that the coaches did a darn fine job with special teams this season.

Perhaps there are other factors out of the coach's control about which you're not aware.

Here's what I don't get about the Bertuzzi incident as it relates to the fighting issue. Practically everyone agrees that Moore's hit on Nasslund was clean. Yet the proponents of fighting think that the Canucks were perfectly justified in going after Moore because of a legal hit! They say that if Bertuzzi had fought Moore face to face and beat the crap out of him, they'd have no problem with it. So how does that square with the need to protect players from cheap shots? Someone hitting a player within the rules of the game deserves a beating. Someone cheap-shotting a player deserves a beating. Heck, a more objective oberserver of the NHL might just come to the conclusion that fighting serves no useful purpose.

What you're saying is merely your opinion. Just because you think it's correct doesn't mean that it is.

Looking back on UND's season, I see one tie and perhaps four losses that could be blamed on goaltending. That's four losses in 41 games. I don't see how anyone could expect better results than that.

Huh?

That's not the point. Cheap shots will never be totally eliminated in sports because players will always lose their heads and do stupid things. In that regard, hockey is no different from any other contact sport. The only thing anyone can do about it is make the cost of such behavior so steep that coaches discourage it and players are deterred from engaging in it. Why do you think that Sioux fans never see more than one or two fights a season? It's because the NCAA makes players and teams pay a high price for their conduct. Saying that fighting in hockey is necessary to enforce the rules is like saying that vigilantism is best form of criminal justice.

The NHL could do the same thing that college hockey and the NFL does: Hand out punishiment based on what the videotape shows.

Although DaveK and I are miles apart on perm philosophy, I am in agreement with him and Supertrex on this point.

That was my original plan. But money talks.

If INCH offers me a mutil-million-dollar contract, I will be leaving USCHO for greener pastures. You heard it here first, folks.

Me? Joke? NEVER!

My guesses would be Paul Martin and Brian Gionta.

Agreed. That's why the seven national championship banners hanging from the Ralph's rafters are important. And even though some will deny it, so are the 13 WCHA championship banners. Even though the league banners aren't as important, they do send a powerful message: When you play for UND, you play for a school that's consistently in the hunt come playoff time.