PCM

Drop the condescending attitude. I know exactly what you're doing and it has nothing to do with being helpful.

Since you've insulted me twice now, I'm going to say it: You're a twit, Hammy. I've watched you play your little Blais-slandering game for years on USCHO. It's old. It's dumb. It's childish. It doesn't even make sense. Time and time again, the facts prove you wrong. If you think you can come here to peddle your moronic theory and not be challenged, think again. I have no intention of letting you get away with it. I don't have anything to say to you by e-mail that I wouldn't say here.

Gee, Hammy, being such an NCAA a rules guru, I didn't think that I've have to quote this again.

You can feel however you want about it. Not being the coach of a Division I college hockey team, it's a simple matter for you to hold such beliefs. You call me naive, and yet I know for a fact that college coaches can and do pull scholarships when athletes don't perform up to expectations. I personally knew an athlete who had it happen to him, and that was at the Division II level. Don't tell me it doesn't happen, because I know it happens far more often than you're apparently willing to admit. That being said, I believe athletes should be given every opportunity to prove themselves, especially in amateur sports. Some need more time to develop than others. Some, through circumstances beyond their control, don't immediately live up to their potential or have off years. Some players might need more than one chance before they "get it." Any good coach will take these factors into consideration when making decisions about the level of scholarship support he'll offer a player. Blais was once quoted in a Herald article as saying that he didn't know if he'd like being an NHL coach because the part of coaching he enjoys the most is developing young players. He takes great pride in that aspect of his job and the number of players he's helped put in the NHL. That's what brings some of the nation's top recruits to UND.

Just answer one simple question: Do you think that what Blais tells prospective players and their parents is different from what he tells the public?

I don't pretend to know what Blais thinking. All I can do is match the words I've heard him say many times with his actions.

You're diggler's girlfriend?

If that's what you think, then you're essentially calling Blais a liar. I have heard him say publicly many times in many different forums that scholarships are evaluated at the end of each season. For me to believe you, I'd also have to believe that Blais is saying one thing publicly and saying something altogether different when it comes to dealing with prospective recruits and their parents. If that were the case, he'd have zero credibility with anyone and nobody in their right mind would ever send their kid to UND to play for Blais. That doesn't appear to be happening, does it?

Even though I'm a lifelong Rangers fan, it was cool watching Jason play against the Blue Shirts. His assist on the Islander's only goal was outstanding. He was also on the ice when Brian Leetch scored the goal that tied it up. The best part of the game was when Eric Lindros pulled Jason's skates out from under him long after the whistle. Lindros had to sit in the box and feel shame. I wonder what Blake said or did to Lindros that trigerred that reaction?

I think there are two problems to overcome at the new Ralph. The first is that starting last season, there were problably just as many "newbie" Sioux fans as there were regulars. The second is that many of the "neighborhoods" in the old Ralph were broken up. It's a lot easier to stand up, cheer and get rowdy when you know those around you are doing it, too. It will probably take a few years for the crowd to "gell" and the atmosphere to reach its full potential. Also, as the wise old philospher Ryan Bayda once told me, you can't expect the crowd to cheer when the team isn't giving the fans anythng to cheer about.

I'm shocked. How could she possibly forget that?

If that's all that was said, I agree with you. However, to the JBBs of the world, anything a minority deems offensive automically is offensive and, therefore, racist. I also agree with Sicatoka that any fan who touches a player or coach is out of line and should be dealt with accordingly.

My bad.

Now you know how we feel.

Or Goehring? Or Schweitzer? You remember them, don't you? Small Sioux goalies with national championship rings.

While I agree with the gist of your post, the part about Ranfranz isn't true. Marc told me that he couldn't play after Christmas last season because of NCAA rules, not because Blais decided to play Siembida instead. If not for that, Ranfranz probably would have been playing instead of Siembida. At least, that's the way I understood it.

Goalie masks? Hell, we didn't even wear shin guards. They were for wimps!

During my illustrious hockey career (cough, cough), I preferred a straight blade stick to one with a curved blade because it enabled me to get off an accurate backhand shot very quickly. As you say, that came in very handy during scrums for loose pucks in front of the net. Does anyone make straight-blade sticks any more? Do any players still use them?

Man, I'll say! It was almost as bad as the '97 flood.

The first and third goals Josh gave up were, in my opinion, brutal. Every time there's an odd-man rush, a flurry in front of the net or Josh has to go one-on-one with a shooter, he panics. I don't know how else to describe it. He's like a deer in the headlights. The second goal was mostly Matt Greene's fault. For some reason, he seemed to think it was more important to point out who should cover which Bulldog players rather than to actually cover anyone himself. That left Nick Anderson wide open to one-time Caig's pass. Siembida didn't really have a chance on that one. Finally, after closely viewing the replays, I'm almost certain that Bochenski didn't play the puck with a high stick on the Parise power play goal that was disallowed. When his stick made contact with the puck, it was below the crossbar. Bochenski was quite adamant about that after the game, saying that he swung his stick parallel to the ice and hit the post on his follow through. He also said the puck hit a Duluth player before Parise shot it in. When Scott Sandelin was asked whether the call was correct, he said,

They're so good they can spot the opposition three goals before they start playing.

That's a different issue from the one you originally brought up. As has been discussed here many times in past threads, eveyrone knows that the ice isn't setting up the way it should. I believe it's been mentioned that there are plans to fix this in the off-season.

Who is "no one?" In my opinion, Blais and members of the team have gone out of their way to publicly support the Sioux goalies. Certainly Siembida has been given many opportunities to prove himself. I'm sure all this has been done in an attempt to help the goalies build confidence in themselves. It would be self-defeating to do it any other way.

Doesn't this incident conveniently play into the hands of those at NDSU who want to prohibit the Sioux name from being used during sporting events there? It's more of the "stop us before we racially taunt again" strategy, as if banning the use of the word Sioux will put an end to the inherently ingrained racism at NDSU.

Did anyone watch the Jekyll and Hyde show on TV last night, otherwise known as the Gophers and Pioneers? If you didn't, you probably missed something that will no doubt make the sports blooper video highlights. The second period started with the Gophers on the power play. Denver cleared the puck by shooting it down the middle of the ice. It was sliding straight toward Travis Weber. The Gopher D-man was back anticipating that Weber would stop the puck and pass it to him off to the side. Instead, the puck hit a patch of water in the slot directly in front of the Minnesota goal and stopped. It went from sliding at a high rate of speed to an instant, complete, total, dead stop. A Denver player trailing the play got to the puck first and blasted a shot on goal, but Weber stopped it. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a hockey game. Even funnier was listening to Frank and The Wooger whine about the condition of the ice. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't these the same guys who criticized Blais for insisting that the ice set up when the Sioux played at the Mariucci earlier this season? Didn't Woog say that the Sioux should be called for a delay of game penalty? Oh, the irony.