Big A HG

My Frozen Four is a bit out there. It's just how it worked out. Deciding if I should revise or not...

I expect WMU to play tough and with a lot of confidence. Despite losing to Denver last year, they had a strong game and will likely build off their experience then and their recent CCHA run. The guys need to come out, play smart, and limit mistakes. If Dell plays strong, the team should be able to move on for another tough matchup, but WMU will be no pushover.

Obviously any team can compete with anyone on any given night, but I would hope my team has confidence in itself. The only thing that I would consider a stretch is about the amount of fans that will supposedly take over Xcel Energy Center from Kalamazoo.

I didn't notice anything "cocky", in my opinion. What do you want them to say?

I didn't think LaPanta was that homerish at all myself. In fact, he took a few stabs at the Gophs as well, like with the Holy Cross comment. During the big comeback, his "scores" commentary was pretty energetic and wasn't as short as some of you are insisting. I don't think his voice works for play-by-play hockey, but I didn't catch much of the homerism other than a call or two that he thought was maybe missed.

To be fair to both sides, hindsight is always 20/20. Mario did have only one goal going into the game last night and a mountain of bad penalties, which is disappointing. But, like Geaux said, his skill isn't in the offensive zone...it's in the neutral zone, the d-zone, the locker room, and the practice rink. Mario came up huge last night, like a good captain should, but his offensive presence has been lackluster.

Wow, more awesome pics. That magical timeout pic is one of those frozen moments in time that only hindsight will tell you what was about to happen, but you can certainly feel the emotion. Great stuff.

I just can't get over the fact we are doing this with only 17 skaters. Lost: Frattin Gregoire Marto Genoway LaPoint Davidson Malone Trupp Hextall Grimaldi O'Donnell Rodwell Dickin Cichy Hill Bruneteau St. Clair Miller ...all since the same time last year. Hak & Co. have done an unbelievable job. Win or lose, this has been one heck of a great season for these guys. There are 18 guys on that list. That's more than the number of skaters we've had lately.

The only difference between the Gophers first period and our third period was Dell and Patterson. The 1st-Team All-WCHA goalie sieved it up and ours stood tall most of the time.

The only words I could pick out from what he really said were: "5:53" (which was the time remaining in the period) "...f*****g..." (no idea what came before or after "Let's Go" (what he finished with)

I'll refrain from posting much because I'd blow the boards up with the expletives I'm about to use.

That's at least three straight overtime F5 games for Denver now, ain't it?

Oh believe me, it has.

Great stuff John! I always love it when you get a chance to take some nice pics.

*knock on wood*

RBK has a template you can design off of, but that template is a modern cut like you see in the concept image. I don't believe they even offer a custom hockey jersey with the looser, "squared off bottom" fit anymore. Also, to get a really vintage look, you'd need a tighter jersey, and the jersey style you are referencing is a lot looser and baggier, and wouldn't look any better (in my opinion) than the modern cut. The official school colors are still include pink, but it's not an athletic color. No men's jersey that I've ever seen included pink, so I didn't think this would be the opportunity to add it. I do appreciate the input and you didn't offend me with the comment I quoted before. I just thought it was a good spot to point out the positives of being interested in school uni's.

That's why I'm suprised there is even a rule to start with. Teams should be able to wear what they want at home. They should be able to mix it up and not have jerseys labeled as home or away, just jerseys. Whether you like it or not, uniforms can be a great marketing tool for recruiting. Look at what Oregon football has done since going to a zillion different uniforms that grab people's attention, whether the opinion of them is good or bad. To the younger crowd's eyes, a flashy uniform can sway a player's decision. Not all, but some. It sounds stupid, but it's true. I want to gear the other three jersey concepts to fit that, with the home alternate to pay homage to the long-time fans and historic teams.

There may be some instances where each team wears dark jerseys, but they still mostly follow the home white rule as far as I know.

I didn't try any vertical arching because you didn't see any of it on the Sioux sweaters until the 1993-94 season. Any previous Sioux arching was radial, so that's why I went that route. The Sioux had a ton of old jerseys with the laces as well, hence the reason I added that touch. From 1958-74 the team pretty much exclusively used laces. Previous to that, the collars were round in nature, and you can't do anything similar to that with the RBK Edge template, so I thought the laces were the easier way to get a vintage look that still tied to the program.

If you are sitting by the Gophers penalty box during one of their games, have a sign that says "Insert Blonde Joke Here" with an arrow pointing to inside the box.

I think one of the biggest reasons for the NHL going to dark home jerseys was for the same reason I mentioned above. The home crowd fans never got to see the alternate jerseys if they were dark alternates (which are easier to make than a second home jersey). So, to increase marketing for home games and merchandise, the league switched. Now, the fans got to go have the opportunity to see them play in multiple dark uniforms and that leads to more interest in owning an alternate jersey opposed to when the fans could never go see them in it unless they made a long road trip.

Even though the nickname is hanging on for now, by next season we may be without the Sioux moniker. I wanted to whip up a few concepts that may be cool options in the future. The black alternate has served us well over the years, but I wanted to add a fourth jersey to the lineup, a home alternate. It would give the fans at home a chance to see something different every now and again, instead of just during road games where there is limited opportunity to see them either in person or on TV. So, there will be: 1) Home White 2) Road Green 3) Alternate Road Black 4) Alternate Home Vintage White The first one I've finished is the newly introduced home alternate jersey. It pays homage to the teams that came before and the long and storied Sioux tradition. Going off the recent "vintage white" look going on in the pros, I thought it would be neat to add something similar for a team that has among the greatest traditions in all of hockey. I didn't want to copy a previous Sioux jersey design, so created it to be unique, yet look like it's been around a long time. The jersey color is an off-white and I ditched all signs of black. For many years, black had no part in a Sioux jersey. The only design feature that is "modern" is the "ND" logo on the shoulders, but it is the most basic form of it and is only green with no outlining or contrasting colors to add to that vintage look. Do you think an idea like this would fly? Does it work as a UND jersey? What would you tweak? I'm in the works on the others and will post them as I go.

Hagerty's review aside...am I the only one that doesn't care much for Olive Garden? The only times I've ever gone there were when I happened to be with women and I was one of only a few men in the whole joint. Eh, whatever.

Pattyn, by his senior year, is going to be one of the better leaders the team has had. He's not the most skilled right now, but I can see him being a huge part of this team in a few years.

I admit, I am owed a little bit of crow.