Big A HG

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.

I believe this is how it works. After your 4th season after you have been drafted, you can sign with whomever. Most people equate this rule to being after you finish college, you can become a free agent. Since Gregoire was drafted in 2007, he played one season for Lincoln (USHL) and three with the Sioux, he used his four years after being drafted and was then able to become a free agent instead of having to wait for four years at UND. There is some confusion with that rule because most people think that it means you have to play all four collegiate seasons when it just means you have to play four non-professional seasons after being drafted. Derek Forbort and Brock Nelson would both have to play all four years at UND to be able to become free agents since they came in the year they were drafted. Brad Malone also came to UND the season he was drafted, so he would have been eligible to become a free agent later last summer had he chose to do so, but wouldn't have been eligible in previous seasons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.

That's a different Simpson.

Well, Reebok is producing jerseys constantly for all different leagues around the world. Giving them an order on short notice usually doesn't work out too well. Then, when they are done, you have to ship them out to then get customized with all the players names/numbers, which is where they currently are. I'm not sure when the order was originally placed, so it's hard to say what kind of timeframe it's been, but it certain would seem like they are getting something completely new.

March Madness is about the only thing that makes basketball entertaining for me anymore. After Jordan retired the game was completely different...a lot less of a team game and more of a one-on-one type game. It took longer for that to trickle down to the NCAA level, but now you are even starting to see it there in the elite D1 programs. UND is far from that, but just to put it bluntly, small-time D1 basketball doesn't interest me. If anyone is interested, the March Madness bracket on ESPN.com I play in is called "North Dakota Nuts". I don't know anyone else that plays in the bracket, but there is almost always a North Dakota Nuts group in the different fantasy games on ESPN, which makes it kinda fun.

One other note to make... If the jerseys are a special order, it makes you wonder if the jerseys will be an entirely different look. I know RBK is under strict timeframes for producing custom jerseys so they can meet every account's needs, but if it was basically just a logo swap, you'd think it'd go much more quickly and efficiently because they'd already have the design templates on file which would make it easier to mix in a few extras to retail. The lettering/numbering gets outsourced, so that's not the issue either. Hmmmm....

This makes considerably more sense. However, going into the future, you'd have to assume that the team will either stick with these new jerseys or return to them at some point, so long as they are still with RBK...which means that at some point I'm sure they will have them available at retail.

So, this past Frozen Four, when we lost to Michigan, was it Hak's fault that they outshot the Wolverines 40-20 and only gave up one goal (not counting the empty netter)? The team had a lot of chances but just couldn't get one past Hunwick. I think if you told any coach that you'd outshoot the opponent by double and your goalie only gave up one goal, not one coach would turn that down. If you look at all the Frozen Four games Hak has been in, the only game where they played poorly from start-to-finish was the 2008 game against BC. In 05, losing to Denver was disappointing, but we weren't the superior team. In 06 and 07, we didn't have the best goaltending, but the rest of the team played well enough to win. The coach can only do so much and the only game I could really put on Hak is the 2008 one.

Gemini has been super busy over the last year. I know they've done a lot of growing and have even picked up a huge account which I can't mention. Also, I'm not sure how well the other women's jerseys have sold, so the Sioux Shop may not really want to carry another women's jersey, especially if it doesn't have anything Sioux related on it. I know their green jersey didn't have the name or logo on it either, but the new home jersey actually has a connection to the change of the name unlike the green. I think that combination is the reason you don't see the new women's jersey. However, men's jerseys sell really well and everyone always wants something unique, so I bet people would buy a non-Sioux jersey if they sold it, and I bet it'd sell pretty well.

Looks perfect in my eyes.

Frattin's was one sick wrister....typical. Oshie also got #16 tonight as well on a deflection. Oshie also had an assist.

We've hardly gotten a good bounce all year...time for the hockey gods to make up for that.

Bemidji is easier, but if we had the opportunity to play Wisconsin, it might give us a better shot at moving up in the PWR farther.

Kristo is gone unless he takes inspiration from what Frattin was able to achieve as a senior.

I tried contacting the place in charge of putting on names/numbers and asked what they look like...they told me they weren't allowed to tell me basically.

That huge reaching stick save by Eids late turned out to be a difference maker.

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures

Well, even D3 hockey can be tough for an upstart program. Concordia isn't really in a hockey hotbed despite its northern roots, so that wasn't helping his cause either.

That was a rifle by Pattyn.

"Double Rainbow! What does it mean?!?!"

I took that [crappy] video, haha. The part where he was cupping his ears to the crowd was during a hellacious "F*** YOU DENVER!" chant that was pretty amusing. I hate Denver more than the Gophs. I'm surprised more people don't hate them as much. If they were a border team, yikes would that be a crazy rivalry.

Farce, I think you hit the nail on the head on most of your points. I have faith in Eids, but only so much until I see a bit more from him. His biggest difference this weekend, in my opinion, was his lateral movement. I think that's one thing that he always struggled at and he'd end up flailing out of position easy on many occasions, even as a full-time starter his first two seasons. His balance and movement was pretty sharp, which allowed him to stay in more plays than usual for him. If he can continue that, he's going to have a strong finish to his senior season and hopefully get some looks in a pro-league. It seems he has accepted his role behind Dell in a positive manner, which makes me really like having him on the team. Your third point is something that the team struggles with some games through many of the previous seasons. When the team is struggling a bit to move the puck, they just start throwing blind passes and rely on dump and chase a little too much. I know sometimes the opponent's defense can dictate how you play your game, but I thought they were a little too impatient with the puck which led to a lot of turnovers. The fifth point you made is something that needs to be addressed. It's a shame that a 10,000+ arena with the following the Sioux have can't find ways to stay in the game. It's easy to be a great crowd when things are going good on the ice, but on Saturday you could hear most of the players' chatter on the ice from my TV perspective, and every crowd shot during the game showed what appeared to be uninterested fans. Those who are able to attend the games need to help out on their end a bit to give the team a little more home-ice advantage.