Big A HG

It's hard to comprehend around these parts, but UND has its share of idiot fans as well. The only thing I give him props for his actually doing something. Half the people at the Ralph you wouldn't know if they were reading the morning newspaper or at the best hockey facility in college hockey. Having 11,000 idiot, but loud, hockey fans would be collectively more entertaining than your average Sioux game is...from a crowd perspective.

Actually, there were only 12 teams in the tournament, not 16. Odds aren't the same. It's a little tougher to get in the tournament, but easier to win it all, even if you still have to play 4 games. I'm not trying to discredit Blais, I'm just trying to support Hakstol. What better option is out there that is a realistic candidate?

You also have to remember that Dean Blais has never won a title in the current NCAA playoff format. What about UNO's losses to: Colgate, UAF, UAA, and Alabama-Huntsville?

If Blais actually is better than Hak, what's UND supposed to do about it? Blais left UND, UND didn't fire him. Who's out there that will bring more success than Hakstol has? You can probably only count on one hand the number colleges that wouldn't want a Dave Hakstol as their coach. At some point, the players have to win the game, the coaches can only do so much.

Great vid, thanks for sharing.

I think it would be cool if we did something like what Canada Hockey did to their Maple Leaf...but we'd do the same to our "ND" logo.

I don't care about being a homer or not. That's not what I'm talking about. A home team play-by-play announcer should be at least a little bit of a homer. That's part of what made Mazocco and Woog so fun to listen to. Sweeney just stinks at play-by-play (as does LaPanta). And, you'd think WDAZ could throw a few bucks in to get the guy a new suit.

Yes, Anchorage is on the coast and the warm ocean water that flows north towards Alaska keep the coast warmer and prevents most of the extreme cold.

Sweeney is bad. LaPanta is bad. I said this before Woog and Mozocco were gone: When they leave, it will ruin Gophers hockey coverage. I actually miss those guys. Their homerism was epic, but they could put you on the edge of your seat. Hennessy is awesome on the radio as well at that. Every game seems like a playoff game with those guys.

Don't be jinxing us now.

Jonathan Toews just took over the league lead in goals with 17 (Kessel w/ 16 is 2nd). He had 2 goals and tacked on a huge assist. He is also tied for 2nd in the league in scoring (behind Kessel). Jonny decided to start scoring. He always had it in him, it just seemed like there were more important things on the ice at times.

It's great that they continued their success from last weekend to start a tough weekend after a long road trip. Even the best Sioux teams struggle in Alaska, so hats off to the guys tonight. Let's see how the legs feel tomorrow and finish the weekend strong for a 2nd straight week.

Could be, I don't know any other details. When I heard it, I was a bit surprised considering UND doesn't currently use a logo like was mentioned, and hasn't since the mid-70s.

On a side note, the women's white jerseys were completed by Gemini already. They will continue with their "North Dakota" green jersey and likely just drop the black for the remainder of the season. I'm not sure when the women will implement the new whites, but I've been told by a very good source that they have some sort of "circle ND" logo on it. It's not what I would have guessed, but it makes me wonder if the men's team will have gone a similar route. Only time will tell.

I think the hardest part about playing UAA is coming off the electricity that filled REA this weekend. The crowd has been somewhat poor this year in terms of excitement but it was awesome this weekend against CC. Now, you go up to Alaska with a rink that has a high school feel to it in comparison. You have to be self-motivated, and sometimes it's tough after a long plane ride. Remember, we only tied the first night last year after a slight collapse (if I remember right). We need every point we can. Now, it's a matter of consistency. Which team are we? The one that was struggling to score and win games, or the one that just swept CC.

The CCHA actually provides a pretty balanced amount of skill and physicality. They don't necessarily have as many bruisers as the WCHA, but they can finish their checks at the same time.

You are right, he didn't sweep the ice. However, I don't see the two celebrations being all that much different. One certainly isn't more over-the-top than the other despite their differences.

Just like what Kristo did after his shorty last night? NFL Network did a 2-epsidode show from when they followed Bill Belichick (successful New England Patriots coach) around for an entire year. Bill emphasized being a team, but one thing he stressed was, if you make a play, celebrate, you deserve it. It's very hard to make a great play. I think as long as it's tasteful and you're a team player, it's fine by me. I personally don't see anything wrong with it, whether it's a Sioux, a Gopher, a Badger, etc.

I think the Sioux really came into the weekend trying to contain Jaden, which really opened things up for Rylan. You'd think they would have learned their lesson after awhile, but it was kind of a no win situation for the Sioux because Jaden will beat you just as easy. It's like when we had the DOT line. Who do you stop? If you take out Toews, there's still Oshie and Duncan. If you take out Duncan, there's still Oshie and Toews. It's hard to contain multiple great forwards on one line. The young guys really played well this weekend. They are starting to get a feel for the speed of the game. Parks really stood out a lot to me this weekend especially. He didn't necessarily get the points, but he was all over the place making plays.

Holy Rylan Schwartz. Great weekend for the Sioux. It looks like it's starting to come together. Need to tighten up the defense a bit, but CC is no slouch in the offensive department. Let's keep this train rolling.

If you want to assume that's what I meant, fine by me. I could tell you whatever I want in terms of what they do because you wouldn't know if I was lying or not, so I'll just do both of us a favor and not. Do what you have to do, fine by me. I've done my fair share of stupid things, so I'm not going to point fingers at those who smoke pot and act like I'm perfect. I'm merely pointing out what I've observed as a non-smoker. To be fair, I've personally never witnessed a pot smoker do anything that would put another in harm's way (except for hitting a golf ball with a 7 iron in a courtyard surrounded by apartments at 2am roughly 6 years ago (which was probably caused by his alcohol consumption instead) and in my drunken stupor I found quite funny myself, so I'm just as guilty for not stopping him, even though I wasn't smoking). So, since I'm only speaking on personal observations, I can't say that it is any more dangerous than other legal consumables when used improperly (though I do believe that smoking does inhibit proper mental judgments, and in turn, would likely cause someone to put another in harm's way if it indeed was used improperly). I'm trying to be fair. End of discussion on my end.

I've been trying hard not to go off the depend. I support Hak immensely. With that said, as much as I support Hakstol, Eades, and Jackson, my patience is growing thin with some of their coaching styles. Whether or not we have elite talent, not every team is the same. It seems as if they are bent on using a certain game plan, no matter what, even if it doesn't work for that particular team. I think dump and chase and puck control can be successful with the proper players. Heck, even when we had a team full of blue chippers, we played that way, but they were good enough to overcome it with their abilities. This team has really come down to recruiting. We've had a few years now with minimal blue chip recruits. Yes, we've had some good players come in (and others who had said they were coming, but didn't), but let's face it...we have one of the greatest facilities in the world, a top 100 university, and over a half century of championship success as our pedigree. We've had tons of players go on to successful NHL careers....the list goes on and on. With that said, why does our team lack so much talent? Like I stated above, I support Hak & Co. a lot. Their jobs aren't easy, and sometimes things just don't go your way. Yes, losing a ton of players from a great team last year hurts, and I'm not forgetting that Hak & Co. assembled that team (and other good ones), but it's just confusing on where this team is at. I'm trying to pinpoint something that turns the great players (not the good ones) away from UND and I can't figure it out. Either way, it's a long season, and we should be plenty thankful (especially this week!) for what we've been able to witness the last 5-6 years. A season like this was ultimately bound to happen eventually. There's still hope.

They weren't close friends, but our whole floor were "friends". I know what they're doing these days.

One more for the road...just speaking from personal experience. When I was at UND, I knew about a dozen people who smoked pot (not friends, just knew them). A quarter of them did decent in class and were successful. The rest either dropped out completely, or were on their way to doing so. Out of all the people I knew that had their fair of drinks on the weekends, about three quarters did decent in class and were successful. The pot smokers were included in this drinking group (because they drank and smoked heavily). So, not counting the pot smokers, roughly 1 in 10 weren't very good in school that participated in getting drunk on a regular basis. I'm not trying to stereotype, but based on the people I knew, either the people that smoked pot were dumb prior to smoking pot, or the pot made them dumb. I'm not picking sides, just noting what I've experienced personally.

The only reason I would support legalizing marijuana is to tax the hell out of it. I'm not one to nickel and dime the public with taxes, nor am I for increased taxes, but I would not feel disappointed in the least if they did something like that. The people that want it legalized are already using it, I don't think you'd see much of an increased usage rate. -Tax the heck out of it -Enact stiff laws and penalties for mis-use or violations/illegal acts while using (similar to alcohol laws) Again, I am in favor of legalizing it, but if one day push comes to shove, make sure they make it worth using. (I've never smoked it)