MafiaMan

Nashville beats Tampa Bay 3-2 in the battle of the league's top teams. Southern expansion worked!

...but an AWFUL singer.

And you can go back to predicting UND women's volleyball blowouts over NDSU.

Alex Tarasov's short explanation of his grandfather's firing needed to be expanded upon a bit. A Soviet tie with Czechoslovakia in the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo wasn't designed just to improve relations with the CSSR. A tie would have dropped the USA from silver to bronze and moved Czechoslovakia up from bronze to silver. Communist superiority over the USA would be ensured. The Soviet Union defeated the CSSR 5-2 - and Tarasov's decision to rebuke the higher-ups would cost him his job.

Figured I'd move that 30 for 30 discussion elsewhere so we don't clog the NHL thread.

Your smug comments sometimes detract from your never-ending conference affiliation conspiracy theories.

Wanting a national footprint and being engaged in serious talks to make that happen are two different situations completely. Hockey East very much enjoys its "bus league" and is not eager to change that. A phone call may have been made to BU and BC, but I don't think the NCHC got into a real in-depth conversation with those schools about defecting.

Two quick things I found interesting (minor details): I knew that Valeri Kharlamov died in August of 1981 and that he did not make the Canada Cup team that summer. I did not know that he was literally left at the airport as the plane was leaving the USSR and died in the car crash only a day or two later. Wow. Stunning that the Soviet team could even play in that tournament, let alone win it...not that they had a choice to fly home for Kharlamov's funeral I guess.* *side note: #17 has been retired by the Soviet Union (and now Russia) in international competition in honor of Kharlamov. Ilya Kovalchuk has worn the reverse of that, #71, in his honor. Did anyone else notice the changing spelling of Russian player names on their jerseys? What we commonly know today as "TRETIAK" was in fact spelled "TRETJAK" and "TRETYAK" on jerseys in different tournaments. The other player I noticed with different spellings was Boris Mikhailov, whose name was spelled both "MIKHAILOV" and "MICHAILOV."

Loved that Flyers line nickname.

Just to clarify, I'm pretty certain that this is your personal opinion and has nothing to do with actual fact. Boston College very much enjoys the regional benefits of being in close proximity to other Hockey East schools. They were adamantly opposed to Notre Dame and UConn joining Hockey East, so why would they decide to bolt it themselves for a conference where they would be flying a plane for EVERY SINGLE ROAD WEEKEND and kill a rivalry with BU in the process? If I sent an e-mail to Dave Brandon last September saying that I was interested in the head football coaching position should Brady Hoke be fired at the end of the season, can I tell people that I was a serious candidate in quiet talks for the job?

DVR'd it...watching it tonight or tomorrow night. Two things I have heard and am looking to verify: #1) Fetisov has not much good to say about Tikhonov #2) Sergei Fedorov was looked upon as a traitor for leaving the UCKA (pronounced sess-ka) hockey team and defecting. The acronym stands for Central Sports Club Army.

Post fixed!

Most of the memorabilia seems to involve hockey stuff but I just thought it would keep the regular forums from clogging up. It's easy to lose track of a specialty thread like that (see Big A HG's, for example) once other topics are added. I like the ticket forum totally separate - just thought a catch-all for anything someone wanted to look for, sell, or trade (wouldn't even have to be Sioux-related, I suppose) sounded like a good idea.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

They're 1-1 against Michigan at The Joe this season. Western Michigan, on the other hand, passed up a home game to play outside in Chicago.

Why is that? I would think that defensive-minded teams would like outdoor ice - especially since sloppy ice would slow down fast opponents who like to run-and-gun.

And if it wasn't for the sun, Arizona State would be viewed like a trip to Anchorage was in the old WCHA...

Hear! Hear! The griping about scheduling...travel...the personal TV contract...that's all going to change with a move to the NCHC and trips to Omaha, Denver, Colorado Springs, St Cloud, Duluth, and Grand Forks? Cue the 7:00 pm semi-final tournament game-times for the Fighting Irish, too, you know, in the interest of "fan support."

Oh, so now that Notre Dame thinks that Hockey East isn't so pretty anymore, they want to see if the ugly duckling NCHC would take them back? No thanks.

Get the NHL out of Miami already.

Any luck with the boss yet, Sicatoka?

Absolutely hilarious. Thanks for posting that link.

Just say "NO" to Notre Dame. You wanted Hockey East...now enjoy it!