MafiaMan

I just saw on gopherpucklive.com that Jesse Bertigliot is turning pro, too!

Great. I suppose Travis Roche is gone now too.

With all due respect to Brandon Bochenski, Ottawa got a little tired of his bad skating and felt it best to trade him. Potulny will get his shot, like a lot of others, but I'm not convinced he's the next big thing in the NHL.

We'll see. My guess is a few games with the Flyers, then a nice career with the Phantoms.

I wondered that myself...especially since I yelled loud enough for him to hear after the HC game "where's the jersey pop now, Danny?".

I only saw the choices: A) sign with the Wild and B) return to school. What about C) Do the jersey pop one more time for old time's sake?

Yep...it was just posted on gophersports.com.

Hmnnn...someone was watching the same St Cloud State game that I was a few weeks ago, huh?

Obviously the committee felt that Jeff Panzer was slighted in 2001 and all the members voted against Potulny this year to even things up.

I have a knack for picking the upsets. Unfortunately for me, they're the wrong ones.

LOL...I had Maine advancing to the title game against UND. The bad news is, I also had BU advancing to the Frozen Four and CC upsetting Wisconsin.

I'm not ashamed at all to admit that!

I need to see a video clip of the game-winner. I've seen the replay about 5 times now and still can't spot the puck clearly until it is well into the net.

No problem. Frankly, I'm opposed to voting AGAINST someone and prefer to vote FOR someone else. There are plenty of reasons to like candidates without the best reason being a negative about someone else. I disagree with sagard's assessment that winning the WCHA doesn't mean much. It's a conference championship and they still raise banners for them at Mariucci and REA, don't they?

Duly noted. However, I didn't say that anyone should take that into consideration when placing their vote, did I? I can think of a lot of other reasons why Potulny shouldn't win the Hobey that are better than "Lucia screwed Panzer."

LOL...fixed my post. I meant George "Gwod" and got "W" stuck in my head.

I think Sioux fans were saying the same thing about Dean Blais in 1998 and 1999.

Now that makes sense and I agree: winning the conference and winning the NCAA tournament is difficult. How about all three, WCHA, the Final Five, and the NCAA tournament? George Gwod in Denver also accomplished that trifecta if memory serves me right (2005).

Did I say Lucia was in the same boat as Dean? I listed their records and accomplishments at their respective programs and that's all. What Rick was pointing out was that at least Dean was winning NCAA titles while winning WCHA titles, to which my first thought is "huh?".

Sorry, Rick, I have to show you the true stats here. Don Lucia's Minnesota Record: 189-86-26, 7 seasons at MN, 1 regular season title, 2 conference tournament titles, 2 NCAA titles. Dean Blais' North Dakota Record: 244-115-33, 10 seasons at UND, 5 regular season titles, 2 conference tournament titles, 3 NCAA championship game appearances, 2 NCAA titles. Bottom line: 5 regular season titles to 1. 2 conference tournament titles to 2. 2 NCAA titles to 2. Who's the better coach? I think both of them are excellent coaches and their records speak for themselves. All that being said, of course I'd rather have Dean Blais behind my bench than Lucia.

I guarantee you that if a Sioux player were up for the Hobey Baker award and just short of 1/3 of his goals were against the last-place team in the conference and UND had played them six times, Don Lucia would make that an issue when placing his vote. This award isn't about the best pro prospect or about the best player on the championship team.

On planet Neptune, maybe! That's clearly a Gopher jersey. The current Michigan yellow jerseys have the scripted "MICHIGAN" written on them, not the Michigan "M". The 1998-2002 era Michigan yellows did have the "M," but they were not shimmer material.

- Crusader Head Coach Paul Pearl in an e-mail to me yesterday