MafiaMan

RubeIdiot, I was in McVey and West for my first two years at UND in 1888-1990 before moving into a fraternity house. Glad to know there are some late 80's/early 90's people on the board.

Stop posting, Patrick...I'm trying to catch up in a hurry, but with each post you make, I'm not closing the gap any!

PCM 3400+ posts...I think of myself as a Sioux Sports regular and I have just over 300. PCM, you are a god!

Another key injury for the Sioux this season. I think Hakstol must have had something to do with it.

Did anyone else notice a gimme two-points for Minnesota coming up against Mankato? The game at the Xcel Energy Center is a HOME game for Mankato. I guess it's all about money these days and has nothing to do with wins or losses. I can't possibly imagine the Sioux playing at the Xcel Energy Center as one of their two "home" games a year vs the Gophers. Who the h*ll is running the show in Mankato these days? That game takes on an all-new importance in points thanks to the Sioux splitting this past weekend and yet Mankato is apparently happy to play in St Paul. Oh yea, I forgot, according to Gopher fans, Xcel is a neutral ice site. My bad.

I figured this board would go nuts after this weekend. I sure am glad some of you guys aren't the GM of Sioux hockey. We'd have coaching changes every week. One week ago, they were burning Mike Tice in effigy in Minneapolis. After beating the Packers on Sunday, the Catholic bishop is thinking of nominating him for sainthood. Fans are fickle! Dave Hakstol has spent 1/2 a season in Grand Forks and people are already calling for his head. I think too many of you posters pay too much attention to pre-season polls. It's obvious that the losses of Bochenski and Parise affected the team more than we thought it would. It happens. Just like teams come from out of nowhere to do well or better than expected, some teams falter under the weight of expectations. Ask UMD fans how they feel about their own season this year. Give Hakstol a chance, folks. It's been 1/2 a season.

Buy one, get one free on jerseys? Dang...sweet deal!

I swear, I should be in marketing. At the WCOH here in St Paul, the pro shop was stocked with USA items and some Canada items. Nevermind the thousands of Slovaks, Czechs, and Russians who came to see some of the tournament games. What a missed opportunity. And here I thought it was just government that was screwed up.

My broomball team is sporting team Sweden hockey jerseys this winter and players are looking for knit hats with the three crowns of Sweden on them. I've looked on Ebay and can't find anything and since I purchased a USA and Canada knit hat (toque, if you will, our friends to the north), I thought maybe REA had some in stock for the World Jr Tournament. Can anyone help me out?

I never thought I'd be cheering for Canada either, but what I watched on TV last night was ridiculous. The "I can't hear you" taunt to the crowd after the third goal, skating by the USA bench and taunting the players, pointing at the scoreboard...it was ridiculous. One of the Team USA players was yelling at a Russian coach on the bench and the coach laughed and pointed to the scoreboard as well. I try to keep in mind that they're 18-20 year old kids. I guess the Russians have been watching too much NBA these days.

I just took a look at that pullover....major OY, forecheck. I concur with Bigmrg74...I hope you got your money's worth in drinks.

Amen to that, Brother DaveK. Just because Ashton Kutcher seems to love them doesn't mean that everyone else needs to put on a trucker hat. The best hat I've worn is the Zephyr "chopper." It's pretty simple, just saying "SIOUX HOCKEY" on the front and an ND logo on the back.

On Dagies, on Bigmrg74, Diggler, and Forecheck...on PCM, Greyeagle, and Basil... Merry Christmas everyone...from MafiaMan

Sorry sports fans (forecheck and diggler), I wasn't reading things straight yesterday. Diggler, I believe I have paid roughly $100 for a jersey from Gemini. Forcheck, a POLO SHIRT and a pullover? Oy.

Diggler, Traded away your Sioux jersey for what, some nachos and cheese? Oy. Good luck getting Gemini to place an order by mail. They do good work, but custom jerseys take about a year. He's pretty busy.

A half-full barn for the UND/USA game? Wow. That's downright embarrassing. I thought the same thing back in 1988 or early 1989 when Moscow Dynamo came to town on a Sunday night. The arena was about 2/3 full and it looked liked the commies were gonna steamroll another WCHA team. A Justin Duberman hat-trick kept the game close, but the final ended up being 6-4 Dynamo. Still one of my favorite games of all-time at Engelstad Arena. They had beaten other WCHA teams by scores of 8-1 or 11-0, so it was really amazing that that bunch of kids kept it close. For those who stayed home that night, you sure missed one heck of an effort by the Sioux. I'm not sure what kept fans away from the USA game...exhibition or not, the chance to see O'Sullivan, Montoya, and others should have made that a prime ticket.

No offense, Poncho, but there's a greater risk driving your car every day to work than there is playing a recreational broomball game. It's a horrible accident, but let's not ban broomball because of it.

01 grad, Why don't trucker hats stay in the 1980's along with "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Smurfs," and the mullet? Honestly, I see kids wearing these hats all the time now. WHY?

Good grief, 01 grad. I knw Chris Bonvino, former UND student and future Minnesota Gopher football player (he transferred mid-career - still a Sioux through and through). All you had to do was ask...I am the jersey-meister, remember? Gemini made a 1997 replica for me and as close-to-authentic as you can get pre-Nike jersey with the new logo. Awesome, awesome jerseys. I'd be tempted to sell my #97 1997 jersey though...it's a tad too big (XL) if anyone would be interested. All you'd have to do is change the nameplate....

My co-rec C league starts on Tuesday in St Paul and men's D+ starts Wednesday in St Paul. Bring out the zamboni!

Diggler, There really isn't a whole lot of difference between the Lutch jerseys and the Kait jerseys. The Lutch ones are more "meshy" and have pinholes on the fabric while the Kait jerseys do not have the small pinholes. Both are awesome colorful jerseys though. The fabric starts off with one color (typically white) and instead of screenprinting, dye is injected into the fabric, also knows as dye sublimation. Check out a Nike Czech jersey and you'll see similarities with the word "CZECH" on the back of the jersey. It's not sewn-on material. The only difference with the Kait or Lutch replicas is that the name on the back is on the actual fabric like the logos. On the authentic, there is a strip of dye-sublimated material with the player name stitched on a nameplate and sewn on the jersey. I usually wear my Russian jerseys to the WCHA Final Five unless the Sioux are playing. I'd gladly pay $50 for a Lutch jersey as opposed to $100 for a cheap CCM replica of an NHL player.

I beg to differ, cfm. Those look pretty authentic to me.

Dogz, How stable is he? I paid $80 for several of the jerseys on www.russianjerseys.com before switching to him. I've purchased a half-dozen jerseys from him and have no trouble recommending him. Tell you what...I'm so confident you'd like your jersey (stock jerseys with names like Fedorov or Bure are cheaper, but you can get your own name...it just takes longer) that I would pay for it myself and you could pay me back once you see it. I bought a Soviet Wings jersey from him and they messed it up and did #91 instead of #19. Without even telling me, he had Lutch make another jersey (at no extra cost to me) with #19 and sent them BOTH to me for the cost of one jersey. Now how cool is that? I'm in Bloomington...if you'd like to see a jersey in person, let me know and we could work something out.

UMDDOGZ, Russian words are based more on sounds rather than letters. Consequently, a name in English with 8 letters (such as mine) might have fewer letters in Russian. My name (THOMPSON) spelled in Russian looks something like this: TOM(PI SIGN HERE)COH.

Speaking of jerseys, I'm a big collector of them. I have about 25-30 including Czech Republic, USA 1980, USA 2000, Canada 1998, several UND jerseys, Michigan, and about 8-10 Russian-made Kait or Lutch jerseys. You can find these on the interet at www.russianjerseys.com. They're about $80 if you purchase them from that site, but I have a friend in Detroit who contracts with Lutch (Russian Nike if you will) and can get them for around $50. They are super high quality jerseys and I get comments on them whenever I wear them. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, let me know and I will hook you up. I currently have a Kait yellow Sweden #21 Forsberg for sale for $40. This was sent to me in error (I had ordered yellow #4 Lidstrom) but the vendor offered to let me keep it since I had made a $1000 purchase for my broomball team from his company. I can get others...CCCP is a popular one, 1997 Soviet Red Army, and Soviet Wings. They would make a nice (albeit a little late) Christmas present and you can even get them with your name on back in Russian (as they wear in European play) or English (when teams play Canada or USA).