Siouxtimestwo

AMAZING save by Lammy! Penalty CC. Sioux PP.

2 nice short handed shots by Duncan and Chorney. PK is looking great! Full Strength!

Nice save Lammy! Penalty on UND, Bina Interference. Let's go PK!

God, I feel so bored now. My phone isn't ringing off the hook and the Sioux haven't scored in AGES!

We might see Bachmann in the first period yet.

WOW! Talk about a barrage!

Great to see those passes hitting the sticks early on in games. GOAL DUNCAN!!!!!!!!!!! 2-0

GOAL OSHIE!!!!

Penalty CC. Sioux PP. Sioux have been on the offensive the first few minutes, that's for sure.

The FSSN feed has had moments of patchiness, as well.

Game on!

Let's stay out of the box tonight! Don't know if anyone else is watching Minnesota-Denver, but there was a little fight in the first period. Doubt any suspensions will come out of it, but still fun to watch.

Never mind. I answered my own question. Doh!

Are the games gonna be on FSSN this weekend? I sure hope so after listening to the audio links provided above. Thanks.

I would definitely like to see the lineup we had Saturday night on the ice all weekend. Maybe Oshie and Duncan would have broken out of their mini-mini-mini-slump regardless, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Without having seen the game, it sounded like Forney played, so I'm sure he'll continue to take Radke's place. Wish I could be there. Maybe I should go back to school.

My only question is what can UND offer them that our state hasn't already given? I know for a fact that there are Native American students in the medical school that would not be there if they weren't Native Americans. I know when I turned 18, I didn't receive any compensation from the government, I received a card telling me I had to register so I'd be eligible for the draft if it ever came to that. Despite all the things we've already done, they still don't support the name, so I don't see how that will change. And I am ruling out bribery because I'm going to give the leaders of both the tribes and our university more credit that that.

What about the second part of my quote? Anybody can conveniently quote only the part they have a rebuttal for and ignore the rest. If we come to an agreement with currently tribal governments within the next three years, it can still be rescinded at any time after that. Tribal governments aren't exactly stable. Leaders come and go at a rapid pace and any one of them can cause any progress that's made in the next 3 years to go up in smoke. Do you honestly have that much faith in the tribes throughout our state. What is this faith based on? Before this settlement, I was 100% in favor or keeping the name at all costs, but that's easy to do when it's a general statement. It's a little harder for me to say that now that the terms are laid out in front of us. If the choice is keeping the Fighting Sioux name at the cost of being slaves to the tribes, then my tune has changed. I don't think the Sioux name is worth that because no matter what, we're still the University of North Dakota! I attended a school that has a nickname, not a nickname that has school.

After all these years of never coming to an agreement with the tribes, what is going to change now? Even if it changes, we will still be at their whim and they can take the name away anytime they chose. Do you honestly feel that situation is best for our University?

I tend to agree with both of you, if that makes any sense. As an alumni, I share Whistler's angst over the fact my alma mater will no longer be the Fighting Sioux. We put a lot of money into this fight and had higher expectations than what we came out with and I still feel like the AG did not have UND's best interests in mind throughout this whole process. That's what the most disappointing, not that we caved and settled, but that we pretty much just accepted what was given to us by the NCAA. I also agree with PCM though, in the fact that had we played the whole process out and lost, the NCAA could have basically puffed out its chest and then we truly would have come away with nothing. As is, we still get to keep the sanctity of the Ralph, will be able to host post season events, and makes our transition to D1 smoother in that we aren't on any more naughty lists. Who knows, while I am certainly skeptical in all of a sudden gaining tribal support, maybe it will happen and the Sioux name will live on. I realize we could have possibly won the lawsuit and been able to keep the name through the legal process, but all indications pointed to us losing the name even if we won the lawsuit. Just remember, this digestion period is going to be the toughest part of the process. It's just like after UND loses a big game. It sucks and everybody feels like jumping off a bridge as soon as the game's over, but give it some time and we'll adjust. No matter what our nickname ends up being, we will always be the University of North Dakota. The name might change, but the school and tradition will remain. When Marquette made the Final Four a couple years ago or when Stanford beat Cal with 'The Play', I doubt the first thought that went through fans' minds had anything to do with their mascot. It was probably the same elation we'll still feel if we win a national title in 2015. That's the important thing to remember right now, as hard as it may be.

Fair enough, but if it is UND's responsibility alone to cover the cost of any logo removals in order to comply with the settlement, then I think the cost should come from these programs' budgets. After all, the decision on the nickname is in the hands on the Native Americans in the state. We chose the Fighting Sioux nickname in tribute to their tribe and culture and the importance it played in our region throughout history and developed unique programs set up specifically for them. They have in turn chosen to consider these actions offensive and abusive. Our only ties to tribes was through the nickname. If it is no longer a part of the university, why should these unique privileges continue to be? Remember, the ball is in their court. They are the ones making the decisions now. If they decide our university is offensive, then why should we continue to provide privileges to them that are exclusive? Like I said earlier, if a Native American is qualified to attend the university, then we should by all means accept them with open arms, but I don't see anymore reason why we should be affording them advantages that aren't available to any other group in the state. I was lucky enough to get an academic scholarship to UND and graduated due to my performance in the classroom. I'm a Scandinavian/German so I didn't get any extra support from the university due to my heritage and didn't expect any since the school has no reason to take that into consideration. Before the nickname issue, I understood why UND might take a Native American's heritage into consideration when affording scholarships or granting admissions. Once we have a new nickname, I fail to see where this connection would exist.

I was in favor of keeping Vande centering the second line at the start of the season, but with the way that top line played tonight it's hard to argue for moving him back now, especially if the other guys continue to step up and provide scoring depth and win faceoffs. I only listened to the audio, but it sounded like Forney played well, as well. No offense to Radke, but I wouldn't mind seeing him become another Wally Pipp! Great job by the Sioux keeping their composure at the end of the game when Tech was trying to bait us into something stupid. In situations like that, sometimes it only takes one guy. With the decisions Radke has made thus far this season, who knows what might have happened tonight.

One thing I'm curious about is why do we have to adopt a new nickname? Is this part of the settlement or is it an NCAA rule? I'm not a big fan of the settlement, but I do think we at least got to continue using the Ralph. If us having to choose a new mascot is part of the settlement, while other schools can go without a mascot, then my opinion will certainly change. They will always be the Fighting Sioux to me, but I think losing that name will be much easier to stomach if we merely have no more nickname compared to a new one that no one supports. I also agree, it is time to move on and start the procedure to either drop the name or find a new one if we have to. This point has been stated many times, but I'll echo it again anyways: We cannot continue to leave our fine university at the whim of tribal leaders who could care less about their own constituents opinions, much less ours. Besides, even if we do reach an agreement with current tribal leaders, in 3 years those people won't be in office anymore. We'll have to continue going through this process every six months because that's about how long these leaders last. I also believe that once the nickname is gone, our Native American programs should follow the name out the door. There's no reason we should do anything more for the tribes than NDSU or any other publicly funded university in the state currently does. If a Native American students has the scores and grades to get into UND or it's medical or law school, then good for him or her, but otherwise, no preferential treatment.

As has been stated repeatedly, I don't think last night's loss is anything to be too worried about if we come back and get 2 points tonight. One thing I see mentioned a lot though is how we always play well after Christmas. History certainly favors this argument, and there's no problem in fans thinking like this, I just hope this isn't something the players in our program are accepting. Now, I highly doubt that is the case anyways, but just because teams the last several years turned it on in the second half, doesn't mean this team will. We're several weeks from having to worry about that scenario anyways, but it would be nice to see us get back to the days of playing to our potential for a whole season because, one of these years, we're going to be waiting for that light to turn on and it won't.

Was Vande centering the first line due to Malone's injury or was Hak just trying to shake up the first line to get Duncan and Oshie going a little? I'm assuming the former is true, but just wondering if anyone more knowledgeable than I had any insight. Thanks.