jodcon

I might be wrong, but I think it's like this: The NCAA is the Big Kid on the playground, and he controls what everybody plays and who they play with. UND is the kid on the playground who has gotten under the Big Kids skin for a certain reason, along with a few other kids. The Big Kid says to the kids in trouble, you have to get a girl to kiss you to get back in the game, except for little kid UND...he has to get 2 girls to kiss him. The other kids find a girl who will kiss them, but UND can only find 1...not the 2 necessary to get back in the game. Big Kid says "OK UND, since you could not do what I asked you to do, you can come back and play, but your name will have to be 'Mary' from now on. UND says, "But I don't like the name Mary, I'm a boy!". Big Kid says "Tough beans Mary, you either change your name to Mary or you quit the game forever". UND says "But there is no other game, you have the only game in town". Big Kid thinks about it and says "Tell you what Mary, you can come back and play and still be called UND, but I'm never going to let you pick the game and always make sure you get the short end of every deal forever". UND says "But that's not fair, I'm going to tell the principal and he will make you play fair with me". Big Kid says "Go ahead and tell, he can't tell me who to play with and how to play". UND tells the principal, who sits at his desk and ponders his options... The principal: 1) Cannot make the Big Kid play with UND if Big Kid doesn't want to. 2) Cannot find another game for UND to play in because Big Kid controls all the kids on the playground. 3) Cannot change UND's name to Mary because UND's Mom and Dad debated it and voted that his name would legally stay UND forever. Principal is in a bind, Big Kid controls the game, UND/Mary is stuck in the middle. Only one last recourse for the principal, he must decide whether to take it to the all-mighty final word...the School Board. But can they really tell Big Kid who he has to play with and how to play? It's his game, UND/Mary only wants to be a part of something that the Big Kid owns, not UND/Mary and not the School system. Again principal sits at his desk and ponders his options... And that is where we are at today. As of right now, we are not living happily ever after.

This is the right take on it, when UND was being courted by the Big Sky the dissolving of the nickname was a done deal and was proceeding according to plan, in the Big Sky's eyes there was a 0% chance this would be an issue down the road. Now that it has reappeared and has the possibility of becoming a drawn-out legal issue once again, they have to be eyeballing it with at least a little concern regarding scheduling issues and possible tournament implications (remember conference champions host tournaments in the Big Sky), how much they care is unclear at this point. They're probably not going to say anything publicly until North Dakota decides whether or not they want to take the NCAA to court, if they do go to court I'm sure the Big Sky will release a statement listing what (if any) concerns they have over the issue. I wondered how Montana was reacting to this news being they supposedly were a big push for the Big Sky pursuing UND and that other school , but I haven't seen anything in the papers or on any Griz blogs, and my daughter who goes to school at Montana said she hasn't heard anything except the usual comments which are basically "Why doesn't the stupid NCAA just let them keep the name?" so apparently they are not shook up over the news, which is good.

I watched that NYR-Washington game, chokaroni by the Rangers (to your delight though). I thought when Ovechkin got stopped on the breakaway in the first OT the Rangers might pull it out after all, but then they basically scored on themselves to end it. That had to be sickening in the locker room.

I hope you're right. It's being reported in another thread that Kristo has confirmed coming back next year, that along with Blood and Dell already committing could help sway the decisions of Hextall and maybe Gregoire, we can only wait and hope. I definitely feel a lot better about next years team then I did a week ago, the prospect of losing Blood, Gregs, and Kristo was bad enough but when rumors of Dell and Hextall started surfacing it looked like we might be in a rebuilding mode, now it's looking more like reloading.

"If you aren

I think this is what most of us thought was going to happen all along, the proposed NCAA meeting which gave some hope of a second look at the issue was nothing more than the NCAA brass wanting to deliver the sanctioning news in person, but with the scent of a public meeting in the air they said "Screw it, they'll get it snail mail and like it, and we'll be safely behind our desks".

Source please? Sorry Jim, I couldn't resist.

I can't agree with that Jim, you should never be able to positive rep yourself unless it is to equal out someone who has it in for you, like Goon said. I don't think it is a big problem on here but there is one guy who has positive repped himself at least 70 times and has the best reputation by far for no reason. People like Goon, The Sicatoka, Blackheart, and iramurphy to name a few have earned their reputation with either their wit or insight (or both), and deserve to be recognized as the leaders of this site, not someone who posts "i like hocky it si fun" and then gives himself a +1.

I wonder that too, he was only a 6th round draft pick in 2008, and according to a prospect rating site I looked at they have him rated #19 in the Phoenix system, so you wouldn't think he would be a huge priority for them now unless they really think they will lose him next year. Maybe NDHockey is right and Brett is pushing to get a deal now and not taking the chance of Phoenix letting him walk and having to test the waters on the open market. I guess this thing could work both ways.

"Every time there's a fight the Sioux or one of their prospects is involved."

Had some time to kill so I started looking back and the answer is...yes. Last time was the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens who scored 359 goals and gave up only 183, a difference of 176 goals! That is impressive. The great Gretzky-led Edmonton teams of the early 80's regularly scored 400+ goals including a whopping 446 in 83-84, but also gave up 300+ on a regular basis. So that's the trivia tidbit of the day I guess.

Flyers can't solve Miller and get shut out by Buffalo 1-0. Boobirds were out late in in the game, gotta love those Philly fans.

Looks like one of my paystubs, decimal's just in the wrong place. Wait a minute...it's actually my wife's credit card bill!

Watched the Chicago-Vancouver game last night, first time I've watched Vancouver play this year and I was impressed, they are dangerous from anywhere on the ice with their passing. This is going to be a great series, despite being shut out Chicago had a lot of good shots on goal, especially the Toews line. For you diehard NHL guys out there, has there ever been a team that led the league in both Most Goals Scored and Least Goals Allowed? I didn't realize Vancouver had done it this year until I checked to see how many goals they scored because their offense looked so good. I could look back but maybe someone knows off the top of their head.

Here it is...the truest statement ever made by a Bison fan on these forums. He should win a free ham or something.

Hextall would be one I didn't see coming.

Definitely was going for the Dogs to finish as the runner-up...until we lost then they got bumped up to the favorite. Always good to see a program win their first title, and them being a WCHA team (not named Minnesota, Denver, or Wisconsin) didn't hurt either. Congratulations again, unless you have a rash of early departures you should be right there in the mix again next year, at which time we will probably not be this cordial.

Quit whining, it's harder posting them with 7 blocking mine.

You might be on to something Fetch. Maybe you should do it and buy some lottery tickets? Let us know if it works out!

Maybe the question should be "Has there ever been or will there ever be a more enjoyable group of Sioux seniors?" I say no.

Duluth wins it 3-2 in OT. Congratulations Bulldogs.

Hill? Haven't they suffered enough?

Next year's team is not going to be the dynamic powerhouse that this one was, but the cupboard's not exactly bare either. Even in the worst case scenario losing both Gregoire and Kristo and gaining Grimaldi, we're still going to have a lot of experience coming back and will be able to score some goals, not like this years team but enough to win games. Defensively we should be fine, with Mattson coming in we'll have 3 good lines to throw at teams, and that is going to be important because the defense is going to be leaned on a little harder next year because of the losses on offense. Goaltending...no worries there. As far as early exits, last year I said after the season that there was no way Gregoire was ready to leave. This year I say he probably is. Question is will he? I think if he comes back he has a chance to put up a Frattin-type year and really improve his stock, but his mindset may be more of "this was the big year and now it's over", or $$$$ might be inside his head, he could really go either way. 50-50 or less on Gregs coming back. Blood, I think needs to come back. He's such a physical presence that I think what gets overlooked is he is still developing his defensive skills and still needs to do some work on his game. He has come a long ways from early in the 2009-2010 season when he was constantly turning over the puck in the Sioux zone, many times right in front of the crease, and taking penalty after penalty for no reason and driving us crazy. This year those things have whittled down considerably but still show up at times, like the first period against Michigan, and I think another year would probably do him a lot of good to get him ready for the next level. But like I said, he is a big brute and that might factor in harder than his puck skills so I would give Blood about a 65-35 chance of coming back. Eidsness, would be nice if he came back, hard to say what his frame of mind is after riding the pine and watching the guy who took his job become the best goalie in college hockey. No clue on this one. Which leaves Danny Kristo. Here's my opinion on Kristo, which may not be popular with some but hear me out before you judge it: I've been disappointed. I really felt after the world juniors that he was ready to become an offensive force for this team and it just hasn't happened. He goes games at a time being almost invisible, then shows up and has a couple good games, then has a game where he shoots 6 slapshots from the blue line into defenders chests, then the cycle starts again. Maybe I misjudged him and expected too much, but from what I've seen on here many were expecting to see what I was, and haven't. And then the whole frostbitten foot thing happened and it was unclear if or when he was going to suit up for the Sioux again. That had to be rock bottom for him, and a funny thing happened...he came back and started playing well. He played better these last 6 games or so than he has the rest of this year combined, and that has me excited again. So what's the verdict? He needs to come back. I think there are a lot of question marks surrounding him right now, both about on-ice and off-ice issues, and much like Frattin (character) and Genoway (health) did, he needs what I call a "Redemption Tour" to improve his stock to hockey people. He needs to come back, help lead this team, become the offensive player we were expecting, keep his nose clean, and put himself back into the positive limelight. I think it's imperative for him both as a hockey player and a person. I think he comes back almost 100% chance.

It's been all ND so far this period, must have got the wakeup call between periods.

We got a game again! 4-3 Duluth