jodcon

Having the best players doesn't always mean having the best team through no fault of the players or coaches, sometimes a group of athletes really gels and sometimes they don't. In all sports at all levels. Just saying.

She still couldn't take Tony Turgeon's aunt.

Sorry, Maine, word is on SS.com that the posters are firing Hak, I'm going to see how that plays out.

With Little Smokies or without?

That's where I draw the line.

On the scale of embarrassing things in the US nickname issues rank pretty low, there are enough political and social issues to fill a library.

Just be glad he doesn't dress like Cherry used to...he should have been in Hollywood. I don't care if Hak wears a hoodie as long as he coaches the team to the tournament every year.

Unfortunately no, he will be annoying the opposition for 2 more years.

No kidding, when St. Louis is considered far West there is something wrong. Minneapolis, Denver, Omaha, anywhere west of the Great Lakes would be acceptable...hell move it to Vegas, probably have the biggest regional crowd ever, everybody would want to go there in March.

Granted it would have to be in a bigger city, but the Frozen Four is never in a podunk town anyway, really 8 college hockey teams and their fans is not much for a major city.

Yep, that's why it will never go away.

The autobid is definitely a double-sided coin, hurts the regular season champ but gives Cinderella a shot. It's worked so well for the Big Dance that it will never go away now though.

It would still be the same as it is now, first-round series would be the same as the regionals, week off for hoops, "Iced 8" next weekend. No changes in regular season would be necessary. This makes too much sense, no way it will ever happen.

If it did come to this format you would almost have to play the 4 first-round games on Thursday even though it would mean playing from 10 AM-10 PM, then have the semis on Saturday and Final on Sunday. Some people would still have to take Wednesday and Monday off but it would be a little better for most people. EDIT: beat me to it Mafia

So being totally ignorant of the reasons, why can't Fargo figure out a plan to control this constant flooding problem? Is it politics or are the logistics just too difficult? I assume the feds would pick up the biggest chunk of the cost, so there must be something else in play?

It makes sense from a lot of angles. 1) In the first round alone you would get between 16-24 games at the home of the higher seed with good crowds, the format now is a TOTAL of 15 games with most of them played in a building full of empty seats. I watched almost all the first-round games, the attendance was terrible for most games. Attendance issue solved. 2) It gets the tournament back in hockey schools barns, this isn't NCAA football or basketball where you can arrange a game anywhere and people will flock to it, there are not enough casual college hockey observers to fill buildings. It also rewards the teams that have endured the long season to secure one of the top 8 spots with a better chance of moving on to the final tournament, as we've seen many times hockey more than any other sport is very dangerous in a single-elimination format, one greasy goal can be a game-changer. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night, winning 2 of 3 deserves to move on. 3) It would make the final tournament more of an event. Now it's a 3-game affair involving 4 teams, it would become a 7 game weekend involving 8 teams...the attendance and hype would be fantastic. I like it.

That I would agree with, adjusting the 9-16 to avoid conference first-round matchups makes sense...moving the top 8 seeds to kiss certain teams butts does not. And the first two rounds at home would not be a bad thing, would push the FF back about a week...no big deal.

OK I figured there was something I was missing.

Bold stuck on today, or are you posting mad?

Only a Sith deals in absolutes. True what you say though, the tournament has become somewhat of a joke. The regions should be set up long in advance as far as #1-4 seeds, and the teams should be placed as such from 1-16 based on the final PWR rankings...NO EXCEPTIONS. If BC is ranked to play in Denver than that's where they go, not shuffle everything to get them in Hartford, same with Minnesota or anybody else. If you have the first round a best-of-three at the higher seeds home, would you make the finals an 8-team, 3 day tournament? I wouldn't mind that, the attendance numbers would be much higher for both the first round games and the Frozen 4 and 4 More or whatever.

Never thought of Mich State, they could become a power with him at the helm.

Gwoz says he not done coaching yet, be interesting to see who reaches out although his price tag might scare most away, I think I saw he was making about $220k...not sure if that was base or with incentives.

Don't give them ideas, the one-game wild card playoff is just about right.

All four they were wondering about are gone, that hurts. Still a possibility of Condon and Rau leaving too, but not as likely.

At Memorial?