rochsioux

Oct. 10-11

This is exactly the problem I have with this. I don't begrudge a kid that has a change of heart. But this has all the appearance of an orchestrated plan to get drafted by the team he wanted to play for. Dad/son were using UND to get what they wanted from the QMJHL. Big difference to me than Gregoire deciding to change schools.

Dad's a tool.

I expect that what comes with the verbal commit is an understanding that the player continues to progress and does what the coaches expect. If they fail to follow thru on that then the commitment can be pulled. I have no idea what happened in this case but that would be my speculation. My big problem with the Clarke situation is that it appears to have been a designed plan all along by him and his parents. He used UND to get what he wanted and had no real intention of ever going there. The verbal was not given in good faith.

Agree completely. I have to believe his parents are behind this manipulation. With parents like this I would guess the kid will turn out no better. The fact that he secretly comes out of the tunnel speaks volumes to the character of the family.

Here is the info I posted for last year for tickets: 2007-2008 season: 10/19 BC onsale ?? http://ev9.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/S...er=&appCode= 10/20 NE on-sale 09/04 http://www.gonu.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc...gory_Code=MHTIX 10/26, 10/27 Mich Tech on-sale 09/05 906-487-3200 http://www.michigantechhuskies.com 11/09, 11/10 Wisc on-sale 09/24 http://www.uwbadgers.com/tickets/mhky/home...ickets_213.html 11/30, 12/01 Denver on-sale 09/08 http://www.denverpioneers.com/ViewArticle....;ATCLID=1060324 01/04, 01/05 St. Cloud on-sale 09/17 http://www.stcloudstate.edu/athletics/tickets/default.asp 01/18, 01/19 Mankato on-sale 10/01 http://www.msumavericks.com/sporttickets.p...e=mensports.php 02/01, 02/02 Minn on-sale 09/15 http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.db...;ATCLID=1152168 03/01, 03/02 UMD on-sale 10/02 http://www.umdbulldogs.com/ticketing/ My guess is that the on-sale date for conference games will be similar. I will create a new version for next season when it gets a little closer and more info is available.

FWIW, I have heard that there is a good chance Joe will be back. Does this mean he will be back? No, but the probability is at least 50/50 maybe higher. The info comes from people that I regard as very reliable in this matter.

I would say Oshie is the only one who is 100% gone. If not for the MCL injury I would also expect Chorney to be gone. With the injury there may be a slight chance he is back if Edmonton wants to wait and see how the rehab goes. 90% that he goes. Duncan is hard to say. If he can get a high offer I would say he is gone. Finley is probably 50/50 based on what I have heard. Kozek is another tough one. He has an NHL shot but needs more development before he is ready. I am guessing it may depend on how the rookie/prospect camp goes this year. If he gets a decent offer I think he is gone. We may not know about him until July/August. 50% chance. Outside of these I don't expect anyone else to leave for the NHL/AHL early. The bigger risk for someone else leaving is for Major Juniors. Not expecting it, but nothing would surprise me.

I believe the lines in practice today were: Oshie, Duncan, Kozek Kaip, Watkins, Frattin VandeVelde, Martens, Miller Zajac, Radke, Malone Scratch "line": Trupp, Davidson, Forney

Anyone know the practice time schedules for all of the teams on Wed ? I will be flying in early on Wed so I may go over and watch practices. Thanks.

Looking for 2 tickets lower bowl or club level. PM if you can help.

VV was not on that line, he was replaced with Frattin. The scoring on the goal was Kaip from Frattin and Watkins.

Michigan blog: http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-ma...t-taken-or.html

Tickets - http://ev10.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/...er=&appCode= Single day tickets go onsale 3/27 at 08:30 am if tickets remain. The semi-finals are one ticket for both games, no re-entry if you leave between games.

Further proof that the pairwise must be changed - http://www.uscho.com/news/id,15577/PairWis...iesUpdated.html If the Northern Michigan - Notre Dame 3rd place game had ended in a tie then Notre Dame would be out of the tourny. With a win or a loss they make the field. How bizarre would it have been if the game had gone to ot and Notre Dame intentionally scores a goal on themselves in order to lose the game so they can make the NCAA tourny field.

JPL and TJ named top 10 Hobey Baker finalists. Without TJ in this list it would have been very hard to take it seriously. JPL and TJ top ten finalists

Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

Last year the WCHA had a similar number of teams highly ranked by KRACH and only got 3 teams in the NCAA tourny. I believe there were 3 or 4 teams that just missed out. This year there is a good chance of 6 or 7 teams making it but only 3 are solidly in. The others will probably just squeak in this year on the right side of the bubble. The real problem is that the pairwise system is a very poor way of choosing teams. The only positive thing going for it is that it is very transparent. The problems are numerous, not the least that it may be beneficial for a team to lose a game. A few years ago Wisconsin played AA in the first round. During the season they went 4-0 against AA, then split the first two games playoff games. Winning the 3rd game would now drop AA from TUC and thereby Wisconsin would lose a 6-1 TUC record. A loss would keep AA as a TUC and the Badgers would get to keep a 5-2 TUC record. So a scenario could arise where it is possible for a team to lock up an NCAA bid by losing a game where winning the game may keep them as a bubble team or force them to win the conference tourny to get a bid. That is not right. Any system that could reward a team in this instance for losing is fatally flawed and should be scrapped. Some of the other pairwise components are also a joke, such as common opponents (COP). One team might be 3-0-1 while the other team is 1-0, so the team with the 1-0 wins this comparison and gets one point. This puts too much weight on a handful of non-conference games. For TUC, UND has played 31 of 35 games this year against TUC. Since TUC is defined as the top 25 RPI teams, playing team #25 counts as much as playing team #1. Right now Michigan wins the TUC comparison with the Sioux as they have an 11-3-2 record while the Sioux have a record of 19-8-4. Which team has played the tougher schedule ? Why the top 25 ? If we use records against the top 10 in KRACH we have UND at 10-5-2 and Michigan at 3-2-2, then UND wins the comparison. Then there is the TUC "cliff" where one team gets to keep a 4-0 record against team #25 while another team that went 4-0 against team #26 doesn't get those as TUC wins. The pairwise is basically a sum of flawed parts so the end result can be very flawed. This system needs to be thrown out and replaced with something else such as KRACH.

I don't think we will see TJ playing next week from the little bit I have heard. Hopefully, he can play in the Final Five or the regional at the latest. Next w/e could be very tough if we are without TJ, Chay, and Trupp. I fully expect both TJ and Chay back by at least the regionals. If they can play well without them I like our chances for #8 when they come back. We need some other players to step up and surprise us, like Kaip did two years ago in the Final Five scoring two goals on Wisc. If we have to win 1-0 or 2-1 games that's OK too. We have the best goalie and the best set of defenseman in college hockey and they are up to the task.

Excuse me, but why didn't our faculty rep speak against the amendment ? Did we secretly want it to pass so we wouldn't be embarrassed about our surrender to the NCAA ? I firmly believe that UND and the state board and do not want to keep the name. That's OK but have the guts to say it...they don't. They want to hide behind this "settlement" and place the blame on the Sioux tribes. If they really wanted to keep the name they would have done more than the half-ass face saving gesture that was made. We schedule one lousy meeting with each tribe then go off and start forming committees to replace the nickname...and make no mistake, that is what the committee is going to do. Hell, it was obvious long before the settlement that Standing Rock's leadership was solidly against the name...there was absolutely no ambiguity in what they were saying. We have three years before the deadline, why such a rush just four months after the surrender ? It's because we had no intention from the beginning of keeping the name. If we want to keep the nickname there needs to be some pressure applied to the tribal councils. I am not saying that we do anything underhanded but the tribal council members are elected and from all indications the vast majority of their constituency is in favor or does not oppose UND's use of the Sioux name. We need to press for a vote of the full membership on this issue. Yes or No. If the vote is against the name then we should respectively retire the name as soon as possible. There is too much history and pride in the "Fighting Sioux" to surrender this easily. An apparent small minority that happens to be in power should not decide this issue.

The only thing the NCAA sanctions prevent is hosting a playoff game. For most sports that won't be an issue for the next 5 years or more. In hockey, we have hosted one regional in the past 20+ years and the NCAA is trying to get away from regionals being hosted on campus sites anyway. So there is really little to no impact for hockey. The biggest issue may be that some hypocritical crap schools won't schedule us because of the name. So what? It is basically Minn and Wisc and the odds are that we wouldn't be playing them very much anyway regardless of our nickname. If we (UND/state) want to retire the nickname then go ahead and say it and do it. Quit trying to use the tribes for cover on the issue. If we want to keep the name, then fight to keep it...by telling the tribes we will respect the vote of the entire membership we are giving them the final say...I have no problem with that.

I wonder what Ralph would think of the efforts that have been made to keep the Sioux name ? I think he would be very dissatisfied with the UND/state leadership on this issue. If it were up to me I would talk to both tribes and ask them for a vote of the entire tribal membership. If the results from one or both of them is against the nickname then we change it as soon as possible. If the membership is in favor the nickname then the councils will formally adopt a resolution in support and we keep the name. If the tribes refuse a referendum then we tell them we are going to keep the name and accept the NCAA sanctions. The only way to eliminate the name is if the tribal membership as a whole votes in favor of it.

How can somebody who is the chancellor of the university system be this stupid. Of course a pro-nickname resolution can be overturned at a later date...that's what we agreed to in the lawsuit "settlement"/surrender. If it has little or no value then why did we agree to it ? The powers that be never had any intention of really trying to keep the nickname. If they did they never would have agreed to the surrender. They got their half-a$$ apology from the NC$$ for the hostile/abusive claim and declared victory, there is no other way to spin this. If you want to get rid of the nickname then have the balls to say so. Instead they use the surrender agreement to place the burden on the tribal leaders, one who has always been extremely vocal in his opposition. If they really thought they could change his mind then they are even dumber than I thought. Within a month or so of the surrender, Goetz was already floating the idea of not having any meetings with the tribal leaders. When faced with opposition he schedules one meeting with each of the tribes, then basically says there is no resolution and starts forming committees to eliminate the nickname. Face it, the fix was in even before the surrender agreement was signed. As much as I hate Myles Brand and the NCAA arrogance, I think our own leaders on this are even worse. At least with the NCAA they were upfront about wanting to get rid of the nickname. Our leaders also want to eliminate the name, they just won't say it.

Too a large degree it is in this case. If you want Radke to take responsibility for his actions then the same should apply to the ref. Had Hunt done his job then Radke couldn't have been in 2 fights in the same game even if he wanted to since he would have been tossed after the first. I am fine with a 2 game suspension for Radke as long as Hunt is suspended also. Let's hold them both accountable for the fights. It's not as if the 1st fight was a borderline decision for Hunt, they both dropped the gloves and threw punches. Seems like the league doesn't feel it was correct since the additional DQ's were handed out after a review. Maybe we will find out in two or three weeks that Hunt was suspended after someone notices that he didn't work any games. The league is not very upfront when it comes to suspensions for officials, seems like it takes quite awhile to be made public.

So is Radke the first player to ever get 2 separate fighting DQ's in the same game ? Let's see someone top that ! I don't have a problem with that decision IF the refs also are suspended, after all without their incompetence the second fight would never have happened. Not only did they not throw Radke and Testwuide out but they consistently allowed denver to empty their bench after every period ended. Certainly after the Radke/Testwuide fight earlier in the period they should have ensured that the teams get to the locker room without incident. If the refs aren't suspended then Radke should only get one game and Testwuide should not be suspended. What is the rule for fighting? It seems the way they are calling it, in general, is that if you throw a punch with a gloved hand it is OK, you might get a roughing call but no DQ. If you drop the gloves and throw punches you get the DQ (except for Radke/Testwuide, still don't get that one). What's it going to take for the league to dump Shepard and company? They can't handle replays, they can't call obstruction properly, and they can't handle game situations. This has been going on for years and seems to be getting worse, not better, each year.