NorthDakotaHockey

If this poppycock does happen, and I continue to say that this simply will not happen all across the hockey landscape, get ready for a BIG bump in the price of your tickets my friends. The money does not grow on trees, and it will have to come from somewhere. Our wallets will be the best, and easiest, place to find new money.

Interesting. I did not realize that Kohl had odd-sized ice. 200x97. Three feet short, in width, of an olympic sheet.

We finally have shaken out who is going and who is not. We have two extra single seats for each night. PM me if interested. Tix in the Twin Cities.

Don't kid yourself. The Sioux hockey program is not rolling in the dough, and the overall athletic department budget is hurting not unlike at most schools. This "stipend" b.s. is for the major sports at the major colleges. The NCHC is not going to allow this. Nor do I believe that the Pig Ten will do so, at least for its hockey programs.

Will do. I'll give you a shout when the sun comes up. Will it today after the shut out to the Clownies? At home no less?

Would all of the free lunches and other perks that these kids get count against the stipend? Or do they get the $2Quid on top of all of the other gravy that comes with being a D-1 athlete in a premier sport? I doubt that the NCHC will follow suit. Hockey is expensive enough already. Fat television contracts are non-existent. The "stipend" is for the so-called Big Show Sports. Thankfully, hockey is not one of them. My daily three cents.

Thanks a million for some reasoned real insight instead of the tripe that I will sometimes contribute. I always enjoy reading things from knowledgeable fans who know the X's and O's of Hockey.

Yes. But this is one of the weekends that is it really really needs to happen. This team could fall into a hard tail spin that even Cap't Hak could not pull out of if it drops any points to the Big Clown.

This is a big early season series for this squad. They appear, both on paper and on the ice, to have plenty of talent. Their record is so-so and they have a big rivalry weekend next week on the horizon. St. Clown is a big rival, and will be tough and ready for their first conference series. The Sioux need to stop pussyfooting around and take command early. Skate fast. Hit hard. Be smart. Block the puck. Score goals. Kick ass. For 120 minutes.

Got a couple of single seats, not standing rooms, if those whet your appetite. Asking what we paid through Goldie website. $48 each.

Have the hat in hand big time here. Want to get a couple of solid friends with a kid going to UND up for the Sioux-Gophers series in January. If you've a few that you are not going to use and are not inclined to run the hatchet across my scalp too forcefully, let me know. I need all the hair I can get as, yes, I am a bald Norwegian bachelor farmer. NDH.

Right now, we may have one on Friday. Saturday, we have two for sure as of now, singles in Section 12, Row 23, and Section 15, Row 10. I'll post here if others open up.

I will confirm a number this evening and report on locations. They are scattered around the arena. All lower bowl at The John.

Bump. This is shaping up to be an early season clash of upper crust titans. Going to The John is always a blast.

Jumping Joe. Gleason.

We have a few extra single seats for BOTH Friday and Saturday games. These are single seats. $48 per, which is our cost. I never mind the single seats in Mariucci. One can always stand if they wish and leave the seat open. Taking the seat for the action without some joker, even my buddies, in my ear during the game is actually quite refreshing. I can listen to their banter during the period breaks, or I can stay in my seat and enjoy conversation with other close by Sioux fans or any number of good natured Gopher fans who love their sport. Some folks are afraid to sit alone, especially in hostile settings. I have been doing it purt'neer my entire life.

Turns out we have two extras for BOTH Friday and Saturday games. These are single seats. $48 per, which is our cost. I never mind the single seats in Mariucci. One can always stand if they wish and leave the seat open. Taking the seat for the action without some joker, even my buddies, in my ear during the game is actually quite refreshing. I can listen to their banter during the period breaks, or I can stay in my seat and enjoy conversation with other close by Sioux fans or any number of good natured Gopher fans who love their sport. We are selling these on a BOTH NIGHTS basis only.

Because of a few proverbial cracks and crannies in the intellectual property laws, both schools rightly claim, and own, property rights in their interlocking ND logos. Why North Dakota "modernized" its logo recently I do not know. The traditional one was serving just fine from where I sit. Merchandising and branding decisions I suspect.

After I put the measuring stick on interest in my posse this weekend, it looks like we may have a couple for each night. Single seats. Send me a PM if you are still looking and I can let you know in the next couple of days if we will have them. Single seat prices were, and are, $45 each, plus a small handling charge fee from GopherSports. In short, your cost would be my cost.

Tickets on sale now for November 4-5 series. Just went on. Cripes. Gophersports.com

Jumpin' Joe Gleason.

Bench minor. Too many men on the ice.

Cool. Very very cool. Family, the Fighting Sioux, and the future. Have fun.

How did you know my beer preference Scott? What is done is done. Welcome St. Clown with open arms. The talent pool is limited and it ebbs and flows. It was not all that long ago that North Dakota regularly fielded teams made up mostly of kids who were weened on the hind titty. There but for the grace of God goes our program again. I am simply saying that talented hockey players, unlike football players or basketball players going to D-1, have far better options of advancing their skills toward the Big Show than going to college in the United States. We are lucky that D-1 hockey has done as well as it has with pro prospects and it is getting better. Adding more D-1 programs is not going to draw more talent out of Canada's major juniors. I was being facetious with St. Clown and its talent base. Motzko has done well getting some solid talent there. Feel as we may about the school and its administration, and its position on the name and the logo, Motzko puts a solid team on the ice that has regularly beaten us and all other teams in the once-feared WCHA. There is no reason that the school should not be considered the near equal of most of the other schools in the NCHC. Why UNO over St. Cloud? Neither has done a thing to date, except that St. Cloud has a Final Five title or two. Omaha is flyover country every bit as is Oxford, St. Cloud, Duluth, and Bowling Green, Ohio. I can't wait until the pucks start to drop so that I might get out of the time wasting snare of griping about the Pig Ten, the demise of the WCHA, the pipe dreams of the national branding of a collegiate hockey conference, and the shaky ground on which the future of the world's greatest sport - college hockey - now finds itself. I am done, and I love you all. See you around the arenas.

I was talking about KU's great club program that is so widely supported by its fan base but does still not have a rat's ass chance of ever seeing a D-1 program. Club hockey is alive and well on campuses all over the country. School administrations are fine with that. No need to step up into a sport that will cost loads, and upset the Title IX cart. Moreover, SCSU and BGSU cannot even field a team of high level skills skaters. How do you expect other schools who are going to add D-1 hockey to find talent in an already watered down pool?