bale31

I think any large program would be silly to not include him as a potential replacement. Now, the question is, what does "in the mix" mean? He may have zero ambition to go to Boston, but he can still be "in the mix" and they chase him. To be clear, I have no inside knowledge about his intentions. I believe he's very happy in Kato and don't think he will go anywhere, but it wouldn't shock me either. A blue blood progam and opportunity would be tough to pass up. The question for a guy like him is whether he wants to be the guy that builds a top flight program or a guy that was a caretaker of a top flight program.

I mean, they do get sold in the same supplement. A simple Google search shows that. Again, he's paying a price for a mistake. This parsing of words for the "gotcha" moment is kinda silly. If he proved it to the USADA, I gotta believe they checked into every detail.

I mean, you have all the reasons right in front of your face. If you choose not to believe them, that's your choice. Dryden explained it. I re-iterated it. The 6 months didn't start in February because it wasn't reduced until April. That's how appeals work. If it started in February, they would have run the risk of punishing someone that wasn't ever going to be punished for anything. Also remember, he's just accepting the penalty now instead of continuing to fight it. He could keep fighting it and most people would support him in that, but it probably wouldn't be worth it.

And that's my exact point. He made a mistake, he's admitting it, and he's paying a high price for that. He was already going to have a tough hill to climb in the professional ranks. This is going to make it harder. It may not be too hyperbollic to say this is threatening his career. He didn't cheat, he made a mistake. I mean, are you seriously pissed off that he isn't kicked out of the game for 4 years? Is that really what we're going with? Or is it just to point out how dumb you think he is? I'm just not sure what the end game is of continuing to pound that point home.

I think people need to take a step back, take a deep breath and think a bit rationally. I'll start out with saying that I know I'm going to admit that MSU Hockey is a bit of a blind spot for me, so take that for what it's worth. I will say this, in the interactions I've had with Dryden (which aren't a ton, but a decent amount), he's been a stand up kid every time. I've never heard a bad word spoken about him from anyone that coaches him, plays with him, plays against him, or has any interaction with him. That doesn't mean he couldn't be a horrible human being, but that's not what I've seen or heard. As for what the school put out, I'm not sure what else they could or would put out. It's seems pretty obvious that this was a mistake. It was probably a bad mistake and he should have known better with supplements, but I also don't know all the mechanics of what he did or didn't do. We don't know WHY he took it other than to boost his immunity. Yes, he specifically talked about Vitamin D, but that does imply immunity. I also know for a fact that the team was worried about general sicknesses as well as COVID. They had a string of Influenza run through the team shortly before Christmas and they were testing for that too. In the little bit of Quercetin research I did, it seems as though it is known to stimulate immunity and that is from what looks like a peer reviewed study and published by the governmental organization, NCBI. To be honest, I don't know exactly what that means as I'm not in the medical field and won't claim to be that smart. That does NOT change the fact that it was still a mistake and he put something in his body that he shouldn't have. It was a ridiculously small amount, but it was still there. I've heard a picorgram described as taking a grain of salt and slicing it up 55 million times. He had 22 picograms in his system. Again, it's a ridiculously small amount and seems obvious it was an accident, but it was still there. I also know that he was an alternate for the Olympic team (4th goalie in case anyone got the COVID). That is why he was getting tested in the first place. I know people are saying that he should have been suspended from that time on, but that's not how the system works. He gets to have an appeal process. In fact, he won that appeal process and if it were UFC or MLB, none of us would have found out about this because he won his appeal. That's why he's got 6 months, not 4 years. The fact is that he is still paying a penalty for something that wasn't performance enhancing (presumably) and was an accident. Frankly, it's a pretty harsh penalty too. There are going to be people that always think he's a cheater. He can't get his career started and that may be the biggest penalty of all. He's a fringe goalie (in the professional ranks) that just needs to get a chance and he's not going to be able to strike when the iron is hot. He wasn't going to get the same type of shot as a goalie that is 3 inches taller already, now he's got this going against him. It's not like he's getting off free here. He's paying a penalty, maybe not the penalty some people that want a bloodbath, but a pretty harsh penalty nonetheless.

You're right, it doesn't explicitly state it. I guess my assumption was they did due to this: NCAA rules state “athletes under a drug-testing suspension from a national or international sports governing body” under WADA codes can’t play intercollegiate sports “for the duration of the suspension.” However, he or she “may resume participation if/when a suspension is lifted/completed.” For the time being, McKay was back on the roster. He didn’t miss a game. He made 45 of 46 saves that weekend as Minnesota State beat Bowling Green 3-1 and 5-0.

Read the Friedman article. The ncaa was aware of this all along, so I doubt it.

Yes, he is willing to go. Hastings has said on multiple occasions how he is lucky to have him there and it's just a matter of when he leaves. Hastings is definitely the #1 reason for msu's success, but Knott is the driver behind the recruiting. I've gotten to the point of wondering whether he's being selective or whether administrators aren't seeing his value. Franklu it's a bit perplexing he hasn't gotten a head coaching opportunity yet.

I dont know the answer to that specific question. I can just give a bit of a feel for where MSU was at the time. Bother the president and ad were roughly 9 years into their tenure and the hockey program was 13 or 14 years onto being division 1. I don't know any of the internal numbers, but I would guess the hockey program was probably breaking even depending on the year. I know for a fact the lease of the civic center was like an albatross around their neck that made putting too many resources into it a pretty difficult task. Around that time is when the athletic programs started turning around. Football, men's basketball, women's basketball, even volleyball and softball started having.more success. Was it a renewed commitment to athletics or just happenstance that everything started clicking at the same time. I suspect it was a little of both, but more the administration making a concerted effort to putting quality teams on the ice/field/court. When specifically looking at the hickey program there are a lot of other factors. Like I said, the arena lease was not favorable to the school. The city owns it, but the state funded the building of it. Up until 2015 msu had the hockey program housed in a tin shed near campus. I've had administrators tell me that for a long time they didn't even show recruits the hockey offices because they were so bad and o ly showed the the arena, which wasn't exactly a shiny jewel itself. So msu and the city are continually going to the state to be put on the bonding schedule to upgrade the building. During this same time Duluth got their new building, st cloud got theirs renovated, bemidji got their building and, I think, Rochester got a new or renovated civic center. Each time mankato got cut out. This all limited the amount msu could spend. They did, however, find a way to change coaches and bring Hastings in. He has created new ways of raising money. They were finally able to get the renovations approved (which included a performing arts center next door), moved the hockey offices downtown to the arena and upgraded the facility as a whole. Change the order of who got facilities first and who knows if st cloud or duluth are spending the kind of money they were. I fully believe that if the conference shft happens 5 years later and the story is a lot different for both mankato and bemidji. Now, none of that changes that I believe all of the accounts that have come out about the forming of the nchc and the new wcha. Msu probably wasn't spending the kind of money that others expected of them, whether it was fiscally responsible or not. Nor does it change that I think it's extremely unprofessional to dress down a peer in front of their colleagues whether it's a closed door meeting or not. It's ok to have disagreements, it's not ok to embarrass a colleague no.matter how much you think you're in the right. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of what our ad did with his comments either. From my perspective, it's better to keep that sort of thing to yourself. The only thing I will sayabput the conferences themselves is that I don't believe that the current arrangement of the conferences is just as unsustainable as what we had 10 years ago. Consolidating all of the money into small group is not going to lead to a strong sport as a whole. What happened.with the Alaskas and Alabama was entirely predictable. There is a thread that is 118 pages long about expanding hockey on this site, but no one wants to take on those schools and only wants.to shuffle around already successful programs and leave those new ones to be supported by the schools that don't have the financial viability to support anyone but themselves. Everyone is pointing to the ccha and aha to take those schools in, but are glazing over the fact that the aha is so worried about money that they are just starting to allow schools a full compliment of scholarships and the ccha is made up of 6 d2 schools, 1 schools that is d1 everywhere and 1 school that is making a jump from d3 to d1. Those conferences don't have the financial stability to take others on. The real test is what things look like in about 5 years. Will Liu, Lindenwood, and Augustana still have programs? I dunno, but this idea that everyone needs to have the same financial commitment to their hockey program isn't realistic. Its a good qay to shrink the sport rather than grow the sport. That's a really long way of saying I don't think anyone was wrong so much as everyone was panicking and thinking of what was best for them in the next year or two rather than what was best for them (and everyone else) in the long run. They didnt evaluate the entire environment in my opinion the smaller schools didn't realize the.message they were sending by re-hiring McLeod. The big ten didn't realize how they were affecting everyone else in 3/4 conferences. The breakaway schools didn't realize the turmoil it was going to send 10-15 other schools into. It doesn't mean any of the decisions were wrong, it just was a damn risky move to make and it widened the divide between the James and the have nots.

I'm not going to relive 10 years ago and I'm not going to get in a pissing matches about conferences or how MSU should essentially be thanking schools that didn't give a damn about us for our success. All sides think they have valid reasons for doing and saying what they did and there is probably truth for all of them. My.ppint was only.to relay some of the frustration. I dont have to agree or defend everything MSU does (because they aren't perfect) just.like not everything done by DU or UND is perfect. All our respective schools can do is act in what they believe is in their own best interest with the information they have at a given time. Sometimes they will handle it right. Sometimes they wont.

Don't be surprised if they announce a contract extension in the next few days if this is true. I get the impression that the admin will do everything they can to hang on to him.

That was all he said. To be honest, I don't think it was that the Denver AD thought it or the conference switch happened (I believe this was part of that process), it was the unprofessional undressing of a colleague in front of their peers.

So, a couple of interesting stories told last night at the MSU welcome home event. FIrst one from the AD. He told a story about the Denver AD berating him for 10 minutes in front of all their colleagues during the conference split about how MSU will never compete for national titles because they didn't have the institutional committment to compete. That has definitely stuck with the administration and they are very bitter about it. Secondly, Hastings mentioned that after the team got up the escalator on the red carpet this last weekend, the guy from the NCAA said they had not had that kind of atmosphere that MSU had during that arrival. I have to admit, the atmosphere in Boston was amazing. It was crazy to walk around the city and have people stop us as we were wearing out MSU gear just to tell us they were cheering for us (admittedly, that may have had to do with who the other 3 teams were though too).

I would agree with everything that you said there. I think MSU would compete for conference titles in the NCHC (especially with the influx of higher talent that would come along with it). I don't think MSU wins 35+ games on the regular, but competes in the same way that UMD and SCSU do. I'm probably a bit defensive as I've been on GPL a bit and have had to defend everything from the age of the players to the style to the academics of the school to the integrity of the program with academics to programs like MSU being the downfall of college hockey. I've removed myself from the mix for my own sanity.

I don't think it was so much the grind that got to them as much as it was the situation. I haven't ever seen this group respond like they did after the first goal. The panic was something that I would never have guessed would hit them. I know it wasn't on a week-to-week basis, but they faced a good amount of good teams and had come backs against them. They had 2 games against UMASS early in the year (one in which they came back from 2 down on the banner raising day). They had a grinder of a game against Michigan. A couple grinders against SCSU when St Cloud looked unbeatable. UMD in the middle of the year and then had a couple of tough games on the first weekend. The biggest thing that I think hurt them was not converting on at least one of the odd man rushes in the second. I know the narrative is that this team is a grinder, slow it down team, but that's just not true. They were the 5th highest scoring team in the last decade (of course, Denver was the 4th). All year long they converted those types of chances. Was it frustration? Were they pressing? Did they just not expect Denver to give the kind of push they did? I dunno. I can't say that I thought we couldn't lose. I just didn't think we could lose the way we did, but momentum is a crazy thing. I've heard Hastings talk about that on more than one occasion this year. Usually we get the momentum going our way. I have said multiple times this year after we score one goal that the floodgates are going to open. This time it went against us in a big way.

Yeah, I don't see him going to the east coast, but never say never. It would have to be a heck of an opportunity and I'm not sure anyone outside of BC or BU would fit that bill. Even then, I'm not so sure. Being in a large city is an acquired taste and often times that aspect of things gets overlooked....so do family situations.

I really am surprised Knott hasn't gotten his shot yet. He is a heck of a talent and we are lucky to have him. I think at this point, he's got to take any job he gets an opportunity for...although I'm not sure if I would want to start a program like Augustana. I know everyone thinks that's a good job, but that's gonna be a hard one to recruit to even if the Stampede are there. Make no mistake though, whoever gets him will be successful in relatively short order. He is a grinder just like Hastings and from everything I've seen, he's the key to recruiting. They know what they want and they get the kids they want and it's been pretty damn successful. As far as Hastings goes, I can see that he and his family love Mankato. Could there be a place he decides he wants to go? I'm sure there are places he'd be willing to go, probably a couple of blue blood programs, maybe St Cloud and maybe Omaha. I know Gopher fans and commentators have mentioned him after Motzko is done, but I'm not sure that make sense as Hastings is only 4 years younger and he was only a coach there for 1 year. The fact that he left that job to go to UNO speaks volumes to me as far as how he enjoyed it. I'm not sure how connected he is to SCSU even though he started out there, but that's probably not in the cards as Larson seems pretty much rooted there. Maybe Omaha, but he doesn't really have that much connection to the SCHOOL. The city he does, but not the school as he was only there for 3 years. There could be an opportunity at Michigan or Wisconsin. I have to admit those would be some pretty good opprotunities. I really do think the conference affiliation is the wild card for him. The rumor I heard is that when the CCHA re-formed MSU told the league that if the opportunity to join the NCHC came about that we would make the jump. I also have heard that the only reason that MSU didn't get in last time is because ASIU didn't have their crap together. Does that change now that more schools are adding hockey and ASU seems to have their arena situation figured out? I dunno. If MSU is in the NCHC, it may not be on the level of Michigan or Wisconsin, but it is a much smaller step down. Now, if that doesn't happen, I still think Hastings is relatively content in Mankato. At this point, they have the program reloading and not rebuilding. He's gone through 2 groups of players that people didn't know if we could replace and ended up in the FF two years in a row. Is starting over something that he'd want to do? I dunno. He's got it pretty good. The city and school love him. He's gotten everything that he's asked for from the school. He's winning at the highest level. He's got a bunch of former players that are now coaches in developmental leagues that are starting to serve as feeders to the program. He's got 5 years left on his contract and I saw yesterday the first reporter suggesting maybe they will need to/want to rip it up and sign another long term deal. I'm not sure what to think as I can understand why he may want to go elsewhere, but I can also understand wanting to be the guy that built a program and put it on top.

Well....that wasn't ideal. Mavs panicked like I haven't seen them panic before. They seemed like they had the yips in the third period (to steal a golf term). I haven't seen them.play that bad of a period in 2 years. Sucks it came when it did.

DRYDEN!!!!!

I'm a bit hoarse, but that was fun.

Plane is booked, airbnb has been booked for about 2 month, not to get ff tickets.:)

I give notre Dame credit. Msu has the 2nd highest scoring team in the nation.

HELLS YEAH!!!!!

My spelling is also awful

Holy hell....my heart is ra big after that last 3 minutes