SJHovey

While there is a certain amount of glee in seeing our in-conference rivals go through the same misery we went through last off-season, I personally think all of this is a bad development for the NCHC, and for North Dakota as a hockey program. This league needs to maintain as much talent as possible for as long as possible. I think anyone with a lick of sense has known for the last 8-10 years that it is inevitable that the B1G takes over college hockey. There is simply too much money, tv access and name brand recognition for it to not happen. The NCHC has done a heck of a job holding that off for now nearly a decade. But it won't be forever, and I fear that 10 years from now we will look back and talk about how this is about the point in time when the takeover was complete. B1G schools have dominated the recruiting battles for those "blue chippahs" everyone around here loves so dearly. To counter that, we're going to need a league of talented upperclassmen. A boatload of early departures for the AHL, or entries into the transfer portal, won't help that.

If you go to the leaderboard and click on the person's screen name, you see their selections.

Looks like the best I can do this year is a tie for first. That said, I'm still going to cheer for Mankato.

Man, almost fell out of my chair this morning when I saw Schloss pick a DU-UND final.

Current FanDuel odds for the first round: Harvard +360 Mankato -460 O/U 5.5 Tech +172 UMD -265 O/U 5.5 Notre Dame +114 UND -134 O/U 5.5 UML +235 DU -290 O/U 6.5 NE +198 WMU -240 AIC +530 Mich -750 SCSU -122 QU +104 They don't have odds posted yet for UMASS - MN, or the O/U for tomorrow's games.

In my opinion it will be vital that North Dakota scores first. Obviously, most teams have a much better record when they score the first goal, but chasing the game against a Jeff Jackson coached team is a surefire way to end your season.

Hopefully he had surgery on the hand he uses to sign documents.

Yeah, this is the one I saw.

This would be an interesting outcome: BSU beats Mankato (upset) QU beats Clarkson in ECAC championship (chalk) NE beats UMASS in HE championship (chalk) AIC beats RIT in Atlantic championship (chalk) Michigan beats Minnesota in B1G (upset) UND beats UMD in NCHC championship We end up #3 in pairwise, and probably out in Worcester against #14 UMass-Lowell, with #6 WMU and #11 Northeastern in our bracket.

So, I think tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the "Timeout Game" at Xcel. When I realized that, I had sort of a strange reaction. Now that I'm old, normally when someone tells me that something happened ten years ago, my initial reaction is disbelief that it was that long ago. Everything seems like it happened yesterday. But that game, to me, seems like it happened a million years ago. Maybe it's just the big changes in college hockey since, but I honestly can't believe it's only been ten years since that game.

Is there a fan fest on Saturday, too? I saw the email for the one Friday at 4.

One thing to think about is this. DU likely gets the home locker room as #1 seed, and UND gets the visitor’s as #2. That might mean shooting twice at the Zamboni end. Probably assigned for weekend.

As much as some seem to hope we dodge a regional with either Minnesota or Denver in it, I don’t think a Michigan or Mankato would be a great treat either. Going to be an underdog however you look at it, and that even assumes we get by game one.

I was reading a story on USCHO today, and they were talking about how on February 7, Ohio State was 99% to make the NCAA’s. Yikes.

An eight game win streak right now would be fun. Although, honestly, I sort of consider this season a freeroll for me at this point. I had very modest expectations for this team, given the loss of talent and all of the new faces.

I don't know. I think all you have to do is look at our season series with WMU to see why that tiebreaker rule is in place. I don't have a problem with it. Honestly, it shouldn't have mattered. I felt the team was a bit too amped up on Friday, and it cost them the regulation win. If they had played the way they'd been playing in the month leading up to it, no problem, and no tie with DU.

To my way of thinking, the ECAC is really the main threat for an outside team to get an AQ, with BC in HE as a secondary threat. I don't see CC, Miami or UNO making a run to the championship in the NCHC. I also don't see PSU winning the B1G. Maybe both Tech and Mankato lose in the CCHA, but I doubt it. HE will sort itself out. Whoever wins it was probably getting in anyway since they'll likely come from that grouping in the 13-16 range, and would have qualified based upon PWR. If you're 13 or better at the end of the year, I believe you'll definitely be in, and even 14 and 15 will have a reasonable shot.

What is wrong with some people. Hopefully the fan is ok and the guy who hurt him becomes intimately familiar with the Nebraska criminal justice system.

When you look at NCHC statistics only, UND is 4th in offense, 5th in defense, 5th in the power play, and 6th in penalty killing. I’m still not sure we have a four point lead heading into the final weekend.

I haven't really caught too many Buffalo games this year, but when did Aaron Dell decide to start channeling Billy Smith? I don't really remember anything like that from his days here.

I'll say this about the move by Pearson. It's a horrible message to send to his non-blue chippah players -- You're not good enough to compete for me without the stars here.

I see that Cornell basically went to code red today due to Covid. Shutdown athletics for right now. Will be curious to see if that impacts their visit the first weekend in January.

My review of Nashville. First, sorry for all of you who didn't get to go, or chose not to. It was a blast, despite the outcome of the game, and despite the somewhat rainy weather on Saturday. With respect to Nashville itself, I'd definitely check it out if you are a music fan, especially a live music fan. However, I'd recommend a visit in the middle of the week when the crowds are much smaller down on Broadway, but the music is just as good and plentiful. The locals hate Broadway, and now having observed Friday and Saturday night, I can see why. Traffic is impossible. Forget about trying to get any service in a bar or restaurant, and I saw, at a minimum, a dozen people hauled off by medical crews after having literally drunk themselves into a coma. But we arrived early Wednesday and had a great time Wednesday and Thursday. Tons of great music and different venues in which to watch it. UND did itself proud with respect to its showing, despite the outcome of the game. No other college hockey fan base will pack in what must have been 14,000 or so fans for a game. Apparently there was some trouble getting in the front gate, but we got lucky. We happened to be on the other end of the arena, near the country music hall of fame, and it took us four minutes tops to go through the vaccination check in, past security and through the ticket scanner. I thought we had a very good showing in the park, pregame, despite the steady drizzle. There wasn't anywhere that we went in Nashville where I didn't see a lot of people repping the UND jerseys and hats. We went to a show at The Listening Room Friday night and the crowd had to have been 60% North Dakota fans. Whiskey Row, on Saturday, where Tigirlily was playing, was 98% UND fans on the main level. It was like that no matter where you were at, and it was cool. The outcome of the game was obviously not what any of us hoped for, but it's early. I don't think anyone expected this team to run through the season like the last two did, and honestly, trying to mix together fourteen players who have never played together with eleven or twelve who returned, you're not going to have a well-oiled machine by game seven, no matter who you are as a coach. Finally, I'd like to apologize to the two UND fans that I met about midnight after the game. I was walking back down to Broadway after driving some of the older members of our group back to their hotel, when I came across two guys wearing UND jersey's/sweatshirts literally face down on the sidewalk, unconscious. One of them I was finally able to communicate with, and all he was able to say was "will you help me" but was unable to give me any details about where they were staying, whether there was anyone they were with that we could call, or anything else. Ultimately I called 911 and the medics showed up. I hope the unconscious one turned out ok, and if it was anyone from the posters here, or any of your friends or family, I hope there was not too much hassle for them as a result of their dealings with the authorities. But honestly, leaving them unconscious in the street off Broadway was not an option. I look forward to seeing everyone in Vegas.

At Laylas in Broadway. Big UND contingent.

Had a chat with Mickey Vulcan at the hotel. Says that he and a group of the ‘80 championship team are here with Gasparini. Fun hearing all the locals ask why are so many of us in town.