redwing77

We haven't exactly been consistent this year. Nor as dominant as we should have been. Even last night was a roller coaster.

We're getting all in a tizzy about one guy's opinions and not about the motivation behind them. Sid has been long in need of being put out to pasture. Sid operates under the same graces as Chicago Cubs radio color commentator Ron Santo: Respect for his past and not what he brings to the table. Ron Santo has the sympathy factor and everyone knows we respect our elders, especially someone with many years in the field (Sid). I dislike Ron Santo's performances with a passion. I don't listen to Sid, though, because you know the script before he even says it. "Blah blah blah GO MINNESOTA GO blah blah blah I'm a big shot among the Minnesota sports scene Blah blah blah." Please, if you expect anything else, no wonder you are disappointed. As for Dubay, he says whatever will get people interested. Yes, he is a Gopher fan. So what? Would you be considered a Sioux fan if you went on the air and said how great one of your team's most bitter rivals were? Sure, you may be considered to be a "good guy" by that fanbase, but you won't garner listenership. Angry listeners make for entertaining radio. Sioux fans tend to be emotional lot. Prideful and loyal to their team through and through when faced with a disingenuous or non-complementary opinion of their team. This is further ramped up by the seemingly endless attack on UND by the ultra liberals and the super minority activists, even if it isn't directly about the sports teams. If Dubay sat on the air and said "Oh, the gophers are sucking hard core this year, but the Sioux are doing great. They're better than us. I can wax poetic about them all program long if I were allowed." Do you think his listenership would grow or even stay the same? I think it would shrink. Shawn-O is right. Like him or hate him, he talks college hockey. He's far more listenable than Bernie Bergraf (forgive me, Bernie. I know you forget more than I'll ever know about hockey, but... lets face it, you are basically unlistenable). What I'd suggest is to find a more diverse crew for his program. Have Dubay with two other guys other than Miller and the other dude. Perhaps he can find two radio personalities of the same ilk, but those who went to UND and UW? That would be an interesting program...or a slugfest. Who knows? How awesome would it be to have Dubay with perhaps Troy Murray and some former UW player? I know Troy can't do it. He's too busy with the Blackhawks, but it would be neat.

I like the dark blue with the new logo (3rd jersey) of the current Buffalo jerseys, but I also like the black jersey in the image 31-9 posted. both very cool. I'd happily accept any of those two jerseys if you want to get rid of them. I'll pay shipping! (can't afford to pay anything else, though )

I think the WCHA would HAVE to go external to find one that would benefit the WCHA. I don't know who that would be, though. I'd love to see someone who works with the head of officials for the NHL take over and told to install the NHL's methodology for administration of officials.

My random thoughts on the game: 1. 2nd period to start was all UAA. 2. Thank god for the last two powerplays because the first two looked so horribly pathetic that half of the great UAA scoring chances that Phil faced were because we were too busy trying to look good rather than play hockey on the powerplay. Embarrassing. And, yes, we did get lucky. We deserved to get scored on during those two first powerplays. Folks, I don't care about flashy goals or highlight reel moves on the ice. What I care about is that, after the PP, we have at least 2 SOG and we've kept the opposition from a single SOG shorthanded. That's not, by definition a great mentality for a powerplay I know, but it is absolutely unacceptable to have 4 players outplaying 5. And if there are more players on the ice than the opponent, then there HAS to be a way we can find to get the puck to the net. The number one puck handler, or at least the #1 player that will see the puck near him the most during a penalty kill should be the goaltender. Christianson should have seen 4 shots per powerplay. We figured that out the last few powerplays and we either dominated them or scored on them because of it. 3. This is the first game that I thought Genoway shot the puck too much. On the other hand, I think Finley needs to shoot the puck more. I like his shot. He's not much more inaccurate than Chorney. 4. Our D played very well last night. I thought LaPoint played responsibly, but not flashy. Bina made some dumb mistakes but it didn't cost the Sioux at all. Genoway was amazing defensively. His sliding to prevent the pass on the 3 on 1 saved our bacon. 5. It's odd for me to say this, but JPL was sharp, but Christianson played better. I know it's odd for a guy to gave up 3 goals to get the nod over the guy who only gave up 1, but Christianson was the difference maker. This game would NOT have been close without Bryce's stellar play. Sure, JPL made 4 incredible saves, but Bryce made just as many if not more. That doesn't mean that Bryce is better than JPL, but he certainly earned my respect last night.

True enough, Whistler. The problem is that crackdowns come as a result of officiating blunders. CFB penalties aren't vague in the rulebook. The crackdown is only there because the officials need reminders that CFB is a dangerous penalty and must be called. So, crackdowns are reactionary, not proactionary. They aren't meant to solve incompetance, they are there BECAUSE of it. Goon- Shegos has officiated many UND games in the NCAA tourney. And most have been very well done. I don't look at stat sheets to determine whether or not UND was screwed over. I look at the game itself. Maybe Shegos didn't do well in that game you cite, but he does call penalties WCHA officials refuse to call, like diving. And UND isn't exactly angelic when it comes to physical games. We are a physical team and I love that, but sometimes we go overboard.

I guess I'll echo what most are saying in that I agree that Phil didn't deserve to be a top 3 star of the game. I think that belongs to Oshie, Kozek, and Trupp (order to me is irrelevant) if we are going all Sioux. If any goaltender were to be considered to be a star of the game, it would be Bryce Christianson of UAA. The guy single handedly prevented the Sioux from going double digits all over UAA. I would be VERY surprised if Olthuis started tonight.

This is a more biased opinion coming up: I think every DI conference has its bad eggs. However, the WCHA has more troubles when it comes to NCAA-mandated rulings often called "crackdowns." There was supposed to be crackdowns on obstruction, checking from behind, and even goaltender interference (IIRC) in the past 5 years (if that). With the exception of the checking from behind crackdown, the WCHA has simply called it the NCAA's way the first few months of the season and then started ignoring it again in perpetuity and, when questioned remarked on how well the league as acclimated to the rules so much so that calling it tight is no longer necessary because it isn't happening (henceforth shortened to one word: "Bulls$#%"). The only reason the CFB crackdown was followed was because the source of the crackdown was a WCHA incident. CCHA and Hockey East fans complain about Piotroski and Shegos (I don't think Piotroski officiates anymore), but overall, they are far superior to anything we have. It's why it is so Jekyl and Hyde whenever we play CCHA or HEA teams on the road for me, anyways. First off I think how we'd be at a disadvantage because of how the CCHA and HEA officials call the game (they call it the NCAA mandated way and include calling such penalties as obstruction and diving). Second I believe that, though I'm worried about how the Sioux will fare penalty-wise, I am pretty confident that the officiating will more than likely be better than what UND normally sees in WCHA action. I don't know enough about the officiating in other conferences to say which of the other conferences has the best officials, but I can say for certain that it is not the WCHA. Every game day during the season (and often other times) I dream about what the WCHA would truly be like if we were more than just the best conference team-wise top to bottom (yeah, that sounds arrogant).

There is no recruiting as Greg believes that the current officials aren't at all bad. Greg thinks that coaches, who are fined for criticizing officiating, are going to go out of their way at the coaches meetings to target individual refs or faulty officiating programming. The coaches have more important issues than targetting individual officials, especially if doing so will make them look shallow and vindictive. So the answer is obvious: Fire Greg Shepherd and start over.

Sorry, but as screwy as this sounds, Derek is no longer even close to the bottom of the barrel in terms of WCHA officiating. He can't set the precedent for suspending officials because if he did, then it would reflect poorly on him. He's the one in charge, not Schmidt or Anderson. The problem is that officials aren't held to be accountable for their own improvement and development. The league is also the problem because they have a faulty development system that stalls out officials rather than improves them. After the Bina catastrophe, McLeod thought that the problem was that there wasn't a full time head of officiating to oversee the officials. That's true enough, but hiring Greg Shepherd into the position full time was like hiring a pyromaniac to be the fire chief.

Visit the USHL unofficial blog sometime. From what the fans there say, the USHL has its own officiating dunces. However, you are right in that it seems the USHL is heavily involved in developing and improving officials rather than just saying "Here's your whistle, don't screw up too badly."

In other news, the Wild have decided that Iginla would not fit their system. Too much offensive talent for today. Not enough potential for tomorrow. By the way, Goon, watched some of today's B's game vs. the Canadiens. I don't think the Bruins are very good this year. They looked AWFUL.

Are you Lucia's speech writer? I mean, what a concept, a Gopher player that hasn't been the same after going to the WJC

Sold

This is the buddy buddy accountability system in its glory! It's nice to have an official communique from the Front Office confirming its existance. The slap on the wrist given, "BAD REF! BAD! No desert for you!" been said, everyone goes on their merry way. No, I don't think Anderson's offense deserves dismissal or a lengthy suspension, but seriously, a couple more incidents and all of us "Sioux officiating conspiracy theorists" will have to be given credence. This dog and pony show that is WCHA officiating is only going downhill.

Both Hounds stars are players I wouldn't put my hopes on. Gormley is great (so is the other guy). I'm banking that, if Gormley looks towards the NCAA, it is just to leverage a better deal with the CHL.

Commy's second goal was similar to one I witnessed at the Old Ralph... I just can't remember the opponent. The thing that floored me at the time (before Frazee's foibles) was the fact that Commodore was supposed to just dump it into the zone and skate off for a change. He skated just inside the blue line on the penalty box side of the rink and let a slap shot go towards the net. It skipped over the goaltender's stick blade and in. I just remember it because it was so odd to see Commodore score from just inside the blue line with NO ONE between him and the net. How the goaltender could have missed that ...

Sioux tinted glasses aside, what a tough fall for Jeff. I predicted he'd be #1 goaltender by January of his freshman year because of how bad Briggs was in big games. Didn't happen. He was very good in international competition and in juniors against tougher opponents but it didn't pan out in college. Baffling to me.

I'm not going to the game. I need to get these tickets to someone who can use it. I'd be willing to give the tickets to someone in exchange for or for a deep discount for a similarly placed (meaning lower bowl) ticket to any future Saturday game at the Ralph. Price I'm asking for is a best offer. I don't know what lower bowl tickets usually sell for (your advantage) but I want it to go to someone who will be there. Section 112 Row P Seat 12 it is. UPDATE: I didn't notice that I actually have TWO tickets.

I agree. Bina's near-career ending injury was only worth a one month suspension of an official. Affecting the impact of the game is just not that important. Hard to qualify a longer suspension than Adam's suspension really. In my opinion, Shepherd is in a hard position. If he fires Schmidt, then there is legitimate reason to question how Randy's actions were a fire-able offense but Adam's actions weren't. Not that any coach would bring this up. According to Greg, the officials are top notch. :rolleyes:

My idea is more unconventional and probably not going to happen but... I say, this weekend vs. UAA that Friday's game will play a big role in what happens with Walski. If we win on Friday, Saturday's game may be the time to give Walski some game time. My unconventional idea is to have Lammy start the game and give the 2nd and 3rd periods to Walski. Then again, it's not a day off for Lammy by any means, but I just don't trust a guy who may have played well in practice, but has no other real game time experience.

If Manitoba comes in, they'd want to be in the WCHA as well as they're close geographically to Grand Forks. I say screw it all. If we're not going to allow a 12 team WCHA (which I'm ok with), then we should put all of these Canadian teams into the CHA. This gives the CHA new life, the Canadian teams may already have rivalries in place they won't have to give up, the conference schedule for them won't be as harsh (even though this would be nightmarish for UAH's travel expenses, I'd imagine).

WEEKEND POINTS RECAP: Ok, I put together the scoring recap for this weekend (from most points to least: minimum 1 point): Chay Genoway -- 2g 1a 3pts Matt Frattin -- 0g 3a 3pts Robbie Bina -- 1g 1a 2pts Taylor Chorney -- 2a 2pts Joe Finley -- 2a 2pts TJ Oshie -- 2a 2pts Duncan -- 1g 1pt VV -- 1g 1pt Trupp -- 1g 1pt Kozek -- 1g 1pt Watkins -- 1a 1pt Genoway has a shot at Defenseman OTW, but I think the strongest candidate may be Frattin for Rookie OTW.

Both. We should be able to sweep UAA. We need to sweep opponents. We need to hit our stride. I think we're getting there. Most importantly, we need to find consistency in everything. Our D and PK are coming together. Phil has let in some weak ones as of late, but he's still solid. The biggest issue is consistency and chemistry offensively. Hak needs to find a line makeup that works.