Brett0909

Almost positive I heard earlier this year that the Ralph made a change to counting tickets sold instead of actual attendance, stating it was more in-line with what most other venues were doing. Believe they said at that time that prior to this year they counted only actual attendance.

Wowza. Hate to start calling the kid's character out when it may partially be bad blood from the de-commitment, but I've never seen a trend of this kind of malicious/intent to injures racked up by a player over a relatively short time. Spearing between the legs more than once? Yikes! Definitely eases the loss of having him not play here. Have to wonder what kind of a teammate he'd be when the ref's saw a hit on a potential future teammate of his as an obvious intent to injure (St. Clair). He seemed like a huge loss when he de-committed (not unexpectedly) but I guess maybe these things work out. Will be interesting to see if NHL teams de-value him a bit based on overall character question marks and obvious lack of discipline - starting to sound like a bit of a loose cannon out there.

I hope so - and unlike MN, I'll be just fine with us playing away games in Bemidji where I'll see hundreds or even thousands of other UND fans who are also willing to 'sacrifice' by not only watching home games - the last two years have been a great experience down there.

Laughable is right, but what I find laughable is the 'We had no choice!' response from uMN with more accusations being thrown at UND. This whole victim mentality gets under my skin when at the same time most uMN fans, and certainly the administration, are excited at the longterm gains and exposure it will bring them. You can claim that their hand was forced, and to an extent that's true, but you'll still reap the benefits and UND's hand was just as forced given the option of staying and not moving the program forward. It's no secret that UND's supported these younger and less-notarized schools and I'm confident they still will, but not to the extent of not being able to move forward with their own program because we're responsible for them. Faison would have been irresponsible to have just stood by and watched (McLeod didn't exactly get much love for his wait and hope/see approach, after all). I'll lend any form of credence to that position once you can convince me or any other reasonable person (outside of uMN fans and maybe the subset of WCHA schools' fans who feel jilted) that if roles were reversed and several of the upper-tier schools were leaving uMN in a depleted WCHA, with all of the other financial, officiating, and voting concerns that brings, that uMN would have even considered staying for a second when it's clear to anyone who can look at the big-picture that it would have risked relegating them to becoming a less 'elite' program unable to keep up with the other top-programs, while lowering revenues by filling a schedule with mankato, anchorage, bemidji, etc. (this from the team that strongly prefers a strong at-home non-conference schedule to boost coffers). Those schools are great and I enjoy seeing them, but the same pride we took in the WCHA's lineup being the strongest in the country doesn't transmit to what would have been left. Elitism goes both ways. UND fans didn't wish for breaking rivaly and traditions, and most of us would love to continue supporting schools like Bemidji (great place, great people, have enjoyed the games there and supported the town over the weekend every chance I've had). But personally, not at the expsense of burying my head in the sand about what it likely would have meant to the longterm success of the program which we take just as much pride in as the Gopher fans do. I hope to see them in non-conference and wish them the best. But I wouldn't feel personally responsible for them any more than the Gophers should. Of course, whether the NCHC will deliver on their grandiose expectations is still an issue, but I won't go there...

Have to say, I think it's interesting between MN and UND's approach to the aftermath of the weekend and how it's perceived by the public. Hakstol and staff send a strong message in a very public way for a skirmish (no player-danger at all) by revoking Blood's 'A' and subjecting him to further disciplinary action -- a skirmish we all know didn't occur without provocation, albeit it was still in poor taste. They also likely strongly suggest that Kristo apologize (I don't think he took this action on his own). And in most peoples eyes, owning up to and addressing these issues after a frustrating weekend are just proof that UND's a 'Goon' team - especially to most Gopher fans. The Gophers on the other hand take several dangerous runs in an attempt to be a 'physical team', some which were called and others that werent, leading to at least two injuries in what could easily have been more - and their approach is complete avoidance to the issue while redirecting to UNDs behavior. No admittance of wrong, apologies, or owning up to the illegal hits and chirping all weekend. Both teams made mistakes, the Gophers definitely aren't above reproof, yet to most reading the articles now and certainly to most Gopher fans, what's seen and what will be remembered is the 'proof' of UNDs fault being admitted by Kristo's apology and Blood's loss of the 'A'. Whereas the team and fans that refuse to admit their team was just as 'in the wrong' won't even be remembered except to UND fans, who we've already established are just being homers because UND was at fault. Guess that's rivalries for you. Glad to see Hak working to instill the right culture of ownership and class in his team, and sending a strong message here - even if other teams don't follow the same principles. Also hope they give Blood the chance to earn back the 'A' in his senior year - I'd like to think his being the backbone of this team in tough times early on and leadership through the rest of the year have earned him the chance to make up for one stupid, momentary choice.

I agree with the 'bad seeds in every fanbase' comment. We sat next to 4 UMD fans at the Final Five. 2 of them were great sports and the other 2 were a bit snobby and annoying with some of the snarky comments about the 'palace cheerleaders', etc. (und-envy). We also had some extremely obnoxious Gopher fans behind us who, while claiming Gopher supremacy the whole time, didn't seem to know anything about hockey and were apparently too ashamed to wear Gopher colors. And nearly as bad were a few groups of obnoxious Sioux fans who were too drunk to realize they weren't being nearly as cool as they thought they were. So I guess it takes all kinds.

I agree it's all too easy to speculate and jump to conclusions, but there are a ton of circumstances that could have led up to this and it's bad enough that it happened without everyone's assumptions of the worst. I'm truly hopeful for him and his family that he's being treated at Regions simply because they're the best, and it's not indicative of the severity of his injury. Thoughts and prayers to him and his family, for a speedy recovery.

I don't care who's out there at this point - it's great to have so many options, and to be able to root when Cichy, Davidson, Gleason, etc. get a chance. But since we're on the subject...I like LaPoint, but he has seriously been fighting the puck lately. I don't know how many times over the past couple weekends he's just completely lost track of the puck, coughed it up with no pressure and otherwise looked completely out of synch. These have been glaringly obvious to me and I can't help but notice them every game now. I'm not calling to bench him...Hak will put whoever he thinks are playing best out there...but it's made me seriously wonder if he suffered some type of injury or is otherwise not in good game-shape. Maybe he just misses Marto... I've never been critical of him before, but he's just been plain-out odd and disjointed out there since the break. It always concerns me when a defensive defenceman is catching my attention every game, because it's usually not for some flashy move they just made.... And onto the sweeeeeeeeep!!!

PM Sent earlier as well. Willing to take either or both nights.

I agree that based on performance Frattin has put himself in a situation to be considered for the Hobey. I don't think Genoway's numbers would put him in the running. One could argue that Genoway brings a lot of intangibles that many other player's don't (anyone who's watched him would likely agree) but I don't see him getting serious consideration based on stats alone. With that said, in many ways he's just as important a piece of this team as Frattin (in some ways, likely more) , and personally, he's just a great, likable guy and a heck of a lot of fun to watch. But seriously cowboychuck, what's your agenda against Genoway? You're starting to sound like a jilted lover here. You don't like him (or you don't like that other people like him). We get it. Really, we do. We understand. Really. It would be really nice to see someone post something nice about a player they like, without you making it your mission to swoop in and point out you think Genoway's overhyped (have you ever posted anything that wasn't directly related to bashing Genoway?). In my opinion, the team's a lot better for having him, and he went through a lot last year. I'm glad he came back, and I'd take a team full of Genoway's any day. For me, this season's been a ton of fun so far, and looking forward to the second half. Bring it on!

Boooooh. [insert Troll Spray]. There are plenty of other places to make dumb statements. Please be smart enough to find one of them. Nice -32 Reputation by the way. Must be nice to be so popular.

LOL. And his favorite television reference comes from SpongeBob. Wow, make me feel old why don't ya? Funny to think the next generation of UND hockey players watching SpongeBob and listening to Miley Cyrus...

1. UND 2. SCSU 3. UMD 4. UNO 5. UM 6. DU 7. UW 8. BSU 9. CC 10. MSU 11. AA 12. MTU I think St. Cloud will have a strong year, but hope they prove me wrong. Tough to count DU or UW too far out. UNO's my complete unknown at #4 - might be too high, but if their start's any indication... who knows? Go SIOUX!