Smoggy
-
Posts
4,912 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Posts posted by Smoggy
-
-
I think we have a very fortunate situation in having Parise. Because he isn't as good of a puck handler and handles too much, I'd like to see Brandt. Though Parise doesn't flop around as much. I too, would like to see what Ziggy could do, but with as tight as the WCHA is, it's hard at this point to sit our top two to give Ziggy a chance. I do believe that at some poing he needs to be playing Brandt every game to get him playoff ready. Though come playoffs, you ride the hot goalie. Even the Wild did this come playoff time.
-
One of the reasons Wyatt Smith left after his sophomore year back in the mid-late nineties was due to teams keying in on/mauling him.
-
The good news that the last couple of years the Gophs have endured a lot of questionable regular season calls, only to get a lot of breaks in the post season. Basically, the teams have to just grind through it. The holding and tackling will be called in the regionals.
I do agree that the Gophers got the benefit of calls in the postseason, but the regionals aren't any better than the regular season. One of UND's best teams (among many) ever was the 1998-99 team that lost to BC in an ugly game of "Catch the Sioux and Hold Them." Needless to say we lost and that is when Dean decided we needed bigger players to combat the holding.
-
I totally agree on keeping Bo and Parise apart. I disagree on the shoot thing. They showed what can happen last night when they shoot on the powerplay. The deflection goal and the rebound goal. If they can catch on their own, I won't have to keep yelling shoot.
My point is that the yelling shoot thing has gotten out of hand. I think a lot of people are just yelling it to yell. At least they are making noise. I don't see a problem with yelling it when a guy has a lane to shoot. Often times the fans yell when a defender is stading right in front of the player with the puck, or when the player has an impossible angle. One thing our PP blue line guys should do is fake a shot and move in closer. Then shoot or pass. Many power play goals are scored on deflections and we just don't seem to get many.
-
I really wish Smaby (unrelated topic) would have gone to the juniors like Jones and Greene. Seeing how those guys turned around their game makes me think he could have done the same... I just don't like seeing him get torched every five mins, and Schneider having to save his...
Smaby has a lot of work to do. After watching him get burned last night, thank goodness he didn't go. Might have cost USA a bad goal. The coaching staff has always done well with developing defenseman and I fully expect Smaby to be good one in the long run, but he really needs to improve his footwork.
-
Blais should leave Bochenski on a different line than Parise. For starters, he's proven he can score and given us a very powerful one two line punch. Secondly, the hobey baker voters will never give Bochenski credit as long as he's on a line with Parise. Hopefully it gets out in the national college hockey media that Bochenski is doing this without Parise. Obviously a national title comes first and if they need to play together for us to win, then do it.
We take some dumb very noticeable penalties. However, the reason we lead the league in penalties is obvious. The refs don't call the game by the rules. Most teams we play get away with holding and dragging our players down. If the ref's called this, we'd be one of the fewest penalized teams because everyone else would have so many. That being said, thank goodness our penalty kill is so good and we need to keep our sticks to ourselves. I'm thinking of Green crosscheking an AA player in front of the net when we were already down a man.
Powerplay looked good. The fans do need to keep quiet on the shoot thing. I had people near yelling shoot when the puck was in the corner. The guys on top could try shooting/passing the puck towards the net more. Stafford really got rattled after being called in the crease twice in the first period. On Murry's PP goal in the second, Stafford never went to the front of the net. I love Porter in front. The goalie could not see. I could've swore that Bochenski's first goal had hit Porter.
The UAA goalie reminded me of Dana Carvey as the turtle in master of disguise. The guy's pads were three times the size of him. Goalie pads really need to be regulated.
No wonder other teams hate Prpich. I love his play, but I didn't care for his unsportmaship. In the second after play (possibly penalties) was stopped at center ice, he skated behind the UAA net and purposely knocked off the goalie's juice bottle.
I'm hoping for a lot more goals tonight. I really hope the other lines get going. They just seemed quiet. Hale played well.
-
I don't understand the logic your taking in suggesting that we not play these guys that much, your talking about 18-19 year old kids. I don't see it happening. If I am not mistaken Stafford is barely 18. This isn't the NHL were teams rarely play more than three nights in a row. You have to go with your best players. Those three are 3 of the top 4 players on our team. I am sure if Zach can play with a bum knee he can play after playing 5 or 6 games in 10 days. They got a lot of time to rest up too next week...
I go with this, because even the players have said they are jet lagged. Plus Parise said that the WJT is the most physically demanding hockey he's played. He also has mentioned that he got fatigued at the end of last year. The WCHA is a very physical league. After two games in a weekend, I'd bet most of these guys need most of the week to refresh. Look at the poor saps that play three games in the Final Five and then end up playing like crap come the NCAAs.
While they looked great on Friday, Murray said they were tired in the third period. I have no doubt they'd play their hardest, but if we are winning big, why not give them a rest? I'm not looking at next week, I'm looking at the rest of the year. These players didn't get the extra break time that all the other players got.
-
I found it odd that the Ralph is touting the Bison match-up this year as the last one. They constantly had an ad running on the ring that circles the Ralph telling fans to come see the final Bison game. There has been a lot of discussion about this in the football forum and some in the bball thread (thought we needed a separate thread). I just can't believe it'll be the last matchup EVER. Almost like false advertising. Though with Glas and Roebuck setting the schedule it wouldn't surprise me. I would hope Roebuck would want to play it since it's such a good game for the women to see where they are at. Quality competition builds a better team. Though it sounds like all the women's teams in the NCC are improving.
-
Start the gold medal players.
If the Sioux open a nice lead, I wonder if Blais will rest the gold medal line. Almost play them as more of a fourth line. Maybe they'll be left off the PP as well. Might not be a bad idea with all the hockey they've played.
-
I like the auto bids over BCS, because it gives a smaller school that doesn't play in a tough conference a chance against the big boys. Especially since the big boys will rarely play a tough mid-level school during the nonconference season.
When I said 5 BCS leagues, I completely forgot about the ACC. Maybe it's because they aren't that good at football and I'd like to think Florida State doesn't exist.
-
Best seat in the house at the NHC is the SRO ticket.....center ice or wherever you choose if you don't mind standing for the whole game. I agree that arena is SEVERELY old school. Then again we are a bit spoiled.
The standing room would be great if people weren't allowed to constantly walk in front of you while the game is going on.
-
I've changed my mind. The more I think about this, the more I realize that the less teams the better. However, the one thing I want to see is some great 'small' teams play the big boys. I feel the a team like Miami of Ohio could have done some damage to someone in the biggie conferences.
College football wants to keep the regular season stressful. So what if the tournament is between the BCS conference champions no matter what. Leaving it up to conference how they want to award a champion, though I'd rather see the team with the best record. I believe that would be five teams. Then have three at large go to the best of non BCS conferences. That way the top 3 from the BCS conference play the smaller (supposedly crappier) teams.
-
The theater issue is interesting. An IMAX would be a terrific addition to the city. I've been saying for years that if a stadium seat style theater was built more people would go. I hate sitting behind people and rarely go to movies in the first few weeks. The problem is that many films don't stay for long, because the blockbuster films take up so many screens. Thank goodness my girlfriend works for the theater I've been going free for a few years
The stadium theater's in Cali are only 8 to 9 dollars with big reclining chairs. The prices were just bumped up in GF to 7.50. If I couldn't go for free, I wouldn't see many movies, because I don't want to spend that kind of money for bad conditions unless it's a huge blockbuster (ala Lord of the Rings).
-
The obvious answer is a playoff...but how can you guaranty that it will make as much money as the BCS?
Also how many teams? is 32 too many? I think 32 could be good.
32 would probably be too big. I think the more teams the better (ala March Madness), but that would be five more games for the teams that make the championship. Though I think the season could do with one less nonconference game and if there is a playoff, without (won't happen) the conference champion.
I think they'd make money. The games could still have all the stupid sponsers and TV should go way up, because of how much meaning is on each game. I don't think the bowls do the greatest on TV ratings, because who cares who wins unless you love that team or bet on them. It would probably have to be done regionally, but the big schools have fans all over the country.
I am amazed at how hard some players play for a meaningless bowl game like the San Francisco Bowl.
-
How about them Gophers? They twice tied the powerful Boston Universty team which is 5-5-6 and ranked 23rd according to USCHO's Pairwise. Maybe Vanek could've scored a few goals and they might have won a game, but giving up five goals in two straight games isn't good. The Gophers could only score on specialty teams on Saturday (4 of 5 goals), while BU on the weekend only scored 2 specialty team goals. Giving up 8 even strength goals is not good at all.
-
A couple of other things.
It seemed like we were really killing them in face offs won. I love the draw going right to Bochenski for the shot.
The National Concrete Center has some tinted windows in the one end of the rink where the suites are. I just get this image of Bill Gates, Monty Burns and Darth Vader sitting in there saying "excellent" and "everything is going according to plan."
-
The conference championships are what teams play for along with a national title. When so many teams are in a conference that you don't play everyone, it's the only way to determine what team wins the conference. I don't see how this could be meaningless. Many conference title games have knocked teams out of the national title game. You can't lose in college fb whether it's a conference championship or a homecoming game.
Computers can't factor in everything. USC lost in triple overtime. Ovetimes are nothing like the regular game. It's like having a shootout in hockey or soccer. Computers don't take that into account. What about injuries? Sure they are a part of the game, but when a team gets a very good player back the computers can't factor that in. Take Kstate for instance. Roberson was injured when they lost their games (at least against Marshall), but he comes back and they win everything except for the Fiesta Bowl. Even beating Oklahoma during that run.
I do believe human polls get biased and rank the same teams over and over. Their shouldn't even be teams ranked until after a few weeks, but computers aren't the answer. Playing the game is.
Here's an interesting scenario that won't happen because the BCS isn't redone. Let's say LSU beat Oklahoma. Since Ohio State beat K state, Oklahoma's SOS drops (due to losing to Kstate) along with LSU's. Now USC beat Michigan which beat Ohio State and therefore USC's SOS would increase and they could finish in the revised BCS rankings ahead of LSU. If you want computers to do it, they should redo it after this supposed national title game.
-
01grad,
I always thought that the goalie needed to have control of the puck for the ref to blow the whistle for a penalty. Maybe I'm wrong, because in Saturdays game the Huskies were getting a penalty, we took a shot that hit Coole and went out to a Sioux players and Anderson blew his whistle to stop play. Does anyone know the rule for goalies and stopping play when their team is getting a penalty?
-
1) The whole thing is stupid. The webcast can't hurt their attendance, because it's for people like me who are in cali (though here now). Victory is a joke, because even St. Cloud can't watch it.
2) UND should have a huge gripe on their hands if/when Gopher TV (FSN) is allowed to broadcast.
3) Remember when MSC promised regional coverage of college sports? Maybe that's why no cable company will trust Victory.
4) As for the alterring of pictures; isn't that illegal? The Blackhawks/photographer should sue.
5) PETA needs to go after the Huskie name. They are some of the most mistreated animals. Iditarod. (I am of course joking, but wouldn't mind UND retalliating in some way.)
6) Someone on USCHO mentioned that Blais and Thomas said we'd wear blank jerseys and play SCSU if they asked. I don't remember this being said. Any truth to it? I would think RT and DB have too much pride to do something like that.
-
I was able to go to the game last night and here are my thoughts:
National Concrete Center
Can be a very loud place, but they didn't cheer much. Lots of fans right on top of the ice. I have been hearing how terrible their fans are, but was only told that we suck once. Must be because only handful of students were there. Good thing they are buying new scoreboards, because you can't read the ones they have.
I had standing room tickets and for those that don't know, you stand in the aisle between lower and upper seats. You have to stand against the back wall, but fans are constantly walking past you! Even the ushers are walking during the play. The standing room seats are like $12 (plus fees), which is rather high when you can't see a lot of the game due to inconsiderate people.
Ice was awful. Pucks bouncing and players falling. At times it was a Mites game.
The Game
Ugly. There was no flow. I didn't feel that SCSU held us so much through the neutral zone, but along the boards was terrible. They loved to pull us down and then lay on us for a while. They must need some lovin'.
We looked slow/lazy on D into our defensive zone. Tired maybe? SCSU had a very easy time getting into our zone. St. Cloud just looked faster coming into the zone. That shorty we gave up was a terrible defensive play.
Our forecheck was very good, but sometimes our guys wouldn't even put a stick out and try to knock down a SCSU pass. I believe McMahon caused a SCSU rush in the third, because he didn't grab the puck in our offensive zone.
Our penalty kill is awesome. Our power play wasn't the worst I've seen. We kept control of the puck and had it in the offensive zone almost the entire time. Our point men seemed a little slow on either shooting or passing. Only one horrible powerplay where SCSU constantly cleared the puck.
Brandt made some great saves, but was flopping a bit. I counted 3 wide open nets that SCSU completely missed with shots, plus the shorty goal was a direct result of Brandt getting himself out of position. That said, he played very well.
Coole didn't impress me. He can stop a shot just fine, but couldn't control a rebound and didn't know when to cover the puck. He fumbled a lot of passes.
Anderson
Sucks. Bad. One thing I didn't like from the Sioux was how much slashing they did. He didn't call it though. He missed many calls and made other calls that didn't make sense. In the second on a SCSU 1 on 1 rush, our d had their stick in front of him. The SCSU player ran into it and fell face first. Penalty. Fine. But on the kill, the puck was slowly cleared and Bochenski was rushing up the boards. As the puck crossed into SCSU's zone, the d man turned and gave Bochenski a hug and hauled him down. No call and Bochenski wasn't near the puck.
EDIT (thanks to dirty for reminder on USCHO): Anderson calling bochenski for checking the goalie when Boch was checked. Anderson also takes the SCSU player. Either he was shoved and hit the goalie, or checked the goalie. It can't be both ways.
PCU's Announcer
Different. He talks to the crowd which was fun. BUT, the PC police better get on him for my two favorite lines that he says.
"Yes, YES, Here come the Huskies!" needs a parental advisory for sexual content. The first time I heard it I thought someone tapped the mike with a porn.
"Here come your HUSKY cheerleaders," was just plain funny.
Sorry so long, but thanks for reading.
-
I'm a big playoff supporter, but I did realize one thing while watching the bowls. The whole pagentry and fan support (for some teams) will be lacking during a playoff due to time. Each playoff game is week to week, where fans get a month to prepare for a bowl game. Imagine if UND got even two weeks until the national championship. I'd bet a lot more fans would've gone. Still a playoff is the only way. I will agree that the whole double poll thing is ridiculous, but it's the way it's been for a long time and that's why the AP gets to award a national champion. I don't like USC, but I'm glad they won.
As for Pac-10 leaving, I don't think so. Too much money involved. Each year they are garuanteed a BCS bid and I believe the lowest payout is like 10 mill. It would only change if the Rose Bowl pulled out and the Big Ten came along.
Interesting side note. The NCAA allows no gifts to players at any point in their career UNLESS they make it to a bowl game. Each bowl is REQUIRED to supply gifts to the players in total value up to $300. My cousin does camera work for ASU and last year at the Holiday Bowl he got a CD player, ring, Fossil watch, Oakleys and clothes and shoes.
-
I'm sure not every school makes money, but I'd bet most do or at least don't lose money. Otherwise why have it, because it is pricey. It is attendance driven, but as long as you can get into a major conference I believe it's a money maker just from the tourney revenues. I think that even the smaller conferences get a nice chunk of NCAA money from tourneys. With so few teams and conferences and now more tourneys, there is a lot more money to go around.
I guess I don't have the numbers to look at, but when you have Omaha getting a new facility and Mankato getting one not long ago and even Duluth getting one in the future, that is three NCC teams that seem to be making money on hockey (though UMD has been at it for a while) and I didn't include our new rink or St. Cloud. It's expensive to start, but I believe it's one of the few money making sports in the NCAA. The others being D1A fb and most of D1 bball. Again, those sports are contigent on being in a bigger conference. Of course if SD were to want hockey they'd probably be stuck in the CHA. I'm guessing those schools don't make as much money, and maybe the SD fans wouldn't even support it.
-
Someone had a stat posted on USCHO a week or two ago that basically stated that UND Schedule is a little lighter the rest of the way.
I wouldn't doubt that are schedule is considered lighter for the second half, with the Gophers record at .500 and us finally getting to play some WCHA bottom feeders. But going on the road isn't easy and that's why most coaches only expect a split when they are traveling.
-
Towards the bottom of article, INCH mentions that the South Dakota AD who wanted hockey was possibly forced out due to bball and fb fans not wanting hockey to take money away.
With other NCC teams having success at hockey it seems odd on their fans part to not want it. I don't think any NCC team took money away from fb or bball to field a hockey team. In fact, hockey brings in more money for many of these teams (I'm assuming). I would think that bball would always be king in South Dakota and would hope that fans were more concerned with money for arena/recruiting, and not because bball might not be as popular.
Coaches Club at REA
in Men's Hockey
Posted
Here you guys are talking about the 'perks,' but I better chime in. I'd rather see people in their seats watching the game than in the bar socializing. More people hang out in the hallways than in the game.
The parking is terrible. Last year my 80 year old grandma got a pass. This year she didn't. The lots rarely fill around the arena, but she has to walk the two or three blocks to get in. I don't think she minds, but erlier this month she fell on ice going into work and suffered a concussion. So when we left on Friday night, we couldn't walk on the cleared UND sidewalks. The police made us cross 6th (I believe) at Family Practice. So we cross and have to walk through trampled snow. The worst part was that she was walking faster than she should have because of all the people. What a dangerous situation. It is private housing, but UND should clear that sidewalk if it forces people to use it.