MNState0fHockey

I hope Minnesota never visits an ECAC or Atlantic Hockey school after this. I think Minnesota should drop the Mariucci Classic and setup a scheduling rotation with UND. Would kill two birds with one stone. Help Minnesota's PWR and keep great rivalry alive.

An average of 14,000 fans isn't support? Look who averaged less than 13,000 fans this season: http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2006 And this season: http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2004 And who averaged just over 14,000 fans this season: http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2003 Guess we should move the Blackhawks and Penguins too.

When did I say you had to register for hockey to be a fan? I was using those stats as a comparison. You know, instead of just saying a program has no followers and not substantiating the claim. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if Ohio has considerably more people who are playing the sport they would also likely have more people watching the sport? Because, you know, there are probably plenty of people in Ohio who watch but don't play too. Far too many people getting worked up over this. North Dakota and UND fans are more passionate about the sport, hands down. Absolutely hands down. But you don't need to be a passionate fan to tune in to watch a big outdoor game against a conference rival. And Ohio is a much bigger market and OSU has a much bigger student body and alumni base, so there are probably plenty of those casual fans that will tune in to watch that game.

Goon - Plenty of OSU alums don't live in Ohio either. Missing your point, or at least it's relevancy.

I think UW should be the favorite, but I think a little too much has been made of the % of returning scoring they are bringing back too. They are bringing back roughly 80% of their scoring, but they were 33rd in the NCAA in scoring last year. Minnesota lost a lot of scoring, but were 1st in the NCAA in scoring. The disparity in returning scoring is what? 15 goals. People forget that Minnesota isn't replacing that lost scoring with nothing. The 6 forwards they are bringing in may be freshmen, but they are talented freshmen. I doubt they put up zeros. I think Minnesota will score as much as Wisconsin, young or not. What it will boil down to is how well Minnesota plays defensively. They have the talent on the back end, but some guys (Reilly and Skjei) need to take the next step and a guy like Brodzinski or Bischoff has to have a solid freshman year for the Gophers to win the conference IMO.

Hahaha... It simply amazes me how many times something has to be explained to you before you understand. OSU doesn't need to have a passionate fan base in order to pull in more viewers than UND. I don't think I can explain it in any simpler terms than I did above. Boils down to: A big % of a little isn't always more than a small % of a lot.

Well, 14,430 people in Ohio were registered for hockey last year while only 5,315 people in North Dakota were. So, while the ratio for Ohio might not be 1/10 it is equally if not more likely North Dakota isn't anywhere near 9/10 either. Bottom line. Ohio is much bigger. OSU's student body and alum base is much bigger. Passionate fans or not, they have the potential to bring in more viewers if the opponent is right.

Problem here is that people are trying to argue the point that OSU doesn't have a passionate hockey fan base. They don't. But that is irrelevant in this discussion because they don't have to be. Why? They are a HUGE school in a HUGE market. If 9 out of every 10 people in North Dakota's roughly 700,000 population is a hockey fan and 1 out of every 10 people in Ohio's roughly 10 million population is a hockey fan, who has more fans? Here's a hint: It isn't North Dakota. Same goes for student body and alumni bases. Ohio State's is much larger, this more to draw from. It doesn't matter if Ohio State's fans are less passionate. Give a fan base like OSU familiar rivals to watch their team play and the attendance will rise. People will tune in. They aren't a hockey mad fan base and won't watch regardless of the rival, but in this discussion (whether or not they will tune in to watch an outdoor game at Minnesota) they will be playing a familiar rival in a big game.

That's exactly the point. So is Minnesota.

In other words, you're not going to dispute the fact that OSU's home attendance versus Michigan and Michigan State was better than it was against teams like Lake State, Ferris, and Bowling Green. As it will likely be better against teams like Minnesota and Wisconsin.

What is their attenance while in the new Big Ten Conference? Not sure how you can possibly weigh in on the impact conference realignment will have for them when we haven't even played a game in the new conferences yet. Look at OSU's attendance in games against Michigan and Michigan State last year. Much better than it was against Bowling Green and Ferris State. Are you suggesting it won't be better for home games against Minnesota and Wisconsin than it was for teams like BG and Ferris?

Because you have facts to support this or just because it hurts your argument?

He certainly would have played, but he wouldn't have played significant minutes this season. The loss will be felt more long-term than it will be this year. They have Collins and Glover coming in from the NTDP next year, but might have to pickup another 2014-2015 D commit if they lose more Dmen after this season than expected.

He is a kid that was coming straight from high school. He needs to put on some serious weight. The Gophers have Marshall, Parenteau, Reilly, Skjei, and Holl returning and Brodzinski and Bisschoff (who both played in the USHL last season) also coming in. To suggest that Vannelli had an uphill climb to see ice time is nothing short of reality.

Top recruit? Hardly. Maybe from an NHL draft standpoint, but he was going to have an uphill battle to get playing time this year. Minnesota is pretty deep defensively this season. And out of all the commits coming in, I doubt he would have had the biggest impact. Guys like Cammarata and Kloos will be 3-4 year guys who have a larger impact. He wasn't even our most NCAA ready defensemen coming in. Tat would be Brodzinski. And with guys like Collins, Glover, and Lindgren in the pipeline (two of which are coming in next season) and guys like Jack Doughtry still uncommitted, this loss is hardly insurmountable.

Doesn't matter how "loyal" or how knowledgable of fans they are. UND fans have them beat in both departments hands down. Those fans still show up at games. Ohio has over twice the population of Minnesota, which has roughly five times the population of North Dakota. That's not irrelevant. Ohio is a big market that can really effect ratings.

So, UND has more fans than Columbus? Care to substantiate that claim? I'd guess you're probably wrong. And that isn't meant to be disrespectful to UND. I bet they have more fans than UMN as well. It's an NHL franchise in a pretty big market.

So much ignorance in this post. I have all the respect in the World for Hakstol, he's a great coach. But you have no idea what Gopher players think of Lucia. The guy is a very respected coach.

All indications are that the kid really wanted to play here, and I credit him for giving it a try. Wish him the best wherever he lands.

I'm sure we'll never know. And for the record, I would have liked to see them play UND over OSU too. I'm just playing devil's advocate here

It was public knowledge that he had trouble academically and was close to not clearing NCAA clearinghouse. And doesn't sound like the kid has too big of an issue with Lucia's statement. College isn't for everyone. Nothing wrong or disparaging about that.

UND will be fine.

I see no facts to substantiate anything you said. I know this isn't the most scientific approach to measuring interest (the non-casual variety), but it's certainly more than you offered. There are currently 40 people browsing the Bluejackets board on HFBoards and 64 people browsing the Wild board. Hardly a substantial difference. Are you suggesting the majority of people who attend Wild games are just there for the social experience?

Interesting point.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the possibility of losing the game. That's utter nonsense that you aren't going to be able to substantiate. In fact, it's the kind of utter nonsense that makes the other point you made (which was very well thought out and probably pretty true) get lost.