Benny Baker

Yes, I think Duluth ended up sneaking in over Minnesota, and we were the second team left out. The end of the 2018 season is an indelible memory for me for no other reason than it was the first time since 2003 I didn’t watch team make it to regionals. Now it’s starting to feel routine. Gone are the days of the Hakstol era where it’d almost be a given that the Sioux we’re playing in a regional final no matter what.

cursive-ish

Yup. They won as the final 3rd seed (12th in pairwise) that year.

It was actually the NCHC third place game, and perhaps Duluth was already looking ahead to that NCAA tournament. But I get your point.

So you’re saying all I need do to is “talk to potential recruits” and try to steer them toward the Gophers, and Minnesota hockey will be hit with recruiting violations? Why don’t we do the same to Denver and Michigan while we’re at it!

Agree. NCAA tournament-bound Ohio State worked out well for its current leading scorer, Freshman Stephen Halliday.

Dare I say Brent Johnson put up decent offensive numbers (1-5–6) in only 13 games and had the third highest +\- of any defenseman this year for UND.

I agree it’s not the result I want, and it’s already happened with Blaisdell. But FWIW, Chris Wilkie, Wade Murphy, and Mike Cichy all transferred out of UND when you still had to sit a season. Brett Bruneteau transferred, but I believe he had graduated.

Berry has squandered the opportunities of the 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 frickin’ Fargo, North Dakota regionals.

Go Sioux

But what do you when the Sioux play the evening of April 8th for the national championship at the same time RHCP take the stage?!?!

Get out of Fargo. Imagine being told after the first regional in Fargo that UND would host again in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 but only manage to win ONE game?

Good to know. Hate to say it, but I’d rather it be an injury issue than regression in play or character issues.

Don’t disagree that he fell out of favor, obviously. Why keep him around if it was an off ice issue? The same reason they kept TJ Oshie, Jonathan Toews, Robbie Bina, Matt Greene, and countless other players with off ice issues around and recruited players like Brandon Bochenski—they’re good at hockey. Not every discipline issue requires a Matt Frattin, Mitchell Miller, or Luke Voltin type response. But we only recruit “character” players anyway.

Correct, solid fixture. 13 of 15 games.

He went from a solid fixture in the lineup to never playing again. That tells me the most obvious answer is an off ice issue.

https://www.uscho.com/stats/player/mid,34065/Brent-Johnson/ #6 played 13 of 15 games from Oct 7-Dec 3. Hasnt had a whiff of ice time since. Clearly this was not a performance issue, but some sort of off ice incident that occurred on or around December 3, 2022 or led up to it. Someone, change my mind on this …

The “French Connection”: Martin St Louis and Eric Perrin made ‘96 Vermont’s team one of the forgotten best. Born in Burlington to boot, Ryan St Louis must really have wanted to forge his own path. But yes, I too wonder if he doesn’t end up back home.

Agree. For example, UND recently trademarked the 1950/60s logo with the "UND" arch above the two-crossing hockey sticks. UND already had primary rights to that logo but they made the recent decision to trademark it, nonetheless. Why did they take a different course of action with NODAK?

Jurist? Interesting. Right after independence and integrity, avoiding the “appearance of impropriety”, not just a conflict of interest, is literally the second canon of judicial ethics.

Yeah, I’ll find common ground on the transparency aspect. No one seems to want or be able to answer the obvious question: why did the coach’s daughter trademark NODAK in the first place?

Perhaps because "it became clear that NODAK was an idea that the hockey community latches on to", at least, according to the University's own President. “There was a global pandemic happening in April 2020, so that may have influenced things,” said Armacost. “Going back to our understanding of trademark law, we were the senior users of NODAK, which gives us legal protection. At that point, NODAK was still an experiment. When we sold out of the first 450 NODAK jerseys shortly afterwards, it became clear that NODAK was an idea that the hockey community latches on to. We now have that trademark registered as a consequence of negotiations with NODAK LLC.”

Or Nodak LLC would have been infringing on SRBND LLC's North Dakota registered tradename or, at a minimum, its geographical use of the Nodak trademark on green, black, white clothing apparel in North Dakota anyway: https://www.facebook.com/nodakclothing/ It takes a lot of IP litigation to actually narrow down the owners of trademarks and tradenames when there are competing interests.

Way too much nuance to make a blanket statement that registering a trademark ensures national rights. That is why there is so much IP litigation to resolve these disputes. What is the geographic area that UND does business in? If I am UND's attorney, my argument would be that we're a national university, have students from all 50 states and internationally, and we even wore that Nodak jersey in the state of Nevada. At a minimum, we're certainly a regional school encompassing Minnesota where Nodak LLC is registered.

RIP old Portland Winterhawks logo