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I'm not here to be a dick. That one post was a bit of a flame but it was in response to someone telling me I have no idea what I'm talking about since lines weren't set and the ice is big. Read my posts, I've been pretty fair. I have not seen UND play besides tonight. That's why I only commented on tonight's performance saying it needs to improve to be a #2 seed. Apologies about the paycheck thing. That was dumb of me. My paycheck is paltry BTW. Looking forward to a good game tomorrow.

Should have said I bet you $100 bucks. Nothing personal about incomes. Also, thanks for having a board that actually works when traffic spikes. GPL melts down. See you all tomorrow night. (5pm start remember)

I hadn't thought of it that way. You have a point. I don't think it swings the balance of this particular game, however. There were too many other facets UND was outplayed.

If you play the 2nd half like you did tonight I'll bet you a paycheck you aren't a #2 seed. You have a great #1 line. Beyond that, I'd say you're slightly above average at best. That said, they are young kids and things change quickly. Maybe we'll see a team possessed tomorrow night.

I hope you don't believe this. Your team gives up after 5 minutes?

I'm not here to pile on. I appreciate the talent of UND and respect them deeply. This year however, the Gophers are superior in many facets. Aside from top end talent on the first line where I agree it's a push, the Gophers have better 3rd and 4th line depth, better team defense, better special teams, and better goaltending. This year. Things change and I remember getting beat plenty of times by superior Sioux teams of the past. Plus, who knows how a single elimination context goes in the NCAAs. Honestly though, UND will need to pick it up from tonight's effort to ensure they make the NCAAs. Prior to the game I don't think many of you thought Wilcox was legit. He is, obviously. Saunders was average, and the U is throwing a lot of pucks in the back of the net in the last few weeks against average goaltending. Additionally, I think we can put to rest the refereeing bias conspiracy theories. There were several light calls in both directions early on that no one was happy with. Overall, it was a clean game that got out of hand. I expect a better team effort from UND tomorrow but I'd honestly be surprised if the U didn't end uf with 3 or 4 points on the weekend.

Here is the podcast of Lucia from this morning. Basically, PA and Charch ask all the questions that have been raised here. Lucia did admit scheduling Notre Dame was a priority, even before the U moved out of the WCHA which was more candid that I thought we'd hear. Most of Lucia's defenses were consistent with what the Gopher fans have claimed. Lucia definitely makes it clear the advent of the Big Ten hockey conference wasn't his preference and naming issues come down from well above his pay grade. I would add that 4 year agreements seem to be the way Lucia is doing his scheduling. I'm not sure if this is standard or not. We have 4 year agreement with BC and Northeastern as well as Notre Dame so I wouldn't immediately say we did a four year deal just because Mario might be there 4 years. One possibility would have been to maybe do a two year deal with ND (while the naming stuff was preventing a deal getting done) and get the UND rivalry back on the schedule two years earlier. Hakstol is before the Lucia interview. Lucia is from 25:00 to 46:00, including some post interview opinions by the radio guys. http://www.kfan.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?more_page=1&podcast=KFAN_PADubay&selected_podcast=PA_011813_HR1_1358525705_32543.mp3 edit: the board is trying to play the link locally. here's the link to copy and paste "http://www.kfan.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?more_page=1&podcast=KFAN_PADubay&selected_podcast=PA_011813_HR1_1358525705_32543.mp3"

Butts in seats is only a fraction of the financial picture. You are ironically disregarding the TV deal that got us into this mess in the first place. That's where the dollars are. TV ads, corporate money, etc. When you look at the whole financial picture, UND and the U of M are completely different animals. I maybe shouldn't have said UND has more to lose, but they certainly have more modest revenue streams. Whether they change significantly with U of M off the schedule, I admit I have no idea.

You can't simply go on the U of M track record with in-state schools to determine what "should" happen in BTHC schedule negotiations. Things change, particularly when its likely the Big Ten started negotiations with zero in-state obligations. I'm sure the smaller Mn schools bargained to get the U of M on the schedule. If you think UND is going to trump the MnSCU system just because the hockey is better, you're kidding yourself. One small example: Bemidji just built a new facility. Lucia has gone on record saying they want to do their part by keeping them in the schedule in part to help them justify the expense of the arena. There are so many moving parts here we aren't privy to. You say Wisconsin figured it out, why didn't the U? Well perhaps because Wisconsin didn't have 4 other in state schools sucking at the teat -- who knows possibly even threatening legal action -- that freed UW up to make a UND contract agreement before the U of M figured it out. The point is WHO KNOWS? We weren't there. To summarize the very little public knowledge we have on the whole negotiation as a coup by Lucia to get UND of the schedule is absolutely delusional. I don't know any other way to characterize it.

I don't doubt Hakstol and UND have done everything in their power to continue the rivalry as a two game series each year. He'd be an idiot not to. It's definitely one feather removed from his recruiting cap. Granted the program stands on it's own as a great one with great facilities, but not being able to guarantee a yearly chance to pound rodents may give some iron rangers (and Kristo types) pause on attending UND. I'm not at all saying it a big recruiting disadvantage, but it certainly could be a negative for some recruits. The bottom line is, from a financial standpoint the U of M has much less to lose than UND and they are making that obvious with their matter-of-fact approach to the negotiation.

You do sound mad. I affirm your anger. It's still delusional to put this all on Lucia. I'm not here to flame ss.com. My first post was complimentary. But now you're just starting to sound like a scorned lover.

In what way does Wisconsin have to play 4 in-state teams each year?

The 4 year break starting next year is because he wasn't allowed to schedule UND until the naming stuff got taken care of. Total bureaucratic bs, but hardly his fault. So UND is replaced by ND. Self-serving choice, given Mario goes there? Maybe partly, but they are a formidable opponent and given that he was going to pick from a central or eastern team, I'd say ND is one of maybe only 4-6 that are appropriate temporary replacements for UND. Given the constraints, playing UND twice (one home, one away) every 4 years is actually a lot more than we should reasonably expect. The U of M only has 4 non-conference games to play with because we have to play our in-state teams. Someone over on GPL explained it well.. basically the U of M has a vested interest in keeping the smaller Minnesota U of M schools happy. In addition, these schools probably raised holy hell to make sure the U of M (and the money generated) came to visit once a year. I'm not sure how you pin this whole mess on Lucia. As I said earlier, forces MUCH bigger than the WCHA commish have been at work for years to put their own product on their own TV channel. Lucia just happened to be at the helm when it happened.

Good post. I'm a Gopher fan but thought I'd chime in here. The wishes of the Big Ten as a whole are going to trump our wishes as WCHA fans 100% of the time. Sure, men's hockey has a great conference and a great rivalry with a handful of smaller/private schools. But you know what that gets you in a bigwig Big Ten boardroom? Bupkis. Nothing. Forces 1000x larger than UND have been moving against your cause for years. Sorry, but that's just the case. TV deals are everything now, unfortunately. In huge $ conferences with their own TV channels, ADs travel by private plane and move teams like U of M and Wisconsin out of the WCHA with the stoke of the pen. As far as the Lucia bashing, I understand its rivalry week, but it's completely misplaced rage. Lucia is a product of the athletic department and they are beholden to the Big 10. Seriously, there's no conspiracy to relegate UND and others to the sideline. It's simply big time administrators making decisions that move the needle on the bottom line. (Full disclosure, on GPL I've said I wont miss this regular season series. I think we'll meet in the NCAAs enough to scratch the itch. Plus it looks like we'll meet about every other year after the initial 4 year break.)