jk

SXSW, a massive event with an estimated economic impact of over $300 million, cancelled. The odds of this happening to the various NCAA tournaments are growing. Edit: not cancelling the tournaments, but the spectators.

While some actions may eventually be viewed in hindsight as an overabundance of caution, there are serious people taking serious steps for good reason, not because they're influenced by media hysteria. Real money is chasing bonds like they're not going to issue any more, and that doesn't happen for mirages. I suspect it is more serious than your post suggests.

Without opining on whether this should happen, I think there's a decent chance all the tournament games are played without fans present. I base this on the various company announcements restricting domestic travel and conferences from many industries being cancelled. That would at least take attendance out of the committee's considerations.

It is an annual event to reconcile the pipeline with the openings, and it often seems an impossible task. But it only seems that way to us, because we don't know the plan. Personally, among the things I expect are that JBD will leave, both because he's a first rounder and because there are so many committed defensemen. I also expect Moore here, because he's not going to play two post-draft junior years.

These two teams are going to be tough outs at the end of the year. Both look outstanding.

For those old enough, recall the Ian Kidd redemption check after skeeter Moore slew-footed him. Now that was a cross-check.

I know it's not smart hockey, but how does someone not jump Perunovich for that?

While I get your point, I think Mankato will be fine in the pairwise. The bigger reason to dislike that conference schedule is that it probably breeds bad habits always playing teams worse than you are. By the end of the season, NCHC teams have been through a meat grinder, and almost anyone they play later won't be as good as a bunch of their recent opponents. It would be nice if Mankato could join and benefit from that.

Just have to throw my support to UNH. They were one of the big 4 in Hockey East for the better part of two decades surrounding the year 2000, along with Maine, BC and BU. Highly skilled teams that would have fit well in the current era.

Hatefulness must be in the eye of the beholder, because I never saw that in Hakstol.

I disagree. Despite not being able to put the puck in the net to save their lives, or their season, they came to play hard every game, which you couldn't do with a broken culture. I thought it showed good coaching. They were one of the best puck possession teams in the country, which you can't be without playing hard. It's as simple as they just couldn't score.

A few ways of thinking about the commitments of a few older guys last year, Gaber, Ness and Budy. At the time, I wondered if they were trying to go more the Mankato route and get a little older. I also thought because of their lack of size that these might be the type of high energy, make-the-right-play guys Duluth has cleaned up with lately. Looking at some of the posts above, this situation is also reminiscent of a time a bit ago when UND had some MN high school forwards lined up, but they weren't developing, and so they went home to Alberta and picked up Rodwell and Rowney as older guys. They were at least big bodies who could check, and the guys who didn't pan out never made it to campus. Not a bad fall-back call, as Rowney ended up in the NHL. Could the recent older pick-ups be coming because some of the earlier commitments aren't? I guess we'll see.

Patented Schlossman and his pesky facts.

I had not seen this until now. I had seen the thread but not opened it because it was started on April 1 by a bit of a rabble-rouser, so I wrongly assumed it was a gag of some kind. Only just now did I wonder why a gag thread was still pinned to the top. Boy, is this terrible news! I never met Tim, but sprig and I saw eye-to-eye all the time here, from way back. I will miss him. Condolences to his family and friends.

Good luck to Shaw. Thanks for the contributions to the program and for helping win a national title. For the critics, we have no idea if he was the problem with the PP. It could be that Scotty Bowman and Bill Belichick together couldn't have made it work with the pieces they were given. When Jackson was hired, few outsiders saw it coming. That scenario is possible this time around as well. If it's Schneekloth and he does well, I may forgive him for Kolanos.

I'm pretty excited about next year, but I need to remember the siren song of the offseason line chart. Top of a fan's mind for returning players are their flashes of brilliance, and forgotten is a month of diligent checking, up and down the rink, that amounted to little on the scoreboard. And incoming players are certain to be even better. We read what their junior coaches say about them, and it's a wonder they even bother with college before embarking on the long NHL career. There's no way they'll need time to adjust to the pace and physicality of grown men in the best college league in the country. The lines in my head have two legitimate Top Six scoring lines (maybe more like two seconds than a first and a second), a pretty awesome third energy line, and a fourth line of rotating characters including future scoring line players and seasoned veterans nearing the end of their competitive hockey careers. Behind them may be the best group of defensemen in the country, depending on who UMD returns, and two solid goalies. And a good coaching staff that I hope demonstrates its greatness.

Hain may be a top six guy. And then see if you can find someone else to fit well with Senden and Smith.

Ha. Yesterday I said all they do is win, but they don't dominate anyone. Scratch that. The last few years have shown how well the NCHC prepares a team for the tournament. Every weekend down the stretch seems so tough ... I guess because they are. UMass was for Duluth what Q was for UND, just not ready for the pace and tight checking.

It's sports and things happen, but given the way they've played in big games, it would be shocking to see Duluth lose tomorrow.

I have to give some credit to UMD. The funny thing is, I find them far from dominant. When you watch a game, you don't come away thinking they were a powerhouse. Through two periods of their NCHC final against SCSU, SC looked far superior and should have been ahead about 5-1. But there was UMD with the trophy a few hours later. I didn't see the BGSU game, but Duluth was down with four minutes to go, and they managed to win. And most of the game against Providence seemed like a pretty equal matchup. Then you look up, there are ten minutes left, Duluth has the lead, and Providence can't even buy a decent chance the rest of the way. For as much as people wished UND scored more, Duluth has won these last two years without scoring. Or, more accurately, by scoring just barely enough. Compare them, for instance, to the 2016 Sioux team, which dominated down the stretch, winning most of its NCAA games handily. Duluth dominates no one, but they are great at one thing, keeping the puck out of their net, which leads to being great at the only thing, winning. This isn't a dig at UND's coaches, who I support, but Duluth is really well coached. And they've benefited from decades of good fortune being shoved into a couple year span.

Re Rizzo, what if he's just not ready, and the hard thing to do is actually the right thing, which is to let him develop more before coming? PP, PK, big minutes in juniors, or low minutes on the fourth line because he's not ready for a top six spot in college.

I don't know how good a player he will eventually be, but he is one heck of a skater. Good luck except against UND.

Jeff Panzer was one of my all-time favorites. If you can stomach it, watch his last game, the OT loss to BC in the title game. He constantly got to the puck first, and set guys up all game long. Only a future nhl goalie pulled that out for BC. If his kid does in fact skate like him, get ready for his sweater flapping in the breeze as he flies down the ice. Great memories.

Not sure where to put this, but boy is it interesting: https://www.neutralzone.net/mens/2019/04/01/ncaa-d1-mens-hockey-recruiting-class-rankings-study-2016-2019/ Since their rankings are based on both quality and quantity, some of UND's classes were highly ranked because they were large, replacing early departures from earlier years. But still. One may not agree with their methodology, but I'm guessing it is at least consistently applied to all teams.

I personally don't mind the announcer. She seems to know the game. Doesn't get all wound up over every little thing.