Hobey Baker

[hrkac]

Coach would also suggest a malt to make it a great day.

Yes! Let's have a malt, boys!

[fightingsioux4life]

So how do you clarify something when you're a voter by saying "yea, but MSU plays a trap-style defense so even though Miller faces over 1,000 shots, they weren't real quality shots?". Couldn't you also say that Tony Hrkac's offensive numbers were overly-inflated due to North Dakota's going-like-gangbusters-offense under Gino in the 1980's?

You don't put up 116 points in 48 games because of the system Gino employed. Gino was there for 16 years and no one else wearing a Sioux uniform (not even Greg Johnson) put up numbers like that in a single season. Even Paul Kariya of Maine (as great as he was) couldn't top what Hrkac did that year. Yes, having good players around you helps and is a factor, but some of the moves he put on that year were just unreal. My dad took me to games when we could get tickets and I marveled at what he did on the ice. Take Hrkac off of that team and they wouldn't have been nearly as dominant.

While JPL's numbers aren't quite as impressive as Miller's, they are close. And when you consider the schedule we have played this year and all the penalties we have had to kill off (that has to stop next week or we will come up short again), JPL is just as deserving as Miller, if not more so. So again, where is the consistency? I will maintain forever that if Panzer had played at an East Coast school he would have won the award hands down. You can disagree with that if you want, but I believe it 100%.

I don't always disagree with the winner that is chosen. Junior Lessard was a deserving choice in 2004 even though most of us would have loved it if Zach Parise had won it. Brendan Morrison was also a deserving choice in 1997 despite his sour grapes acceptance speech. And I also think that those of us in Denver next Friday should show respect for the finalists. If you are so upset that you don't think you can, then just don't attend the ceremony. Don't blame these kids for the bad decision-making of a committee of so-called experts.

Here's to back-to-back shutouts for JPL and the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player award! Oh, and our eighth NCAA championship as well.

[fightingsioux4life]

Committees don't make conspiracies; fans do.

But when committees make questionable decisions that look political and biased even if they might not be, it makes people wonder what is really going on. Sorry, but when you are in the public eye like the Hobey Baker committee is, you will have to contend with public perceptions (both good and bad). If there was more consistency in how the criteria was applied, people wouldn't get as worked up as they do.