New NCHC postseason tournament format

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

It really was only a matter of time. It makes conference games/standings more important; previously all that mattered was home ice in the first round. I personally almost exclusively cared about pairwise up to this point, that will change when this happens.

[siouxkid12]

2 hours ago, gfhockey said:

So what happens if the finals end up staying in a place like Miami or for example, Western Michigan where those stadiums can’t see more than 4000 people we are going to lose quite a bit of money because of this decision

saying the conference is going to lose "quite a bit of money" is a big stretch. For what it costs to rent out the Xcel and for the amount of people that show up to the tournament, I imagine the conference loses more doing that then it would having the championship in Oxford. 

[MGsioux]

2 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

Minneapolis is too dangerous now.... Cost benefit analysis.... Eat choice... Wanna see attendance go down.... Wait for a fan to get murdered 

This take is so ignorant,  this tournament is in st paul not Minneapolis and st paul is safer than st cloud for example.  This decision has NOTHING to do with fan safety , give me a break

[stoneySIOUX]

2 hours ago, Sweethockey said:

I have been going to this tournament for the last 15 years. Stayed in Minneapolis most of times, rode the light rail during the last 10 years. Been staying in St. Paul since it moved back to the X. I still would take the light rail to downtown or out to the mall. Never have I felt threatened, ever. There's a lot more scarier places in this world than the Twin Cities. I do miss the WCHA and the Final Five, those are some great memories I have of the Finest college hockey games ever played.

Also, I'm certainly not saying that the safety is great because I've seen some pretty wild stuff down there, but that kind of crime that is shocking and scary doesn't typically happen during big crowds like hockey games. 

[stoneySIOUX]

2 hours ago, SiouxFanatic said:

At least UND will have a chance at winning the Final Faceoff tournament again.  It'd sure be nice to be able to see UND win it at the Xcel before the change happens though. 

SO true. 

[siouxkid12]

2 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

Minneapolis is too dangerous now.... Cost benefit analysis.... Eat choice... Wanna see attendance go down.... Wait for a fan to get murdered 

There are over 100+ games a year hosted in MPLS and it seems like no one has been murdered going to one of them. Most of the crime has been set around 5 neighborhoods that are not really that close to downtown either. So take off your tin hat and come on down to Lyons Pub and we can chat more about this.

[stoneySIOUX]

46 minutes ago, TheEagle said:

I'm not sure about that. I lived in the Twin Cities for 30 years before moving in 2019. In the early to mid 90s I took the bus every night from the U of M to downtown to Brooklyn Center, and I felt safe. However, I didn't go to downtown Minneapolis at night for the last 5 years I lived there. Sure, most of the time it was relatively safe (especially with big crowds), but there were too many moments of discomfort for my taste. Seeing bus drivers got a bottle smashed over their head, addicts on public transit, the number of crazies increase. There were a lot of people up to no good in recent years. I got tired of being in a place where I had to watch my back all of the time.

My cousin ventured to downtown Minneapolis earlier this year for the first time in ages and got his Toyota Tundra stolen.

It's definitely worse than it used to be, unequivocally. With that said, it's certainly not the reason the tournament is leaving the Twin Cities.

[siouxkid12]

Just now, stoneySIOUX said:

It's definitely worse than it used to be, unequivocally. With that said, it's certainly not the reason the tournament is leaving the Twin Cities.

Is it worse than it used to be? Probably but it's also not as bad as a lot of people assume it is.

[stoneySIOUX]

3 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

Is it worse than it used to be? Probably but it's also not as bad as a lot of people assume it is.

I mean, statistically absolutely worse. It's also a lot dirtier and smells a lot more like weed than it used to haha. 

All of that said, it's wholly safe in DT MPLS and all of the crap is located to a very small area of the city.

[siouxkid12]

2 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

I mean, statistically absolutely worse. It's also a lot dirtier and smells a lot more like weed than it used to haha. 

All of that said, it's wholly safe in DT MPLS and all of the crap is located to a very small area of the city.

It does smell a lot like bad decisions and regrets but overall not terrible.

[SIOUXFAN97]

22 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

There are over 100+ games a year hosted in MPLS and it seems like no one has been murdered going to one of them. Most of the crime has been set around 5 neighborhoods that are not really that close to downtown either. So take off your tin hat and come on down to Lyons Pub and we can chat more about this.

Pinedas tacos on lake Street was my fav.... Not anymore no matter how safe a guy in Bloomington says it is

[stoneySIOUX]

33 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

Pinedas tacos on lake Street was my fav.... Not anymore no matter how safe a guy in Bloomington says it is

Again, not in DT MPLS where the tournament was at one point. Which we've both already pointed out. Both guys from Bloomington lol.

[siouxkid12]

13 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Again, not in DT MPLS where the tournament was at one point. Which we've both already pointed out. Both guys from Bloomington lol.

Some people just don’t understand….

[SIOUXFAN97]

3 hours ago, siouxkid12 said:

Some people just don’t understand….

what you don't get is.....if your annual final five trip included a trip to lynn lake liquors, liquor lyles, mall of america, pindea tacos, or somewhere else "aint what it used to be" and you don't go to the final five bc you aint going to those places too......you might just not go.....hence lower attendance.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

25 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

what you don't get is.....if your annual final five trip included a trip to lynn lake liquors, liquor lyles, mall of america, pindea tacos, or somewhere else "aint what it used to be" and you don't go to the final five bc you aint going to those places too......you might just not go.....hence lower attendance.

Liquor Lyles noooooooooo! Permanently closed. One of my favorites in my freewheeling 20's.

[SIOUXFAN97]

5 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Liquor Lyles noooooooooo! Permanently closed. One of my favorites in my freewheeling 20's.

"are you dancing sir"........."no"....."good!"

[SIOUXFAN97]

like the 8 v 9 game is at number 1 seed arena...........wednesday aftrenoon/eve hockey! yes!

[SIOUXFAN97]

now if fenton can move the summit league basketball championships from cold ass sioux falls to back on campus!!!!??

[cberkas]

[siouxkid12]

13 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

what you don't get is.....if your annual final five trip included a trip to lynn lake liquors, liquor lyles, mall of america, pindea tacos, or somewhere else "aint what it used to be" and you don't go to the final five bc you aint going to those places too......you might just not go.....hence lower attendance.

What you must not understand is that Lynn Lake Liquors is no longer, Mall of America isn't in MPLS, and you can go to another pindea tacos location if you are so scared. The attendance for the league tournament hasn't gone down like you think. Your notion of the MPLS area being "big, bad and scary" is just not true.

[The Sicatoka]

I'm not into crime stats. Instead ... 

So the play-in 8-9 game is hosted by the 1 seed.

That means to advance an 8 or 9 will have to win three games (of potentially four) in the 1 seed's rink over not sure how many days (four? five?). Ouch. 

[nodakgirl93]

1 hour ago, The Sicatoka said:

I'm not into crime stats. Instead ... 

So the play-in 8-9 game is hosted by the 1 seed.

That means to advance an 8 or 9 will have to win three games (of potentially four) in the 1 seed's rink over not sure how many days (four? five?). Ouch. 

Reminds me of the  final years of the wcha final five where you had two play-in games on Thursday following a best-of-3 on the weekend. Some teams ended up playing 6 games in 9 days. 

[TheEagle]

20 hours ago, stoneySIOUX said:

It's definitely worse than it used to be, unequivocally. With that said, it's certainly not the reason the tournament is leaving the Twin Cities.

Downtown St. Paul is much safer than downtown Minneapolis, so I realize that is not the reason.

[Kevin G]

The old neutral-site format made a lot of sense in the old WCHA. That tournament was a destination, knowing that the Sioux, the Gophers, and the Badgers were all (likely) going to be there. For a period of time, it was arguably a better tournament than the NCAA tournament. 
 

But the old WCHA is gone. The mystique of its conference tournament is gone too. Now the reality is *likely* this: if UND doesn’t make it to the conference championship game, the NCHC loses money because not enough fans show up. So moving the tournament to campus sites is the only reasonable alternative. 

[farce poobah]

Especially with the turnaround from conference playoffs to NCAA shortening by a day (from Friday to Thursday for 2 of 4 regionals), giving more rest to contending NCHC teams makes a lot of sense.   

Now just two will play that weekend.  The other 2-3-4 conference teams in the NCAA's will now have 11-13 days off (maybe more), giving loads of time for nagging injuries to heal, and for comprehensive scouting of likely opponents.   

The incentive to finish #7 in the regular season instead of #8 or #9 will create some energy and interest at the bottom of the standings also.