NCAA Hockey: The more things change, the more they won't be the same

Photo from Brian Sullivan, USCHO

This morning, I was reading the Grand Forks Herald, when I came across another great article; Change may-or may not-be coming for college hockey, written by Hall of Fame sports writer Virg Foss. Check it out.

Virg Foss, Grand Forks Herald — Of course more change is already upon us as the Western Collegiate Hockey Association as we’ve known it all our lives breaks apart.

As Minnesota and Wisconsin head to the Big Ten and North Dakota, Duluth, St. Cloud State, Colorado College and Denver land in the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference, more change is coming, like it or not.

We’re already seen that college hockey’s most intense rivalry, that of North Dakota and Minnesota, won’t continue on a yearly basis, at least as long as Don Lucia is coaching the Gophers.

It’s Lucia’s decision to limit that rivalry, against the expressed wishes of past and current UND and Gopher players and fans of all ages. It’s a decision I do not understand and for reasons given by Lucia that are questionable at best.

I am with Virg, I’ve never really understood, why one team would kill a very popular and lucrative college hockey rivalry, but maybe college hockey will go on without it. I am sure that Ohio State and Penn State will fill the void though. Yeah right!  This past spring, when it seemed like there might be a chance to have a mulligan on this historic series, the hockey God’s didn’t allow the rivalry to happen, so maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

Maybe it’s time that we embrace change?

I am almost certain, that Miami and Western Michigan fans will soon hate the team from the University of North Dakota with no-name. Probably, after the second time, the two teams play on the ice.

Moving forward.

After watching 2012-13 college hockey season, nothing really made sense this season. The traditional “sexy” teams (Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, North Dakota, Boston College, Boston University) weren’t in the Frozen Four.  ECAC teams Yale and Quinnipiac proved that you don’t have to have a roster full of NHL first round draft choices to win the NCAA title either.

That doesn’t mean that these teams didn’t have talent, because they had some great talent. Yale had talented guys that bought into a system and played a great team game. Yale was a miserable team to play against, defensively. Yale also got hot at the right time and was the best team for the last four games of the season, when it mattered the most.

The list of teams the Yale Bulldogs beat was impressive, because they beat some of the best teams in the country, to win the NCAA title, erasing any doubts who the best team in the country was.

During that time frame, the Yale Bulldogs took down Minnesota no. 1 seed, North Dakota no. 2 seed, UMass-Lowell no. 1 seed and Quinnipiac no. 1 overall seed. That’s a pretty good hockey resume, it also proved that their season wasn’t a fluke.  If you’re still not a believer, Yale also went 4-0 against the WCHA, a league that sent six teams to the NCAA tourney.

What has happened is the college hockey world has changed, the other schools have found a way to persevere and they overcome some of the self-perceived advantages that the bigger schools thought they had. Apparently  big television contracts and cathedrals  posing as hockey arena’s doesn’t always equate to wins and NCAA titles.

Maybe these teams flew under the radar a bit, while other teams were patting themselves on the back. That being said, the rest of the college hockey world was put back on notice last weekend. There are no gimmes in college hockey, not any more.

Finally, I think what also caught people’s eye, was Yale head coach Keith Allain celebrating a win with his team and enjoying the moment.

Charges dropped against UND’s Corban Knight

What do we have here? Looks like the charges were dropped against Hobey Baker Memorial Award Candidate Corban Knight. I always hear how these charges will hurt Knight, well, that argument is now gone.

Grand Forks Herald. --- A misdemeanor charge against UND men’s hockey player Corban Knight was dropped this week in Grand Forks.

Knight was charged with “unlawful deliver to certain persons,” stemming from a team party in September. The charge was for supplying alcohol to the party where there were people under the age of 21.

anny Kristo, Carter Rowney, Joe Gleason and Andrew MacWilliam changed their plea to guilty for the charge.

Let's not forget, that you’re also innocent until proven guilty in this country.

I am sure we'll see some black helicopter stuff written on the internet from fans of other teams in the WCHA and around college hockey. I am sure some of the things we will see written, is how the judge must be a UND fan or how the judge stepped in for Knight because he was a candidate for the Hobey Baker or something along those lines. Yes, I am saying this tongue in cheek, you've got to have a sense of humor. But, it's good news for Knight. From everything that I have heard, Knight is a good, straight laced kid that rarely, if ever swears.

UND Hockey: Making adjustments on the ice

An ice hockey referee signals a penalty for high sticking. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You don’t have to watch college hockey very long to realize that the college game is changing. Disappearing from the college game is the frequency in which you see the big bone crushing checks. Right or wrong, refs are punishing players for the big hits regardless if they are legal or not.

Post hit, if a player lies on the ice after being hit more times than not the ref will penalize the hittee.

Personally, I don’t like it, because hockey is meant to be a physical sport, it’s not ice ballet. Last time I checked, body checking has not been taken out of the NCAA Men’s Division I college hockey rule book.

I get why the refs are calling the game like this, they’re worried about player safety and concussions. The fact remains, hockey is a “physical” sport and injuries occur as a result of legal hits. Hockey is played at a very fast speed and each year the players get bigger, faster and stronger than they used to be, injuries going to be part of the game.

Traditionally, UND has been known for being a big physical team that punishes its opponents and racks up penalty minutes. When UND plays a physical game, they are a hard to play against.

Historically, UND has been known as a team that racks up impressive penalty minutes totals. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for UND to finish in the top 10 nationally for penalty minutes (most recently, 2007-08, 6th, 2009-10, 5th). From time-to-time, I have suggested to others that the UND hockey team should relish this and wear this as a badge of honor. However, those days have changed.

This season, North Dakota is currently sitting at 22^nd nationally in penalty minutes and has only been assessed one five minute major penalty [face masking] during 2013. Breaking it down further, UND has only had four major penalties all season long.  

On the flip side of that equation, UND’s opponents have only garnered one five minute major penalty.

Looking at the numbers more closely, UND has only had three games were they surpassed the double figures in penalties. UND has 10 games where they had four or less minor penalties in a game.

So far this season, no UND hockey players had more than one five minute major.

This season’s version of the University of North Dakota Hockey team is not your traditional UND hockey team. This season’s version is not as physical as seasons past.

Andrew MacWilliam
Eric Classen / UND Athletics

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any physical players left. North Dakota Senior Defenseman and Captain Andrew MacWilliam is a physical defenseman that is known for his hard hits. In the past, MacWilliam has been penalized for hits that upon further video review were legitimate, and legal hits.

This season, during a game against Boston University, MacWilliam hit a Boston University freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen with a good hard check. That player lay on the ice, and appeared to be injured, many in the stands were skeptical. MacWilliam was sent to the showers and assessed a five minute major penalty for contact-to-the-head, the senior defenseman’s night was over.

Miraculously, in what appeared to be a medical miracle, Oksanen was able to recover quickly, return to the ice, and score on the man advantage.

Incidentally, that was the last time that MacWilliam was given a five minute major this season.

 At the Wednesday’s media day, UND head coach Dave Hakstol was asked on whether a guy like Andrew MacWilliam had to change based on the way the officials call the game.

“Not only does he [MacWilliam] have to adjust his game to the true rules,” Hakstol said. “He’s had to change his game because of the embellishment and diving that goes on, that makes the game so difficult to referee.”

The head coach expanded on this subject further.

“It’s a huge problem but no one wants to address it,’ Hakstol said. “Teams are being rewarded for embellishment and diving and that’s been the case for last several years, and it’s getting worse. Until we want to address it as a body of coaches on a consolidated basis as leagues it will get worse.”

In today’s Grand Forks Herald, UND beat writer Brad Schlossman interviewed the head of the officials of the WCHA Greg Shepherd and this is what he had to say on the matter.

“It’s tough, it really is,” Shepherd said. “Knock on wood, I think it’s more of a problem out East than it is in the WCHA. We have a few people that do. I’d be a liar if I said we didn’t. The refs, in their minds, know who the culprits are. I don’t think everyone does it every time they get hit or touched, but there are certain times people try to take advantage of it.

“I’ve talked to coaches in the league. We talk quite a bit and embellishment and diving always comes up. They want us to keep our (refs) in tune and watch for it.” 

 My question to Greg Shepherd would be, if you know who the culprits are, why not punish the offending players that are embellishing calls instead of the players that are receiving penalties for what in many cases are legitimate legal checks.  

But I digress.

Instead of continuing the march to the penalty box, MacWilliam has made the adjustments to his game, because he is more valuable to his team on the ice than he is sitting in the penalty box.

“We need to have Andrew on the ice,” Hakstol said. “He’s one of our top penalty killers; you don’t want him sitting in the box when we’re killing a penalty.  Obviously he’s a real solid defenseman back there for us. We rely on him, so we want him to be on the ice. He’s gone about it very intelligently and I think he’s still has that physical presence on the ice and he picks his spots. He’s done a good job adjusting without taking away that side that effectiveness of his game.”

Recently, coach Hakstol told a UND booster’s luncheon that his team needed to play with more grit and be more physical. Obviously, this season’s team is not physical as teams past but there is still an expectation that they will continue to play a tenacious hard hitting style of hockey game. That being said, not every team is going to be the same. The game has changed and so has the UND hockey team. Coach Hakstol reiterated that point at Wednesday’s press conference.

“The makeup of every team is different,” Hakstol said. “We’re not big and tough upfront. We’ve got a few physical players, that means everyone by committee has to bring a little sand paper on the team. I think the same is true on the back end; we have a lot of guys that move the puck well. But we don’t have four guys that are 6’3”, 6’4” 220. So everyone back there has to play with a mentality.  That’s something that our team is growing into. But we’re not going to become a team that physically drives people out of the building. “We’re got to be a team that’s based on tenacity.”

Going forward, I don’t think that we will see UND play much differently than they are right now. I do expect that they will become a little more physical, but they will probably pick their spots.

Cross Posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine...

Tom Miller nails it UND vs. UMN

North Dakota highway shield (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you haven't read the Grand Forks Herald on-line newspaper you should head on over and check out Tom Miller's article about the UND vs. UMN Hockey rivalry. I guess not everyone is gobbling up what Minnesota coach Don Lucia is shoveling.

“(The atmosphere) was good all weekend,” Lucia said. “Our fans get pumped for big games. Boston College and Notre Dame were great atmospheres, too.”

Seriously, Don? Give it up. Clearly, there is no replacing the UND-Minnesota rivalry. No other matchup will hold a candle to North Dakota-Minnesota. The fans know it. The players know it. In fact, everyone seems to know it but Lucia.

All weekend long you have ex-players on both sides of the ice talking about the rivalry and how great it is. Former Gopher and Sioux players going on and on about how great the rivalry, then you have Donny Lucia giving his petty reasons why the rivalry is taking a break. Give it up Donny.

Related articles

• Sioux nickname reason UND's not playing UMN (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• A few things... UMN vs. UND (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• (Video) UND vs. UMN (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Game Day; UND vs. UMN (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Breaking down the Minnesota vs. North Dakota Rivalry (thehockeywriters.com)
• Minnesota hesitant to play North Dakota in hockey for now... (thehockeywriters.com)

The only game in town?

Original NHL logo, used until 2005. A version of the logo features it in the shape of a hockey puck. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The NHL lockout has been a buzzkill so far this fall and it appears that there is no end in sight to the second NHL lock out in eight seasons.

The two sides are literally squabbling over millions of dollars, but have no idea how to come to an agreement on how they’re going to split up their hockey related revenues. While these two sides bicker, college hockey seems to be taking the center stage.

Hockey fans need options and are looking to college hockey to fill their NHL Hockey void.

I have compiled a National Collete Hockey Television Schedule that you can use a guide. I update it, when more games are added to the schedule. In the US, college Hockey might be the only viable option we have this winter, if they two sides don’t come to an agreement soon.

The NHL will cancel the first two weeks of December very soon, if not in days,  if an agreement between the two sides isn’t reached. This is a true fact, that cancellation will probably come after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Dan Tencer@dantencer

Heard from @JSportsnet tonight that the next cancellation from the NHL is December 1-15 + All Star Game. Could be as early as tomorrow.

19 Nov 12

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So how big has college hockey been in absence of NHL Hockey, one team in Grand Forks, North Dakota is the most watched hockey team in North America.

UND hockey is king with the NHL hockey locked out.

If you don’t believe me, check out the article that Brad Schlossman wrote in today’s Grand Forks Herald, which says that UND Hockey is the most followed hockey team in North America.

I don’t think it’s a shock to any of us who have followed UND hockey, which has had a very big following since the team moved the Ralph Englestad Arena for the start of the 2001-02 season.

This season, UND hockey drew it’s 5 millionth fan. That’s pretty good for college hockey, which UND is historically in the top three nationally for attendance every season.

Those fans that come through the turnstiles of the Ralph Englestad Arena  to watch UND hockey are enthusiastic and fired up about watching their favorite team and this hasn’t gone unnoticed by UND head coach Dave Hakstol.

“I don’t know about the attendance marks, but I know about the energy our fans bring,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “It’s the best student section in the country. When we leave for pregame meal, there’s 1,000 students already lined up at 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. When we come back for the game, that student lineup out in the cold wraps halfway around the back of the arena. That, in itself, brings some excitement when you get to the rink.

“Inside the arena, the passion all our fans bring is second to none. I can compare that to almost any sporting event I’ve been at. What continually strikes me is the new people that come into the building — NHL people and hockey people from all over different parts of North America. No matter what they’ve heard about the building, no matter how many positives they’ve heard, by the end of the hockey game they are still in disbelief about what they just witnessed. That’s due to the passion and excitement of our fans. Their loyalty is second to none.”

So while the NHL is locked out, you do have options. Here is the television is the National College HockeyTelevision Schedule for the next two weeks. If you have DiecTV and don’t have the sports pack, get it. Check your local cable television listings for the games and channels listed below.

Fri.	Nov. 23		Minnesota at Vermont	FS North +	7 p.m.	TBD
Fri.	Nov. 23		Colgate at Merrimack	FOX College	7:30 p.m.	TBD
Sat.	Nov. 24		Minnesota at Vermont	FS North	7 p.m.	668 / 436
Fri.	Nov. 30		Boston College at Boston University	NBC Sports Net.	7:30 pm	603 / 159
Fri.	Nov. 30		Ohio State at Michigan State	BTN	8 p.m.	610 / 439 (C)
Fri.	Nov. 30		Vermont at Maine	CBS Sports Net.	8 p.m.	613 / 158 (C)
Fri.	Nov. 30		Nebraska-Omaha at Minnesota	FS North +	8 p.m.	TBD
Sat.	Dec. 1		Boston University at Boston College	NBC Sports Net.	7:30 p.m.	603 / 159
Sat.	Dec. 1		Nebraska-Omaha at Minnesota	FS North +	8 p.m.	TBD