Showing posts with label UNO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UNO. Show all posts

Friday, November 11, 2011

Classic Dean Blais

Check out these quotes by former Fighting Sioux head coach Dean Blais. You have to love guys like Blais who tells it like it is. I don't think I would classify this as bulletin board material because that's the way that BSU plays, I would bet that BSU will come out flying tonight. These comments kind of remind me of the Tampa Bay Lightning as well.
Rob White, WORLD-HERALD --- Unlike last weekend's wide-open series with Colorado College, in which the Mavs earned a split with the team that had been ranked No. 2 in the country, UNO knows things are going to look different this weekend.

"We thought we'd match up well with CC because that's a skating team," Blais said. "They were both great games. (But) these aren't going to be great games. It's going to take a lot of patience. At times there will be boredom because of the way they play."

[Dan] Bakala is 2-3 this season with a 2.87 goals-against average but a save percentage of only .886. He's split time with two others thus far for a Beavers team that is 4-6 and 2-4.

But this weekend, UNO comes to town.

"They are disciplined in everything they do, and you have to give their coaches credit for that," Blais said. "They don't take chances offensively. Defensively they play a real compact defensive-zone coverage. They'll give you shots from the outside knowing their goaltender is good."
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Monday, October 03, 2011

Notre Dame not going to the NCHC.

Dame Notre Dame Fighting Irish logoImage via WikipediaWell it's official the NCHC will not be adding the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Like I have said in the past I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal for the NCHC. For the naysayers that think this a fatal blow to the newly formed NCHC are delusional, the NCHC is going to be a top league in college hockey and is home to 17 national titles (UND 7, DU 7, C.C. 2, UMD 1).

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced today that it will launch its inaugural season in 2013-14 as an eight-team conference.
The eight institutions in the new Division 1 men's hockey conference are Colorado College, University of Denver, Miami University, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of North Dakota, St. Cloud State University and Western Michigan University.  St. Cloud State and Western Michigan accepted invitations to join the Conference on September 22 following a comprehensive process to identify additional members.  

"We are very confident with our decision and excited to move forward as a strong eight-team conference," said Brian Faison, Director of Athletics at North Dakota and the spokesperson for the Conference's Athletic Directors Committee.  "As we have stated many times, it is our goal to establish the National Collegiate Hockey Conference as the premier conference in men's hockey and there's no question in our minds that we are well positioned to do so with our membership.  We conducted a deliberate and exhaustive process that included consideration of adding more institutions.  In the end, we determined it is in the best interest of the Conference to proceed with our eight outstanding programs."

Dating back to the year 2000, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference boasts four NCAA National Champions, 14 NCAA Frozen Four appearances, 12 conference regular-season championships and 10 conference tournament championships.  All eight members were participants in the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship tournament in one or both of the last two seasons.

In addition to completing its membership, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference has been conducting a national search for its first commissioner and expects to have its top executive in place by the end of the calendar year.   
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Monday, July 11, 2011

Super League rumblings

There is a lot of stuff coming out about the new "Super League" and we will try to keep up with all of the news that comes out. I am sure that more stuff will come out as we get closer to the Wednesday press conference. Some of this stuff makes your head spin and your chest hurt.

Some interesting things to come out in the last 24-48 hours... While the president of SCSU Dr. Earl Potter has been saying, “We expected to be in conversations about being in a new league,” Potter said today “But as we looked at it ... we intended to say ‘no.’ ” That statement seemed kind of odd to me when I first read it. I am not sure why the president of SCSU to make this comment because it appears more like sour grapes from the SCSU end and it would also burn bridges in case the "Super League" did come back and ask SCSU to join.

Well now! Further investigation revealed that SCSU is talking out of both sides of it's mouth, it has become public that SCSU was in fact trying to get in to the proposed "Super League" and they were turned down. So after SCSU is rejected they decided to bad mouth the new Super League. Compare and contrast, WMU is also trying to get in the the new "Super League" while not yet a member, is going about it in a lot different manner and holding comments for now, which appears to be a good idea. I also imagine that maybe WMU and Notre Dame might be part of a proposed package deal and we're waiting for Notre Dame to make a decision.
Matt Wellens; The Daily News ---- Multiple sources who would only speak on the condition of anonymity at Northern Michigan University, a CCHA member, have confirmed the formation of the new six-school league and next week's pending announcement, though those sources say Western Michigan is on the outside looking in despite a recent trip by WMU officials to North Dakota.

St. Cloud State of the WCHA is also pressing to get into the league, but it is unlikely the Huskies will be included, one source said.
This revelation proves that the new Super League is not messing around and wants to be a serious counter weight to the BTHC. Hat tip to Matt Wellens of the Daily News.
Invitations were also extended to Boston College and Boston University to join what has been dubbed the "Super League," but both schools turned down the offer to leave Hockey East.
One thing that has been a head scratcher is the fact some people in the WCHA have said that they didn't see this Super League coming. How did they not see this coming down the pike? The reason that I am surprised is that there were all kinds of rumors about the formation of the Super League floating out there since the Frozen Four. My next question is do these schools not communicate with each other? If I was an AD at one of the schools not rumored to be in the Super League mix I would have picked up the phone and started asking questions. You have to be proactive and not reactive.
Beth Bragg; ADN.COM --- The teams are North Dakota, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha. A sixth team, Miami of Ohio, would come from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Cobb said.

"I don't think anybody saw this coming," he said.

A call to WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod was not immediately returned Thursday. Cobb said that at the annual WCHA meeting in April, there wasn't a hint that any school was thinking about leaving the league.

"At our meeting in April we voted to extend an invitation to Miami and Notre Dame," Cobb said, referring to a pair of CCHA teams. "That passed with 100 percent of the vote. Nobody said they were unhappy. We left the April meeting and basically some of them contacted Notre Dame and Miami and said, 'Don't take the WCHA invitation, we're going to invite you to join our super league.'

"I blame everybody for being less than honest with their own league members. It's a really sneaky back-door deal."
I believe there are going to be some hard feelings when this is all said and done. I just hope that the schools leaving the WCHA will try and schedule the teams in the WCHA and CCHA. I also hope that there will some how be a way to smooth over some of these hard feelings or it could be a contentious times for the next two seasons remaining in the WCHA.

We don't have a choice

We keep hearing from the Big Ten Hockey Conference fans that we don't have a choice on conference affiliation, well to be honest with you, either do the fans of the five WCHA teams; UND, DU, UMD, UNO, C.C. fans... can we can not play that game as well? You, me and other fans of the five WCHA teams in question have no say in the matter. In the whole grand scheme of things it's really the decision of our programs athletic departments and the fans, bloggers and media members don't have a say one bit, we are a long for the ride.

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