Goon's Rambling 9-28-2006.

These People Can't Be serious
CHN
Here are the College Hockey News picks for pre-season all American.
First Team. I have no issues with this First team. Duh Elliot is a shut down goalie and back stopped the Badgers to the NCAA title. Without Brian Elliot no way Wisconsin wins that tourney at least not with Shane Connelly in net.

First Team

F - Brian Boyle, Sr., Boston College
F - Scott Parse, Sr., Nebraska-Omaha
F - T.J. Oshie, So., North Dakota
D - Matt Hunwick, Sr., Michigan
D - Kyle Klubertanz, Jr., Wisconsin
G - Brian Elliott, Sr., Wisconsin

Second team.
F - Michel Leveille, Sr., Maine
F - T.J. Hensick, Sr., Michigan
F - Ryan Dingle, Jr., Denver
D - Alex Goligoski, Jr., Minnesota
D - Brett Motherwell, So., Boston College
G - Cory Schneider, Jr., Boston College
Players to watch according to CHN. F - Jonathan Toews, So., North Dakota - Oshie's passed him, slightly, but Toews remains a force to be reckoned with.
Are you kidding me?
What kind of crap is this? That has to be the understatement of the summer, if not the year. I guess the number three pick in the NHL draft this summer is worthy of being a pre-season All American, or not at least by CHN standards? What a joke. Are you serious? How is Toews not at least a second teamer? I suppose they don’t want to slight a more important B.C. or Michigan player the two teams are littered with them.
Lets Go Further
CHN has Cory Schneider listed at the second team All American. You can’t be serious, that is almost as funny as Al Montoya being one of the top American goalies in his age group, I don’t see any NHL teams beating his door down to sign him. I think it is a stretch to say that Schneider is the second best goalie in the NCAA. It’s obvious that CHN like INCH isn’t going to give UND any love so maybe we should just give up all hope on this site. Like I said these poll are nothing more than a beauty pageant or a popularity contest, they make good gee whiz reading. Its no secret that college hockey has an east coast biases, its well documented, they have for years even though its been proved that the WCHA is the strongest league in the NCAA right now. I figure CHN had to pick at least one of the two UND players so they picked Oshie. Not sure of the logic on this one. Or they close their eyes and threw a dart and the dart landed on Oshie.

Here is one of my responses
I posted this as a follow up to a message on Sioux Sports that was written by Farce PoohbahThe Link

I think you (Farce Poohbah)summed it up pretty well, even after being gone for a few days. I am sick and tired of fans expecting us to take this crap laying down. Notice its always from the people that were well represented In the polls. The Fighting Sioux are over looked year after year. Why. Because we aren't a gasp, a Big Ten team nor are we a big school. There seems to be this so called bias towards the bigger schools especially Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota and Boston College as well as an east coast bias.

Farce Poobah, I think you mentioned what a lot of us have been saying in this thread in one shape or another. However, some have taken issue with it. I guess one can’t call a spade a spade. Thanks for bringing up the numbers. For those of us that numbers savvy or good at math 14/81 is equal to 83%. Those are hardly All-American numbers. Nor are they very good at all. I think one can make the argument: Schneider is a good goalie (there is no question about it) but it has been proven that he fails to show up when it matters the most. Shall we say at key times like during the NCAA tourney? If he Corey do it in the big games how the heck is he ever going to play in the NHL? There are no Merrimac’s or Providence’s in the NHL.

Face it the Sioux have lit Schneider up in the past. Schneider was hardly sharp during last years semi final against UND (yep our goalie had a bad game too). Cory was also shredded for 6 goals by UND during the East regional in 2005. Or should we say when UND won the NCAA's version of the Bean Pot. Schneider lost big in his own back yard. Yep that makes me thing he is an All-American material. Of course not, but these things are decided long before they get to the playoffs. They base these numbers on regular season play. That is why I think some of these polls are a joke. I also think its funny when I see someone from Quinnipac or Mercy Hurst in the top ten of the NCAA scoring when they have been feasting on cup cakes all season. It just proves my theory that UND is definitely not Merrimack College, Vermont College, or University of Mass Lowell.

Back to the Pre-Season all-Big Ten poll. Michigan's name is all over the pre-season all Americans polls from CHN, So is Boston College. I am wondering if CHN and INCH know there are teams west of Minneapolis. What are Sioux fans to gleam out of last season's NCAA tourney; are the so-called self appointed geniuses telling us it had to be a fluke? The CCHA put four teams in the tourney last season, which in my opinion was too many, only to have one of them make it to the second round.

So in conclusion: UND has one all-American candidate and he is from the same team UND bounced Michigan out of the NCAA tourney last season. What are we to gleam from this poll that the last season was a fluke? I mean these are the same guys that were on the Michigan team last year in the poll this season. If last season proved anything it was nice to see Michigan out the safe confines of the state of Michigan, where they were one and done. I would like to see this happen more often.