Friday, December 19, 2008

Back in hockey country. (catching up)

My work/training in south eastern Georgia is over. Back to reality. I was lucky enough I fly back to God's country last night. The reality was when I got off the plane in Grand Forks and felt that burst of cold air. It was at that moment that I realized that the temp was about 80 degrees different. Wouldn't you know it, I am getting back just in time for a Blizzard this weekend.

Hockey is not spoken in the south

First off while I was in Georgia I watched 4 hockey games total; (2x) Sioux hockey on Sioux extra and the (2x) Bruins and Thrasher. For me that isn't a lot of hockey most times I would have watched a game a night at least. So lets just say I am about 7 games short this past two weeks. Luckily, all four games were wins for my teams. While I was there I had like 2 conversations about hockey. No that I was around this past week likes hockey. It is like a foreign language that no one understands. So tonight I am going to get my hockey fix. Go Fighting Sioux.


Links for tonight's exhibition game

The team we are playing tonight beat MSU 4-2 (Box Score).

Article in the Grand Forks Herald about future Sioux hockey player Danny Mattson. I look forward to watching this kid play tonight.

They are talking about NCAA Regionalization again and I think it is a horrible idea. Lets just hope for some reason this idea gets killed. One nice thing about the current NCAA tourney is that your team gets to play other teams from other parts of the country.
The NCAA's Championships/Sports Management Cabinet will be looking, at its next meeting in February, to put its final stamp of approval on travel restrictions for its tournaments. The push for this came as the NCAA hierarchy pondered its financial issues, and the financial climate the country is in.

If approved as is, this means that, for the NCAA tournament, the committee would only be allowed to seed the top four teams in the bracket (i.e. the four No. 1 seeds). It would be able to do so regardless of geography (although current practice for hockey is to place them "closest to home" anyway). Meanwhile, the remaining 12 teams would have to be placed in the closest geographical region possible, regardless of where it falls in the 5-16 Pairwise pecking order.

Big Joe Finley is making his appearance after being off for 16 games. This makes me very happy and like someone said a standing ovation would be in order. I have been waiting to see big Joe patrol the blue line for most of the season. Question: who sits every week?

3 comments:

  1. You sit the youngest player who isn't putting in his all at practices. I think that's how they used to do it..

    As for the Georgia deal, my sister lives in Valdosta, GA, and the other lives in Clearwater, FL. I've been down there both times when back home the sioux were playing, and it was tough, although they did bring me to a bar that had the sioux game on (2003 when they played the gophers) and I know exactly how you feel, down there Hockey isn't even a word..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can tell you I can see why Hockey is failing in the South, it is a regional game. Not once did I see a commerical or anything in the paper about the Thrashers. Of course ATLANTA is a long ways away but still...

    ReplyDelete
  3. They all have a huge hard on for football (and dogs, It's not just a diss on Mike Vick either, it's true you're an outsider if you don't have a dog.. I'm serious) down there, I guess since anyone and everyone can play football. Only the truly skilled can play a sport called hockey..

    ReplyDelete