HeidiSioux on the Hobey Hat Trick.

YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING
I have been harping all year that Nathan Gerbe didn’t deserve to be a Hobey finalist because of his on ice dirty play and was all ready to blast the world if he was included. I swallowed my tongue when the committee included TJ and figured if the committee could include TJ despite his off ice incident, then I would overlook Gerbe’s suspension from his league. After Gerbe was included in the Hobey Hat Trick yesterday and JPL was excluded I threw up my tongue.

On the banner of the (Hobey Baker website) it says “Character Builds Excellence” and the (criteria) for the award is as follows:

Hobey Baker Memorial Award Criteria
1. Candidates must exhibit strength of character both on and off the ice.
2. Candidates must contribute to the integrity of the team and display outstanding skills in all phases of the game.
3. Consideration should be given to scholastic achievement and sportsmanship.
4. Candidates must comply with all NCAA rules: be full time students in an accredited NCAA college or university; and complete 50% or more of the season.

Gerbe was suspended by the commissioner of his league, Joe Bertagna, for an on ice incident during a game with Merrimack. Commissioner Bertagna is quoted as saying:

“"While a suspension might not have been forthcoming on last night's actions alone, this is not the first time this season that I have been made aware of inappropriate behavior from Nathan," said Bertagna.”Given the fact that he had already been put on notice, I felt that supplemental discipline was in order in this instance."

After reading this statement by Gerbe’s league commissioner I truly have to wonder if Gerbe meets the criteria of “Integrity”, “Strength of Character ON the ice” and “Sportsmanship” spelled out on the website. This was not a one time deal – the suspension came because of a pattern of behavior, not a single lapse in judgment.

Gerbe is a good player, probably one of the best in the country and has good numbers (I would still take TJ over him though). However, to include him and to exclude Lammy in the hat trick is outrageous. While I didn’t expect TJ to be in the hat trick, I certainly thought that JPL would. Lammy is every bit the player that Gerbe is. Not only did he lead the country in goals against (1.6424), save percentage (.936) and shutouts (6), he played the toughest schedule in the country and allowed 2 or fewer goals in 30 of the 41 games he played this year. To cap off his spectacular season numbers he had an outstanding regional tournament holding the two opponents to 3 goals total and a save percentage of .963 on 82 shots. He also single handedly kept the Sioux in the game vs. Wisconsin until they could find their scoring touch. Oh yeah, he doesn’t have any off OR on ice incidents to knock him out.

I am also not real high on Ryan Jones. He has good numbers, but I have never gotten the feeling that he can completely take over and control a game’s outcome like Porter and Lammy can (and maybe Gerbe – that hurts to say) and like Duncan could last year. But Jones being included does not turn my stomach the way Gerbe does.

For the life of me I can’t find any logical reasoning for leaving JPL out of the hat trick. As I don’t think this was an anti-UND or anti-WCHA choice the only thing I can come up with is it was just stupidity.

Get Well Tom Pohl (HeidiSioux62)

Get Well Tom
On Sunday night a horrible accident occurred in the Minnesota/Mankato playoff game. An accident that brought back horrific memories to Sioux fans of Robbie Bina crumpling to the ice after breaking his neck during a game.
Tom Pohl of Minnesota was checked into the boards, his helmet came off and he hit his unprotected head on the boards and ice and suffered a very severe skull fracture. This was an incident that terrifies all hockey parents, family, friends, coaches and fans. Hockey is a very rough sport and all of us who have someone we care about playing the game has the fear tucked into the back of our minds that something like this may happen. Fortunately, these accidents are rare, but when they do happen, it causes us to pause and say “but for the Grace of God …”.

Tom,

I just wanted to let you know that I, along with many, many others are praying for you and wishing you a speedy recovery. This Sioux fan has been thinking of you often and I was very encouraged to read this morning that your condition has been upgraded and you have been moved out of ICU. It doesn’t matter that you may play for an arch rival’s team because if you play hockey, you are “one of the family.” Get well soon.
HeidiSioux

While most of the attention has rightfully been directed towards Tom, his family and his injury, someone that may be overlooked in this incident is Jason Wiley. Jason is the player who checked Tom. From what I could see watching the play, the hit was not malicious or done with the intent to injure (unlike the hit that occurred previously in a similar instance). From all accounts, Jason appears to be sincerely remorseful and extremely shaken up by the hit (again, unlike the player involved in the previous incident). This shows great compassion and heart, and I would like to encourage Jason to seek out all the help and support he can find from his family, friends, coaches and teammates to assist him in dealing with this situation. I would also like Jason to know that this Sioux fan is not only thinking of and praying for Tom Pohl, but also for him.

Open letter to the WCHA coaches (By HeidiSioux62)

Open letter to WCHA Coaches

This is an open letter to the WCHA coaches regarding what I feel is a growing problem in the WCHA – a lack of quality officiating. I have sent this letter to all of the WCHA coaches. I have no illusions that my little letter will change anything, but it will be interesting to see if I get any responses and if so, what those responses are.

Dear WCHA Coaches,
I am writing to you as a life long fan of college hockey and in particular WCHA hockey. Tom Kurvers, the player personnel director for the Phoenix Coyotes was quoted in the (Minneapolis Star Tribune) as saying "The best league in this country is the NHL, obviously, but do you know what's the second-best league?" Kurvers said. "It's the WCHA. In the same article he is quote as saying “The WCHA is the second-greatest place to play hockey in the United States."

I truly believe this, however, I am becoming concerned with the direction that officiating in the league is going. There have been several games this season that have been decided by the officials and not the players, most notably the 2 incorrect calls regarding goals that resulted in apologies being issued by the league. There have also been games decided by numerous “not-calls”. I have watched as extremely skilled layers form all teams (Ryan Lasch, Chad Rau, Andreas Nodl, T.J. Oshie, Garrett Roe, Ryan Duncan, Tyler Bozak, Blake Wheeler, Peter Rouleau and Kyle Turris to name just a few) have egregious penalties committed against them with officials directly watching and often commenting and no call is made. This is extremely unfair to these kids who work so very hard and play their hearts out every game.

The WCHA has consistently been able to recruit the best talent that chooses to attend college and play hockey. Academics of course should be the first priority, but realistically many of these young men have aspirations to be professional players and choose a program based on how it may be able to facilitate them in reaching their goal. I believe that as a whole the coaches in this league work very hard to assist their players in achieving whatever goal a player may have. I also believe that this hard work is being undermined by the lack of high quality officiating.

I would respectfully encourage each of you to speak with your former skill players now playing professional hockey and ask them their impressions of the officiating in their professional league as compared to the WCHA. I would then encourage you to bring this feedback to the attention of Commissioner McLeod and director of officials, Greg Shepherd at your summer league meetings.
The WCHA is, in my opinion, the best hockey in the world. The coaches, fans and most importantly, the young men who give everything they have game in and game out, deserve to be able to play to the best of their ability by having the rules set out in the (NCAA rule book) enforced.

Guest writer Heidi Sioux and her take on The Goons of NCAA Hockey

I was inspired by your name and decided to write a little something about “Sioux Goons”. I have spent the last few days reading articles on hockey web sites and their comments, blogs, and message boards regarding the UND/Denver series this past weekend. For the most part I have found the majority of it quite humorous. The venom, passionate hatred, and hypocrisy that the Sioux are totally at fault for everything that happens on the ice has been absolutely hilarious.

There is an amazing amount of revisionist history. One of the ones I like the best is that the squad this year is somehow “worse” than previous Sioux teams. I especially like the comment in the comment section of the Western College Hockey that insinuated that Blais’ teams were angels.

Color Me Surprised
Anonymous said...
“Hakstol is a far cry from what Dean Blais was at that school. Blais may have had some tough players but they generally didn't act like a bunch of goons.”
3:58 PM

I have been attending UND hockey games since I was a baby (my folks brought me up right) but didn’t really start paying attention to it until the late 70’s when my obsession was born and from that time the teams have consistently stayed the same. The Sioux have always been a “hard hitting, in your face, don’t mess with me or my teammates or you will sorely regret it” team. Gino and Dean’s teams were always that way and Hakstol has just followed the tradition.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. Gino’s teams included such notable “goons” as Jim Archibald, Landon Wilson, Marc Chorney, Dean Dachyshyn, Justin Duberman, Craig Ludwig, Russ Parent, Gary Valk, Micky Volcan, Howard Walker, Dixon Ward, Marty Schriner and Chris Jensen. Dean’s teams have also included their fair share of notable “goons” - Mike Commodore, Matt Greene, Matt Jones, Matt Smaby, Andy Schneider, David Hale, Tim O’Connell and Mike Prpich (I know there are more than this for both coaches, but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head). Throughout this period of goonery, the Sioux have amassed 5 National Championships, 9 WCHA Championships and have sent more than 75 players on to actually play in the NHL. Not bad for a bunch of “thugs”.

Two of my favorite “goons” are Jim Archibald and Mike Commodore. Archie, who was a winger, played in 154 games had 248 penalties for 540 minutes and – wait for it – had 75 goals and 69 assists for 144 points. Although he averaged approximately 3.5 minutes of penalty time per game, he also contributed .93 points per game. Mike Commodore, who is one of my other favorite players, contributed 151 penalties for 382 minutes in 106 games. This is the same Mike Commodore who has played in two Stanley Cup Finals, has a Stanley Cup ring and was recently traded to the top NHL team in the East, the Ottawa Senators, as they prepare to make a run at the Stanley Cup.

Puck Swami on the USCHO board had an interesting take on the Sioux physicality ( – post 350), I am not sure I totally agree. The one quote that I did chuckle at though was:

“It starts at Level 1 "check-them-cleanly-but-violently-all-the-way-through-the-boards philosophy (Kris Porter/Matt Smaby/Mike Commodore)" that tries to establish the Sioux as masters of the physical domain.”

This is the same Mike Commodore that took offense to Alex Brooks of Wisconsin taking “liberties” with one of our skilled players and beat him so bad he had to have plastic surgery. I’m pretty sure that it was after this fight that the “Commodore Rule” was established which gives increasing DQs for repeat offenders.

Our current “goon” (according to all the comments on various web sites) Joe Finley has a career total (including this year to date) 87 penalties for 231 minutes in 113 games (he’s got a ways to go to catch up with Commy). For this year his stats are 22 penalties for 63 minutes in 29 games and is a plus +22. He is tied for major penalties with one with several of our other “goons” – Ryan Duncan, TJ Oshie, Rylan Kaip, Kyle Radke and trails the biggest goon on the team Derrick LaPoint who has 2. Boy oh boy, are these guys a bunch of thugs. Would hate to meet any of them in a dark alley – OK, Radke pissed might make me shake in my boots a little.

While I really like the physicality that this years team is playing with and I am tremendously proud that they are willing to stand up for each other and take their punishment like men, these kids couldn’t hold a candle to the “brutes” that came before them. This is by far the least physically intimidating team the Sioux have had in a very long time. What they may lack in size however, they more than make up for it in HEART and PRIDE.