A must read by Elliot Olshansky; break down of the 2007 NCAA field

I thought this was an interesting article by that was written by
Elliot Olshansky of CSTV. The article broke down the teams that made the NCAA playoffs last season. This is what Elliot had to say about the three WCHA teams that made the NCAA tourney last spring. I think you will find it to be an interesting read.

North Dakota - It takes a special group of players to make a pact to stay in Grand Forks, as several of the Sioux's top stars did. Losing Jonathan Toews will hurt -- as will the departure of Brian Lee, even if some in Grand Forks won't admit it -- but in the WCHA, losing a couple of first-round draft picks is par for the course among the upper-echelon teams. The more important thing is that Ryan Duncan, T.J. Oshie, Robbie Bina and Taylor Chorney are back to lead seven of North Dakota's top 10 scorers, and it's unlikely that the string of bad luck that struck the Sioux in the early portion of the 2006-07 campaign will return. VERDICT: Better

While some of the media pundents have said UND isn't going to be as good this season as they were last year. Elliot Olshansky recognizes that UND still has the good core nucleus of a great hockey team that in my opinion will have one of the best defensive corps in the NCAA, the only weakness I see for UND is the goaltending; Philippe Lamoureux is going to have to keep his emotions in check if the Fighting Sioux are going to go far in the NCAA playoffs.

St. Cloud State - It's hard to imagine the Huskies being any better than they were last season with Bobby Goepfert now trying to carve out a professional career in the Anaheim Ducks organization, but then again, Jase Weslosky looked good in most of his appearances last season. More importantly, the high-scoring freshman duo of Andreas Nodl and Ryan Lasch is back for a sophomore campaign, although the early signing of Andrew Gordon will take its toll, as will the graduation of Dan Kronick. Bob Motzko has shown himself to be talented at getting the most out of his team, but there's only so long you can hold off the Wisconsins, Denvers and Colorado Colleges of the world. VERDICT: Worse

St. Cloud was a good hockey team last year that fizzled in the NCAA tourney yet again. Without Bobby in goal they just got worse. While SCSU wasn't very deep on the forward position the future looks very bright for the Huskies if their young goaltender Jase Weslosky 6-gp 5-1-0 gaa 2.67 save %.899 can carry the load. They do return Andreas Nodl who had 16 goals 30 assists for 46 points.

Minnesota - It's hard to be better than the best, which is what the Gophers were, statistically, heading into the NCAA tournament. It's also hard to be better when you've lost your three top defensemen, the forward expected to move back to the blueline to help compensate and the program's all-time leader in goaltending wins. On the other hand, the Gophers' losses at forward are minimal, except that Jim O'Brien could have been expected to take major steps forward this year, and that Mike Carman is not eligible to play until the second semester. Given that the Gophers' strength last season was offensive dominance and the ability to control the puck, if the re-worked defensive corps can hold the blueline effectively, Minnesota should not be too far off. In the meantime, though, the Gophers have a few things to prove. VERDICT: Worse

The Gophers return a good share of their offensive talent, however, they no longer have Alex Goligoski on the blue line quarterbacking the power play. Goligoski was one the best defensive players in the NCAA last season and would have fit nicely in the Gophers defensive scheme. While the Gophers still have some teeth in their line up they are going to have to score a ton of goals to offset having arguably one of the biggest head cases in net Jeff Frazee...

The Goon's WCHA goalie Rankings

Here is how I rank the top ten returning WCHA goalies for the up coming season.

1. Michale-Lee Teslak MTU .916 save % and 2.00 gaa
2. Rob Nolan MTU .910 save % 2.26 gaa
3. Peter Mannino DU .919 save % 2.29 gaa
4. Phil Lamoureux UND .913 save % 2.42 gaa
5. Shane Connelly UW .952 save % 1.11 gaa
6. Jeff Frazee UM .903 save % 2.35 gaa
7. Mike Zacharias MSU-M .892 % 3.02 gaa
8. Alex Stalock UMD .889 save % 3.16 gaa
9. Jon Olthuis UAA .883 save % 3.83 gaa
10. Jase Weslosky SCSU .899 save % 2.67 gaa

First off Connelley is no Brian Elliot but he does have the same goalie coach that Elliot had. The MTU tandem of Teslak and Nolan are the two headed monster that most teams would love to have on their team but dread having to face them. Jeff Frazee is going to get a sun burn on the back of his neck from the red light going off all season after the Gophers lost one of the best defensemen in the WCHA, David Fischer and Brian Schack are no where near the talent of Alex Goligoski.

Fall is on its Way...

Summer coming to an end

You can see the begining of fall coming but you can also feel the beginnig of the fall season in the air, I say this literally, as the farmers are harvesting their wheat and barley fields. My alergies have been killing me all week and I can't wait to it rains again to knock down some of this dust.

Incidently I was watching the weather channel this morning and I say 47 degrees as a low temperature, the drop of the puck is 44 days away. Summer is almost over and hockey season is on it's way. Here are a couple of things that I noticed while reading a recent College Hockey News article. Summer Session: North Dakota

Head Coach: Dave Hakstol
2006-2007 record: 24-14-5 (13-10-5 WCHA) Third consecutive Frozen Four appearance
Key Returnees: Robbie Bina D SR., Kyle Radke D SR., Philippe Lamoureux G SR., Ryan Duncan F JR., T. J. Oshie F JR., Matt Watkins F JR., Taylor Chorney D JR. Joe Finley D JR., Chay Genoway D SO.
Key Losses: Jonathan Toews (early departure), Brian Lee (early departure), Chris Porter, Erik Fabian

When the 2006-07 season began there were many question marks surrounding the Fighting Sioux. Such questions early were about the scoring and some questions surrounded Philippe Lamoureux and if he could be an everyday goaltender. Those questions were answered early with the offense, but it was the second half that Lamoureux proved to be an everyday goaltender.

About the 2006-07 season, head coach Dave Hakstol said, "It was extremely competitive and very exciting."

Hakstol also mentioned that "The parity was extremely competitive," meaning that there were many teams that he felt could win it all during tournament time.

The team made the Frozen Four again by defeating Minnesota in one of the greatest NCAA regional games that was ever played. Although it lost to Boston College in the semis, Sioux fans can still be happy about the team's performance.

The season ended when Ryan Duncan won the Hobey Baker award. Duncan was part of the second half surge that helped the Fighting Sioux throughout that part of the year.

"There were a lot of factors for our good second half," Hakstol said. "The development of the underclassmen improved, the transition went well and we found an identity that helped us late in the year."

As for the 2007-08 season, the Fighting Sioux look to be loaded on all cylinders, even despite losing underclassmen Jonathan Toews and Brian Lee. Although the Sioux only have four seniors on the roster, there is plenty of leadership on the team with eight juniors on the 2007-08 roster.

As far as the recruiting class goes, Hakstol said, "It is a very solid class with a good core of guys."

Overall there are six members of the class of 2011. "There are high expectations about this freshman class," said Hakstol. "They have all contributed on their teams in the past."

With four USHL players and two BCHL players on the list of recruits. And another newcomer worth notice is former Alaska-Anchorage forward Shea Hamilton who will look to establish himself as a role player.

"This is no different than any other year," Hakstol said about the teams expectations. "Our No. 1 goal is to be there in March and April. We have a good core coming back, and we want to come with a good start right out of the gates."

Even though the Sioux lost two players to the NHL, this team is still loaded. Expect this team to look towards a fourth consecutive Frozen Four appearance.

Early season prediction: anywhere from first through fourth in the WCHA

First off from everything that I have heard around town and through the Blog Sphere is that Shea Hamilton will not be joining the Fighting Sioux because he was dismissed from the team last spring for undisclosed reasons. Apparently the news media wasn't given the press brief on that one or they just have a case of ADHD.

Also, what is up with the prediction: way to go out on a limb on that prediction. Come on the Sioux will finish anywhere from first place to fourth place. If the Sioux don’t finish in first or second in the WCHA this season I would believe the Sioux will have unachieved as a team.

Is the NHL coming back to ESPN?

Look who’s talking: ESPN, NHL

For hockey fans that were upset with cable sport network ESPN after they decided not to cover the NHL after the lock out. Finally; have been given a glimmer of hope. Please God let this be true. In other words there is hope for the hockey fans that long for the NHL to be on ESPN again. OK boys; now let get this done and make it happen.

League approaches net about bringing games back as soon as ’08-’09

The NHL and ESPN are in discussions about bringing the league’s games back to ESPN2 as soon as the 2008-09 season.

Multiple sources described the conversations as preliminary. The two started talking the week of July 16 when the NHL approached ESPN about NBC’s nine-game regular-season schedule, plus the playoffs. NBC holds the rights to air the coming season as part of a revenue-sharing agreement, and the network holds a one-year option for the 2008-09 season.


A return to ESPN could boost the league’s profile on the network’s news shows. Some
say coverage of the league by ESPN has fallen considerably since the network’s contract expired. It’s not certain that NBC would exercise that option, given the sport’s tepid ratings on the network. Regular-season ratings on NBC averaged a 0.9 during the 2006-07 season and a 1.0 during the 2007-08 season over nine telecasts.

The key to this whole scenario is Versus, which holds cable exclusivity to all of the league’s games through 2011 and is paying the league a rights fee in excess of $70 million annually. Sources close to the Comcast-owned network, however, indicated that Versus would be willing to waive that clause, but only if it gets something in return — either a lower rights fee, a stronger schedule or a deal extension.

Sources say the conversations are happening at the highest levels and include NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and ESPN executive vice president of content John Skipper.

The talks with ESPN mark a turnaround from three years ago, when Mark Shapiro, then-executive vice president of programming and production, publicly questioned the value of having the league on TV — remarks that still make league executives bristle. The arrival of Skipper in October 2005 could allow both sides to overcome that, as sources close to the league believe that Skipper values hockey more than Shapiro.

The NHL has faced immense criticism from hockey fans and media for its relationship with Versus, which is in about 71 million homes and sometimes difficult to locate. The first year of the NHL’s relationship with Versus was marked by complaints over the network’s limited distribution in markets such as Buffalo and Anaheim, as well as in hotels around the country.

Ever since, owners and team officials privately have pushed for a return to ESPN, which is in 92 million homes and a staple in bars, restaurants and hotels across the country, but few believed such a move would happen because of Versus’ cable exclusivity.

A return to ESPN could boost the league’s profile on the network’s news shows. According to an ESPN study of its 1 a.m. “SportsCenter” program, the show featured 29 fewer minutes of NHL coverage in March 2007 than in March 2004, the last year ESPN aired NHL games. That amounts to a 28 percent decline in hockey’s allotment of airtime, ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber wrote in May.

The move would mark a change at Versus, as well, which is open to giving up its cable exclusivity if it can tap into ESPN’s marketing prowess. Over the past two years, Versus executives have complained privately that ESPN ignored their network. They are hoping for a situation that mirrors the NBA, where ESPN and TNT push viewers to each network’s games.

The league’s talks with ESPN come as it is negotiating with cable and satellite operators for carriage of its planned NHL Network and its out-of-market Center Ice package. Cable sources describe the negotiations as progressing smoothly, with the league taking a page from Major League Baseball by tying carriage of its planned channel with the renewal of Center Ice.

Some well-placed cable sources were skeptical that the league would be able to launch a 24-hour U.S. channel by this fall, given that the NHL hasn’t appointed anybody to run the channel yet and the NHL season begins in just three months.

Sources close to the league say that will not be a problem because it will rely heavily on an NHL Network that already exists — Canada’s version. The U.S. channel will have a look and feel similar to the Canadian one. The planned channel will have 50 live games in 2007-08. Most of the content will be identical to what appears in Canada, although it will be repackaged with some U.S.-based programming, sources said.

An internal team of five to seven people also has been assigned to work on the channel when it arrives in the U.S. The team will be led by Jody Shapiro, former vice president of business development at NBA TV, and Patti Fallick, group vice president of NHL Productions.

The league has hired Ascent Media Network Services to manage and distribute the channel. A subsidiary of publicly traded Ascent Media Group, the company has offices in Stamford, Conn., from which it will maintain the new network’s satellite signal, advertising insertions and other aspects of NHL Network. The company currently works with YES Network and the NFL Network.

The league wants the widest distribution possible for the new network and wants to stay away from sports tiers. It will continue to pursue the strategy used by MLB during its Extra Innings negotiations in hopes of avoiding sports-tier placement, but executives with several of the biggest cable operators have said they would only carry the NHL Network on a sports tier

One of the biggest complaints I have heard about the television channel Versus is that no one seems to gets the sports channel, its usually part of an extended cable package. In addition, compared to other sports channels Versus is unavailable to a lot of house holds in the USA for what ever reason. In the USA we don’t have the luxury of having all the sports channels like Canada does to watch the NHL on a nightly basis. For instance Canada has TSN, Rogers Sports Net as well as CBC on the Saturday night during the season and nightly through out the NHL playoffs.

It’s hard for People to be fans of a sport that aren't able to watch except for a couple nights a week. That is why I purchased the hockey package NHL center ice so I could watch the hockey teams that I wanted to see play. That is tough if you’re trying to sell a product to household in the USA. While I do get Versus on my cable package a lot of people I know or have talked to don't get Versus, so they were able to watch the NHL. For instance Sioux7 who lives in Fargo, ND was not able to see this season at his house on his cable package and had to go to a bar if he wanted to watch the game. I don't know about you but I am allergic to cigarette smoke and I don't want to sit in a smoky bar to watch a hockey game.

Blais McDonald to stay coach at Lowell

This article was written by Adam Wodon on college hockey news. While I have a great amount of respect for Adam Wodon I must take issue with some of the things that are written in this article.

Lowell Exercises its 'Right'

by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor

I had originally written this article to suggest that the firing of Massachusetts-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald would be entirely justified.

Soon thereafter, however, Lowell officials, and University of Massachusetts chancellor Marty Meehan, decided to reinstate MacDonald. This followed a suspension after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, failed multiple field sobriety tests, and two Breathalyzer tests found MacDonald at almost three times the legal limit.


Either way Lowell went, it could receive criticism or praise.

The original thought was that a DUI offense, while bad, is a pardon-able offense. But as new facts came to light, things looked grim for MacDonald. Police found four beers and a bottle of Absolut vodka in his car. His car looked like it had hit a tree or bush. And more.

First off: I am not going to say that I am a fan of drunk driving because I am not, drunk drivers kill 1,000's of innocent people every year on America's highways, however, what does this have to do with the offense. The offense was drunk driving; (OUI, DUI etc), the least of McDonald's worries is an open bottle in his vehicle, or the brand of the alchol that he drank. Regardless, if threshold of drunk driving is a BAC of .08 or .10; that fact is that offender committed a crime regardless if he drank wine, vodka, beer or whiskey. The fact of this incident was not the contents of the car (open bottles) but the BAC of the driver of that vehicle was too high.

Article Continued: However, it's easy to sit here from a distance, in cold detachment, and suggest that MacDonald should be fired. It's another thing to be his friend for 18 years, and see MacDonald lead a program that has had nary a discipline problem, and has the highest cumulative grade point average of any men's program at the school. That's the issue Lowell AD Dana Skinner faced, and he chose to keep MacDonald.

Thirteen years ago, Michigan made a similar choice when it retained Red Berenson, even though the now-legendary college coach was stopped for DUI and public urination. It certainly can't be said that Michigan is a renegade program by any stretch.

Coaches like to talk about "learning moments" and if handled right, they can turn their own embarrassing episodes into them.

Lowell had an even tougher decision, considering MacDonald's won-loss record at the school is not nearly as sparkling as Berenson's, even at the time, before Berenson had won his two national titles.

Unfairly or not, when you factor in what in many people's eyes has been an underachieving record at Lowell, MacDonald's dismissal seemed even more justified. MacDonald has been known as fun to be around, a glib interview, fiery — in other words, everything his predecessor, Tim Whitehead, was not known for. But that hasn't translated into any more success than Whitehead, who has gone on to prove himself at Maine.

But that only makes this decision by Lowell more palatable. After all, it didn't retain a cretin because he wins — like basketball's Bob Huggins.

So if Lowell believes it can live with MacDonald as its coach, and actually get positives from it, then it's their prerogative to make that decision.

Of course, this couldn't have come at a worse time, the program already embroiled in controversy and fighting for its very existence throughout the spring. Then, just as the program gets a reprieve, and it's announced that all 375 Club seat packages had been sold (meeting a goal), the DUI happens.

So MacDonald has a recruiting mess on his hands, partially, now, of his own making. Perhaps, in a perverse way, that will be his penance.

To quote the Caveman from the Geico comerical. WHAT? I honestly don't know what the point of this article is? The University made a decision to keep a hockey coach that in my mind is a good guy that made a bad mistake. It happens people. I am sure most of us know someone that got a driving under the influence charge. Lets give Blaise McDonald the benefit of the doubt, McDonald has apologized for his mistake and we should move on and let his action speak for himself. I doubt that this incident is going to affect Lowell's recruiting as much as the chance that the hockey team folding because of state budgetary constraints, that in my opinion would be more detrimental recruiting than a one time incident.

Honestly, I think that we can be assured that if this happened again McDonald would be out on his ear in a New York Minute. Lastly, comparing this incident to Red Berernson's incident 13 years ago, what does that incident have to do with this incident? Each are separate incidents that have no bearing on the other. If anything Red's incident was worse, public urination (basically you have a offense of drunken disorderly conduct and a DWI). Besides, on the recruiting front; Michigan is a big ten school with a winning history and 9 national titles making it a much easier sell than University of Massachusetts's Lowell is a state school in Massachusetts that is a middle of the road hockey team that doesn't even make the NCAA tourney on a regular basis. In fact your comparing apples to oranges. I could see why maybe Blais McDonald's record isn't as good as Red's.

Face it we are human being make and we move on. Some mistakes are worse than others, I would be willing to bet that McDonald isn't going to be the last one to make this mistake. I would also be willing to bet that there have been 150 OUI/DUI/DWI's in Lowell, MA since this incident and none have probably gotten the press this one incident has.

Do fans go to far?

Brad Schlossman's hockey blog has an interesting story about the Brian Lee's signing a professional contract and the response that has his signing has brought on by the some of "the Fans". I guess you could say that Brian Lee's leaving for the professional ranks has brought out a curious and in some cases classless response by some of the fans and I am sure that not all of them are Sioux fans some of them are from trolls that like to stir things up.

While it is not out of line to offer legitimate criticisms of a hockey players play and I believe that Brian's play while he was at UND was worthy of some critique. Some this stuff that was written was not constructive criticism or anything to do with debate and discussion; some of this stuff was pretty classless and of poor taste and really over the top. If you haven't seen it check out some of the stuff that was posted on the Herald Site.

I think it funny how some people are down right brave when they can post something and not put your name or face to the offensive comments. I also believe that as a society we have lost our civility and it's down right sad. People on the Internet have gotten to the point of out right hostility to anyone or any thing that they disagree with. Debate and and constructive criticism are healthy and there is nothing wrong with it, however, malicious comments with no content and purpose other than to be hurtful and out of line.