Check out the Wild's stupid mascot

I saw this over on Puck Daddy but also in the Star and Tribune. The NHL doesn't need anymore cute Bears or other various animals and life forms. This appears to a marketing gimmick.

Sixty Minutes. No Alibis. No Regrets. Reviews the Fighting Sioux...

Gandalf The Red from Sixty Minutes. No Alibis. No Regrets. did a interesting preview on the Fighting Sioux. A couple things that stand out are: 1.) Joe Finley isn't seen as a key returnee. 2.) I just don't see Walski being the starter at UND. All in all it is a pretty neat preview.

School: North Dakota
Mascot: Fighting Sioux (for a little while yet)
Head Coach: Dave Hakstol, 5th year, 106-56-15

Last Season: 18-7-3, 2nd place WCHA; 28-11-4 Overall

Predicted 08/09 WCHA Finish: 4th

Key Departures:
F TJ Oshie, 18-27-45*
D Robbie Bina, 2-23-25
D Taylor Chorney, 3-21-24
F Rylan Kaip, 8-7-15
G Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, 27-11-4, 1.75 GAA
*All stats listed from 07/08

Key Returnees:
F Ryan Duncan (Sr), 18-22-40
F Chris VandeVelde (Jr), 15-17-32
D Chay Genoway (Jr), 8-21-29
F Andrew Kozek (Sr), 18-3-21
F Matt Watkins (Sr), 8-10-18

Top Sieve:
Aaron Walski (Sr), 1-0-0, 0.00 GAA

Key Additions:F David Toews (Shattuck), 44-56-100
F Jason Gregoire (USHL), 37-32-69, USHL POY
F Brett Hextall (BCHL), 24-48-72, Son of crazy Ron Hextall
D Corey Fienhage (MN HS), 6-10-16
G Brad Eidsness, 29-4-4, 2.12 GAA, AJHL POY

When Wisconsin Beats North Dakota: @ UND 10/31 & 11/1, KC 3/6 & 3/7

07/08 Recap: North Dakota has gotten into somewhat of a routine the last few seasons. They started off luke warm, splitting basically every series before Christmas. Following the holidays, they put it all together and rolled most of their opponents, until tying St. Cloud twice at home to end the season and any chance Wisconsin had at home ice in the WCHA playoffs. The Sioux fell just short of CC for the MacNaughton. North Dakota lost a close one to Denver in the WCHA playoffs before beating CC for 3rd place. North Dakota ended up in the Midwest Regional where they faced off against our Badgers after beating Princeton. Though the Sioux were down through two periods, they came back to win in OT. Hakstol made it four for four in Frozen Four appearances only to run up against their playoff kryptonite in the eventual champion Boston College Eagles.

In between all that, Wisconsin had an early season home series against the Sioux, which ended in a shuffle that saw ten skaters being sent to the showers before the final whistle and a post game confrontation between Hakstol and Coach Eaves. North Dakota didn’t stop their thuggish ways following that game. During a series w/ Denver, several fights occurred and the WCHA officials did their best to promote the Sioux’s disorderly ways, by not ejecting players for their conduct. And then there was the Joe Finley/Blake Wheeler square dance during the handshake line against minnesota, not to mention the extracurriculars that led up to that.

08/09 Thoughts: I don’t expect much to change w/ North Dakota’s thuggish ways this season. As much as I belittle their thuggishness, they have one hell of a program and I give them credit for their yearly success. This should be a trying year for the Sioux, as they lost more than any other WCHA team to graduation and early departures. Gone is top forward TJ Oshie to the St. Louis Blues. Gone are outstanding defensemen Robbie Bina and Taylor Chorney to the Edmonton Oilers system. On top of all that, Jean-Philippe Lamoureux is gone, leaving a gapping hole in net for the Sioux. Only Denver has as big of void to fill in net w/ an unproven WCHA netminder. What North Dakota has going for it is a great recruiting class and a solid group of returning players. I recognize almost all the new names, and they are all big time DI recruits. While the Sioux have lost a lot, they also have a lot coming in. It will be a big year for Ryan Duncan to see if he can still succeed w/ out Jonathon Toews AND TJ Oshie. I still think his Hobey Baker was a function of his teammates, not his ability level. Chay Genoway should anchor the blue line and Chris VandeVelde could be ready for a breakout year. At the end of the day (or season) I think the Sioux recent tradition of slow starts will put them too far behind the MacNaughton, but right in place for another NCAA appearance probably when the team is peaking. I’m sure Boston College will be there to end their season again.

Message board fodder...

There has been this on going discussion about UND recruiting policies/philosophies on “the Internet”; most of which are half true, completely false or spun in an anti-Canadian and pro American theme. This type of chest thumping below is an example of the type of crap Sioux fans have put up with for years. You know; that moronic sign that is held by Goldie during the UND and UM hockey series that says Manitoba’s Pride on Ice.

Since I came to Grand Forks, ND I have read how UND is slighting and or snubbing the local recruits/players by picking up the recruits from Saskatoon, Regina, Trail, Calgary, Thunder Bay, Manitoba and British Columbia. If you buy into the internet hype and listen to the spin of the Minneapolis media/talking heads you would have thought that UND only recruits 21-25 year old Canadians after they had used up all of their junior hockey eligibility. Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you look at UND’s rosters since 1996-1997 you will see a good mix of Canadians, Minnesotans as well as players from North Dakota.

Not to cloud the issue with facts, however, even with a Fighting Sioux coaching staff made up entirely of Canadians, UND is stealing many prized and highly sought after recruits right out Don Lucia’s back door in "the Metro area." Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Part of the problem is that some have put out this fallacious misconception that there should be a roster full of North Dakotan’s playing for the Fighting Sioux, however, that isn’t a realistic expectation. Frankly, it doesn't take a sociological or a demographer to know there just aren’t enough North Dakotans playing high school hockey in the state of North Dakota; if I recall correctly there are only 16 or 17 high schools in the state of North Dakota that is not a lot compared to the 200+ teams playing high school hockey in the state of Minnesota.

Many of the North Dakota kids playing high school hockey are not going to be making a division one hockey roster let alone a USHL or division three school’s roster. With the exception a few North Dakota high school hockey players; UND gets the majority of the players that are of Division one talent, minus a few notable defections in the early 2000’s. It took a North Dakotan to put Minnesota over the hump in winning a NCAA title.

Lets be realistic shall we, there are just not a lot of hockey players that compare to the likes of Ryan and Grant Potulny, Danny Irman and or Jay and Jeff Panzers. There aren't a vast number of North Dakota high school hockey players lurking in the weeds waiting for UND to sign them to a division one scholarship. If there were UND would have a majority of them on their roster right now.

There are a few these types of players coming up through the high school ranks and we will see them in the future, however, there aren’t a lot of them. That being said, UND will get a good share of these players when they come out after playing two season of juniors. A majority of these players play in hockey in the EDC and are located in the Red River Valley.

Lastly, the state of North Dakota has one of the smallest population bases in the USA. According the 2006 census date the population of North Dakota is roughly 635,867, while the population of Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area is 3,502,891 residents. That means the metro area is roughly 5 ½ times the population of the entire state of Minnesota, so the representation of North Dakotas on the Fighting Sioux roster seems about right.

It is time to get out of the xenophobic John Mariucci way of thinking. I am sick and tired of people complaining about the number of Canadians playing in Division one hockey. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a huge number of the worlds best players come from Canada, UND is a division one school so they are going to recruit the best athletes from where ever they come from. If they come from Saskatoon, Regina, Trail, Calgary, Thunder Bay, Manitoba and British Columbia so be it. To recruit any other way is silly and counter productive.

Happy spewed: My point has always been, one of the major reasons Minnesota high school has developed so well, as compared to Wisconsin, Colorado, and North Dakota, is that Minnesota high school players in the past, when the grassroots were developed, always knew they had a chance to make it to college. The kids in Minnesota knew that if they were one of the top kids to play the game of hockey in Minnesota, they would get a scholarship. On the other hands, the top kids in Colorado, Wisconsin and North Dakota have aways known that their schools would much rather have an older Canadian, who has played semi-pro in the Major Juniors for many years, and that these kids could be the best in their own state, and they probably would be passed over.

of course, the kids, and their parents, in these state said, "screw it" I will just play basketball, or get a job, it is a lot cheaper, and since there will never be a scholarship anyway, they have nothing to lose. This eroded local support, after all, why should people spend money on something without much future payoff? it only really takes one local kid to make it for a town to show a lot of pride for a long time, and that often then leads to parents also supporting the next generation and spending some hockey money. this has built up for a long time in Minnesota, and is one of the reasons why there is such grass roots support now, whereas in other states, no one cares, after all it isn't really their team, and they don't know any body that has ever played for them, anyway.

The grassroots support for hockey, especially in the Southern, and suburban areas, have been greatly helped by the fact that everyone knew, that the local hotdog kid had an outside chance of making it to the U, and making everyone in the local hockey community proud. Minnesota would probably have added a few Championships to it's record if it would have followed other schools paths, but it didn't, it actually did what was better for the State as a whole, and it has payed dividends down the road.