Tim Thomas On The Block?

I honestly don't see anyone picking up Timmy Thomas' and his huge 5 million a year contract, also, Tim Thomas is 35 years old. I also hope the Bruins wouldn't want anything to do with Christobal Huet, that guy is a brutal goalie.

One surprising rumor which just hit the wire is that the Boston Bruins are shopping last year's Vezina Trophy winner, Tim Thomas. If this is true, is it too early for the Bruins to give up on their down-to-earth goalie, a player they have a very heavy financial commitment to? (5 Million USD per year).

Does Chicago have faith in Cristobal Huet to take them to the promised land? It is possible that these two teams are disappointed enough in their respective goalies to try a switcheroo. But of course, that's easier said than done.[The Rink]

Avery's "pestrionics" get to Kovalchuk

My favorite punk Sean Avery, he makes for good theater. Whether you like Sean Avery or not, you have to admit it was smart hockey. I mean seriously, you took an offensive threat like Kovalchuk off the ice in essence ending his day early. I think Avery won that exchange.

NEW YORK -- The poke of the stick into a part of your body that might not respond well to that sort of thing. The hit slightly after the whistle designed to get your attention. The well-timed insult that gets under your skin and causes you to lose your cool.

Everyone knows the game of Rangers irritator Sean Avery -- but that doesn't make it any less irksome if you're in the wrong state of mind.

Just ask Devils star Ilya Kovalchuk.

With his team trailing the Rangers 3-1 and only 2:16 left in the third period, Kovalchuk found himself a couple of feet from Avery during a whistle. A tap of the stick and a few well-chosen words later, Kovalchuk was wailing away on Avery as officials tried to separate the pair.

They each received four minutes for roughing, effectively ending their nights with very little time left in the game. It left the Devils without their biggest offensive threat with the game on the line, and the Rangers without, well, a guy who gets paid to do just what he did to Kovalchuk.

"We obviously know the history with Avery and I think it's a smart play on his part to take Kovy out with two minutes left in the game," Devils forward Patrik Elias said after his team's 3-1 loss. "That's an advantage for them, obviously."

"He's always talks. It's part of the game," Kovalchuk said. "That time I should stay away from that, but we have a lot of great players who can do some damage in front. I heard it's a big rivalry, and now I know it."

Lesson learned.

Poll Monday

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll
February 8, 2010

Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Miami (46) 20- 4-6 996 1
2 Denver ( 3) 18- 6-4 949 2
3 Wisconsin ( 1) 16- 7-4 899 3
4 St. Cloud State 18- 8-4 844 4
5 Bemidji State 18- 6-2 703 7
6 Yale 14- 6-3 650 8
7 Minnesota-Duluth 18-11-1 642 6
8 Cornell 13- 6-3 637 5
9 Colorado College 17-10-3 635 10
10 Boston College 15- 8-2 598 14
11 North Dakota 13-10-5 538 9
12 Maine 14- 9-3 432 16
13 Michigan State 17-10-5 389 12
14 Ferris State 17- 9-4 387 11
15 New Hampshire 13-10-4 258 13
16 Union 15- 7-6 248 20
17 Vermont 13- 9-4 242 17
18 Massachusetts 16-11-0 201 15
19 Michigan 16-13-1 131 19
20 Mass.-Lowell 14-12-2 29 18
Others Receiving Votes: St. Lawrence 28, Alaska 18, RIT 15, Boston University 8, Rensselaer 8, Northern Michigan 6, Sacred Heart 5, Lake Superior 3, Minnesota 1

--------------------------------

USA TODAY/USA Hockey men's poll
[Feb. 8, 2010]

Rank School (first-place votes) Record Points Last week's rank
1 Miami (Ohio) (33) 20-4-6 509 1
2 Denver (1) 18-6-4 478 2
3 Wisconsin 16-7-4 441 3
4 St. Cloud State 18-8-4 400 4
5 Bemidji State 18-6-2 305 7
6 Cornell 13-6-3 289 5
7 Yale 14-6-3 286 8
8 Minnesota Duluth 18-11-1 260 6
9 Colorado College 17-10-3 244 10
10 Boston College 15-8-2 227 14
11 North Dakota 13-10-5 199 9
12 Maine 14-9-3 136 NR
13 Ferris State 17-9-4 98 11
14 Michigan State 17-10-5 87 12
15 New Hampshire 13-10-4 48 13
Others receiving votes: Massachusetts 27; Union 21;
Vermont 18; Michigan 6; Rochester Institute of Technology 1.

INCH Power Rankings

As always I include the INCH power rankings. Just for your information Cornell is 15th, Yale is 17th and UNION is 18th in the Pairwise Rankings.
1. Miami
2. Denver
3. Wisconsin
4. St. Cloud State
5. Yale
6. Cornell
8. Michigan State
9. North Dakota
10. Bemidji State
11. Minnesota Duluth
12. Boston College
13. Union
14. Maine
15. Ferris State
16. St. Lawrence
17. New Hampshire
18. Rensselaer
19. Michigan
20. Massachusetts

Dropped out: UMass Lowell
Bubble-licious: Alaska, Vermont, Boston University

Wheeler and O'Byrne fight.

This has to be one of the worst fights that I have seent his season, if not ever, epic fail... Puck Daddy also agrees with me as well. I can just hear Wheeler now; do you want to go? O'Bryne, yep. Wheeler, Really!?!

Dishonorable mention: Up 4-1 with 26 minutes to play, Marc-Andre Fleury(notes) and the Penguins defense couldn't hold the lead ... Sadly, Blake Wheeler's(notes) pugilistic skills couldn't match the excitement in Jack Edwards' voice leading up to his "fight" with Ryan O'Byrne(notes):

Comparing the Sioux and the Huskies.

The war of words has started already I have been lectured all weekend by Husky fans telling me that the Huskies are better than the Sioux in every measure. I can prove that this is simply not true. Defensively the Sioux are a better team. [National Stats]

Combined Special Teams: Totals PCT
18 North Dakota 152/295 51.5
38 St. Cloud State 141/286 49.3

Penalty Kill: totals SHF PCT
10 North Dakota 123/142 2 86.6
11 St. Cloud State 108/126 8 85.7

Scoring Defense: Games Goals G/GM
4 North Dakota 28 62 2.21
14 St. Cloud State 30 75 2.50

Strenght of Schedule
UND 5th
SCSU 6th

National Penalty Minutes
1 Alaska Anchorage 28 581 20.8
2 Ferris State 30 590 19.7
3 Canisius 28 530 18.9
4 Wisconsin 27 503 18.6
5 North Dakota 28 520 18.6
6 Miami 30 555 18.5
7 Michigan Tech 28 493 17.6
8 Bowling Green 27 471 17.4
9 Minnesota State 28 488 17.4
10 Minnesota Duluth 30 521 17.4

Ovechkin's Hat-Trick.

In my opinion I believe that Alexander Ovechkin is currently the best hockey player in the world. If I was an NHL Owner and had to build a franchise around one player it would be Alexander Ovechkin. I would even take Alex Ovechkin over Sidney Crosby any day. Ovechkins third goal was a thing of beauty. [Goal 2] [Goal 3]

Little bit of reality here.

This is for all of those Husky fans that are beating your chest about the SCSU Huskies and how great they are. Let's take a closer look at their schedule and who they have played. It's not impressive.

While SCSU may have an impressive record 12-2-2 the last sixteen games the Huskies haven't really played anyone that is very good in their impressive streak, except the C.C. Tigers. Looking closer in fact the Huskies have feasted on the weak sisters of the poor. UAA (X4), Brown (X2), MTU (X2), at Quinnipiac (X2), Minnesota (X2) and C.C. (X4) they were 1-2-1 against C.C.
[SCSU Schedule]

Drew Stafford and R.J. Umberger

Former Fighting Sioux forward Drew Stafford takes on former Ohio State Buckeye R.J. Umberger in a good fight. Both players Stafford and Umberger aren’t really known for their fighting skills so this fight wouldn't fall into the staged fight category.

Nothing to do in Fairbault and Grand Forks but skate.

This one is too good not to share. Having lived in Grand Forks, ND since 1993 there isn't a lot to do here in the winter. Maybe that is why I watch so much hockey.

When asked in a recent interview how he had become such a powerful, quick skater he replied, ” I went to high school in Faribault, Minnesota and college in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Skating was the only thing we could do for fun.” [read the whole article here]

Goons (not Goon), Fighting, and "Character" (Redwing77)

I'm going to open up my yapper once again to voice my opinion. Yet again ANOTHER QMJHL player is suspended indefinitely for an illegal hit. Pro-CHLers take note: This seems to be an issue in the Q this year as I've yet to hear about any such issues in the WHL, OHL, or whatever. So, what I'm going to say can't really be applied as a put down to Major Juniors as a whole. Only a fool would say that these acts are a problem only in Major Juniors. I've seen cheap shots at every level from juniors to the pros.

In the wake of the trade of Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils, the NHL Network went over the trade in depth. In the platitudes and endless meaningless dribble they called "analysis," one NHL Network Anchor called Patrice Cormier a "character guy" based upon his experience as Captain of Team Canada in the World Juniors. Sorry, but the only Team Canada guy I saw that would be a "character guy" would be that Eberle kid. That kid is going to be a stud. Hall wasn't bad either, but Eberle was amazing in the USA game.

In any case, I DOUBT Cormier would have worn a letter if "the hit" would have occured before the WJC. That is NOT a character move. And, even if it did happen, his reaction to the hit was not indicative of character.

I've always maintained that, though fighting is part of the game and should remain so, policing is not something that should be left solely to the fighters. If the game is well officiated, there really is a possibility of not needing fights for the period of games rather than periods. No, perfect officiating will not eliminate fighting and there are times when a fight is warranted. I think a fight might be something worthwhile when used as a motivational tool. It could fire up the team in the right circumstance. I also see fighting as warranted in the event of a cheap hit or undue physicality towards a smaller player or goaltender. I do not believe that the star power of a player necessarily warrants a fight should the star get checked. And clean hits should never spawn fights.

I also think that, once a fight is picked, that's who's fighting. 99.9% of the time, that's the case, but I once watched a game where Alexander Ovechkin (who I call Ovechchrist after how the NHL Network fawns over him...almost as much as they fawn over Crosby) picked a fight (or a fight was picked on him) with an opposing player. They both dropped the gloves. However, before they could start throwing punches, Washington's Bradley skated in and grappled him. To Bradley's credit, it would have been very easy to sucker punch the opposing player because the opposing player was obviously not expecting to be blind sided. However, he stepped in and they fought. Instead of what normally should have happened (Bradley assessed further penalty for interfering with a pre-existing fight (again by my definition), Bradley and the opposing player got 5 minutes and that's that. That's bush league. Ovechkin dropped the gloves. He's fighting. Or... give the option of that occuring and the punishment would be the same as a 5 minute major without a misconduct... meaning both Bradley and Ovechkin would sit for 5 minutes for Washington and the opposition would have enjoyed a 5 minute powerplay.

I also am a big fan of enforcers who can do something other than fight. There are quite a few, although some harbor attitudes that make them not very likeable. A few examples would be Philadelphia's Carcillo, Dallas' Ott, Chicago's Byfuglien, and perhaps with a little more training, Minnesota's Clutterbuck. Many have been like this even in the old NHL. Players like NJ's Scott Stevens, Toronto's Wendel Clark, and even Detroit's Gordie Howe (who did have a bit of a cheap streak to him according to my father who saw him live... though admittedly he is a Blackhawk fan...).

Terry Frei of ESPN once wrote about the decreasing need for an enforcer and, though I disagree with his angle of seemingly pining for those "old time hockey" days (Like Eddie Shore!), the gist is there: You need a tough guy on the ice, but you can't compromise the mission of the team to do so anymore. The mission, of course, is to put points on the board while keeping the opposition from matching or exceeding your point total or, in other words, "just win, baby!"

Coming up: Sioux and Huskies.

I posted this video in hopes that it will fire up Sioux fans for next week's series. I would also hope the memories of this painful series back in November will fire up the Fighting Sioux hockey team as well. Because face it the sky is not falling yet, but there is no room for error if the Fighting Sioux want to get home ice for the WCHA playoffs and make the NCAA tourney.

This is kind of where the UND Fighting Sioux's season took a turn for the worse. Listen to these two guys, I wonder how many complaints they got for making light of Marvin hit on Chay Genoway? Also, the refs threw SCSU a life line with this waved off goal that should have counted.

The game that hardly anyone saw. (Update with Video)

This is why I think the WCHA needs to have a WCHA network. MAYBE, channel 23 in Grand Forks, ND will pick up this game later this week. They do show other games around the league sometimes. I was able to watch the first game of the UMD and MSU-M series that happened a few weeks ago.

I don’t care what anyone says, the WCHA is the best college hockey league in college hockey and we can’t see 35% our games on TV. I think these games like UAA and SCSU need to be on T.V. and not just on some crappy webcast. I would like to see a replay with the over head camera and the synced up with the game clock.

Instead of being able to watch a good hockey game, instead I stomached Union and Clarkson (one sided game), B.C. and UMass (one sided game) and Cornell and QU (boring). I would also pay more money to see these other of market WCHA games on TV.

In St. Cloud, Minn., the St. Cloud State Huskies trailed 3-1 and 4-2 on the way to a tie. Anchorage managed just 19 shots on goal but got a goal and two assists from Kevin Clark. Ryan Lasch had two goals for St. Cloud State. On the tying play, St. Cloud State was on a power play and pulled goalie Dan Dunn for a two-man advantage. After Hanowski scored, the goal was reviewed.

"Right away (the referee) signaled 'goal,' so you're thinking — or you're hoping — that he's right," Hanowski told the St. Cloud Times.

"We got to the bench and, you know, I know the horn went off before (the puck) hit the twine in the back of the net. So you're nervous, especially since they're taking awhile to look at it. But it ended up being good and it's a big relief." [Rink and Run]

A conspiracy theorist might ask did Motzko buy his team a break with his end of game tirade last weekend. What do you think? Just think that 0-27-4 streak was in jeopardy of becoming history when the unexpected happened.

He said what?

I guess I would expect more from a college hockey beat writer for a major newspaper that writes for a top WCHA team. The Pioneers are a major player in the national spotlight, but their beat writer acts like a writer for a college newspaper. I don't know, it just seems like most of his blog posts contain some sort of red meat to be thrown to the wolves. You would never see Brad Elliot Schlossman write something objectionable like that.

The Pios got an Anthony Maiani goal 8:59 into the second period to take a 3-0 lead in a truly ho-hum atmosphere at Magness Arena. The play-making Maiani, who was brilliant last weekend at North Dakota, has three points (two helpers). He has nine points (two goals) in his five-game point streak. The shots are 35-17 and DU has yet to be called for a non-coincidental penalty. But the Pios are just 1 of 5 on the power play. They failed to score on a 5-on-3 advantage for more than a minute. After trips to Wisconsin and North Dakota the past two weekends, the Pios are obviously having a tough time adjusting to an inferior foe, and the crowd of around 4,200 has yet to get its their money’s worth. [Denver Post Hockey Blog]

Standing Rock Tribal Members To Petition for Vote

I have said before that the Fighting Sioux logo and nick name are on life support, if something doesn't happen pretty soon. It's time to either have a vote on the Standing Rock Reservation or we can kiss the logo and Fighting Sioux name goodbye. Time is running out, the ball is in their court. The UND athletic department is desperate to get into the Summit League (emphasis mine), because they don’t have a home for their men and women’s basketball, volleyball, track and field, swimming and diving and baseball teams. The Football team is still looking for a place to call home because the Great West Conference is  unimpressive and in my opinion an over glorified Divison II football league.

Next Tuesday a group of Sioux Nickname supporters on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation will circulate a petition around the community.

The petition will ask for a reservation-wide vote on the issue.

Nickname supporter Tom Iron says next Tuesday him and 8 others will start the petition to gauge tribal support in the next two weeks.

Iron says he will need 550-signatures to make it valid and that would override a moratorium that previously banned a vote.

He will present it to tribal chair Charlie Murphy and ask the vote to happen before February 18th.

That's the date of a State Board Of higher education meeting where some board members have indicated they might look toward retirement
[WDAZ.COM]

Josh Harding with an awesome save.

Props to RWD for finding this video. This save by Josh Harding was one of the top saves of the year in my opinion. Unfortunately he then had to take himself out of the game because he reactivated his hip injury that has been bugging him this season.

Hockey to watch this weekend.

For those that are concerned that there will be no hockey to watch this weekend you can get your hocky fix by watching the UAA and SCSU here. Sioux fans will probably want to cheer for the Seawolves so they don't pull to much further away in the standings.

On the NHL network there is an EZAC game between Union and Clarkson tonight at 6:00 PM Central Time on the NHL Network.

Cornell and Quinnipiac are on CBS College Sports at 7:00 PM Central Time(New York, New York) DirecTV 613, Dish Network 152.

There is a Hockey East game on New England Sports Network UMass against Boston College at 6:30 PM Central Time. DirecTV 628 and Dish Network 434.

For CC hockey here is the for their non-conference game against Air Force Academy 8:37 PM Central Time.

The outdoor game Between Michigan and Wisconsin is on BTN tomorrow at 3:00 PM Central Time.

Tomorrow the game betwen DU and AFA at 8:37 PM Central Time on Station Fox Sports Rocky Mountain (Denver, Colorado) DirecTV 683, Dish Network 414.

Jason Blake's first goal as a Duck.

Former Fighting Sioux forward Jason Blake has been traded to the Ducks this past week and he scored his first goal as a duck in his third game. Notice that Blake has shed the number 55 and is now wearing number 33.

A bit of props to Lou Lamorello (Redwing77)

I know I'm a Red Wings fan, but when it comes to building a team and making personnel decisions, I think Lou Lamorello is one of the best the NHL has to offer.

I know what you're saying "Redwing, you hyporcrit. The Devils aren't your team." True, but I've had a soft spot for them since Lou practically sprinted to the podium and announced Parise's name like a 4 year old sprints downstairs on Christmas Morning, opens the present he has been talking about all year long. You might be saying "You're just saying that because Lou is a college guy." Yeah, he spent time with Providence College and as an administrator with Hockey East. And yeah I consider him to be a big reason why HEA gets so much press compared to other college hockey leagues despite it not being as dominant historically compared to the WCHA (different argument).

Today, Lou Lamorello pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade sending rookie Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, a 1st round pick, and a 1st round dumb*** Patrice Cormier for Ilya Kovalchuk and a rookie defenseman Salmela. To me, this is a great move, at least in the short run.

Oduya and Bergfors are good players, for sure, but Kovalchuk is a proven commodity as well and will pay huge dividends to the Devils. Salmela is an unknown to me.

The big question mark is that first rounder. That's a long term "Will it bite us in the backside?" type deal. If the Devils find some way (unlikely) to retain Kovalchuk past this year (and still keep Parise and Zajac), the Devils will win hands down. Since finances, salary caps, and that sort of thing is like Chinese to me, I have absolutely no clue if this is even possible.

The bonus in all of this is that Patrice Cormier is no longer Lamorello's problem. Being traded to Atlanta will keep Cormier where he belongs: an irrelevant goon on an irrelevant team.

So, to recap: Atlanta gets a future top prospect, a solid dman, a rookie wing that can score, and a bum. New Jersey gets a serviceable, if unknown dman and a top line premier scoring forward. Short term? NJ wins. Long term? Unkown at this time.

I solidly believe that Lou is one of the best (if not THE best) GMs in the NHL.

A little Perspective on the NHL side of things

Ok, first, it's great to be on board with Goon and crew. And with that comes a "test" of our "seeing eye to eye." I want to give a little perspective on the NHL and my take on certain aspects. In other words, it's an opinion.

First: Pros and Amateur (NCAA or any other similar unpaid organized league) are night and day.

I am never one to have the same expectations between the pro teams I love (Red Wings, Devils, and a little Blackhawks...when they're not playing Detroit) and the amateur ones I love (such as the Sioux) but some of what I say would obviously contradict each other if put together.

Here's a great example: Attitude. It is a reasonable thing to believe that a pro team should win after bringing in big names and going about stating that they are going to be tough to beat. It compounds when the media buys into it. So, I have no problem feeling utter disgust towards the play of the Red Wings, injury-plagued or not. I have no such compulsion with the Sioux. They're main goal is to educate athletes and develop talent with 1a is winning. UND may have a great tradition of winning with 7 NCs and all, but I believe the greater tradition is the quality of athlete we send off to the pros be it the NHL, minors, or abroad. The world of NCAA hockey is a competitive learning environment. The victories are sweet and the defeat no less bitter, but they go off to the pros better people.

I can't claim complete superiority, but I look at the case of Jimmy Howard. He had a frustrating time at Maine. He did well, sure, but if Howard were on a team like DU or UND or perhaps BC, Minnesota or UW.... he'd've probably won it all in the NCAA but he didn't. Then got signed into an organization with depth. 3 time Stanley Cup champion Chris Osgood, world class backup Manny Legace...Uh... that's easy to crack right? Well, Legace left. In comes Hasek. No worries, spend time in Grand Rapids getting conditioned for the pros. Hasek takes 2 years. Then he goes. Oh good, now I can come in....oh wait... In comes Conklin. Now, Howard is in his first full year in the NHL and he's taken away the starting duties from Osgood. Is Maine a failure of an organization because, despite having a blue chip goaltender, they couldn't win it all? If I were a Maine fan (and I hear there are a TON of classy Maine fans about), I'd be proud of my program and proud that Howard chose Maine over BU or BC or Cornell (which is about as home town as he could have gotten being from Syracuse).

I am NOT saying that losing is ok provided that the players we recruit turn into great guys. I'm saying that we're out to win it all, sure, but if we fall short, we can fall back on the knowledge that, win the NC or not, the NHL and future aspiring NHLers know that UND's program is among the top for future pro development.

QMJHL suspends Marco Scandella indefinitely for hitting an opponent in the head

[props]Minnesota Wild defense prospect Marco Scandella has been suspended indefinately for this violent hit. You would think the players would get the message but they haven't.

BOUCHERVILLE, Que. -- The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has suspended Val-d'Or Foreurs defenceman Marco Scandella indefinitely for hitting an opponent in the head.

The incident occurred in a game Wednesday against the Rimouski Oceanic.

"This afternoon, (QMJHL disciplinarian) Raymond Bolduc informed me of his decision to suspend Marco Scandella indefinitely," league commissioner Gilles Courteau said in a statement. "After seeing the hit, I believe it is the right decision while the disciplinary process runs its course.

"Our position is clear: We have a responsibility to protect our players. Their safety is our No. 1 priority."

Scandella was considered to be one of Canada's top defencemen at this year's world junior hockey championship.

Bolduc will gather testimonies from on-ice officials as well as players and members of both organizations, then analyse the facts and review his findings with a committee before deciding what action to take.

No timetable regarding when a decision will be reached has been set.

UNO Mavericks close to a sellout.

The Quest Center seats 16,000 for college hockey, that would be a big crowd to watch a college hockey game in Omaha, Nebraska.

The big day is almost here! 1,421 tickets are left for SelloutOhioState.com. Come and join us for this historic... 6 minutes ago from Facebook

Parise and Zajac have a new teammate.

Apparently the New Jersey Devils have added a new piece to the puzzle, ESPN is reporting that the New Jersey Devils have acquired Ilya Kovalchuk for the stretch run. It would be interesting to see if Parise or Zajac get to play with the former Thrasher.

The New Jersey Devils have won the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes, acquiring the superstar winger from the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday night, a source close to the deal told ESPN.com.

The Devils have struggled of late, especially scoring goals. Veteran Devils GM Lou Lamoriello didn't hesitate, swooping in and acquiring the biggest rental player available on this year's trade market.

Kovalchuk will be an unrestricted free agent July 1 and contracts talks with the Thrashers hit a stalemate recently.

The move comes hours after Thrashers GM Don Waddell released a statement saying that contract negotiations with Kovalchuk had reached an "impasse" and that the team was exploring its options.

"Our goal from the start of this negotiating process was to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a long-term contract," Waddell said in the statement earlier Thursday. "During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life. We've spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives. Unfortunately, we've reached an impasse and at this point he has declined all of our proposals and we can't reasonably go any higher. [ESPN.COM]

Anton Volchenkov hit on Mike Cammalleri

Chec out this hit by Anton Volchenkov on Mike Cammalleri, ouch. I was watching the Bruins game and they just showed this hit. This is how former Michigan Wolverine Mike Cammalleri got hurt and is out 6-8 weeks.

Weekend Match-Ups (by Sioux 7)

Since we only have two WCHA series this week, how about a TOP TEN list?

10. The number of tie league games this season
9. Teams that still have a chance at home ice this season
8. What I did to my popcorn at the game
7. NCAA titles North Dakota and Denver each have
6. WCHA teams in the USCHO top ten poll
5. Is how many teams will be in St. Paul come March 18
4 . Out of the 5 WCHA series ended in splits last weekend
3. How many league wins MTU now has this season
2. Waved off goals from last weekend’s DU-UND series
1. Where DU is sitting in this week’s WCHA standings

CURRENT WCHA STANDINGS

TEAM………………….GP….W-L-T….PTS
1 Denver……………… 20….12-4-4….28
2 Minnesota-Duluth…..20….13-6-1….27
3 St. Cloud State……...20….12-6-2….26
4 Wisconsin………….. 20….11-6-3…. 25
4 Colorado College…..22….11-8-3….25
6 North Dakota………..20…..8-9-3.….19
7 Minnesota…………...20…..8-10-2 …18
8 Alaska-Anchorage…22…..8-13-1….17
9 Minnesota State…….20…..6-13-1….13
10 Michigan Tech…….20…..3-17-0….6

WCHA

Alaska-Anchorage at #4 St. Cloud State
Last weekend the Seawolves split with Minnesota in Anchorage and the Huskies split with Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Earlier this season the Huskies swept the Seawolves in Anchorage. The Seawolves continue to split their home series, loss on Friday and then win on Saturday, but this weekend they are traveling to SCSU. UAA has a 3-6-1 road record and SCSU has a 8-2-3 home record this season. The Huskies have a chance to take over 1st place in the league with a sweep of UAA. Coach Motzko has a hot team right now, winning 9 in a row before losing on Saturday. I’m sure the Husky faithful are hoping that was just a blip on the radar and not a cooling off sign. It will help the Husky cause to start a new win streak by hosting the 8th place Seawolves. I see SCSU starting a new streak this weekend. HUSKIES SWEEP

#6 Minnesota-Duluth at Michigan Tech
Last weekend the Bulldogs split with Wisconsin in Duluth and the Huskies split with Minnesota State in Houghton.

Earlier this season when these designated league rivals met in Duluth the Bulldogs split with the Huskies. And with MTU having their Winter Carnival this weekend it won’t be easy for the Bulldogs to try and grab four points. The Huskies are now official playing the spoilers, since they cannot get home ice in the playoffs. However, MTU can damage other teams’ chances of getting the WCHA regular season title. If Tech wants get some points they will need to score some goals, which they have had trouble doing this season. But I think the Huskies will damage UMD’s chances of a league title this weekend. SPLIT.

Non-Conference

Friday, February 5

Air Force (12-10-6 overall) at #10 Colorado College (15-10-3 overall)
Last weekend the Tigers split at home against St. Cloud State. Currently the AFA Falcons sit in 2nd place in Atlantic Hockey.

I’m betting this in-town rivals will be playing in front of a sold out arena. I haven’t followed Air Force, but they are 4-4-2 since the calendar changed to 2010. The Tigers haven’t fared much better since January 1, they have a 3-5-0 record. So I will stick with the WCHA in this battle. CC WIN.

Mercyhurst (12-14-2 overall) at #2 Denver (16-6-4 overall)
Last weekend the Pioneers swept North Dakota in Grand Forks. Currently the Lakers sit in 3rd place in Atlantic Hockey.

The Lakers have a 3-5-0 record in 2010, with one of those losses to UMD by a 6-0 score. The Pioneers are owners of a 5-1-2 record in this New Year. This game should be a DU blow-out. But, if DU is still thinking about their recent sweep of UND, they could get beat, not likely though. DU WIN

Saturday, February 6

Mercyhurst at #10 Colorado College
Have to stick with the WCHA in this game. CC WIN

#2 Denver at Air Force
I’m sticking with the dub in this game too. DU WIN

Camp Randal Hockey Classic
#19 Michigan (15-12-1 overall) at #3 Wisconsin (15-7-4 overall)
Last weekend the Badgers split in Duluth with the Bulldogs, and the Wolverines split with arch-rival Michigan State during a home-and-home series.

Earlier this year these teams met in the College Hockey Showcase over Thanksgiving and the UM beat UW by a score of 3-2 in Ann Arbor. UW has not lost back-to-back games this season, and they lost on Saturday. This game will played outside at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. So weather could be a factor in this game, the forecast for Saturday is flurries with a high in the mid 20’s. I’m going with the home team in this outdoor contest. BADGERS WIN.

BYE WEEK – OFF
#9 North Dakota
Minnesota
Minnesota State – Mankato

INCH Chat.

I have to admit that I haven't been a big fan of INCH in the past but I have to admit that Gladdy is definately growing on me. I think of all of the INCH writers I think he is the most even handed. Funny he has more confidence in the Fighting Sioux than some of our fan base.

Bert (Titletown, ND)
Gladdy you seem to have more confidence in UND than most of the UND faithful. Why?

Joe Gladziszewski (2:39 PM)

Must be because I'm from a different part of the country and not saddled with the lifelong stigma that North Dakota is always under-appreciated when good, and absolutely terrible when not in first place. I like the team's grit and scoring depth primarily. They're a tough team to play against, and even in several losses I think they've outplayed their opponents. The worm's gotta turn. [INCH Chat]

Thrasher GM Don Waddell Ilya Kovalchuk

Holy Cow is Kovalchuk going to cost a lot of money for the team that wants and ends up signing him; it’s going to cost some team over 10 million a year to sign him. There is a lot of chatter on the blogsphere on where he is going to go. I am hoping the Boston Bruins are going to make a run at him but I don't think they have the cap space or anything to trade back to the Thrashers. The Bruins GM has said he won't trade the first round pick in this year's draft that they got from the Leafs for Phil Kessel. I have seen Blake Wheeler and DU Pioneer Joel Colborne's names thrown around as trade bait.

Statement from Thrashers GM Don Waddell:

"Our goal from the start of this negotiating process was to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a long-term contract. During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life. We've spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives. Unfortunately, we've reached an impasse and at this point he has declined all of our proposals and we can't reasonably go any higher.

Ultimately, we offered Kovy more than $101 million over 12 years, which would have been the highest contract signed by an impending unrestricted free agent in the history of the league. If accepted, this contract would have been the second highest offer ever to any NHL player. We also met his desire to be the highest paid player based on average annual salary with a separate offer of 7 years at $10M per year ($70M). This offer is $0.5M higher per year than any other player. [The Hockey News]

More on the SCSU non-goal.

Personally I think it’s funny that this argument has comes full circle. UND during their second game against SCSU earlier in the season had a legit and legal goal waved off by the officials, this non goal probably cost UND at least a tie in the game and possible points that may in the end cost them dearly. UND also had a blown call in Duluth where the puck actually hit the net above the glass and then came back on to the playing surface and was shot into the UND net. That blown call cost UND a series sweep and points that would be very valuable to the Fighting Sioux that are now fighting for home ice in the WCHA playoffs.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, SCSU had another goal waved off and it cost them a game, it could cost them a place in the standings. I guess I am not feeling a lot of empathy for them. Two seasons ago there was a scandalous goal that should have counted but was waved off for SCSU. The Wisconsin Badgers also suffered the same fate again against DU. Through some coincidence those two blown calls ended up benefiting DU.

What can we do? We know Bob the refs in the WCHA suck and it’s isn’t going to change until member school grow some balls and convince their athletic directors, coaches and faculty reps to make some noise at the WCHA meetings. Until then the status quo will not change. I don’t feel any empathy for the SCSU Huskies, because my team has been on the short end of every call this season. Like Gandalf says every teams suffers from the refs except maybe DU.

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod said Wednesday that SCSU coach Bob Motzko's public reprimand for actions after Saturday's 6-4 loss at Colorado College will not include a fine. The league announced the public reprimand in a short news release late Tuesday afternoon. The reprimand stemmed from Motzko's heated confrontation with referee Brett Klozowski regarding a disputed non-goal call late in the game.

"I don't have anything to add," Motzko said after practice Wednesday. "I've already said everything I wanted to say."

That perhaps was a reference to a telephone conversation with WCHA Supervisor of Officials Greg Shepherd. Motzko also made the following comment to reporters Saturday: "We scored a goal. Everybody in the rink knows we scored a goal. There's nothing else to say."

McLeod said the league's code of conduct required a reprimand for such an incident.

"The reprimand is just that: A reprimand," McLeod said. "There's no further action. There is language in the code of conduct where there can be additional steps taken if there's a repeat offense. Then we could get into other things."

WCHA coaches are subject to a fine of $1,000 for making comments in the media critical of officiating. And, in some cases, schools have taken action against their own coaches for their actions at games. The most recent example came a year ago when Denver University suspended George Gwozdecky for his infamous walk across the ice to protest a call in a game at North Dakota.

First we have to correct this inaccuracy. Gwozdecky was suspended by the WCHA after he was kicked out of the game and got caught cheating, after leaving the bench area Gwozdecky went to the press box and was communicating with the DU bench. The league did not suspend him for showing up and berating the officials.

This didn't rise to that level. After Aaron Marvin appeared to tie Saturday's game at 5-5 with about 1:30 remaining, Klozowski waved off the goal. The Tigers added an empty-netter, and the two points at stake meant the difference between being tied for first and in third place in the WCHA entering this weekend's home series with Alaska Anchorage. Even had they finished in a tie, the one-point boost would've put the Huskies in a tie for second, one point back of first-place Denver.

Huskies athletic director Morris Kurtz said Wednesday the matter is resolved and there will be no internal discipline of Motzko by SCSU.

McLeod said Shepherd has spoken with Klozowski about the incident, but there will be no discipline for the referee. Klozowski is in his second year working WCHA games. He did not referee any postseason games last spring. Previously, he worked several seasons in the CCHA.

"You can argue whether the call should be made or not made," McLeod said. "If you look at the replay, (Klozowski) is as close to the play as can be. He lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle. That's it. the play is dead. There's even latitude in the rule book where as soon as a referee intends to blow the whistle, the play is over. Let's say, for instance, he's prevented from raising his hand with the whistle. Once he determines to blow it, it's all over."

Shepherd said he had not previously had any complaints about Klozowski, and that his positioning and action during the play was correct.

This statement is funny in so many ways; I am not sure how the head of the WCHA’s officials Greg Shepherd can make that comment with a straight face? Come one Greg well all know your officials aren’t up to par. This is where the member schools have got to step forward and demand change, because Shepherd doesn’t see a problem and their oblivious to the situation. From what I have gleamed this season is that a good part of the WCHA fan base is unhappy with the state of officiating in the WCHA. Nothing has changed; the same buffoons are still out screwing up calls in key parts of games, costing their favorite teams points. The only way the WCHA is going to discipline their officials is when they become to toxic to defend and or when they screw up so bad like Randy Schmidt did that they have to discipline/fire their on ice officials.

"He was where he was supposed to be," Shepherd said. "He loses sight of the puck, so he blew the whistle. What he did wrong was he should never have went to replay. You can never overturn a call once you blow the whistle. What he should've done was gone to the (SCSU) bench and told Bob he lost sight of it and gone back out and dropped the puck. His job is to explain the situation and go from there. If he'd done that, we might've avoided what happened after the game."

Shepherd confirmed what McLeod said in that the NCAA adopted an NHL rule two years ago that allows officials to call a play dead even based on the intent of blowing the whistle.

"If you look at the replay, (Klozowski) has brought his whistle to his mouth and the puck isn't in the net yet," Shepherd said. "A CC guy pushed a St. Cloud guy into the net. When that happens and you can't see the puck, we tell our guys 'Bang!' They should hit the whistle right now. You don't want someone crashing into the goalie." [Saint Cloud Times]

Hockey player forgets to take off skate guards.

Check this out, this is actually funny and I can't believe someone would actually forget to take his skate guards off before skating out on to the ice. My only question is did he change his skates between warm-ups and going back out on the ice?[Props]

No "Classics" (by Sioux 7)

I’m getting on my soap box, so watch out for opinions.

I hate it when they call games “classics” that aren’t, like the “Camp Randall Hockey Classic” coming up this Saturday. They have never had a hockey game at Camp Randall (that I’m aware of). How can you call it a classic, since there is no tradition of UW playing outdoor hockey, and before it happens. Everyone throws this word around, without thinking about what it truly means. IF, Saturday’s game turns out to be a great, exciting game that fans will be talking about for years to come, then AFTER the game is over you can call it a classic, but not before. Both U-Wisc and U-Mich have classic hockey sweaters, UW has had it’s Wisconsin written from left to right at a downward angle for a long long time. Same can be said for UM has had its big M on theirs for years too.


Merriam-Webster defines classic as:
1 a: serving as a standard of excellence: of recognized value
b: Traditional, enduring
c: characterized by simple tailored lines in fashion year after year
2: of or relating to the ancient Greeks and Romans or their culture
3 a: historically memorable
b: noted because of special literary or historical associations
4 a: Authentic, Authoritative
b: Typical
5 Capitalized: of or relating to the period of highest development of Mesoamerican and especially Mayan culture about A.D. 300-900


I think we can all agree that the “Camp Randall Classic” doesn’t fall under numbers 2, 3, 4, or 5. So that leaves only number 1, and I can only see it falling under letter b, since in traditional days hockey was played outdoors. So why not call it something like “Traditional Outdoor Hockey host at Camp Randall”?

Make no mistake about it; I’m not picking on this game only. I dislike the NHL’s outdoor game on New Year’s Day is called a classic. I also dislike that UND’s Thanksgiving tournament is called the Subway Classic. I believe that you need to do things the old fashioned way, play your outdoor game(s) once a year, and then after, oh, say 10 years of doing it, now it’s a tradition, and then after another, oh, say 5more years, then you can call it a Classic. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest I will step down off by soap box.

More on Ott and Clutterbuck

[props]Here is what the Dallas Stars beat writer had to say about Steve "the hack" Ott's fight with Clutterbuck after Cal hit Brad Richards with a hard and clean hit. It's more of the; you hit my skilled player with a clean check and now I am going to fight you. As opposed to an opposition player doing something egregious on the ice that requires a response. It’s silly, whatever happen to taking a number and hitting them later?

But watching Steve Ott stick up for Brad Richards on Tuesday, you got to see another side of the argument. Cal Clutterbuck is a good, clean player who made a good, clean hit, and that should be rewarded. But Steve Ott was right there when the hit occured, and he did exactly what the Stars needed him to do.

He fought Clutterbuck immediately, and it was very clear that it brought the arena together and the Stars together. Bottom line, you can not get away with hitting Brad Richards like that. It just cannot be acceptable anyplace, and certainly not at American Airlines Center. As trite as it is to fall back on the ``not in our house'' cliche, there is a huge aspect of that statement that is true in sports.

Anyway, here is how Steve "the hack" Ott saw it:

``I was actually watching some stuff from the 60s and 70s today and they used to have bench-clearing brawls, so I don't think it's something that we should take out of our game. It was a situation where I'm right there and you just can't hit Brad Richards like that. That can't happen without some kind of response, so I responded.''

Ott had seen a bunch of the discussion spurred on by the Mark Stuart fight and subsequent injury, and it's pretty obvious which side of the debate he falls on. And after Tuesday, I kind of agree with him. The Stars have been missing this element for much of the season. They need to be tight, and they need to protect each other. [Stars blog]

Here is the take that Mike Russo had on the incident. Ott has been a torn in the side of the Wild all season long and took out former Wild Petr Sykora with a cheap hit that ended up putting Sykora on the shelf with a concussion.

The Wild also can't figure out a way to neutralize Steve Ott. Two meetings ago, he concusses Petr Sykora with a hit that most people (minus Colie Campbell) felt was dirty. Last game, he runs around, sits on top of Harding, hits Derek Boogaard hard and then laughs at the Wild bench. Tonight, with Boogaard injured and John Scott scratched (Richards considered dressing him but chose to play James Sheppard instead), Ott ran around, talked smack, took a run at Brent Burns' head and fought Cal Clutterbuck twice in one-sided decisions.

Clutterbuck said afterward dressing Scott wouldn't have mattered. Ott's run around every single game he's ever played the Wild with Boogaard and Scott playing, including two weeks ago, and it's never stopped him. Last month, Boogaard challenged Ott. He won't fight those guys.

Tonight, for some reason Ott didn't get an instigator (2-5-and-10) for going after Clutterbuck after he lay a clean check on Brad Richards. I don't know why. The league has publicly said that if you start a fight after a clean hit,. it should be a 2, 5 and 10. The refs tonight gave him 2 for roughing. [Russo's Rants]

The problems with guys like Ott they wont fight the heavy weights like Boogaard because he would rather fight the guys that aren't feared fighters or in some cases that are smaller than him.

I was reading the comments from the Dallas Stars beat writers blog and look at what this guy had to say, talk about not having a clue when it comes to hockey.

Posted by jaybird @ 7:53 AM Wed, Feb 03, 2010
I think there is definitely a place for fighting in Hockey. Especially when a hard hit is made on one of the skill players. Guys like Richards and Modano rarely hit other players and if that courtesy is not extended to them, then I think one of his team mates should remind the other team that we require them to show some respect.

This guy has no clue every player on the ice except the goalie is fair game and can be hit and good teams will encourage hitting skilled players so you can take them off their game. There is no courtesy extended to star players.

Clutterbuck hit on Brad Richards

Another example of a legal hit and then another player that has to fight because he hit someone legally with a text book hit. Hockey is a physical game and Clutterbuck shouldn't have to fight because he smashed someone within the rules of the game. Steve Ott proves once again that he is nothing more than a knuckle dragging nethanderal hack. Again I think fighting is a part of the game and I find it entertaining but why would you drop the gloves because someone checked a team mate? That is bravo sierra, checking is part of the game.

When you play the Minnesota Wild, you have to be weary of two things: Methodical play, and the Clutterbuck bullet train. Apparently Dallas didn’t get the memo. You know, the one released a month ago?

Resident bone crusher Cal Clutterbuck laid some serious wood on Brad Richards, then tangled with Dallas Stars enforcer Steve Ott – twice.To the doubters of Cal’s strength and whether it transitioned to his play on the ice, you will soon be silenced.

As the puck was coming out of the Dallas zone, Brad Richards tried to find a forward up ice and flicked the puck in the direction of another Star. Unfortunately for the seasoned veteran, his head was down, and Cal Clutterbuck was waiting in the wings. There’s not much else I can say about this, other than Brad Richards will keep his head up the next time Clutterbuck comes to the American Airlines Arena
[Pete Prose]

WCHA Issues public remprimand to SCSU head coach Bob Motzko

So here is the official rebuke from the WCHA. So I wonder if we can assume that the coaches in the WCHA are now on notice and they won't tolerate anyone showing up any of Shepherds buffoons’. I would be willing to bet that the officials’ performance WILL BE a point of discussion in the WCHA spring meetings. Further investigation reveals that Don Adam was one of the on ice officials for this weekend's series. I guess you could color me surprised.

WCHA Issues Public Reprimand To SCSU Coach Bob Motzko

MADISON, Wis. – The Western Collegiate Hockey Association today (February 2) issued a public reprimand to men’s head coach Bob Motzko of St. Cloud State University for actions at the conclusion of the Jan. 30, 2010 game at Colorado College that were in violation of the WCHA Code of Conduct/Sportsmanship Rules.

– WCHA –

St. Cloud coach reprimanded by WCHA

Hum, ref blows call on a goal that cost a team points. Where have we seen this before? First thing that I would say is maybe if the refs in this league weren't a bunch of buffoons on skates they wouldn't have a coach getting upset with refs every week. This has become a weekly occurrence, every week there seems to be a controversy in a game somewhere in the WCHA. I have to wonder if this had been Gwozdecky out on the ice arguing with the officials if the league office would have done anything about it?

So what did Motzko do and why did he do it?

He violated the WCHA Code of Conduct/Sportsmanship Rules.

With the score 5-4 and 90 seconds left, the Huskies appeared to score the tying goal. But referee Brett Klozowski had lost sight of the puck underneath goalie Joe Howe's arm and blew his whistle. Then the puck went into the net. After officials reviewed replays, they stuck with the decision on the ice: No goal.

Motzko went on the ice after the game and had to be restrained by other officials as he argued with Klozowski, according to game stories written by Candace Horgan of uscholcom and Joe Paisley of the Colorado Springs Gazette.

“We scored a goal,” Motzko said later. “Everybody in the rink knows we scored a goal." [Goal Gophers]

Matt Frattin found not guilty in drunk driving case

Interesting turn of events, as they say you're innocent until proven guilty. Fighting Sioux junior forward was found not guilty in his DWI case by a jurry of his peers.

A jury of six Grand Forks County residents found UND hockey player Matt Frattin not guilty of drunk driving today.

The trial began this morning and ended this afternoon, with jurors returning a verdict after less than 30 minutes of deliberation, prosecutor Jason McCarthy said.

Campus police pulled over Frattin, a junior forward, in the early morning hours of Aug. 19. According to police, Lt. Tracy Meidinger smelled alcohol on Frattin’s breath and a test at the station put his blood-alcohol level at .12 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.

McCarthy said Frattin passed some of the sobriety tests, but failed others. “This was a closer one,” McCarthy said.

Meidinger testified for the prosecution; the defense did not call any witnesses. Among the evidence the prosecution presented was a video showing Frattin that night.

Frattin was kicked off the team following his arrest, which was his second run-in with police that summer. He rejoined the team and began playing again in January.

In July, campus police arrested Frattin and Joe Finley, a player who graduated in the spring of 2009, for throwing objects into a street. In that case, Frattin pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

Messages left for Frattin’s attorney were not returned this afternoon
[Grand Forks Herald]

Here is the link to Frattin's Court Case [link]

Toronto deal could leave Bruins with bad hand

Personally, I think that Chiarelli has done nothing to make the Bruins better or make them a contender this year. I said it before that when Kessel left the Bruins for Toronto and Chiarelli said that Wheeler, Sturm and Bergeron where going to fill the void left by Kessel I knew the Bruins were in trouble. Looks like my predictions are coming true. My grade for the Bruins GM for far this season is a "D".

A practical man with a Harvard education, Chiarelli now founds himself in a most precarious position. He may have to do something that goes against his nature; he may have to do something purely for the sake of doing it. Last week, Chiarelli told anyone who would listen that he had no intentions of trading the Toronto selection in this year’s draft because of the depth of talent available at the top of the first round. During his weekly segment on 98.5 The Sports Hub, he went so far as to say that current Islanders rookie John Tavares (the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft) might be no better than the No. 4 overall selection in this year’s event.


By the way, Tavares is 19. He has 33 points and 17 goals this year, the latter a total unmatched by any Bruin this season. And dare we even mention that Kessel has the same number?

As encouraging as the Bruins’ efforts were over the weekend, goal-scoring remains a problem of colossal proportions. In the overtime loss to the Kings on Saturday, the Bruins had six chances to score in the shootout and managed just two tallies, by Michael Ryder and Marc Savard. Zdeno Chara, Blake Wheeler, Recchi, and Patrice Bergeron all failed.

For what it’s worth, Chiarelli last week gave no indication that the B’s were close to any deals, be it for Phaneuf, Ilya Kovalchuk or anyone else. To the contrary, Chiarelli suggested that the asking price for all trades was still much too high. (Of course, these things can change quickly.) Regardless, the addition of Phaneuf suggests the Leafs are far closer to being the Bruins than the Bruins are to being, say, the Penguins or Capitals, setting the stage for the kind of scenario that would drive the most loyal Bruins fans absolutely wild.

What if the Bruins do not make the playoffs? And what if the Leafs somehow end up finishing in front of Boston? The end result will have the Bruins picking before the Leafs following the most highly anticipated Bruins season in years, all after trading away their top goal scorer, regardless of whether Kessel wanted to be in Boston.
[Boston Globe]

Heard at the rink.

INCH had this blurb on their site. I think this sums things up pretty well. Time for the guys to bear down and go to work, no finger pointing, just hard work. Time for some deep self reflection. The fans well; we will worry about the Monday morning quarterbacking and pontifications.

“You can go two ways. You can start to get individualistic and point fingers at one another or you can pull together, do everything a little better and give a little more to your team and teammates. And that’s what we’ll do.”

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol preached calm in his remarks to the press following his team’s 4-2 loss to Denver in Grand Forks Saturday. We’re sure the guys in the locker room are on the same page with the coach, but with the Fighting Sioux having a bye this weekend, there’s time for panic to ferment among NoDak fans

Mark Stuart smokes Anze Kopitar

Check out the hit that former C.C. star Mark Stuart puts on Anze Kopitar, it’s text book clean, elbows down, didn’t go for Kopitar’s head. Then you have Wayne Simmonds dropping the gloves because Stuart put a legal hit in his teammate. I have to agree with Bob McKenzie and what he has to say, don't we want legal hitting in the game and I think fighting after a legal hard check is senseless in this case. I would the fighting reserved for violations of the hockey code.

Immediately after the hit, the Kings' very fine forward Wayne Simmonds immediately challenged Stuart to a fight and Stuart obliged by dropping the gloves. As it turned out, Stuart broke his pinky finger in the fight. He will be out a number of weeks now and the Bruins will be without a defenceman who was playing quite well.

And for what? Getting into a fight that was started because of a clean, open-ice hit?

Am I the only one who finds this sensibility odd? We want more hitting in the game. Or at least we don't want to take hitting out of the game. So here's a novel concept. When there is a really good, clean bodycheck, let's make the person who throws the check have a fight. That sounds like a heckuva way to keep hitting in the game. (Actually, it sounds more like a way to keep fighting in the game.)

I must be getting old. I've never fully embraced or understood the concept of not being able to hit a star player on the other team. I mean, isn't that the point? Make the stars earn their ice. Isn't that what makes hockey great - that even the star players have to take some physical abuse to do their job. I am not sure when the game fully changed on this. It was probably in the 1980s when Wayne Gretzky earned special status with the Edmonton Oilers. [Read the rest of the article]

What do you think, I am not for taking fighting out of the game but I don't think there needs to be a fight after a legal hit. If Stuart had charged Kopitar then maybe not for a legal hit.

Lucia safe for now.

For all of the Gopher fans calling for Don Lucia head, it doesn't appear that it's going to happen this season. I don't know how the University of Minnesota could pay for another coach’s contract buy out? The UMN is already paying for an ex-football coach and ex-basketball coaches’ buyouts. The only way I could see a Donny Lucia firing happening is if a big time Alumni with pockets full of money came up with said big money to buy out that huge contract that Donny Lucia has floating on the books. I have to give kudos to Jess Meyers for a asking the Minnesota athletic director the question though.

While admitting that the Golden Gopher men’s hockey results have been less than expected, University of Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi gave his coach a vote of confidence on Monday.

“I can tell you that Don Lucia will be coaching Gopher hockey next year unless he chooses not to,” Maturi told InsideCollegeHockey.com.

The Gophers currently stand in seventh place in the 10-team WCHA and are looking likely to miss the NCAA playoffs for the second consecutive year. The non-typical on-ice results, coupled with health problems that led to Lucia missing a few games last season, have led to many questions raised by fans and others in college hockey media circles regarding Lucia’s future. Some have gone as far as to speculate that Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais, a Minnesota alum, would coach the Gophers next season. Maturi acknowledged disappointment with the on-ice results, but said that Lucia has the athletic director’s full confidence.

“I think we’ve got to just take a deep breath and stay the course,” Maturi said. “Nobody’s happy that we’re not winning more. I’m concerned and we’re all concerned. But I’m not concerned about the competencies and talents of Don Lucia.” [INCH]

Going forward

The Fighting Sioux were swept at home for the first time since December 15th and 16th 2006 against the MTU Huskies. That’s a little over four years ago, breaking it down further, the Sioux were also swept the weekend before by the Wisconsin Badgers on the 8th and 9th of December 2006. In reading Mike Chambers blog he said that this was the first time UND was swept by anybody in three years. That is an impressive streak that was ended the Denver Pioneers. Time to start a new streak.

Not all is lost

This isn’t the first time a Sioux team has been swept by Denver only to have them go on and have a successful post season run; in 1997 the Sioux were swept in Denver the last series of the 1996-1997 season. Obviously the Sioux went on to win the NCAA title. I am not saying this will happen and the chances of this happening this season aren’t that great unless something drastically changes in a hurry. Not all is lost either, and it’s not outside the realm of possibility. There is a lot of balance and talent on this team, 11 players have 10 or more points. The Goaltending has to be better and the power play must start scoring again.

I think UND has hit a low spot in their season and I expect them to rebound in the coming weeks, they have a week off to get back to basics and right the ship. Last night I was watching the Sioux Sports Extra on WDAZ and Coach Hakstol was interview about what UND had to do going forward. Let me tell you that Coach Hakstol didn’t looked happy. The word pissed comes to mind.

Coach Hakstol talked about making some personnel changes on the power play and that there is a 50/50 chance that Brett Hextall will be back for the SCSU series. The return of Hextall would boost the Fighting Sioux in the right direction. I would also be willing to bet that this week in practice isn’t going to be all fun and games. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sioux have a very hard week of practice and I wouldn’t be surprised if the team was gassed a few times. I would be disappointed if they weren’t.

I also think that a hard paced intense two weeks of practice is what the Sioux need to get refocused and retool for the stretch run. I would be willing to bet that the Sioux coaching staff will put the guys through a grueling week and a half of practice working on the fundamentals and working on specials teams. The penalty kill is fine and ranked 8th nationally, but the power play lacks well: goals. I don’t think there will be much fooling around leading up the SCSU series.

Come off the ledge

I like many Sioux fans are concerned the way this season has gone. The Sioux were an unimpressive 4-4-2 in January and that isn’t going to win the Sioux any league championships. They are fighting just to get home ice and will have to probably go 6-2 or 5-3 get home ice.

If the playoffs started today the Sioux would probably travel to Colorado Springs to play the C.C. Tigers. Wouldn’t that be irony? UMD traveled to the Springs last season and then went on a roll and marched to the NCAA playoffs by beating C.C. in Colorado springs. The following weekend they went on to win the Final Five from the Thursday play in game. Again I am not suggesting that the Sioux would do this but the Sioux very well could win a playoff series on the road, C.C. has stumbled as of late winning only 3 games in the last 9 games and has a record of 3-6-0 during that time period.

Give DU credit

While this is a blog focused on the UND Fighting Sioux and I am not going to spend time pumping up other teams tires, you can check out the various team blogs from my links section and I will leave the tire pumping to the specific team fan blogs. If you want to read a blog that pumps DU tires you would want to read DG’s Let Go DU hockey blog. This isn't the site for the half eaten jelly donut.

I will give some credit to the DU Pioneers they are good hockey team with an All-American goalie that is red hot right now (not to be confused with hot or not). It’s not a given Marc Cheverie will keep playing like he has. Lets not be confused he is good, the kid has something like 6 shuts outs on the season and he is seeing the puck right now.

There could be a time where that puck gets smaller and starts going in. Sometimes the puck goes in and sometimes it doesn’t. Things are going to change for DU next season when they lose some major players like Rhett Rakhshani (17g-16a-33pt) graduation, Tyler Ruegsegger (13g-16a-29pts) graduation and possibly Joel Colborne (11g-15a-26pts) Boston Bruins.

If you look at DU’s stats that is about 50 percent of their goal scoring 41/81 and the Pioneers drop off pretty fast after their first line. Their first line spent a lot of time on the ice during the weekend series. Just saying that their time is right now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Marc Cheverie sign a professional contract after this season, because his stock couldn’t be higher after this season.

Lastly the DU Pioneers never had to face a healthy Fighting Sioux line up. Chay Genoway who may not come back this season because of his concussion issues, never got to play against DU. Taking Chay Genoway out of the lineup is like taking Rhett Rakhshani out of the Denver line up. In the second series the Sioux were without Genoway and Hextall. That had an effect on the four games of this series. Also, the Denver Debacle probably cost the Sioux points, it also cost the refs a paycheck with a suspension. I have been told from multiple and credible sources that those officials were in fact suspended. The league will never probably acknowledge this or issue a statement but I have been told by multiple sources that it did happen.

All in and on board

Lastly, the season is not over by any means and I think we should hold off with the lynch mob till after the season. Things could be worse. I am in and I am not going anywhere. I will be there for the Saturday game in Saint Cloud for the second game of the Sioux and Huskies game.

Programing note: As some have noticed I have added another member to the team Redwing77 from Sioux sports will now be posting blog articles from time to time. This summer I had the pleasure of meeting him in person and played some golf with him. While might not always see eye to eye, he is a Redwings fan and I am a Bruins and Wild fan he will add an interesting perspective to this blog.

Gabby's hat trick against the Av's

Props to RWD for bringing this to my attention, being she is such a huge Marian Gaborik fans I thought I would post it. It's games like this that I miss the Former Wild forward Marian Gaborik as he scored a hat trick last night as the Rangers beat the Av's 3-1. Gaborik had been in a slump and only scored once in 11 games, with his hat trick last night Gabby has 33 goals and is 4th in the NHL in goal scoring. I wonder at times if he would have made a difference in Todd Richard's wide open system.

Also, former University of Alaska Fairbanks goalie Chad Johnson got the win for the Rangers. Johnson has played in 5 games for the Rangers and has a (1-2-1 record 9.19 SV % and a 2.35 GAA).

Poll Monday (Sioux 9th in both)

USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll
[February 1, 2010]
1 Miami (43) 18-4-6 993 1
2 Denver ( 6) 16-6-4 950 3
3 Wisconsin ( 1) 15-7-4 895 2
4 St. Cloud State 17-8-3 817 5
5 Cornell 12-5-3 718 8
6 Minnesota-Duluth 17-10-1 690 9
7 Bemidji State 18-6-2 635 7
8 Yale 12-6-3 603 6
9 North Dakota 13-10-5 581 4
10 Colorado College 15-10-3 548 11
11 Ferris State 17-8-3 516 10
12 Michigan State 17-9-4 483 12
13 New Hampshire 13-8-4 443 13
14 Boston College 13-8-2 432 14
15 Massachusetts 16-10-0 347 15
16 Maine 12-9-3 212 19
17 Vermont 12-9-3 167 17
18 Mass.-Lowell 14-10-2 149 16
19 Michigan 15-12-1 137 20
20 Union 13-7-6 100 18
Others Receiving Votes: St. Lawrence 46, Lake Superior 24,
Sacred Heart 6, Notre Dame 4, RIT 2, Alaska 1, Minnesota 1

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USA TODAY/USA Hockey men's poll
[Feb. 1, 2010]
1 Miami University (Ohio) (30) 18-4-6 506 1
2 Denver (4) 16-6-4 480 3
3 Wisconsin 15-7-4 446 2
4 St. Cloud State 17-8-3 381 5
5 Cornell 12-5-3 358 8
6 Minnesota Duluth 17-10-1 289 9
7 Bemidji State 18-6-2 278 6
8 Yale 12-6-3 251 7
9 North Dakota 13-10-5 241 4
10 Colorado College 15-10-3 172 11
11 Ferris State 17-8-3 169 10
12 Michigan State 17-9-4 166 13
13 New Hampshire 13-8-4 138 12
14 Boston College 13-8-2 112 15
15 Massachusetts 16-10-0 57 14
Others receiving votes: University of Maine, 16; Union College, 11; University of Massachusetts Lowell, 10; University of Michigan, 3; University of Vermont, 2; Rochester Institute of Technology, 1; Sacred Heart University, 1; St. Lawrence University, 1; University of Nebraska Omaha, 1.

INCH Power Rankings

As always I include the INCH Power Rankings. I can already see the questions in this week's INCH Chat. I can even write the question that some college hockey fans asking, how come UND is ranked 9th when they are only sitting in 6th place in the WCHA?

1. Miami
2. Denver
3. Wisconsin
4. Cornell
5. St. Cloud State
6. Yale
7. Michigan State
8. Minnesota Duluth
9. North Dakota 5 Maybe it’s coincidence, but the Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald reports that since Brett Hextall has been out of the lineup with an injury, the Fighting Sioux are 1-4-1 and have scored two goals in their last 40 power-play opportunities. 13-10-5 (8-9-3 WCHA) LAST WEEK: L vs. Denver, 2-0; L vs. Denver, 4-2. THIS WEEK: Off
10. Colorado College
11. Bemidji State
12. Ferris State
13. New Hampshire
14. Boston College
15. Union
16. Maine
17. St. Lawrence
18. Massachusetts
19. UMass Lowell
20. Michigan

Dropped out: Vermont

Bubble-licious: Lake Superior State, Vermont, Rensselaer