Great to pick up a USNTDP star. Sadly, how long he (or any other college player) stays is pretty much dependent on what organization drafts him. Plz no LA Kings.
That being said, goalies like a Carey Price, Steve Mason or Bobvrovsky who are NHL ready at 19 or 20 is just so rare. They also tend to suffer from quicker burnout and bigger sophmore slumps.
Guys like Howard or Ryan Miller are far more representative of the development trajectory of NHL goalies. They put in at least 3 years in college, get some AHL or East Coast league seasoning so they can get a good position to get a veteran mentor and kind of ease into the starter's job.
they are a little brother because of their thuggery, Dantonio and mediorce academics..it does not have to be football or even sport specific...
case in point: Dantonio's carping about beating Wisconsin "convincingly" at his presser..well so you did Mark, but the sad thing is no one cares. I hope you enjoy being the only Big Ten team that will ever go 11-1 and yet still manages somehow to be irrelevant
How "little brother" of them to go 11-1 in the Big Ten, have no one really care (nationally) and miss out on the BCS.
Its one thing to honor a past team at your school, and i suppose its somewhat of a nice story to talk about the '42 team playing and then heading off to war, but the WWII imagry on the pic and linking all of these past and present combat metaphors is a bit too far.
No doubt that MSU is at the bottom of a pretty elite group of universities.In terms of top to bottom, i would argue only the Ivies are better. They are ahead of most of the SEC and big 12 schools. no shame in that i suppose.
OSU and PSU have both come on in recent years in terms of overall quality and MSU is definitely a better school than they were 15 or 20 years ago, but it has not been enough to pass anyone in the B10
Sparty fans always point out (rightfully) that they making strides as a better overall school, but when every other B10 school starts off higher and does not lose ground, they cannot really gain ground
Not only is State below UM overall, i believe generally they are the least regarded academic school in the B10 overall.
Almost all other B10 schools are their respective state's flagship univ with the attendant money and prestige, while those that are not either have niche specialties (see Purdue with engineering) or are respected private schools (Northwestern)
Rankings wise, Nebraska will check in next year below them, but that is about it.
lets face it: they are the conference's littlest brother when it comes to the school overall
is at the Goalies World mag website goaliesworld.com. They have rankings based on their own formula, of wich Save % is only a part. It takes total starts into account as well as avg shots per game.
I've always thought that Womens hockey and mens lax should be added together. Minn and Wisc have womens hockey and it would be a good fit. I would figure they could accomidate it in the Yost schedule.
We have such a great mens tradition and good recruiting base for female players that i think we could be a power.
They had to make the move, but i think the question for Dallas is will Kari Lehtonen ever be the guy that everyone thought he would be when he was drafted?
that being said, it was a good run for Marty in Dallas, He won a cup and was an elite goalie for many years even if he struggled a bit in the playoffs recently. He now sort of has the rep of not being able to quite get over the hump. Best of luck to him keeping our goaltending tradition going.
I just hate watching it on ESPN. They truly could care less about these games. I love all college hockey and will always watch the Frozen Four, but there is only so much of Barry Melrose that I can take.
gotta love how he referred to Denver and New Hampshire as two of college hockey's best "franchises". I would rather watch it on Versus for pete's sake.
At least in the first round match up (regardless of who they play) they will be basically hitting the ground running. This will be an advantage as opposed to past years where they essentially treated the first round as something to simply endure after having been on autopilot for the last month of the season.
Lets hope they don't get a Pac time zone opponent for the first round. In a long series, that may make a difference going forward.
I'm also interested in seeing how Howard will stack up in his playoff debut. None of the goalies in the West really seem all that impressive. Luongo of course is very good, and i've been impressed by Pekka Rinne and Jon Quick, but there is no real monster this year. With Kiprusoff out there are no real game changers who can stand on their heads and win games alone.
Chris Martin seems like a decent guy and an ok musician, but i just see them as bland, inoffensive and as was stated earlier, inferior to alot of bands in their genre. again, snobbishness aside, they are likely destined for background restaurant music duty and other such situations if they are not there already.
I always assumed it was an open secret that Pearson was the successor. Unlike football where (IMHO) the windows really did have to be opened up for some fresh air a few years back, i think continuity for the hockey program is key.
Mel has been a huge part of the revitalization that Red established and obvs deserves the job over anyone.
Again, an Illinois is arguably irrelevant program, I suppose due to him though. However, with all the hype after their Rose Bowl and the expectation that Juice was going to break out, he fell flat on his face.
As far as A&M goes, they have to do something. Texas has basically lapped them and nothing has really gone right since RC Slocum left. There is no reason that school should not be at least a regional power.
Having Wisconsin there salvages it a bit. They will travel in force and bring some atmosphere.it really have been a disaster attendance-wise if St Cloud or Vermont would have made it instead.
I have Uverse and have the sports pkg that includes nhl network, et. al. usu college games that are supposed to be on FS North end up on the Fox College Sports (FCS) atlantic, central and pacific channels. for me they are 647-649. i would bet on the UM-BSU game being on one of those channels.
For example the Minnesota telecasts were clearly produced by FS north but were almost always carried on one of the FCS channels. the TV listings were always screwed up
Canada forced the mistakes, no doubt about it and as far as Nabokov, i've never been sold on him as elite.
As a bit of a hockey goaltending nerd (and beer league "never was" goalie) i can say that alot of modern goalies would have played the Nash goal with a butterfly slide which gives you a bit of a better chance at a shot up high with either hand, but it was brilliant pass of course and not everyone is a butterfly stylist and sometimes you have to make that desperation play. As for the Morrow goal (wraparound type), i would say you square up, put the paddle of your stick down and bear down..really hard to beat down low if you do that.
That all being said, Canada is going to be very tough to beat and the Americans i can imagine do not want a rematch...
the Russians were schooled. No two ways about it. They left Nabokov in far too long and their best players ranged from average to brutal.
I'm not quite sure what is so "goonish" about Canada, other than Boyle's obvs slewfoot and the fact that they include players who Wings fans don't like. The Canadians showed far more skill tonight than the supposed kings of the skill game. Althought it did not mean a thing, I thought Bryzgalov played very well in relief, its not easy coming off the bench like that.
Cosign every word of it. i'm an attorney as well and I went to UM undergrad and then UD law. Cooley floods the market with graduates who are ill-prepared and they fail out a ton of people after their first year. You really have to question when the "nation's largest law school" is located in one of the nation's most economically depressed states. I know some quality attorneys from there, but again they are mostly older.
Certainly any prospective law students should stay away no matter how much money they throw at you. sadly, you will get what you pay for.
I just hope those MSU fans who mock the "Walmart" and "Wayne State" wolverines were checking for MSU diplomas and other associated cred when they were high-fiving strangers in the bar after beating UConn.
Apparently its ok if they are jumping on the MSU hoops bandwagon, but the second anyone who went to a different school wants to cheer for UM when they are having football success they take a beating for it. When i've called MSU friends/acquaintances on that one, they don't have much of a response.
No quarter. I'm happy they got stomped
of any sort of Big Ten hockey conference. Perhaps add a few more WCHA/CCHA crossovers with Big Ten schools and create some sort of cross conference Big Ten Challenge Cup or something. The WCHA (and to lesser extent CCHA) have long histories and rivalries of their own. I like college hockey's tradition of a regional game where smaller time schools and compete with big powers.
No offense to PSU or Illinois, but they would play doormat for quite a while, if not permanently to the established schools. the UMN UND series is one of the best in college hockey, and although in theory it could continue, it would not be quite the same game when they are not dueling for the McNaughton Cup.
college hockey also features lower scale in state type rivalries (esp UMN v. SCSU/UMD/MNSt) and those smaller rivalries and in state intrigue are really what makes college hockey different in the context of college sports. Too often all the Big Ten teams play each other in every sport and i think it can get a little boring. its nice to mix it up with some different opponents and rivalries.
Of course, i am a UM fan, but i would hate to see college hockey go down a road of homogenization where only the biggest conference schools compete and win and you would never have any more small schools like LSSU (in the 80s and 90s) or DU (2000's) win championships. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but if there was a sort of Big Ten hockey conf, that may be a step in that direction.
I think its totally legitimate to build up an expectation of what should be done before the decision is made. As one of the posters pointed out, sometimes that is how the correct decision gets made, with a little old fashioned pressure.
I have no beef with MSU hockey or Comley b/c of this. I don't know about the "premeditation" comment, but that is a whole other argument and quite frankly water under the bridge now.
I saw in a recent college hockey blog that UNO would not defect from the CCHA as they wanted to keep up bringing in ND, UM, MSU and the Buckeyes as "name" schools that would attract the average fan to the home tilts. the reasoning (I suppose) was that if they switched to the WCHA, they would lose these names with real or imagined football cachet in a largely football-driven state. Also some of the other CCHA schools are MAC teams that would be at least recognizable by the casual fan.
Seems a bit weak to me as UMN and Wisc carry some recognition and i would think there would be some regional rivalries to sprout as well. Many WCHA schools, CC, DU, Tech SCSU, MN st Mankato, Anchorage and to some extent UND are known almost solely for hockey.
As far as MTU coming into the CCHA, they were in the league in the early 80's and then left. On many levels it would make sense, but it would be hard to see them change their mind again.
I think WCHA should add UNO and Bemidji and CCHA would absorb UAH. I would guess that the other CHA refugees, Robert Morris and Niagara would go to Atlantic Hockey. I have to agree that Niagara would be a good pickup. No offense to UAH, but I can't see them helping the CCHA or really any league with extra travel due to their isolation
One to watch i think is Oakland U, their club hockey has been very good and if they could get a facility on campus, maybe they would take a shot, in a few years, of going to the CCHA and to some extent filling the WSU void for Div I hockey in the Detroit area.
That does have the be the most violent criminal act i've ever seen as part of any sporting event. I thought that Jesse Boulerice (sp??) broadswording the guy from Guelph in the OHL back in '98 was the depths of depravity, but this was worse.
Hopefully the league, NCAA and the school do the right thing here and toss him. The scary thing is that Boulerice still plays (right now i believe in the AHL)I always cringe when I see that he still plays and he has had some other vicious cheap shot hits. If this guy is allowed to continue to play without consequence, even long term, he'll probably end up paralyzing someone in some adult A league or bottom of the barrel semipro circuit.
Hopefully there is something that USA Hockey/Hockey Canada can do to prevent me or any other rec player from ever having to face people like this in a game where we're supposed to be having fun.
Recent Comments
I have no desire to beat up on a CC in Minnesota and the people there who i've never met
I don't care where Mike Valenti is or what he is saying about my team or any team for that matter.
Detroit sports talk radio is insipid garbage
Brown and Merrill are on the US team
Great to pick up a USNTDP star. Sadly, how long he (or any other college player) stays is pretty much dependent on what organization drafts him. Plz no LA Kings.
That being said, goalies like a Carey Price, Steve Mason or Bobvrovsky who are NHL ready at 19 or 20 is just so rare. They also tend to suffer from quicker burnout and bigger sophmore slumps.
Guys like Howard or Ryan Miller are far more representative of the development trajectory of NHL goalies. They put in at least 3 years in college, get some AHL or East Coast league seasoning so they can get a good position to get a veteran mentor and kind of ease into the starter's job.
they are a little brother because of their thuggery, Dantonio and mediorce academics..it does not have to be football or even sport specific...
case in point: Dantonio's carping about beating Wisconsin "convincingly" at his presser..well so you did Mark, but the sad thing is no one cares. I hope you enjoy being the only Big Ten team that will ever go 11-1 and yet still manages somehow to be irrelevant
How "little brother" of them to go 11-1 in the Big Ten, have no one really care (nationally) and miss out on the BCS.
Agreed, the OSU band uniforms look like the Waffen-SS. They would not look out of place marching down the main street of a ruined village.
Its one thing to honor a past team at your school, and i suppose its somewhat of a nice story to talk about the '42 team playing and then heading off to war, but the WWII imagry on the pic and linking all of these past and present combat metaphors is a bit too far.
that being said, they are ugly.
catching late some espn football/CBC hockey while taking in some LCD Soundsystem...
Ugly win against the Boilers, but we took out the sanctimoniuos "son of wilfrid brimley" so lets savor it..
No doubt that MSU is at the bottom of a pretty elite group of universities.In terms of top to bottom, i would argue only the Ivies are better. They are ahead of most of the SEC and big 12 schools. no shame in that i suppose.
OSU and PSU have both come on in recent years in terms of overall quality and MSU is definitely a better school than they were 15 or 20 years ago, but it has not been enough to pass anyone in the B10
Sparty fans always point out (rightfully) that they making strides as a better overall school, but when every other B10 school starts off higher and does not lose ground, they cannot really gain ground
Not only is State below UM overall, i believe generally they are the least regarded academic school in the B10 overall.
Almost all other B10 schools are their respective state's flagship univ with the attendant money and prestige, while those that are not either have niche specialties (see Purdue with engineering) or are respected private schools (Northwestern)
Rankings wise, Nebraska will check in next year below them, but that is about it.
lets face it: they are the conference's littlest brother when it comes to the school overall
He's the best goalie in the world right now and got the USA to within an inch of a gold medal.
I hated him when he was at MSU and was (wrongly) convinced that he would not be as good at the next level.
"Hotty Toddy" reminds me of a bulked up version of the "human being" mascot from Community...odd grey figure with no real attributes..
Can't we find a way to add mens lax and women's hockey to balance this out??
is at the Goalies World mag website goaliesworld.com. They have rankings based on their own formula, of wich Save % is only a part. It takes total starts into account as well as avg shots per game.
I've always thought that Womens hockey and mens lax should be added together. Minn and Wisc have womens hockey and it would be a good fit. I would figure they could accomidate it in the Yost schedule.
We have such a great mens tradition and good recruiting base for female players that i think we could be a power.