College Hockey - 2011/2012

[archerystud]

Great Synopsis!!

I'd like to kick that Goober in Penn right in the a......

In the future when Hockey East plays the Big 10 I won't know who to cheer for. That used to be a non-issue for me as I always used to pull for the Western teams. I can't imagine actually cheering for BC or BU, gives me the willies just thinking about it.

I'll still pull for the Gophs though. My understanding is that they really didn't want the B10 conference but there hands were kind of tied. I hope they dominate the B10 conference.

[Bear55]

Sounds like you nailed it solbes.

[solbes]

Sounds like Buffalo wants to return to D1 status. Another possible twist would be Bowling Green (only remaining CCHA member) + Buffalo + 4 Atlantic Hockey schools to keep CCHA alive at 6 members. Sounds really weak.

[Bear55]

Just let me know when it's over.

[solbes]

My daughters elementary school has a club team that wants to join the WCHA as well. Just waiting for Bruce to make first contact.

I keep posting this stuff because it's really so comical. Enough with the crazy realignment nonsense. I'm gaining a tad of respect for Hockey East who has just sat patiently on the sidelines.

[archerystud]

I'm gaining a tad of respect for Hockey East who has just sat patiently on the sidelines.

I Agree!!!

[hoppe56307]

Ok this maybe a stupid question, or maybe I missed a post about it somewhere. So with all the talk of the big 10 and mens hockey what about he Wis and Minn womens hockey teams? Are they leaving the wcha as well? Or is Penn St. just starting a mens hockey team?

[scsavre]

Penn is planning a womens team too. Maybe there are not enough teams to fill the gaps if the big 10 starts. I don't kn.ow.

[solbes]

Link to College Hockey News article on more speculation.

CHN article

[scsavre]

I'm gonna take care of all the problems. Penn state will join the acc, there will now not be enough teams for the big 10 hockey. Mn, wisc go back to wcha, maybe take mich, mstate and ohio with them. St cloud then comes back.

Wcha

Mn

Wi

Bsu

Scsu

Mn state

Mich

Mich state

Oh state

Ccha

Nm

Lsu

Aa

Alaska

M tech

Ferris

Bg

Airforce

[solbes]

So it appears we finally know where Notre Dame is headed, Hockey East. NCHC announced that it will launch it's inaugural season in '13/'14 with the current 8 members. So since Notre Dame had said it was down to only 2 options, Hockey East becomes its choice by default. Formal announcement expected on Wendesday. I would guess Bowling Green follows suit unless it can take some schools from Atlantic to retain the CCHA.

This all brings to a head, why start this stilly NCHC at all? I thought the whole point of the bigger hockey schools starting this was to increase exposure and garner a TV deal. Notre Dame, like them or not, would have helped out on the TV angle. So I had assumed their membership was in the bag at the start of this whole deal. Now they have pretty much the best remaining teams from the WCHA plus Miami and tag-a-long WMU. Doesn't make much sense when you see how it all turned out. Dumb

[scsavre]

Waste of time. Cancel the whole league and just add miami to the wcha.

[Bran32]

I have been saying it all along, what a waste and now all us beaver fans can hope for is the " all minnesota" tourney so we can play our instate teams almost every year!! how dumb is this league??

[scsavre]

It is all a giant waste of time.

Sounds like moorhead is about ready tho. They are committng $240k a year to the mens head coach. $1mil total for both mens and womens staff.

I could see moorhead becoming a good squad.

I'm hoping st thomas will make the jump too.

Wcha could get good again in 5to 7 years, or it could be gone by then.

[solbes]

Maybe they could just announce that they made a mistake. Penn State has decided to convert their ice arena over to roller derby. Alvarez asked to take a hike. B10 cancelled, NCHC cancelled. All is well. Seriously some of these schools have to be looking at the outcome here and wondering HOW and WHY they are heading in different directions.

Scott, I noticed you didn't have UMD in your new league realignment. As commish of 2 such powerful leagues, I feel you need to do a better job of proofreading. Or maybe we can join up with UAH and form a super power.

Also looks like Justin Faulk (19 yrs old) is going to make the opening day roster for Carolina. Pretty good for leaving after 1 year in college (our blue line will suffer huge!)/ MCon and Fontaine both got sent down to the AHL as expected for SJ and Minny. Any other recent WCHA'ers make the NHL opening day rosters?

[scsavre]

Umd has been labeled a traitor by the savre commision of regents for the new but old wcha. They ill be stuck in the ncha. St cloud had been forgiven.

[cbrooks]

Savre, you Nazi . How the heck can you forgive SCSU? Everybody needs to get over the new league alignments. Its not that big of a deal. The only downer is the demise of one of hockey's best tourments the Final Five.

I have a feeling UND will be taking the McNaughton and Broodmour this year. Go Sioux

[scsavre]

I learned my ways from uncle Ralph.

The NCHC will fold soon enough.

Some one get a page going where we all put our WCHA picks for the year.

The Broad, the Mc and the players of the year.

[solbes]

Now that the chips are down, maybe this can shift to actual college hockey talk. Not just conference realignment.

We were up to see the Dogs raise the banner from last year. They had a tailgating party in the parking lot before the game. Nice to have a few homebrews before heading into the game. There was a band on the roof and a decent crowd.

The game itself was pretty packed. They had a 5 minute video showing some of the programs history and highlights. Then uncovered the banner which stands alone on the visitor end of the arena. The crowd was pretty excited.

Friday's game was great, Duluth won 4-3 over the #1 ranked Gold domes. Good game from Oleksuk, JT, Seidel, and a solid defensive effort from the blue line. Kenny was decent with only one soft goal. Last night we were up 2-0 half way through and then fell apart completely letting in 5 straight goals. Its going to be one of those up and down seasons again.

Props to the student section in Amsoil. They were as organized as ever. Liked their "Play like a semi-finalist" sign and "Just like Last Year" chant (same score as Semi's).

[cbrooks]

look like a good time Solbes. UND will have a up and down season also... maybe more downs than ups. There gonna be a work in progress

BSU has to be happy with a split with Miami

[Bran32]

I am stoked with the way the Beavers played!!! Watch out CC here we come!!

[scsavre]

The beaverz are gonna gvet some good wins this year. They are a disiplined team with good coaching.

Solbes, that looks awesome.

[Bear55]

Cool pic solbes, sweet looking banner you have there.

I was also pretty happy to see the Gophs come out and take care of business but SH looked pretty weak so the real test will come this weekend.

[scsavre]

My take on the gophs is that they will be a lot better then las year. They have a ton of talent. Id be happy with 3rd or 4th in wcha.

They beat a bad team. In years past they would have won, but a tighter margin. I've got to admit guentzle is already leaving his mark. The d look way better positioned. They are learning how to control the puk in the d zone better. Its nice to see a defenseman, marshall skating the puck up the ice. One of our biggest asets on our glory days teams was the fact that our defense could skate the puck from end to end. Guentzle is bringint that back. Honestly our forwards aren't good enough to break the puck out right now anyway.

Offense was much better but not clicking yet. I was very impressed with warning, rau and marshal for the freshman. Ambroz, I thought looked terrible, unless that's his game, he got 2 goals. Ill take it if that's what he does. Bjugsteedt is gonna be a monster once that line is in full force.

A goph sweep this weekend would be a nice statement. The team has. Long way to go and I don't know if lucia can get them there. Lucia has always counted on building around huge goal scorers, pohl, potulny, vanek, etc etc. Hence is terrible records latley.

Now the sioux on the other hand. Any thing to worry about up there, or is it the early season suiage....

[solbes]

With that coaching change, I only see the Gophers improving. Buddish returns from the injury (Does he still get a moped?). Plus a couple of good freshman. Will be very interesting this upcoming weekend in Duluth.

Gophers played a nobody, but also put up very convincing numbers. Duluth played great 3/4 of the weekend against a quality opponent, but had zero mental toughness after a tough break goal on Saturday.

Wow, I just realized BSU beat Miami. No wonder you guys were pumped, way to go!