Sunday Potpourri: Surviving

If you're a viewer of either the Discovery or Science Channel then you probably have some passing familiarity with one or both of the "survival" programs they show. The first of the genre is called Survivorman and is hosted by Les Stroud; a Canadian "expert" on the outdoors and survival. The ripoff version is called Man vs. Wild and is hosted by this cat called Bear Grylls; an Englishman and former British special services soldier. Les goes out completely on his own with loads of camera gear and covers a lot of ground twice in order to get the necessary shots. Bear (if that is his real name) has a film crew following him. It's clear that some number of the shots they use on Man vs. Wild are "setup" in order to illustrate some survival point. Everything that Les shoots is as it occurs; no "setups" per se. It's too bad these two guys couldn't get together and have a "survivor-off" of some sort. I'd really like to see an emaciated Mr. Gryll's wanker-carcass laying in some forlorn wilderness while Les proudly steps over it.

Sunday's are my favorite time to write. I get to prattle on about whatever suits my fancy. I don't restrain myself and whatever comes to mind ends up on my fingertips. Since it's a bye week there's really been little to cover about the Seawolves and as a consequence I haven't exactly been in any danger of finger cramps. I did hear a rumor. I won't share it. I'll write the early season player-by-player evals I've promised sometime tomorrow.

In an interesting move this past week, that I don't recall many (if any) other instances, WCHA Supervisor of Officials Greg Shepherd gave an additional one-game suspension to CC's Derek Patrosso for a CFB he committed against UMD last weekend. It gives me a small measure of hope with regard to an incident this weekend. I watched 3 hockey games this weekend. I watched the first Mankato/UMTC game. I've got no commentary other than to say that it went pretty much as I expected until I decided to run up to the little store near the end when I figured it was all but over. Mankato manufactured a nice little comeback but fell short. A split in that series would have been nice but the Gophers played well enough to secure all 4 points. I watched a fair amount of the UAF/Michigan game and thought UAF just looked overwhelmed. I'm pulling for UAF in their games this season (sans emotion) just for the sake of UAA's future RPI. The third game though is the reason I mention the WCHA disciplining Patrosso. With less than three minutes remaining in a game they'd absolutely dominated and holding a 3-0 lead UND captain Rylan (someone named their kid that? ... what's a Rylan? clap clap ... clap clap clap) Kaip blew into a vulnerable Brendan Smith of Wisconsin with vicious charge. Smith was doubled over and in the middle of a scrum in the corner with a teammate and a UND player when Kaip blasted right into his head with his shoulder. Here's the video.

He was only given a 2 minute minor for charging. It was a brutal check against a player in a vulnerable position and easily could have resulted in serious injury. It's definitely worthy of review by WCHA officials (no doubt they've seen it) and in my book the nature of the hit warrants further action. If Dave Hakstol doesn't discipline Kaip by removing his captaincy then I say Haks is a woman. It was a cheap shot by a guy that has no business playing college hockey. Kaip is an talentless enforcer in a league where enforcers are entirely unecessary. He'll fit in well next year on the 4th line of some bullshit ECHL team and I've few doubts that Brendan Smith will survive up in the NHL after his career at UW. The two teams split the series which is a good thing from the perspective of the rest of the WCHA. Unfortunately, it was the only split in the league this weekend. SCSU took it's angel act on the road and earned 4 points vs. MTU and UMD was unable to manage any points in their trip to CC. Denver (like UAA) had a bye week.

I was a little surprised how many UND fans on the big series of tubes defended the hit and/or said it wasn't even a penalty after the ruckus they created about the Paukovich cheap-shot on Bina a couple of years ago. Don't think I didn't express that surprise in other venues; not doing so would be unlike me. So I did. The result? More Sioux fans than ever don't dig me. They called me Donald Duck and quacked at me. OMG. I'm so quitting the big series of tubes now! One interesting sideshow to the whole affair was a confrontation between Mike Eaves and Haks after the game. I saw someone say they figured Haks would have put a beatin on Eaves had it come to that. But I guess that person doesn't recall that Eaves son Patrick missed 20 games due to neck injury during a D1 game vs. Maine. So they probably underestimated the vested interest (i.e... supressed anger) that Eaves has regarding such incidents. Hell, I'd have taken Eaves and given odds if they'd come to blows.

Fundraising for my Final Five trip remains mostly stagnant. My anonymous and untraceable text-message widget continues to be intermittently active. And I've been receiving some positive feedback for the blog; thanks for those messages to those senders. I'm still hoping that a "deep throat" will emerge and enlighten me to anything truly important. This coming weekend the team travels to Minneapolis to face the 8th place Gophers. I'll do what I can throughout the week to preview the Gophers. At least I know more about them than any Gopher fan knows about the Seawolves.

Lastly, (I say that too often when I write methinks) let me know the reasoning behind posting that picture for this entry and you'll win the Question of the Week contest. No prizes though. Just bragging rights.