Sunday Potpourri: Burgers, Dogs, Yucks and The BTHC

In terms of social interaction with a medium sized group of people (i.e... today's Meet-n-Greet event/picnic) people love seeing a sense of humor.  Today's funny guys?  Daniel Naslund and Jade Portwood.   Each player on the team took the microphone and introduced themselves; you know .... name, number, birthplace, major, how and why they came to UAA.  I must of course paraphrase but it went something like this.

When Jade Portwood got his opportunity to crack-wise, he went straight for the parental-unit-burn. Hi, I 'm Jade Portwood, um ... "I don't really know where I'm from since my parents moved every three years".  Yep ... doesn't sound that funny here.  That'd be because translating his deft cadence and wry tone is impossible in print.  Yes.  You had to be there.  Is it just me or do you think that Jade's parents are probably familiar with the old saying, "You can dress some people up, but you can't take them anywhere."?

Daniel Naslund decide to take a jab at his Euro-neighbor.  As second to last in the sophomore introduction line; Daniel took the mic and said ... "Hi, I'm Daniel Naslund, I'm from Sweden and (he then turn his eyes to the last player in the line ... Mitch Bruijsten) I just want to say how happy I am that Holland didn't win the World Cup."  See um ... Mitch is from The Netherlands.  And Daniel apparently didn't want to have to hear about it for the rest of the year.  Nobody else in the room seemed bothered that Holland didn't win. 

Um yeah ... it's not translating quite as funny as it was live.  The remaining laughs pretty much were elicited by the freshman describing the outfits that they wore while cheering the UAA Women's Volleyball team to (as our favorite PA announcer Lyle Woods says ...) "another Seawolf victory!".  A couple of these freshman know a little bit more about female attire than I would have hoped for going in.  Que sera sera?

I did notice that as the microphone went down the line ... there was a tendency to elevate the adjective usage; from, "I was the cute guy in the pink fishnets, tutu and red hat" to "I'm the good looking man in the elegant pink chiffon dinner gown wearing the Jimmy Chu's".  And yeah ... what they said was funnier than I'm making it sound with my misquoting.

I did hear from enough other fans who indicated that their overwhelming choice for the cutest cross-dresser was .... um nope.  Not gonna do it.  I am not about to name names here.  Let's just say the votes I heard were unanimous.  I'll just let those guys argue amongst themselves as to who they thought was cutest.

Coach Shyiak set a bright tone with his brief remarks.  After the gracious thank yous to everyone involved with the event, he spoke about this coming week when the team goes over to Acceleration Alaska for 10 sessions of intense training and continuing captain's practices of course.  He was definitely hopeful and optimistic regarding the season.

It was nice to meet Ryan McKelvie who never quite made it clear if he'd come across my blog before he got to Anchorage.  Was also glad to get a chance for a bit of an extended talk with PD for the first time.  Ahhh ... networking.  Good to see Kurt Haider as well, Kurt told me that the Anchorage Aces did make an offer to him which he considered but didn't accept.  His enjoyment of his current gig with the Seawolves played a part his decision; but of course what made sense to him in the big picture for him and his family was the deciding factor.

Kurt does such an awesome job calling the games that personally I'd fan-mourn his departure if it were to ever happen.  Phew ... glad that didn't happen.

Good to see familiar faces after (as Coach Shyiak quipped ... ) "what seemed like a really short winter" offseason.  See he was taking a shot at Anchorage's sometimes shitty summers.  Again ... with the not being there translation matrix differential. 

It's been at least a year since I had a slice of cheesecake.  I had one today.  Thank you to whoever brought the cheesecake.  Thank you very much.  I really really enjoyed it.  Does it seem pitiful and deprived?  A year without cheesecake?  Is that a long time? 

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"You hear that Mr. Anderson, that is the sound of inevitability ..." 

The Big Ten Hockey Conference is once again seemingly something more than a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel.  Penn State looks very much like they may put a Division 1 team on the ice beginning in 2014.  So since they are a Big 10 school ... and there are 5 other Big 10 schools playing hockey now ... then a sixth means they'll form their own conference and once and for all kill college hockey as we know it?

Except the killing college hockey part just isn't going to happen.  I wouldn't want to characterize college hockey BTHC naysayers as hyperbolic, but there is some of that about.   Should the six Big 10 schools form a hockey conference then yes, the landscape of college hockey would change.  Here and there might be a school that is thriving in today's mix which just might not thrive as much should the BTHC come about.  That is what scares them.

What would a BTHC mean for Division 1 hockey in Alaska.  Besides having zero negative consequences?  I think it's the same positive benefit as for the 53 other college hockey teams.  Those six big shot teams (that already do and will continue to land the majority of the elite recruits) will beat up on each other 20 - 25 times a year.  This will mean in all likelihood that normally we wouldn't see more than 2 teams from the BTHC in the NCAAs.  So yeah, an NCAA tournament with only two Big 10 teams instead of four?  Nothing wrong with that from my perspective.

So I emplore the college hockey community from cringing and complaining about the BTHC.  It's enivitable because unlike the action following the above quote I used to open; College Hockey isn't going to jump out of the way of this train.