Sunday Potpourri: Damnit, There's No Jam For My Toast!

Hockey season definitely is not here yet.  But it is around a corner.  It's still a long slow corner but it's close enough to begin to sense it.  I don't really want to count the number of days til the season opens against North Dakota on Friday October 8th so I'll guess it's around 50 days. 

For a hockey fan, summer is like toast without jam.  Sure, you can still enjoy it without some splendid Black Raspberry slathered on top.  But it really just isn't quite the same.  If you don't agree, then you just aren't "mad on jam" like me.d

This offseason I've consciously stayed away from making posts.  This one is one I mayn't have made if I wasn't jonesin.  But I must admit.  I'm jonesin for some hockey.  I'm jonesin for the whole shebang; getting to the rink early enough to watch a bit of warm ups and going over the lineup sheet for surprises and maybe having a beer and for sure having a cigarette and walking the concourse to my seat (hopefully before the starting lineups are announced) and hoping for a good anthem singer (ahem .. Steve Dickson) and then settling in.  All that is good stuff.

Of course, that is really just when the fun starts eh?  There isn't a game that I sit down to in the Sullivan Arena that when the puck is dropped I don't think we're going to come out on top.  It's a bit early for me to start forming any sort of ideas about how this upcoming season's team is going to turn out.  We'll all be excited and optimistic as well as perhaps disappointed at times.  Naturally, we hope for the more of the former and less of the latter.

I'll try to be realistic this season in building anyone's expectations.  I think we have to honestly acknowledge that it could be a bit of a transition year.  A large part of a couple of good recruiting years has departed the team.  They're definitely going to be a young bunch particularly on the offensive end and in the net.  There's a fair bit of experience on the blueline that could help anchor the teams identity.  In saying all that, I'm reminded of notion that left-wing locking, right-wing locking, high zone and neutral zone trapping employed as a primary strategy will build a disciplined group for 2011/12 and onward.   Practice it, master it and make every other team play against it.

I like that a trapping team is also a counter attacking team.  Make the bastards turn it over and create some 2 on 1 chances and you can frustrate a team that is otherwise outplaying you.  I see no down side in focusing on a totally defense first effort.  There are three goalies on this roster with virtually no D1 experience.  In order for them to build confidence and get up to speed with the WCHA they are going to need a lot of defensive support.  

Am I right?  Voice your concerns, hopes etc in comments please.  I'd really like to get a sense of what other folks are thinking.

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Get your UAA Seawolves Fight Song Ringtone here.  Courtesy of our beloved Louisiana-based friend Capt. Donald Leaver you can use the official orchestral version of "Shout it off the Chugach Mountains ..." as a ringtone.  Click here to download the file to your computer.  To listen to the file press the play button on the player below.

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I heard a rumor and I'm going to share it.  I heard the Lyle Woods could possibly return as announcer for this seasons games.  All I can say is.  Whatever needs to happen to make this happen better happen.  Really.  Lyle is light years ahead in abilities with that microphone than any replacement they've tried.  

It is my understanding that he stepped down in part due to the amount of compensation.  So fix that shit somebody eh?  Give the dude an extra $50 bucks a night than you would otherwise eh?  For fucks sake.  I'm serious.  Lyle is the man.

A bad announcer ruins the game.  I quit going to the Aces games because of Bob Lester.  Get Lyle back behind the mic.  Whoever is responsible for that.  Get on it.  Don't make me start writing letters and making phone calls eh?  Nobody wants that sort of ugliness in their day do they?

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So I killed my TV about 6 months ago.  I don't miss it.  I didn't know who Justin Bieber was until the other day.  I feel so sorry for the rest of you.  Failed abortions like that kid tend to drain any hope from me that our culture was anything other than drowning in a fetid pool of elephant vomit.  That hope isn't gone completely though.  Because I've also seen and met enough of the 18-34 demographic to be encouraged.  Why?  So many of them recognize, embrace and venerate the music the that my generation created.  I appreciate that.  So even though every once in a while some vile hell-sent insipid demon might arise in popular culture, there seems to be enough good taste to offset it.

And oh yeah, just who's job was it to ensure that Billy Ray Cyrus never reproduced?  I'd like to find that person and slap them so hard that their mother's dentures pop out in Hoboken.  If you happen to see him walking down the street, don't think for a second that I'll be upset if you kick him in the nuts.  I'm not encouraging you to do such a thing.  But I doubt seriously a jury would convict you of assault because of the culturally beneficial effects of your act.