Sunday Potpourri: An Ingrate, UAA > Aces and Other Stuff

Dave "Too Busy" Hakstol (center) ...

UND's victory over UA_ gave them the tournament championship regardless of the outcome of the UAA and Air Force game.  Why?  Because they won the Friday night shootout.  All well and good and congratulations for that.  But let's never invite them to a tournament in Anchorage ever again eh?  Not because they took the tourney title.  That's quite meaningless, two teams were 1-0-1 in the tournament.  

No, I say let's never invite them again because Dave Hakstol is discourteous.  First, he doesn't show up for the coaches luncheon and passes along the excuse that it was the only time his team could schedule ice.  Um ... the team wasn't invited to the luncheon ... Dave, you were.  Apparently, Hakstol's two assistants are completely incapable of running a game day skate?  He HAD to be there ya know?  Weak sauce, Dave.

Here's the deal, the WCHA Coaches Luncheon's are a pretty frequent event across the WCHA realm.  But there is one coach who really hates them.  He's been openly negative about going to them.  Donnie Lucia.  He's elaborated his reasons and I won't get into them too deeply here.  Suffice to say that tDon has lots of requests for his time from fans and media ... and the coaches luncheon is one place he thinks he shouldn't have to be if he doesn't want to go.  Especially, on the road.

So Dave Hakstol thinks he's Donnie Lucia?  Well, not exactly ... but in this case he's all about riding Donnie's anti-luncheon coattails.  Gee, Dave.  Do something original ... be your own man.  Why you gotta try to act like tDon?

Here's the thing.  It's a fucking tournament, not some regularly scheduled league game.  Your team is going to get to schedule two home games and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from it's participation here by cashing in the exemptions it gets from playing here.  Doubtless that along with the invitation, UAA paid some of your team's airfare here.  So you get all that benefit from the trip and you're discourteous enough to not show up to the luncheon?

Did I mention how they apparently had to get to the airport to leave and didn't stick around to collect their championship booty?  Weird, cause I saw them in the building late in the 3rd period last night. 

Let's never waste another tournament invitation on UND eh?  This is what happens when you invite trailer-trash ... they act like trailer-trash.  It's ZERO skin off UAA's nose if they are never invited again.

And oh yeah Coach Hakstol, you wouldn't have been the only coach in Frank Serratore's speaking shadow.  Why are you so skerred of Serratore?  Does your wife like his brother Tom or something? 

Brian Faison is the UND Athletic Director.  His email address is brianfaison@mail.und.edu.  Let him know how you feel about the lack of sportsmanship and discourtesy of his premier program's head coach.  I'll give away a pair of passes (good to any regular season game) to any fan that actually get's Faison to reply and let's us know what he said.

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How about a quick recruit update.  Naturally, I'll start of with Sam Mellor.  Since I last mentioned him being at the top of the goal scoring in the league, he's scored 3 more goals in two games.  He's been awarded a first star and second star in those games.  He now has 16 goals and 12 assists in 14 games and is maintaining that 2.0 points per game pace.  He da bomb.

Sticking with the BCHL; Andrew Pettit has gotten back on track solidly it appears with Powell River.  In 12 games now, he has 6 goals and 3 assists.  He scored a hat trick in a game this weekend and was awarded the 1st star.

Scott Allen returned to the Spruce Grove Saints to play this season instead of Des Moines in the USHL.  Since getting home he has scored 3 goals and 1 assist in 4 games.  Looks like he's back in form at home after perhaps being a little out of his element in Des Moines.  Nothing quite like sleeping in your own bed.

Down in the USHL ... Eric Scheid has one goal and two assists in his first three games for the Lincoln Stars.  In Dubuque, Derek Docken and Tony Larson have both appeared on the blueline in all three of their games.  Derek has one assist.  Zach Rall has tallied a single assist as well with Tri-City in the three games he's played.

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Tommy Grant and Sean Wiles were the two UAA inclusions on the Kendall All-Tournament team.  Congratulations to them for that.

There was a good buzz and response to the Seawolf Thunder Drumline from fans in and around the Sully this weekend.  The student section has righteously been moved to the sections just east of the team bench on the south side of the rink.  This new "drumline" appeared there this weekend and added a welcome energy to the arena.  Good on you guys.  Bring more and keep bringing it loud.  Looks like this could be the start of a beautiful thing.  I'm encouraging anyone with good sense of rhythm to bring their own "drum" and join in.

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There was little to nothing compelling about any college matchups around the country this weekend.  Naturally, it's just the first weekend of the season.  But a couple of interesting results to report on.  Clarkson pasted St. Cloud 6-2 in the Maverick tourney in Omaha.  The night before, UNO had bombed Clarkson 8-0. 

Mankato tied St. Larry twice.  Da Gophs put up to five spots sweeping UMass in a couple of fairly tight looking games.  Denver beat Vermont 5-3(empty netter) and then tied them on Saturday 1-1.  Tech swept it's CCHA Michigan rivals NMU and Lake State.  Duluth only managed a tie against the Lakers but beat NMU.

One of our opponents next week.  CC played a 2 game series with RPI.  CC won the first night 2-1 and tied them the next night 2-2.

Our other opponent next weekend at the Brice, Union scored 16 goals (9 the first night and 7 the second night) in a two game series against Sacred Heart.

Take what you will from that. 

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College Hockey News has a new live scoreboard that is quite simply "teh shit".  College Hockey Inc. (D-1's new marketing arm) last week unveiled their new live scoreboard system with a lot of hoohaw and claims.  Then College Hockey News (the national site with the fewest resources) promptly usurped them with a vastly superior implementation.

If you want live score updates ... College Hockey News is the place to get them.  Nice going Adam Wodon.

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Do I have to talk about Doyle Woody?  He crossed the line again this weekend for me.  I have a higher tolerance than lots of you for his shitty attitude.  In the past I've tried to excuse him by invoking journalistic ethics and requirements etc.  But when he comes out in his blog trying to shit on the team with some weak sauce inference about attendance numbers and makes himself look like a total asshole?  Well, I'm not about to defend that.

Here's the thing that my thinking always comes back to with regard to Doyle and his feeding on Aces-teat.  The Seawolves would beat the Aces.  WCHA > ECHL.  It's just better hockey.  He knows it.  Otherwise why would he shit on the Seawolves all the time.  The WCHA is on par with the league above the ECHL; the AHL.  Ask former WCHA players that have played extensively in the AHL and/or NHL. 

So what it seemingly comes down to is insecurity.  Doyle is skerred that the Seawolves would beat the Aces.  Someone should make a 2 game exhibition series against the Aces happen.  A mid-to-late December, 2 game series would be a huge draw in Anchorage obviously.  Rules for college hockey exhibitions don't preclude it.  It can and should happen.

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Last but not least allow me to thank all the volunteers who made this weekends tournament a rousing success.  From the Kappa boys dishing out free food to all the folks inside the rink plugging away at their various responsibilities.  This tournament would be half of what it is if there weren't dedicated fans willing to give up their time in support.  You all have my thanks.