On The Road With Kurt Haider

We're graced with another excellent and unsolicited contribution this afternoon from the man with the best play by play call and voice in the WCHA, the inimitable Kurt Haider.  Thank you Kurt for the update about the goings on.  

Goal Gophers: Dave Shyiak Talks to Roman

Roman Augustoviz on the Star Tribs Goal Gophers blog talked with Coach Shyiak today and has this entry regarding the series.  Dave talks about the differences in the two teams and UAA's strengths such as the Seawolves doing "everything by committee" and how the Seawolves are "strong defensively".  

Roman Augustoviz Blog: Good Lucia Quotes

Minneapolis Star Tribune Goal Gophers blogger Roman Augustoviz has a good post on his blog tonight that tells me Coach Don Lucia is completely and fully taking the Seawolves seriously this weekend.  As critical as I can be at times of other bloggers I'll give credit to Roman here ... as throughout the year he's been one of the best media bloggers.

Kamal Featured In SI: Young Goaltenders

Seawolves goaltender Chris Kamal is featured today at the Sports Illustrated website in this article by Darren Eliot in his "View From The Ice" column.  Darren details Chris' achievements this season as well as his pre-UAA goaltending background with which you may or may not be familiar.

Shasby Issues Clarion Call To Hockey Fans

Hockey fans in Anchorage have been issued a call to action from UAA Seawolves Alumnus Matt Shasby today in an ADN commentary on the sports page.  We here at the blog are overjoyed to see that the ADN editorial staff chose embrace this comment piece.  

It Ain't Exactly The SI Cover Jinx, But ...

The combined record of college hockey teams this season after being named the College Hockey News "Team of the Week" is 6-7-3 for the games immediately following the announcement. 

UAA's Equipment Manager Profiled by KTUU

 
A nice video feature that apparently aired back on December 13th.  Thought I'd share it for any like me that hadn't seen it.

INCH A-Z Profiles Sean Wiles

As part of Inside College Hockey's preseason run-up each year the website profiles a player from each of College Hockey's 59 teams.  This year's UAA selection is senior forward Sean Wiles whom I profiled in my senior class preview.  Here are some highlights from the Jess Myers authored article;

Blessed with abundant size and a long reach, Wiles has become a versatile commodity for the Seawolves especially as his offensive numbers have improved.

Shyiak has more things planned for Wiles as a senior, like using his “widebody” size in front of the net on the power play to tip and screen and bang home rebounds. Wiles has also shown some past effectiveness on the penalty kill, using his reach to keep the puck away from opponents.

And Coach Shyiak is quoted;

“Sean is a senior now and we need him to chip in offensively. If he can duplicate last year’s season and maybe do even a little bit more, and chip in on the [defensive] side of the puck, he’ll be very effective for us.”

Sean's steadily increasing production through his career gives us all hope for a big season from him.  His experience over the summer attending the Washington Capitals Summer Development Camp should benefit him as well.  The goal he scored on the video below is exactly the sort of thing that Coach Shyiak mentioned and will be looking for.

INCH Podcast Previews Wisconsin Series: Never Mentions UAA

National College Hockey website Inside College Hockey who's slogan is "Just trying to capture the spirit of the thing ..." completely and totally missed the "spirit of the thing" in their most recent podcast which previews all the playoff action around Division 1.  

After covering the CCHA, Joe Gladziszewski, Mike Eidelbes and James V. Dowd moved on to discuss the WCHA.  For the next Two-Hundred and Twenty-Three seconds they talked about the UAA Seawolves versus Wisconsin Badgers matchup (Note: That was easily twice the amount of time they spent discussing the other WCHA series).  And not once did they mention the Seawolves, UAA or a single player on the UAA roster.  Seriously, they didn't say "Let's talk about the Badgers versus the Seawolves" or "What about the UDub - UAA series" or "The Seawolves have the #1 goal scorer in the WCHA on their squad" or even "The Badgers should just walk over the Seawolves".  The big question during the Badger/UAA segment was whether Wisconsin could beat Denver.

They drooled over all-things Badger that you might imagine.  Please, just imagine it.  Don't bother listening to the podcast.  Don't bother visiting their site at all.  I have removed my link to their website as I cannot in good conscience support my team and lead people to their website.  This eastern-centric and CCHA-loving group of college hockey writers deserves not a single hit from a computer in Anchorage.  Remove your bookmarks.  I have.  Every single WCHA writer they have ever employed came from Wisconsin.  Did you know that?  Piss on INCH.

Here's the email I just sent "Gladdie";

Joe,
I certainly understand that the Seawolves haven't impressed anyone this season.  I recognize that the Badgers are a fine team.  Yet, if you're attempting to garner the widest possible audience and cover "the spirit of the thing ..." then I'd assume you might actually just once mention the name of the fucking team that is playing the Badgers in your podcast.  You mentioned Michigan Tech's name.  Didn't you?
I have listened to virtually every single podcast that your site has ever produced.  It's a nice feature that separates you from your competition.  However, I now will forever only reference College Hockey News and USCHO on my blog.  I will encourage my readers (don't worry, I only get 400 hits a day) to remove their bookmarks for you site and to never visit it again.
After the Seawolves dispatch your beloved Badgers this weekend, don't bother mentioning it ok?
Sincerely,
Donald Dunlop (former INCH website visitor)

Oh yeah, I also love how much love they threw to Jason Gregiore on their podcast and with a nomination for National Player of the Week when he didn't even garner the WCHA Player of the Week honor.  I wonder if they understand what the word "Putz" means out there in Michigan land.

Josh Lunden's Return Profiled at ADN

The Anchorage Daily News has a story today which features Josh Lunden's return from missing the last 11 games with a shoulder injury.  Josh has consistently been a force from close in scoring areas during his career and brings a willing presence to go into (and stay in) those tough scoring areas.  With regard to playing on Saturday, Josh told Doyle,

"It felt good to be back. I only played in a limited role, just to get my feet wet and get used to the speed of the game again. I felt good conditioning-wise. I was just trying to help my linemates, and I felt like we had good chemistry."

Coach Dave Shyiak commented about his return telling Mr. Woody,

"He had two or three quality scoring chances and drew a penalty. I thought he was about half a step slow, which is natural when you haven't played in two months, but I thought he came away with passing grades." 

"We'll go day-by-day, game-by-game, and hopefully he gets back to his usual game soon. Obviously, our team benefits when he plays expanded minutes. At the same time, you don't want to give him too much, too soon.''

Most importantly though, Josh went on to add,

"There was a sense of urgency to get back on the ice, because it's my senior year and I want to help the team achieve goals we haven't achieved in five or six years now."

Josh along with his fellow seniors must be a force down the stretch.  Leadership and experience are two important cogs on the wheel of winning.  Hopefully, with a continuing full and healthy lineup the Seawolves can begin to make the sort of run that is necessary for post-season success in the WCHA.  Best of luck to Josh for a successful return this weekend.  Potting a couple of goals this weekend ought to make him feel back in the groove.

Kendall Hockey Classic: Tournament 101

The Nye Frontier ... opps Kendall Hockey Classic begins this Friday night with UAF facing the Michigan Wolverines at 5:07 AST. At 8:07 AST our beloved Seawolves take on the Mercyhurst Lakers. On Saturday at 4:07 AST the UA_ Nanooks face Mercyhurst and at 7:07 AST the Seawolves take the ice to defeat the oft vaunted ugly helmets. Notice the difference? Go to the rink an hour earlier on Saturday.

See how I got all of the most important information in the first paragraph? Any current or past UAA Journalism and Public Communications folks reading here will like that. There's lots of other stuff to mention so ...

The picture above is the cover of the 09/10 Seawolves Media Guide. I haven't been through it yet but I'm sure it will prove useful during the season. The media folks at UAA must work their asses off to get that done every year.

Speaking of people working their asses off, I spoke with Derek Donald today and he is definitely buried in Kendall tourney preparations so I'll get with him sometime next week and then write up something more extensive detailing what we can expect in the way of promotions. Derek mentioned some of that today. I know they'll be handing out magnetic schedules on Friday night and roll-out schedule/banner combo's on Saturday night.

Both UAA contests will be on TV. GCI Channel 1 as usual or if you're out of town you can get them across the series of tubes. If you're in Anchorage, go to the games eh? Don't sit at home and watch them just because you can. Kendall is giving away a Toyota Venza at the tournament. A chance to win that is enough reason to go.

The Seawolf Athletic Association is hosting a luncheon on Friday at 11:30 at the Firetap Grill and Alehouse on Old Seward near O'Malley. Call the UAA ticket office @ 786-1250. Red Berenson, Rick Gotkin, Dallas Ferguson and Dave Shyiak will all be addressing the luncheon. I'm sure the food will be excellent after reading this positive review from the Anchorage Press.

It should be worth going just to hear the competing Anchorage/Fairbanks jokes. Hopefully, UAA Athletic Director Dr. Steve Cobb has been working on a good one. He's always good for a quote. I still like what he said when the Shyiak job opening hoohaw first came out. He said, "Hey if you know you gotta eat a bug today, you might as well do it first thing in the morning."

Also on the eating front. Suze noted in the previous comment string that on Thursday @ 11:30 the Seawolf Athletic Association is hosting a "Kickoff to Homecoming 2009" BBQ in front of the UAA Bookstore.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) on 550 KTZN "The Zone", Kurt Haider will have the first ever UAA Seawolves Hockey Preview Show. Kurt tells me it will start "around 8" immediately following the baseball game. I dunno and could care less which baseball game that is. I'm guessing it's Seattle? They have a team there right? So mark your calendar, set your Blackberry alarm or write it on the back of your hand with a sharpie. If you do miss the show tomorrow night, you can catch it again on Friday around 12:30 and before the regular pre-game show that evening.

Kurt is the best announcer in the WCHA. Not listening to this show would be a sin. Unlike me, I bet Kurt listened to the WCHA teleconference this morning at 7:30 am. No. I wasn't asleep. I was however otherwise occupied and missed it. My first chance to feel like an actual media person and I missed it? Oh well.

Obviously, there wasn't anything earth shattering to come out of it or some other site would have covered it. The only thing of note I've read is that referees will no longer have their names on the backs of their jerseys. That makes it reasonable to substitute your favorite euphemism where you would have formerly used their actual name. I guess that "Hey #38 you suck" is somehow better than "Hey Shep you suck" in the WCHA's mind.

I'll have a Mercyhurst/UAA preview sometime tomorrow and a Michigan/UAA preview sometime Thursday. I will not have any UA_ related preview. I'm mean that way. I'll be watching both Nanook games and will probably offer some post game commentary here. Probably. I think. As long as it doesn't keep me from watching Stargate Universe ... otherwise screw the Nanook coverage eh?

And now to satiate the overwhelming number of requests (actually just one person ... I'll protect his identity like a journalist would). Here is a totally gratuitous hockey (umm ..err ... hockey-related?) picture.

Gawd, I hope I didn't miss anything. If I did, please provide any relevant details in the comments section. It's been a long day.

Pimping It: Kevin Clark is Twittering

I was pleased to learn yesterday evening that throughout his senior season, Kevin Clark will be twittering about the Seawolves to anyone that wants to follow. This is definitely "FAN"tastic for us Seawolves fans that simply can't get enough. Let's face it, a couple of hundred characters about Seawolf hockey and what Kevin is doing is more interesting than my Sunday Politicpourri junk. So much of what I post here is guesses and speculation (good guesses mind you) so info from Clarkie will be awesome. In an email exchange yesterday Kevin explained that the page,

...will have updates of what were doing on the road/ at home, some fun facts from time - time and could possibly hold Question/Answer segments. Or ask a Seawolf, something like that.

If you want to get the updates then it's simple to register at Twitter. I just did it and it must have taken like a whole 90 seconds. I've added a link to my "Links" section. Just click it and register and you too can be a Clarkie follower! Here's the link:

http://twitter.com/kevinclark9

I'll be looking forward to all the great info Kevin is sure to provide. I want to know what dessert Nils Backstrom had during the team meal in Mankato. I'll be thrilled to hear which rookie had to loan Jared Tuton their iPod. Or how many extra laps some other rookie had to take at practice. Will we learn how disappointed Kevin is if he can't get gravy for his french fries and has to again settle for mayonnaise? Who watches Corner Gas just because they're in love with Lacey? How many players are asking Craig Parkinson for his sister's phone number? The possibilities are endless.

I'm sorry that I can't call it "Tweeting" as the Twitter Corpies would surely prefer. Twittering sounds much more like an actual verb than tweeting. Tweeting sounds too lispy somehow. I've never jumped on the Twitter bandwagon before this because I don't send text messages (I can and do recieve them). And of course I have this blog.

Good luck to Kevin with this. I noticed that Ari Gold (ahem .. Jeremy Piven), Terrell Owens and Mike Tyson are Clarkie followers! You can be one too. Go register. Do it now. Hopefully, he'll have 300 followers by the end of today!

ADN Focuses On Seawolf Speed and Size

Today's Anchorage Daily News story focuses on the (oft mentioned here) combination of Seawolves speed and size. It's been clear for a couple of years now that Shyiak et al ... are actively seeking big players that can motor; especially on the front end. Coach Shyiak is consciously bucking the current years long WCHA paradigm by doing so. He told Doyle Woody,

"If we play physical and finish our checks, it wears teams down and they get tired and make mistakes, as a staff we demand our guys finish their checks and play physical. You're looking for talent and skating, and size is always a bonus.

"We're fortunate with being able to find guys who have good size and can still get around the ice. We're strong along the wall and that really levels the playing field against more skilled teams.''

Aspects of the game wax and wane over time. Once upon a time, every Minnesota Golden Gopher team that visited the Sullivan Arena rarely had a player under 6 feet tall (Wooger was all about big guys). When one team (especially when it's the Gophers) have success built around such an aspect then other teams naturally gravitate to that paradigm. It's never a bad idea to emulate success.

Over the last decade, many WCHA teams have more or less begun to look like the Dean Blais coached UND squads; run and gun hockey if you will. It is and has been a prized commodity in the league. Many WCHA teams now consider themselves to have excellent run and gun style (to varying extents) teams on the ice. Bucking a trend in such a situation can prove fruitful. Kane Lafranchise addressed the importance of physical play adding,

"Our style is getting more and more like that. We're getting harder and harder to play against. If we played that way all weekend (last season), by the second or third period Saturday night, teams were dumping the puck more, playing it safe and staying away from hits."

As fans, I think we saw excellent examples throughout the season of what Kane is talking about, specifically against hated rival UAF. Many fans in both Anchorage and Fairbanks agreed that UAA "squashed them like bugs". The 2nd game of the regular season series in Denver provided another good example. The Seawolves buzzed around the ultra-talented Pio's for the 2nd half of that game outplaying them badly.

Bucking the trend was essentially what Dean Blais was doing when he created the current run and gun paradigm. Great coaches in any number of sports have followed a similar strategy with success; think Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers who dramatically changed the NFL in the 1980's by opening up his offensive attack in a time when everyone else was emulating Tom Landry's defensive schemes.

I suspect that if a current NHL coach stacked his team full of Ryan Duncans, Tyler Hirschs, Kevin Clarks, Dean Larsons, Theo Fluerys, Paul Kariyas etc ... that he'd possibly find some success skating around their bigger counterparts. Nick Haddad summed it up nicely for Doyle's article saying,

"If you're a big monster, but you can't catch guys, you're worthless out there. That's why coach says we have to be the best conditioned team in the league."

Whether or not such Shyiak's strategy will be paradigm changing is obviously still a very open question. The Seawolves have yet to have any major successes utilizing their size, but there are indications of a progression to success for the Seawolves via this 'Size/Speed' combination.

I've found the fact that the Seawolves are much bigger than their competiton so compelling that I sent an email to Adam Wodon in October of 2007 over at College Hockey News requesting that he add a height/weight averages from their Alamanc section to their weekly "Tale of the Tape" comparisons. Adam replied the same day that they had done so. He's awesome like that.

And since then, I haven't often failed to point out that comparison in just about every weekly preview I've written. When all NCAA teams finally submit their official rosters I predict that UAA will be THE BIGGEST team in Division 1.

If everybody else is building a run and gun team then the team(s) that succeed will be the one(s) that have the best run and gunners. It's a sort of "beat em or join em" question. And Coach Shyiak clearly hopes the answer "beat em" will bring the Seawolves success. After all, who really wants to "join em" if it means creating a team that looks like SCSU?

Good luck to the Seawolves this Friday night. Soften them up for the rug rats up the road eh?

UAA Hockey Fan Blog "pwnd" USCHO

The United States College Hockey Online fan forum is often thought to be the premier Internet outlet for college hockey fans to express themselves regarding their favorite teams. Each week of the season fans start threads for each weekly series and have their say. This week though the UAA Hockey Fan Blog 'completely and utterly outclassed the competition' (<--- the definition for "pwnd") with substantially more discussion regarding the series than USCHO. While much of the discussion here wasn't actually about hockey don't assume that the discussion on USCHO was either. Here are the numbers as of this writing:

UAA Fan Blog:
4 posts (comparable to a thread)
75 comments
1694 views
estimated word count greater than 8000

USCHO Fan Forum:
1 thread
62 comments
1170 views
estimated word count less than 2500

While these numbers don't mean that USCHO is irrelevant (um ... yet) they do indicate a trending away from the only traditional outlet on the World Wide Web. The UAA Fan blog has a liberal policy toward commenters in comparison to USCHO which dictates that only politically correct comments are allowed. Go there and threaten someone with physical harm and you won't be allowed back. Come here and threaten someone with physical harm and there are zero consequences. There are no language restrictions here. On USCHO you can't say "ass" which is a word you'll hear on Prime Time network TV every night of the week. Anonymous comments on USCHO? Not allowed, membership/registration required. Anonymous comments here are the norm. Advertising exists on every page at USCHO and will often cause pages to load slowly. There is no advertising here and I've removed any widgets that could cause slow loading.

Thanks to all the commenters here; both irrational (i.e... 90% of UND fans) and excellent (100% of UAA fans). Feel free to repost this entire piece anywhere you choose.

ADN Profiles Mat Robinson

Andrew Hinkleman from the Anchorage Daily News wrote this great profile of Mat Robinson today. As those of us familiar with the program already know Mat is an important offensive driving force on the blueline. In the article Coach Shyiak says,

"His greatest asset is his skating ability. He's got good hockey sense on top of that. For a smaller guy he brings a tremendous physical presence. He's out there in every critical situation. He's a person who represents everything we want in our program. He's a solid citizen, a great student, he'll probably be on the all-academic team this year, he's over a 3.0. He leads by example. When he does say things, other people listen to him."

The article talks about Mat from the time he was 4 through coming to UAA with his good friend Jay Beagle to his possible future in hockey. Mat is a favorite of every fan that appreciates a skating defenseman with great eyes and hands; and what hockey fan doesn't appreciate those things? Here's what I said about Mat in my post called Early Season Player Evals,

"Mat Robinson couldn't rate any higher in my book. The first time I noticed him was in his first game when he made an absolute laser of a cross ice pass from deep in his own zone onto a rushing forwards stick. It was a thing of beauty and since then that sort of play has continued consistently. As an undersized defensemen his play is huge. How many beauty hip-checks has he delivered this year? There was a word I used last year to describe the play of former Gopher Tyler Hirsch. It applies to Robbie as well ... that word is elegant. He is smart smart smart. He is quick as a bee. And he'll rock your world with a hit out of nowhere. He's great along the boards coming up with the puck out of a scrum. He is leading the blueliners with 1 goal and 5 assists and there's no reason to expect those numbers won't grow into something real nice by years end."

In my Sophomore Class preview following Mat's first year at UAA here's what I had to say about "Robbie",

The freshman I was most excited to see before last season started was Mat Robinson. He came out of Calgary with all sorts of good buzz about his abilities as a skating defenseman. And in the first two games at UAA he put up 1 goal and 6 assists (1 goal and 2 assists in the exhibition vs. whatever Canadian school we played and 4 assists vs. RPI). His season total? 1 goal and 6 assists. I don't think its unreasonable to think that Shyiak probably asked Mat to play a defensive role last year. The fact that he played 35 games means that Shyiak likes the kid and the way he plays. I hope Shyiak also likes Mat's offensive upside. The kid has great eye-hand coordination and is as smooth a skater as UAA has. I mention his eye-hand abilities because frankly ... Mat is "Mr. TakeThePuckOffYourStick" ... he's quite possibly a poke check genius and he positions himself on the boards in his own end to steal the puck and skate away. In the RPI game Mat made a cross ice pass from deep in his zone that was definitely one of the best passes I've ever seen made. He has the best rink vision on the team and could grow into a powerful quaterback-style defenseman in all situations. Obviously I don't think that the role Mat played last year (in the last 33 games) really gave him a chance to be all I think he can be. Hopefully this season we'll get to see him put his best skills to good use.

I'd expect that Mat will get some consideration this year in terms of All-WCHA teams. Where that will be depends a lot on the teams success through the remaining 14 games. A lot of players get probably more recognition than they deserve simply because of their team's success. A player like Mat doesn't get the recognition he deserves because of the Seawolves overall lack of success. So when you read something in the national press about a kid like Chris Butler at DU you should be thinking about Mat Robinson. He actually brings more to the ice than Butler but the disparity of UAA and DU's records gets one kid recognized.

Now get your butts to the Sully tonight and make your appreciation known to Mat and all the Seawolves. With wins tonight and Saturday UAA will climb out of it's lone position in the basement and join a number of teams (including Wisconsin) in a logjam of teams pushing for a WCHA home ice playoff spot.

Tuesday Extra: Are We Obscene?

Today while looking on UAA's Student Newspaper website The Northern Light for it's recap of last weekends games, I found this editorial which (from my perspective) tried somewhat to spank the UAA student section for some of it's actions this past weekend. It's titled "Fans Should Bring Respect to the University". It's probably an opinion that more than a few people share however I took umbrage with it's premise and conclusions. Naturally, I left a comment. There is no byline that I can see so I'll have to just attribute it to "editor". I'm only quoting portions here so do visit the link I've provided to see the entire editorial. I have though included my entire comment. I encourage readers here (from both sides of this issue) to comment at The Northern Light website and/or here as you so desire.

Excessive face paint and green and yellow wigs highlight rabid UAA sports fans. They bear cold weather and the uncomfortable dryness from caked-on body paint all in an effort to showcase their green and gold spirit.

But the sports fans around the world also have a darker side. It can be easy to let the moment get a hold of an avid fan. Parents across the country have gone to jail for assaulting referees and coaches at Little League games. People have even lost their lives in soccer riots.

It is clear hockey fans have fewer boundaries on how they express their support of a home team than in other sports such as golf.

Sure, fans will taunt the other team, especially those in the penalty box, but one thing UAA fans should remember is that though home games should be a place for people to get excited and noisy, it is important to still be an example to the smaller UAA fans at the games.

Obscene chants and gestures can be toned down for the more family-oriented crowd.

Every once in a while, though, fans make themselves look like fools. Shouting obscenities across the arena or fighting with the opponents' fans doesn't represent sportsmanship.

Chants like, "Who sucks? UAF!" and "Goalie, you suck!" are often heard at games, but fans should try to come up with a better chide than that.

Really, that's the best fans can do? "You suck," a phrase eerily reminiscent of a fifth-grade playground chant, just makes fans sound unintelligent.

UAF is our main rival. With all the wins and dirt we have on them, it should be easier to come up with something better - and slightly more sportsmanlike - than "You suck."

The Sullivan Arena and the Wells Fargo Sports Complex may be some of the only places in Anchorage people can get away with wearing full body paint, howling and screaming at the top of their lungs. However, it is important for fans to remember the community is watching and the games have plenty of little Seawolf fans looking up to those around them.

Athletic events are the easiest way for the community to see the hard work UAA athletes and students accomplish, and at the same time, they're a chance for students to let their hair down and support their school. Fans should do this in a way that makes others respect our university.

My comment:

Taunts at UAA are tame in comparison to other venues in college hockey. While you'd almost certainly retort that other's bad behavior shouldn't grant a license to UAA fans to act (in your judgement and by your standards) in an obscene manner; the fact remains. You miss the point by calling a chant that includes "you suck" childish. It is the simplicity of the phrase and the it's strong verbal projection that makes it an impactful thing for fans to use. Apparently, you missed the "Pull Your Johnson" chants near the end of the game when UAF Chad Johnson was in goal. No doubt you would characterize that as childish as well.

I don't think it's ever a good idea in a college environment to so hastily judge things as obscene. Especially words. Do you really believe that some words are "bad"? I won't disagree that some words have connotations that are disagreeable to some people. I don't particularly like the word "rape" but it is used everyday in your profession. Are "suck" or even an "f-bomb" (which you will hear at other college hockey venues) really worse than "murder", "rape", "pillage", "kill" or for that matter "war"? I don't think so. In context "suck" and "f-bombs" as used by fanbases in college hockey are just words to express the idea that the opponent isn't worthy and to taunt them. Are they derogatory? Yes. Are they obscene in context? No they aren't.

Please lets not take steps back to some Victorian ideal. We should all be past that era shouldn't we? I for one was happy to see an enthusiatic group of students taunting our hated rival. Nice job! Come back and do the same thing every weekend and maybe in time UAA's home rink will get the same sort of widely admired reputation as the Kohl Center or Agganis Arena or Conte Forum or the dozens of other college hockey rinks where opponents receive MUCH harsher treatement (chant-wise). Last weekend in Duluth the student section tried to taunt an Austrian player with the chant "The Hapsburgs Suck". Is that childish or creative in your book? BTW ... it didn't catch on.

Let "the mob" have it's way eh? It's mostly useful and healthy in terms of an emotional outlet. After all ... it's a hockey game; not a piano recital.

I think this is an important discussion to have. I'm personally proud that I have a 15 year old daughter who has long understood that every word in the language is equal to every other word. Judging language and/or categorizing it with terms like "obscene" just has never sat right with me. The hypocrisy of maintaining some false veil of decorum in public or at the workplace and then going home and letting a "shit!" fly when someone drops their favorite teacup onto the marble tile amazes me. I'd prefer a world where we use the most expressive language (English) to it's full capabilities. But I know that's just me. Please chime in. I'd like to hear what others have to say about this and I'll restrain myself from the comments section since I've had my say.

WCHA ROTW: Winston Daychief

Congratulations to Winston Daychief. The WCHA announced it's weekly award winners today. Winston's 2 goal, 1 assist weekend versus rival UAF earned him the Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week award. Winston's performance was certainly worthy of the award. Perhaps most interesting about this week's WCHA awards though is the fact that all three winners are rookies. Wisconsin freshman Kyle Turris picked up the OPOW and Colorado College freshman goalie Richard Bachman picked up the DPOW.

Winston's second goal of the night against the Nanooks was the game winner. His earlier goal could have been the game winner but UAF scratched their way back into the game. His single assist Friday night was on the game winning goal. Those three facs have a nice timely relationship in my eyes. Winston is showing he is "there" when it counts. Winston is currently tied for 4th in scoring (3g-2a) among WCHA rookies. It was the second week in a row that I had to consider how best to get to a position in the Arena to make sure my hat made it to the nice if necessary. If the Seawolves keep scoring the scoring at the current level I might get to deliver to the ice this coming weekend. If so, I've got my route preplanned. This is the second WCHA award recognition of the season for a UAA player.

UPDATE: Glen Coulson from the UAA School of Jouralism and Public Communications emailed me with the rundown of this week's UAA Coaches Show. It airs tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 8pm on GCI Channel One. The first segment of the show this week will be a review of both games vs. UAF as well with enhanced highlights (zoom and slow motion) and of course Coach Shyiaks commentary. The segment ends with a highlight reel of some of the big hits from the series ( cool ). In the middle segment Coach Shyiak and David Tuttle preview the series this weekend with Mankato. The 3rd segment this week welcomes Blair Tassone for an interview. Thanks to Glen for the update and to all his staff which put this excellent show together with what I understand is an all-volunteer effort! Great work guys!

WCHA Offensive POTW: Josh Lunden

More recognition came today for Josh Lunden. The WCHA announced in this release that Josh was their Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week. His three goals and two assists and Most Outstanding Player award in the Nye Frontier Tournament this past weekend was enough to win the award over five other fellow nominees: Ruegsegger (DU), Shelast (MTU), Okposo (UMTC), Sharp (UMD) and Duncan (UND).

The three goals puts him a little more than a quarter of the way toward matching his total goal output during his freshman campaign in a Seawolf sweater. I thought it was interesting that every account of Josh's game tying goal against BU noted that he "buried" the puck. I guess there wasn't a more perfect word for it. It was exactly the sort of finish that we've come to expect from Josh. The pass from Kevin Clark was a thing of beauty without a doubt, but Josh banged it home with flair.

On KTUU's early report Dave Shyiak spoke briefly about the Seawolves depth and indicated that he thought "everybody could be playing" and while that "made his job more difficult" it was a good thing. Look on KTUU's website later for the archived version of the 6pm report which I imagine will be a little more in-depth.

The UAA Coaches Show

Thanks to the diligence of my daughter (or her boredom looking for something to watch) I was able to watch "The UAA Coaches Show" tonight at 8PM on GCI Channel 1. I'll get some more information tomorrow about any potential repeats and the regularity of this program and edit that in here. I'll also inquire with GCI about whether this show would be available as a webcast.

The program's first segment was a review of last season. Coach Shyiak indicated that he thought part of the poor second half performance may have been because he and the staff didn't focus as closely on conditioning. They had lots of highlights playing but didn't comment specifically about any plays that were showing but did run through each series a bit and comment about them.

The second segment the coach spent time talking about each of the returning players individually. He started with the captains and upperclassmen focusing on the leadership each of these guys will need to show in order to help the team. He mentioned Luke Beaverson's excellent defensive abilities and PK work. He talked about Mat Robinson's excellent skating and his ability to move the puck well. He noted Shane Lovdahl's physical play, good passing and shooting and how he'd improved his foot speed. He talked about Merit Waldrop's commitment and potential to improve his output because of his talent. He thought Peter Cartwright had a bit of a breakout year and talked about how he thought that would continue this season. He was positive about Blair Tassone's energy and noted how much they missed it when he was out hurt last year. He talked about Chris Tarkir being a bit snakebit scoring-wise last season and how he'd be looking to change that this season. They moved onto the all-important sophomore class and covered all the positives of each guy; he mentioned how Kevin Clark learned as the season went on that he was more important on the ice than off. He remarked that he liked Clark's "edge" and that in the playoff series at the Mariucci that Kevin was one of the best players on the ice for either team. He talked about Crowder and Lunden continuing their production and the physical aspects of their game. He talked about Backstrom's good skating and ability to move the puck. He gave lots of credit to Jared Tuton for his hitting game, noting that was a role they'd continue to expect from him.

He noted that Matt Gordon started college in BC while he was playing juniors which means that he'll only be eligible this year and next year for UAA. He thought that if Brian Bales were able to play right now that he'd be in the lineup. Brian will be eligible to play sometime around Christmas. He liked Winston's scoring potential and commented on his strength on the puck; he called Craig Parkinson a bit of an intellectual player and commented how good around the net he was; he liked Tommy Grant's maturity and noted how high Tommy's penalty numbers were and that he's talked with him about cutting down on the stick-related penalties but noted his good goal scoring in juniors. He talked about Brad McCabe in terms of his work along the boards, strength and shooting ability. He talked about Luka Vidmar's skating, puck movement and strength noting that he "tested" the best of all the players in terms of conditioning. He likes Sean Wiles size and commented how he was coming along well in practices. He also noted that competition for playing time was a reality. He did mention that Jeremy Smith and Aaron Mayo joined the team knowing their potential playing situation and was happy to have them fill those important roles.

Other than the Crowder, Clark, Lunden line the only other matchup that he talked about was Waldrop, McCabe, Tarkir and that he thought that line had some potential. He talked about the teams skating abilities and how it helps with all the big ice in the league. He also commented about hitting several times and how important the physical side of the game is for UAA's strategy. His comments about Jonny O were real positive and he expressed confidence that he'd be able to handle the majority of the work and that he really liked the athleticism of Matt Gordon. They talked about having an uptempo gameplan; about improving the PP and PK; green-lighting defensemen; and they mentioned how tight the league was from top to bottom and how important every single point was.

I'm sure I've missed more than a few of the comments in this half-assed disorganized summary so excuse me for that. My note here is that most of the words here were mine and not necessarily verbatim from Coach Shyiak. I tried to use his words as much as possible but the show moved pretty fast and writing while listening isn't a skill that I really have. Hopefully, there'll be a repeat and/or webcast so everyone who didn't get a chance to see the show will be able to see it. For future shows I can imagine that I won't likely try to be as comprehensive as I'm trying to be here. If I missed any key points or player comments I apologize.

Some Delicious Tidbits

I suppose "delicious" is a matter of individual taste but here's some stuff that might at least tide you over until the main course. Jeffrey Hopkins is a regular contributor here in the comments section and unlike me has actual credentials. Jeff is writing for the UAA Student Newspaper, The Northern Light. If you follow this link you can read his first submission this year covering the UAA Hockey team. The article contains quite a few comments from the players and focuses on both the upcoming season and the Nye Frontier tournament. Give it a read. Nice job Jeff! Hopefully, you're Anchorage's future in hockey reporting!

Also in the Northern Light this week you can find Suzanna Caldwell's article about Wayne State's final season. She has quotes from Head Coach Bill Wilkinson as well as SID Tom Gorman both of whom emphasize that this season is a showcase for the players. My facetious question regarding the departure of Wayne State is; since the exemption they gain by playing up here in Alaska isn't going to be used can the Seawolves have it to schedule an additional home game?

I've meant a couple of times to post this information but keep forgetting. KTUU Sports is doing a pretty good job covering the pre and early season. They've been to at least 3 practices and had a camera and reporter at the exhibition game in Wasilla. They did mistakenly report the final score as 7-0 but other than that I'm giving them high marks. The nice thing is that they post each nights sports report on their website. To be honest I've found their website to be a little clunky to navigate and the audio on their archived sports reports is ridiculously low but take a look and you can find game highlights and interviews. As a side note I'd hoped to include game highlight video this season but my machine is so grossly underpowered as to completely negate that possibility. Video capture capabilities in testing proved to be of horrid quality due to frame loss so I bagged that whole idea. If someone out there has a media quality machine and wants to grab the goal highlights from GCI's webcasts I'd be happy to post it here though. I'd just ask that it be 30fps and under 10mb for me to post it. I'm sure that's easily doable with a decent machine. KTVA has no such archiving of reports on thier site and KIMO's sports reports are only sporadically archived, so neither get any kind of link here.

In a bit of a Twilight Zone moment I was checking collegehockeyblogs.com for anything I could share in this post and found an entry on Clarkson's hockey blog called, "Where's the Beef". I thought for a second that somehow the listing had become confused but it wasn't so. Must be my use of it yesterday somehow creeped through the ether and invaded the subconcious of their blogger. I didn't know my thoughts were so powerful. I'll make an effort in the future to not allow them to creep through the ether so easily. For now I must apologize for my obvious metaphysical prowess. If you didn't already know Clarkson copies UAA with the whole Green and Gold theme too. Sheesh.

I haven't received the BU preview but I promise to post it as soon as it shows up. Also, Chris from Western College Hockey is working on season previews and emailed me a set of questions this morning. I dutifully responded to his queries and he's posted the exchange at this link. No doubt plenty of bloggers feel busy this week. I know I do.

Finally, the ice at the Sullivan this weekend shouldn't be pink. The Alaska Aces are doing a fundraiser for Breast Cancer research and have tinted the ice pink. My earlier assumption that there wouldn't be enough time to get the pink out was entirely incorrect however. I'd thought they'd need to remelt and put a new sheet down to accomplish the task but since the pink ice was sprayed on it should just be a matter of scraping and Zamming to put the ice back to normal for the Nye.