The Gophers Revisited again and again.
                     
    As I watched "the Fighting Sioux" put the finishing touches on yet 
another sweep of the Gophers at home it became apparent to me that 
"the Gopher Series" is not as big as it used to be (the competition isn't
as good). Here is why I say this: There used to be a lot of chirping 
on the various web pages about how the Gophers were the pinnacle of 
college hockey; the program for which all others hockey programs should 
be measured against. O.K.  So now where are all those fans. All I here 
is a bunch of whining by Gopher fans about how their team got screwed 
by the refs or how a least their players are from Minnesota or  they 
have a T.V. station on and on.... I think it is justice. I guess college 
hockey teams/coaches should give their players 500.00 dollars in a hat 
under the table or yap at the officials before during and after the game
because you (Wooger) can't coach a game, its defense offense not what 
you wear on your chest.  I bet Red Berenson of Michigan does use 
coaching methods such as these ones. College hockey coaching is about
what you do on the ice not what you say after the game.

    College hockey is going to get more competitive and coaches are 
going to have to recruit even harder because of the expansion of 
division 1 hockey. This is probably going to mean 16 teams in the NCAA
tourney. Also Minnesota now has Duluth, Bemidji, Saint Cloud, Mankato 
to compete with in the recruiting wars. It is not a sure thing for Minnesota, 
will we see some Canadians with M on the chest maybe. As it stands now 
time has pass the UofM by. As it stands now Minnesota should not want 
to play in a Big Ten conference, what would their records be this year 
if they had to play MSU and Michigan four times each "ouch"... Personally 
I hope Doug Woog stays on as coach I like the job he is doing...
                     
        Blaiser to Minnesota
                     
    I hear a lot of speculation about Dean Blais going to coach at the 
University of Minnesota. I am going to go out on a limb and say it is 
not going to happen. Here is why I think this, Sioux alumni multi-millionaire
Ralph Englestad went a long way in preventing that with his donation of 
100,000,000 dollars to UND, 50,000,000 of that money is going to build 
a state of the art 21 century hockey arena. Dean Blais will have a 
better arena at his disposal to entice top recruits to go to UND. Dean 
Blais also already has a winning program why would he want to leave 
Grand Forks to coach at UofM. Sure he was a Minnesota player but he also 
started his coaching career right here. It will be interesting to see 
what actually happens in the future but I would bet that Blais is staying put. 

GO TO THE COLUMNIST INDEX

MAIN INDEX