Huh?

Did anyone besides me know that Chase Ryan was playing for the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL?

Well, good for him! Also on his team are Jordan Fulton and former Princeton goalie Zane Kalemba. I wonder if ol' Zaney still has nightmares about Evan Oberg.

Bulletin

We interrupt my regularly scheduled homework/mass cramming for exams to bring you this really old news.

The WCHA end-of-season awards were announced before the Final Five. Jack Connolly was All-WCHA 1st team and Justin Fontaine was All-WCHA 2nd team. The other winnarz were not from tUMD and thus do not matter.

Additionally, tUMD's resident smarty-pantses were honored as members of the All-WCHA Academic Team. Players must have at least one year of residency at their school, must have a GPA > 3.0 for the previous two semesters, or have an overall GPA > 3.0. (Recall that the Scholar-Athletes were announced last month. The GPA cutoff there is 3.5.)

First-Timers
Drew Akins (Communication)
Jack Connolly (Undecided according to his tUMD bio, although I don't think that's true, someone* help me out here Communications)
David Grun (Business)
Brady Hjelle (Accounting)

Repeat Offenders
Rob Bordson (Accounting)
Justin Fontaine (Accounting)
Chad Huttel (Exercise Science)
Kenny Reiter (Finance)
Chase Ryan (Accounting)
Kyle Schmidt (Statistics and Actuarial Science)

Congratulations, everyone!

*ahem, someone, you know who you are Thank youuuu

Soliloquy

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from game to game
To the last syllable of recorded play,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief goal light!
Hockey's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the ice
And then is heard no more: it is a blog
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

-Macbeth, Act V Scene V



Well, I don't know what to say. We don't know if this is the end of the season or not, for sure, but I feel like it is. We'll never see Akins, Fulton, Chase Ryan, Palm (though he is eligible for a red-shirt) and most likely others in a Bulldog jersey again. I can't be critical of anyone tonight because... because I just can't. I don't want to. I mean, really, what's the point? They won home ice. They made it to the Final Five. I'd say I'm satisfied with the season.

But one thing about tonight's game: Kenny was AMAZING.

Oh, and I rode the Zamboni, which was so incredibly cool and exhilarating and I wish it had been a good omen for the team.

Goal Oriented

Before we begin, as a public service announcement, please people. Never use the non-word "orientated." EVER.

A few times when I was in school my teachers would have me write down my goals for the year at the start of the semester. When I was in elementary school it was suck up things like "Get everything right on my tests." I succeeded. In junior high they were more sarcastic like "Don't be stupid" or "get a boyfriend." Again, success. In high school when I took the PSATs I wrote on my answer booklet (which I would get back after I got the results of my test a few months later) "If you don't get National Merit honors, you might as well kill yourself." And I'm alive, so, again, success!

I'm good at setting goals, as you can see. So, AS ALWAYS, I'm here to help tUMD players set some achievable goals for the season! Let's go!

Drew Akins
Take only good penalties. I know you can't resist, but please, either 1. prevent goals or 2. emasculate opponents when you take penalties. Make them useful!

Chase Ryan
Play in some games! Maybe just a couple. I would totally cheer so hard for you. Biddco would be overcome with glee.

Travis Oleksuk
Get a goal EARLY. I mean, I know you're going to score a goal this season, many goals in fact, but get one the first game and get it over with. Then destroy all opponents.

Brady Hjelle
Make PBHjT a HUGE success by getting a shutout, or at the very LEAST, a win. No more of this tying LSSU to start the season. I WANT A WIN.

Jordan Fulton
Do what MacGregor Sharp did last year. You're talented. You're going to be on a great line, I'm pretty sure. And this is what's known as a "contract year." So have on. Beersong thinks you will.

Rob Bordson
End your exceptionally long pointless streak. And try not to look so sulky all the time.

Brady Lamb
Shoot the puck so hard it goes through the back of the net. Like Mike Eaves thought Tom Gorowsky did when Stalock fell down in that UW game. But Goro had just missed.

Mighty Midgets (Jacky, MCON, Wade Bergman, Huttel)
Play (as you three veterans always do) like you're 10 feet tall and bullet proof. Jordan Baker told me it was great to be short. And he's shorter than all of you!

Dan Delisle
Check someone so hard they fall into their own bench.

The rest of you? Uhhh... just do your best. Or even better. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything*.


*That's good advice, Marty.

Requiem for a Season

Blogger has this feature where I can label my posts, which is a handy way of organizing them. Then all a reader has to do if they want to, say, read everything I've written about Jack Connolly, they can just click on the Jack Connolly label and get hit full blast with craziness. It's very handy.

The labels are pretty discreet, so I don't know if any of you noticed, but somewhere between Thursday and Friday we reached a point of inflection, where the Off-Season label dropped off and the very first Sixth Season label appeared in its place.

Before looking to the future, let's travel back to last season.



Yes, it really happened. No, I still can't believe it. Yes, I still get chills.

The first game of the West regional was one of the greatest days of my life. The Final Five championship would have been another of those days had I not been in the midst of my final exams. But the regional was incredible, not just because of the game's outcome, but the entire experience. I'd say the planning and execution of the signs and the togas and the cheers/chants is what ultimately inspired us to do Peanut Butter Hjelle Time!!! (It is only properly punctuated with three exclamation points.) A little organization and planning can go a long way toward increasing the atmosphere at a game, and if UMD isn't going to promote their own product, someone has to.

The last season was really a turning point for RWD. It was the first season I was able to make it to a majority of games, so it changed the way I was able to experience the games. In years past I'd only been able to listen to the games on the radio or sometimes not at all. I made 23 games last season and I am pretty certain I caught every other game, whether it was on B2 or just the radio. I know it seems like I have no life, but I work over 40 hours a week and have school for another 8-12, so I just have no social life.

Which isn't entirely true, because I met a lot of incredible people last year. UMD has amazing fans, and I'm not discounting the people I have met in seasons past, but the friends I've made over the past year have augmented the already awesome Bulldog hockey atmosphere. I don't want to name names because I don't want to leave anyone out, and like I said, I don't want to detract from the folks I've known for years. I don't know the guys on the ice, and they don't know me, and it's partially by design and partially by accident, and they're only there for four years, tops. I'll be able to come to Bulldog games in 10 years with a lot of the same people and we can laugh about how we KAWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!d at the Miami band or when one of Mitch's Misfits told Biddco he sounded like an anorexic dog.

I don't know how last season can be topped. I mean, other than the obvious NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! Some of you who voted in the first of my trio of polls the other night abstained from the second and third, I noticed. (FYI, it appears Keegan Flaherty is the most highly-anticipated non-Dylan Olsen freshman, with every guy receiving at least one vote. Antti Miettinen and Chase Ryan are tied in the Biddco Dead Ringer poll.)

I do know that a lot of guys are gone, and they took a lot of offensive firepower and defensive prowess. But they left their legacy. Those guys were fighters. As freshmen they willed a 9th place team to the Final Five and as seniors they battled to a Final Five championship and an NCAA win. Do you think the remaining guys on the team didn't notice? Or participate? The seniors that left came from a class that had to mature early, and we've got another group of freshmen and sophomores who will also have to.

What the senior class has reminded me, and what I hope they have also imparted to all of you, is to never give up on this team. More than any other college hockey team, UMD has surprised and overachieved. One of the hardest things about rooting for a team that's not a perennial powerhouse is remaining hopeful despite game after game and season after season of disappointment, but we simply must keep believing the next crazy win is a week or a day away. Negativity is a plague that can decimate a fan base, and we can't afford to see that at UMD. Not after last season, not with the new season coming, and not as long as we have a team on the ice who play their best and give it all they've got and wear their jerseys with pride and respect.

There are 18 guys on this team who were a part of the team last year and had a hand in the successes (yes, all of them, whether they were scoring with 42 seconds left in the Princeton game or jostling for a spot in the lineup, everyone contributed) and I'm sure they are pretty certain they're going to have a great year. I'm ready to see who is going to be the next MacGregor Sharp, who tripled his point outcome. I'm ready to see PBHj continue the goaltending excellence UMD has enjoyed for the better part of a decade. I'm ready to see Brady Lamb or Scott Kishel take the same strides Oberg did from freshman to sophomore year (although thankfully neither will have to break a leg in the process.)

I love to think about all the craziness from last year, but I've got to start looking ahead to this season, which is SEVEN DAYS AWAY!

Straw Poll

The season! It's going to start so soon! People might actually read RWD again! Or, at all!

In honor of Tracy, my favorite Iowegian reader, here's a few preseason straw polls for you!

Get The Picture?

That was a horrible Nickelodeon show.

I noticed that Chase Ryan has the same roster pic as last year. I think. Or he is frozen in the same expression at all times.


















I think they just lost the picture.























But I found it! It's all good!!!

Yesterday

I wrote this entry in class this morning, while I was waiting for the rest of the class to finish taking their midterms. I'm a very fast test-taker.

tUMD 1, Dirty Hacks 3

Obviously, I'm dissatisfied with the outcome of last night's game. I mean, duh, we lost, that's never a fantastic thing. I hate giving up empty net goals; they're so demoralizing, especially when they come with so much time left in the game.

The real loss of the game, however, is the Very Handsome Jason Garrison. He allegedly has a broken leg and will allegedly be out for the rest of the season (Pates says so, but Sandy won't confirm), and I'm very sad. He's obviously an integral part of the team and one of our top 3 defencemen. The circumstances of the injury seemed a little strange, as it appeared Patrick Johnson smashed him from behind into the boards (at least, that was the audible reaction of Justin May, Renaissance Man) right after he lost an edge. Bruce goes on about it over on his site, so whatever, I don't need to repeat him. At any rate, we will miss his presence. DA pointed out perhaps a different defenceman would have been more expendable, because we'd have about three less penalties a game, but I think the whole D-corps responded nicely to their hardship and didn't take any interference penalties or anything. This is certainly a golden opportunity for Chase "Put Me In Coach!" Ryan or Chad "I Overstated My Height On The Roster" Huttel to step into a more regular role. What this means for Garrison, Gawryletz, and Montgomery's band is unknown. It all depends on if he is the drummer or not. If he's a guitarist, it's cool, because he can sit down and sing soulful ballads. I hope they write a song about me, and it's not derogatory.

I have to applaud Sandelin for taking such a huge risk by pulling Stalock with so much time left in the game, during a stoppage in play. It showed a lot of confidence in our guys, and especially in My Guy MacGregor Sharp, who won the face-off and gave us control of the puck. We had possession for quite awhile and some great chances before Wisconsin got control and scored their empty net goal.

The lone goal in the game came from Travis Gawryletz on the power play, which must have meant the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. It was an awesome goal that I'm sure many other guys were jealous of: he was all alone on the backdoor and lifted the puck over Connelly's leg. I saw this because the game was randomly televised here in the Cities. I am so pleased to take TG Off Notice for the first time this season!

Other exciting news: Mike Curry returned to the lineup after a long absence due to injury!