LetsGoDU presents "Puck Swami’s Best of the WCHA." Swami has been gracious enough to give LetsGoDU his exclusive summer musings about his favorite college hockey league.Minnesota
Best team spirit –The skating cheerleaders. Big 10 eye Candy. Love it.
Best arena feature - The Mariucci murals. Great Gopher history on display.
Best off ice hangout - Stub and Herb’s. Love the Gopher memorabilia, close to arena.
Most admired player- John Mayasich - The man personifies the Gopher program
Most admired coach – Herb Brooks – Sure, John Mariucci was "The Godfather," but Brooks won more NCAA titles…
Wisconsin
Best team spirit – Tie between the great band, the choreographed student section and the ‘sieve’ cheer.
Best arena feature – 15,000+ people at a regular season game. Wow.
Best off-ice hangout – Madison rocks. State Street Brats and the Kollege Klub. The perfect 1-2 punch.
Most admired player – Chris Chelios. No Badger worked harder.
Most admired coach – Bob Johnson – Badger’s legend grows every day
Colorado College
Best team spirit - The old man that leads the :”Tigers, Tigers, Tigers! cheer
Best arena feature – Good beer selection at CSWA.
Best off-ice hangout - The Golden Bee – still best bar in the WCHA for all its history and tradition.
Most admired player - Marty Sertich. Hobey Baker winner showed unusual grace in the face of family tragedy
Most admired coach - Don Lucia – Lucia brought CC back from near extinction to elite status – amazing.
Denver
Best team spirit - Probably the Orange/Lemon showdown, a 55 year team tradition.
Best arena feature – Chef-carved roast beef and full bar service in the concourse. And the seven NCAA title banners.
Best off-ice hangout: Tie – The Border (undergrads) and Campus Lounge (Older alums). Classic dives, both of them.
Most admired player - Keith Magnuson. Mr. Pioneer was always a gentleman as well as a great player.
Most admired coach - Murray Armstrong. 5 NCAA Banners cemented The Chief’s legacy as a giant of the game.
North Dakota
Best team spirit - The best uniforms in the game today and zealous fans to cheer them on as the state’s largest sports attraction.
Best arena feature – The whole $100 million palace they play in, but for me, it’s the team sized hot tub in the UND dressing room
Best off-ice hangout - Whitey’s in East Grand Forks. A Classic. But I miss the old Westward Ho, though.
Most admired player - Jim Archibald. Sure, he was a borderline sociopath, but no Sioux player was loved and feared around the league more than “Archie” – the mid ‘80s enforcer.
Most admired coach - Dean Blais. Took a slightly listing program and restored the glory of Sioux hockey.
St. Cloud State
Best team spirit - The rabid student section, especially vs. Minnesota. Husky fans know how to bring it.
Best arena feature – Low ceiling keeps the noise level high
Best off-ice hangout - Val’s. A good, low key Midwestern vibe.
Most admired player - Bret Hedican. Smooth skater, and one of the nicest players you’ll ever meet.
Most admired coach - Herb Brooks, even for the one year he coached at SCSU. I was never a Craig Dahl fan…
Alaska -Anchorage
Best team spirit – UAA Fan Blog. Donald rules. No fan anywhere is more passionate about his team.
Best arena feature – Alaska themed food in arena concourse, so I hear. Never been there to taste it.
Best off-ice hangout - Never been there, but I hear the UAA booster club is great with visiting fans who make the long trip.
Most admired player – Gregg Naumenko. I believe the only UAA player to be a first team all WCHA selection.
Most admired coach – Brush Christianson. A coaching pioneer that got the whole thing started up there
Minnnesota-Duluth
Best team spirit – The Penalty Box. Win or lose, they booze. But I must say miss the old 1980s Maroon Loon, the best hockey mascot I ever saw.
Best arena feature – Steep DECC balcony seating pitch puts you right on top of the action. Will miss it when it’s gone.
Best off-ice hangout – Grandma’s today, but the old Chinese Lantern is fondly remembered as a true classic.
Most admired players – Brett Hull. I would have paid just to watch him shoot in warm-ups.
Most admired coach – Mike Sertich. Sertie always made you laugh. I miss him and his rug, too.
Michigan Tech
Best team spirit – The wonderful MTU band’s “copper country anthem” (since 1950)
Best arena feature – The skating treadmill in the MTU Locker Room.
Best off-ice hangout - Keewenaw Brewing Company. Cold beer in a cold town.
Most admired player - Tony Esposito. Hall of Famer still revered everywhere hockey is played.
Most admired coach - John MacInnes. Won 3 NCAA titles at a little school in the middle of nowhere.
Minnesota State, Mankato
Best team spirit – The Purple Cow. And the Cowbells. Something about it just works for me.
Best arena feature – Proximity to Mettler’s.
Best off ice hangout – Mettler’s. Don’t ask and don’t tell.
Most admired player – David Backes. Talent AND effort.
Most admired coach – Don Brose, a gentleman through and through.
10 comments:
Your eminency:
A few arguments. 1, you didn't pick Spanky's for a hangout? Goddard:Spanky's::Norm:Cheers. 2, one cannot hang out at Val's. Well, ONE can. Two cannot. It's teeny.
Go Donald!
Far be it for me to argue with the Swams but ...
Passion is exhibited by different people in different ways. There are so many many quality volunteers and boosters who show their passion by their efforts at the rink and on behalf of the team. All of those people eclipse my loud-mouth. I think that is evidenced by the category that defines the boosters as being great hosts. They are.
And oh yeah ...
The most admired player would probably be either Mike Peluso or Curtis Glencross. Though for me it will always be Dean "Magic Man" Larson.
RWD:
True, Spanky's is loads of fun, and but a relative newcomer compared to The Border and Campus Lounge which have far longer histories serving inebriated Pioneer fans. As you can see, I like a sense of history in my hangouts. That's why I love Val's, too - it's a real 1950s burger joint, tiny or not. Love it.
And Donald, while others may toil in obscurity to support UAA, your 'loud mouth' is for many of us, the closest we can get to truly understanding the UAA fan experience in all of its unique dimensions. You bring the rare blend of outspoken, articulate passion combined with a keen grasp of the game itself and those who play it. Keep doing what you do.
Last January I went to Anchorage for 5 days on business. Anyone who has traveled there knows that when you come back to the lower 48 you leave sometime after midnight.
UAA was playing that night so I went and watched them. I wish that the DU fans were 1/2 as enthusiastic as the UAA fans were. They got into the game and really supported their team. As I was leaving, I got invited to the UAA supporters area of the arena for some after game warm up drinks. They couldn't have been nicer.
UAA games remind me of the old Colorado Rockies games @ McNichols. The joint was often only about 1/2 full but the intensity of the cheering was damn near equal to a full arena. I do know from experience that I'd place Seawolf fans in one of the highest categories when it comes to knowledge of the game. An example of this is that the largest responses I've ever seen aside from big goals have been for great individual efforts in killing a penalty. On the contrary fans of the local ECHL team only make noise when their team scores or fights ... or if the arena announcer leads them.
Donald,
Do you remember Krazy George leading the cheers at McNichols for the Rockies?
I do remember Crazy George. That was in his heyday! Rockey Hockey! I was in the rink when the first goal ever credited to a goalie was registered to Billy Smith even though the Rockies threw it all the way down the rink from behind the goal line. It was a true OMG moment.
I'll always remember my first NHL game. Montreal vs. Colorado. The Canadiens won 8-0. Guy LaFleur was FLYING up and down the ice.
I also got in line for playoff tickets at 3AM the year they made the playoffs.
Over three years I bet I went to 90 of the home games (about half of those for free) . Do you remember Puck Bucks?
My mom worked at the printing company that made those and she brought a huge box home with tons of them. We pulled all the tabs and came up with about 50 tickets! Lots of them were for the same game but I'd just hold my finger over the date and let the ticket taker tear it. Worked like a charm almost every time. I got stopped once using an April 20th ticket on March 20th and they let me in anyway! LOL.
We used to park on the other side of Federal and walk over. Once a friend of mine and his cousin went ... we parked in the same place and jumped a fence. As we were climbing over the fence the cops saw us. My buddies cousin yelled, "RUN!!!" ... so we did. The cops weren't too please when they caught us 25 yards later! And we only missed about 5 minutes of the first period. Yeah ... we were dumbass 16 year olds!
My favorite game of all time there? ... Versus the Russians ... Krutov, Larionov, Makarov with Fetisov on the blueline!! Those guys were awesome in person ... Larionov's stick had a CRAZY HUGE curve. I think the final score that night was 5-0 for the commies.
I remember the Puck Bucks. They game them away at the 7-11 near my house. I went in as a young kid to score some candy and the clerk gave me a box of the Puck Bucks. Like Donald, I tore those things open and won a bunch of free games. My dad and I many times that year to enjoy Rocky Hockey for free. What a deal!
excellent contribution, glad to see nothing but positive comments/content for each school
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