From: Denver Postby Terry Frei
The University of Denver hockey program has a track record of operating in a first-class manner. That's why its cynical tampering with the format of the Denver Cup was so jarring.
At Magness Arena, DU beat Nebraska-Omaha 7-0 on Friday and Boston College 4-3 on Saturday in pre- determined matchups and was declared the Denver Cup champion.
St. Lawrence was the fourth team in the field, beating BC 5-2 on Friday and tying UNO on Saturday. That game will go into the books as a 2-2 final, but UNO won a shootout contested only for placing considerations.
Bottom line: DU didn't trust that the desired Saturday night, prime- time, final-game matchup — DU vs. BC — would fall into place, and instead engineered the pairings to guarantee it. It "worked" in the sense that DU got a sought-after matchup of national-power programs in the Cup's final game that wouldn't have come off if Friday's winners had met for the title. (read rest of article)
The University of Denver hockey program has a track record of operating in a first-class manner. That's why its cynical tampering with the format of the Denver Cup was so jarring.
At Magness Arena, DU beat Nebraska-Omaha 7-0 on Friday and Boston College 4-3 on Saturday in pre- determined matchups and was declared the Denver Cup champion.
St. Lawrence was the fourth team in the field, beating BC 5-2 on Friday and tying UNO on Saturday. That game will go into the books as a 2-2 final, but UNO won a shootout contested only for placing considerations.
Bottom line: DU didn't trust that the desired Saturday night, prime- time, final-game matchup — DU vs. BC — would fall into place, and instead engineered the pairings to guarantee it. It "worked" in the sense that DU got a sought-after matchup of national-power programs in the Cup's final game that wouldn't have come off if Friday's winners had met for the title. (read rest of article)
21 comments:
Sounds like Terry needs a hug. Relax, TF... WE WON! I take a slight amount of offense to his overtone, in light of what the area's NFL Franchise just did on Sunday. I was watching the football game thinking, "This is why I have season tickets to college hockey". Students who put thier studies first - and still manage to give 110% each week on the playing surface... and win.... vs Millionairs - who's only task is to play football as a team..who get paid regardless, and they can't produce.
Terry..... do you feel the best team won the Denver Cup? Because I sure do.
All teams knew what was at stake. Most fans understood the format.The teams and the fans have a choice of not attending the tournament.Saturday nights game was a great SHOWCASE for college hockey period!!
Pretty obvious that DU wanted the game against BC for pairwise implications at the end of the season.
I, along with my die hard DU hockey friends in the Chi Town all agree with Terry.
This format is not unusual in college hockey this year.
Anon 8:03... I couldn't agree with you more. As for the other dopes who left comments; good job on being the broken record and repeating everything that has been said for the past week. Also, good job on reiterating what Frei even says in his article. Good job!
His point is merely that if you're going to have an event where you place people according to how they perform, there are better ways to do it than this format. Otherwise, if it's going to be exhibition games and a couple of non-conference games for DU, then don't insult the sport of hockey by trying to award places to those who didn't really earn them. He even says "A showcase is neither a tournament nor a fair round robin."
I would guess that this is another case of money talking here in the form of sponsorship from Wells Fargo. They have been the sponsor for a long time and I'm sure DU wants to keep their money, and in order to do that they most likely had to make it look like a tournament setting with trophies and such. That's just my opinion, but I can't think of any other explanation for keeping the name, but changing the rules.
As i have repeatedly said, the solution is simple. Stop misrepresenting it as a "tournament and using the word "cup" which signifies ,by definition, a team winning all the games in the tournament. Frei is correct in his comments. If Gwoz. wants to repeat this again next year ,fine, do it but don't use those phony titles. Call it what it is , the Denver Invitatational.Store the cup with the missing Gold pan, where ever that is .
P.S.--D.G. knows where the gold pan is!!
T-Get over yourself.You just re-reiterated the article yourself.Does that make you a dope as well?
Doesn't matter a whit what they call it in my book. It could be the Denver Erotic Massage Festival for all I care. It's all about the PWR, and Gwoz can run this thing any way he wants if it helps our NCAA chances and gets better non-con opponents to travel here.
I wonder if Frei even went to any of the games.
Swami-bang on as usual!ftw!
I might actually care about what was said by Terry Frie if the Post actually recognized that the #2 and #5 teams in the country played hockey here on Saturday night. I would think that the Pios are deserving of a little front page (sports) article every once in a while. Thankfully we have Mike Chambers giving us a constant update on the team!
There's no such thing as bad publicity. Terry Frei talking about the Pioneers just proves that DU hockey is moving up the pecking order with the exit of the Broncos.
With the WCHA expanding to 12 teams next season, there are going to be more crappy league games against UNO, Bemidji and less weekends against Minnesota, North Dakota & Wisconsin.
Gwoz needs to make sure we schedule BC, BU, Notre Dame, Harvard, Cornell, Michigan State and/or Maine to keep DU on the front page of the sports section.
Come on D.G. ==Fess up! where is the Gold Pan??
I know the whole point was to make sure DU played BC for entertainment and ranking purposes but I still don't like the showcase format.
SLU had a well earned win against BC on Friday and should have played in the championship game (like the Denver cup has been traditionally). I'm not saying BC wasn't a challenge for DU but if the Denver Cup was formatted into a tournament as it has been in the past, the championship game should have been between DU and SLU. Still a great game on Saturday though.
Anon 12:13:
I agree the Post should give DU hockey front page coverage more often. But their coverage wasn't horrible on the DU-BC game: a photo on the front page, and a well-placed article and big photo on the 3rd page.
Atleaset Magness Arena doesn't hold like 12,000 people and DU doesn't have to deal with a half-empty arena with poor attendance (as in basketball). I think the area's hockey fanbase continues to grow and get smarter about the sport, thanks in part to the Avs and a couple of the tremendouse high School & youth leagues. The Denver hockey fans know what's what, and where to go to see the best action....... as opposed to the CC numbskulls.... who go play bingo on nights when the Tigers aren't playing. I used to wonder why the Denver Cup & the pre-season games had teams like Holy Cross and Wayne State come in thinking, "why don't they bring some good teams here".... well shit.... now I know... the good team IS RIGHT HERE ALREADY!
DG: It isn't "less" weekends, it's "fewer" weekends.
:-)))
Off subject, but has anyone seen the compromising picture of Gwoz and Scott on DU's athletic site?
Justin,
Hilarious. Nice find. :-)
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