Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

[DonorRoomDrinker]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

So is NMU now considered to be the "armpit" of college hockey with nobody wanting to come to Marquette to play the Cats???? It will be a sad day if it has come to that.... Maybe being a Top 20 program again will change that perception.... As I previously stated, NMU may have a good connection with Notre Dame as NMU AD Forrest Karr is a Hockey alumni from ND and former LSSU coach Jeff Jackson is the coach at ND so this may work in NMU's favor for getting a non-conference 1 for 1 with them and NMU coach Potulny played and coached at Minnesota so NMU may have a chance at scheduling Minnesota and/or Notre Dame in the future.... I realize that NCAA D1 College Hockey these days is made up of "have's & have not's" and NMU may be at the bottom of the totem pole and a bottom feeder compared to many other schools but that's not a reason to give up hope.... Maybe it's just positive thinking on my part but I applaud Potulny for at least wanting to give it the "old college try"....

2017-18 Notre Dame Hockey Non-Conference Games

vs Alabama-Huntsville (2 games)
vs Denver (2 games)
vs Sacred Heart (2 games)
vs Nebraska-Omaha (2 games)
@ RPI (2 games)

[aparch]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

Maybe you haven't noticed (and judging by the armpit comment you haven't), but the UP as a whole is pretty geographically isolated from the rest of college hockey. NMU benefitted from it's connections (UNO being a former CCHA mate and long-standing rival to NMU, WMU because of Facca/Shyiak, Wisco because of the agreement between Mike Eaves and Walt Kyle). LSSU scheduled ECAC opponents. MTU was able to use Mel to leverage Michigan's first trip to Houghton since before the Ma Bell AT&T anti-trust breakup in the 80's.

It's a P.I.T.A to get to Houghton, The Soo, and even MQT from other points in the hockey world, and MQT has the largest fu**ing airport in the UP! It's cheaper to ride on a travel bus for 10+ hours for games than it is for tickets for a connecting flights to their destination out of Minneapolis, Chicago O'Hare, or Detroit.

We've been made pretty aware of this when the NCHC said: "We're forming a new WCHA, minus Anchorage and Houghton." When Grand Forks, Duluth, and Kalamazoo are easier destinations than Houghton or MQT, you're made aware (if you weren't) of the geographical quagmire the UP can be.


And if Forrest Karr hasn't been able to negotiate a series with Notre Dame in the last six years, I'm going to doubt they'll schedule NMU ever again.

For all the talk that tOSU had about making late fall bus trips to NMU as team building experiences, and the rich history that tOSU and NMU share, once they went B1G, they made sure they never needed Bridge Tokens ever again.


Ideally, I'd like to see tOSU, WMU, ND, Wisco, Minn, and a few others on a rotational basis. Never going to happen unless the WCHA once again becomes the premier league, or NMU is in conference that would play those schools more.



And yes, kudos and good luck to Potulny for working to schedule non-conference opponents that would benefit the PWR and are willing to play 1-for-1's.

(Which is what the last guy was also doing. )

[davyd83]

Maybe you haven't noticed (and judging by the armpit comment you haven't), but the UP as a whole is pretty geographically isolated from the rest of college hockey. NMU benefitted from it's connections (UNO being a former CCHA mate and long-standing rival to NMU, WMU because of Facca/Shyiak, Wisco because of the agreement between Mike Eaves and Walt Kyle). LSSU scheduled ECAC opponents. MTU was able to use Mel to leverage Michigan's first trip to Houghton since before the Ma Bell AT&T anti-trust breakup in the 80's.

It's a P.I.T.A to get to Houghton, The Soo, and even MQT from other points in the hockey world, and MQT has the largest fu**ing airport in the UP! It's cheaper to ride on a travel bus for 10+ hours for games than it is for tickets for a connecting flights to their destination out of Minneapolis, Chicago O'Hare, or Detroit.

We've been made pretty aware of this when the NCHC said: "We're forming a new WCHA, minus Anchorage and Houghton." When Grand Forks, Duluth, and Kalamazoo are easier destinations than Houghton or MQT, you're made aware (if you weren't) of the geographical quagmire the UP can be.


And if Forrest Karr hasn't been able to negotiate a series with Notre Dame in the last six years, I'm going to doubt they'll schedule NMU ever again.

For all the talk that tOSU had about making late fall bus trips to NMU as team building experiences, and the rich history that tOSU and NMU share, once they went B1G, they made sure they never needed Bridge Tokens ever again.


Ideally, I'd like to see tOSU, WMU, ND, Wisco, Minn, and a few others on a rotational basis. Never going to happen unless the WCHA once again becomes the premier league, or NMU is in conference that would play those schools more.



And yes, kudos and good luck to Potulny for working to schedule non-conference opponents that would benefit the PWR and are willing to play 1-for-1's.

(Which is what the last guy was also doing. )

NMU played a one off at Western for a paycheck a few years ago and was supposed to also get a swap, but once Rob Facca left, WMU never followed through despite numerous requests by NMU.

[giwan]

NMU played a one off at Western for a paycheck a few years ago and was supposed to also get a swap, but once Rob Facca left, WMU never followed through despite numerous requests by NMU.

FYI it's not like these 'paychecks' are really worth much. We're not talking D1 football checks

[davyd83]

FYI it's not like these 'paychecks' are really worth much. We're not talking D1 football checks

The one from Western more than covered the travel and expenses for the weekend. The checks from North Dakota and Penn State were very nice, relatively speaking. There is however, a slightly different level of pay for a weekend series that draws a total of 7,000 fans pay an average of $15 a ticket in Kalamazoo vs 100,000 in Ann Arbor.

[DonorRoomDrinker]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

Recent NMU-Wisconsin non-conference games???? It's a shame that this non-conference series is being discontinued as per a previous post on USCHO.com....

2005 @ Madison (1 game)
2006 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2009 @ Madison (2 games)
2011 @ Madison (2 games)
2012 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2013 @ Madison (2 games)
2014 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2015 @ Madison (2 games)
2016 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2016 @ Madison (2 games)
2017 @ Green Bay (2 games)

[davyd83]

Recent NMU-Wisconsin non-conference games???? It's a shame that this non-conference series is being discontinued as per a previous post on USCHO.com....

2005 @ Madison (1 game)
2006 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2009 @ Madison (2 games)
2011 @ Madison (2 games)
2012 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2013 @ Madison (2 games)
2014 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2015 @ Madison (2 games)
2016 @ Green Bay (2 games)
2016 @ Madison (2 games)
2017 @ Green Bay (2 games)

NMU wanted to continue, but Wisconsin chose not to renew, although it did extend the series because we moved to trip to Madison to last year. Therefore we get this year's series in Green Bay. The team played 2 games at Madison in 2005-06, beating Wayne State 6-2 in the opener of the Badgers Holiday Tourney.

[aparch]

NMU and Wisconsin have quite the past together, as NMU was invited to the Badger Showdown in 1993-94, 1997-98, 2002-03, and 2005-06.

The Badgers discontinued the tournament after 2010.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

Maybe you haven't noticed (and judging by the armpit comment you haven't), but the UP as a whole is pretty geographically isolated from the rest of college hockey. NMU benefitted from it's connections (UNO being a former CCHA mate and long-standing rival to NMU, WMU because of Facca/Shyiak, Wisco because of the agreement between Mike Eaves and Walt Kyle). LSSU scheduled ECAC opponents. MTU was able to use Mel to leverage Michigan's first trip to Houghton since before the Ma Bell AT&T anti-trust breakup in the 80's.

It's a P.I.T.A to get to Houghton, The Soo, and even MQT from other points in the hockey world, and MQT has the largest fu**ing airport in the UP! It's cheaper to ride on a travel bus for 10+ hours for games than it is for tickets for a connecting flights to their destination out of Minneapolis, Chicago O'Hare, or Detroit.

We've been made pretty aware of this when the NCHC said: "We're forming a new WCHA, minus Anchorage and Houghton." When Grand Forks, Duluth, and Kalamazoo are easier destinations than Houghton or MQT, you're made aware (if you weren't) of the geographical quagmire the UP can be.


And if Forrest Karr hasn't been able to negotiate a series with Notre Dame in the last six years, I'm going to doubt they'll schedule NMU ever again.

For all the talk that tOSU had about making late fall bus trips to NMU as team building experiences, and the rich history that tOSU and NMU share, once they went B1G, they made sure they never needed Bridge Tokens ever again.


Ideally, I'd like to see tOSU, WMU, ND, Wisco, Minn, and a few others on a rotational basis. Never going to happen unless the WCHA once again becomes the premier league, or NMU is in conference that would play those schools more.



And yes, kudos and good luck to Potulny for working to schedule non-conference opponents that would benefit the PWR and are willing to play 1-for-1's.

(Which is what the last guy was also doing. )

*applause*

I can see where this is going, man. And regardless of our W-L records, we're all screwed.

[gfmorris]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

I understand the thought process and would love to see more equitable scheduling, but what incentive does a B1G team have to schedule bottom-half WCHA teams as 1-for-1?

What do teams like Wisconsin want? They want MONEY! How do they get money? By hosting games at home.
What do teams like Northern Michigan want? They want MONEY! How do they get money? By taking guarantees from big schools to play on the road.

Sure, everyone can talk about wanting to build strength of schedule, and that plays a small roll, but big schools want to play at home so that they can make money. At the end of the day, what is going to be good for Northern Michigan's strength of schedule would probably drag down the strength of schedule for all of the teams that they play. If all of those B1G teams that you mention play NMU and sweep or split (as you could expect from the difference in players recruited) it doesn't do anybody much good.

The reality is that NMU is at a disadvantage when it comes to scheduling. They can either try to get 1 for 1 deals which might happen with some of the lower half teams of the ECAC or AHA. Or they can accept that the driving forces of the current hockey market would demand that they play 2 for 1 deals with B1G or NCHC schools.

Wisconsin playing at the BEC would probably move the needle in Marquette. There would probably be a surge in ticket sales for that weekend.
When NMU comes to Wisconsin and plays in the Kohl Center it doesn't do anything for the Wisconsin fans. Those are usually some of the lowest attendance numbers of the year. Sure, recent years have had those games early in the season when hockey sales are usually low, but the name on the jerseys plays into it to.

This is where the hockey scheduling landscape is right now. You can love it, you can hate it, but you can't expect it to change much without some sort of watershed event.

I'm a UAH fan replying because it's germane to WCHA schools in general.

The only thing that will stop the 2-for-1s is for many/most of the small schools to stop taking them. Big Ten schools have up to 14 NC dates to fill, and there aren't many NC dates with schools out east. NCHC schools are in the same boat, but both of those conferences are continuing to snipe about travel costs.

It would take WCHA, AHC, and ECAC all agreeing to no 2-for-1 non-conference deals. The three conferences need to work together anyway on a scheduling alliance before they go from obscurity to irrelevance.

GFM

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

The Goofs don't even want to come to Bemidji, which is a four hour bus ride from campus. Gonna be hard to get them to come to the UP, I believe.

[DonorRoomDrinker]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

POSSIBLE 2017-18 NMU HOCKEY LINES

1ST LINE

G - Jr. Atte Tolvanen (6'0" 190lbs)

D - Sr. Jordan Klimek (5'11" 175lbs)

D - Jr. James Vermeulen (6'2" 190lbs)

F - Sr. Robbie Payne (5'11" 195lbs)

F - So. Darien Craighead (6'1" 170lbs)

F - Sr. Zach Diamantoni (5'10" 170lbs)

2ND LINE

G - Jr. Atte Tolvanen (6'0" 190lbs)

D - So. Rylan Yeremko (6'3" 205lbs)

D - So. Philip Beaulieu (5'10" 195lbs)

F - Jr. Troy Loggins (5'9" 160lbs)

F - Jr. Adam Rockwood (5'10" 165lbs)

F - So. Demico Hannoun (6'0" 195lbs)

3RD LINE

G - Jr. Atte Tolvanen (6'0" 190lbs)

D - Jr. Connor Frantti (6'6" 205lbs)

D - Jr. Ryan Black (5'9" 170lbs)

F - So. Luke Voltin (6'0" 195lbs)

F - Jr. Denver Pierce (5'11" 195lbs)

F - Sr. Filip Starzynski (5'9" 180lbs)

[moose97]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

So, here's a thing. I started reading USCHO in, oh, 1997, right after I finished up at NMU (on the "old" message board). Now, I've got a daughter who's a Jr in HS who has scheduled a campus visit to NMU the first home hockey weekend (and says Northern is her first choice). So, yeah. Can't wait to see campus again!

[davyd83]

So, here's a thing. I started reading USCHO in, oh, 1997, right after I finished up at NMU (on the "old" message board). Now, I've got a daughter who's a Jr in HS who has scheduled a campus visit to NMU the first home hockey weekend (and says Northern is her first choice). So, yeah. Can't wait to see campus again!

Fantastic! Please stop by and sit in!

[DonorRoomDrinker]

Re: Northern Michigan University 2017 Off-Season. Zihuatanejo.

You won't recognize the NMU campus with all the new buildings!!!!!!!!!!!