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Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

state of hockey said:
That has never been the case for any team going into the championship game, though. Nice try.
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If you never GET to the championship game because you were forced to play Friday afternoon even though you're dog tired, then it doesn't really matter, does it?
 
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Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

I would assume going forward that whoever wins the 4pm game on thursday will play in the 2pm game on saturday, and vice versa...so if your team plays the Gophers thursday night and you win, you will definitely have the late game Friday. If the Gophers are top 2, the late game thursday will play the gophers friday night, etc.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

My two cents.

I am a Gopher fan. I travel 6 hours one way to the Final Five. I've only been to Mariucci 1 time in the past 3 seasons. No Gophers or Gophers there, I won't miss the Final 5. Consider it a man-weekend or whatever. It is THE BEST college hockey atmosphere in the country. I think there are a lot of fans that feel this way. Yes there were smaller crowds there this year without my favorite team, but there are still about 45 other teams and fanbases who would've enjoyed to be a part of that this past weekend.

3rd place game. I'm glad it's done with. Remember the SCSU vs Ryan Potulny game? 8-7 OT, Gophers had to turn around in short notice and sleep walked through the toilet bowl game against Wisconsin, losing 4-0. Last year, Sioux lose to UMD and turn around on short notice and lose to Wisconsin. This year, Denver turned around on short notice and slept through Wisconsin again.

I'll be there next year. Not sure if my team will be though.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

How about staging a WCHA USCHO posters game in the afternoon? :D

This may be just as crazy - but maybe a high school all star game or high school seniors game? "Future starts of the WCHA" or something along those lines. I'm sure it would be a tough sell to the State High School League but would be a pretty fun event for the kids involved and entertaining for anyone that showed up to watch.
 
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Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Hobbit said:
How about staging a WCHA USCHO posters game in the afternoon? :D

This may be just as crazy - but maybe a high school all star game of high school seniors game? "Future starts of the WCHA" or something along those lines. I'm sure it would be a tough sell to the State High School League but would be a pretty fun event for the kids involved and entertaining for anyone that showed up to watch.
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And great scouting for all the WCHA coaches ;)
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

mnhowitzer said:
Remember the SCSU vs Ryan Potulny game? 8-7 OT, Gophers had to turn around in short notice and sleep walked through the toilet bowl game against Wisconsin, losing 4-0. Last year, Sioux lose to UMD and turn around on short notice and lose to Wisconsin. This year, Denver turned around on short notice and slept through Wisconsin again.
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Boy, one could almost use this history as a demonstration of the injustice of the Minnesota rule ...
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Shirtless Guy said:
I would assume going forward that whoever wins the 4pm game on thursday will play in the 2pm game on saturday, and vice versa...so if your team plays the Gophers thursday night and you win, you will definitely have the late game Friday. If the Gophers are top 2, the late game thursday will play the gophers friday night, etc.
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Yeah, that's correct. They had to do fixed brackets rather than giving the top team the lowest remaining seed so that nobody got screwed over too harshly due to the Minnesota Rule.

GOPHER FREAK said:
I'm not huge on the new format but I can live with it if Friday remains two sessions. If they do a 4/7pm on session on Friday it will ruin it. Half the fun of the final five is between games bar time in my opinion. The Wild game is a bad idea. No WCHA fans are going to be able to get tickets and they would have to start no later than 1pm to avoid a mess downtown.
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The Wild game is scheduled to start at 1pm if it gets approved by the NHL.

blockski said:
The new format trades a Saturday day game for a Thursday day game. Combine that with the lost guarantee that 4 of 5 teams will see at least two games, and it will have an effect on traveling fans - the question is how much of an effect.
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Technically the trade isn't the consolation game for another Thursday game, since it's still just one gate on Thursday. The trade-off is the gate from the consolation game for an extra home playoff series, and potentially some extra money on Thursday since you'll have four teams' fans buying tickets instead of two. I trust somebody did the math and felt they come out ahead in that bargain.

No one will know until next year when people start buying tickets, but the WCHA likes to think of the Final Five as a "destination tournament" that will draw enough people regardless of who is playing just because it's great hockey.

UNO fans will travel great if their team makes it. The drive from Omaha to St. Paul isn't that much longer than it is from Madison or Grand Forks, and UNO drew better than just about any CCHA team outside of Michigan and Michigan State at the CCHA tournament in the years where they made it.
 
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Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

MaizeRage said:
UNO fans will travel great if their team makes it. The drive from Omaha to St. Paul isn't that much longer than it is from Madison or Grand Forks, and UNO drew better than just about any CCHA team outside of Michigan and Michigan State at the CCHA tournament in the years where they made it.
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It's a ways further. Madison to St. Paul is 250 miles (drove it last weekend).

TravelMath.com says Omaha to St. Paul is 380 miles.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Dirty said:
Who cares if it's the championship game or not, the point still stands.
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No it doesn't. As it is now if the Gophers play and lose in a semi, they play in the third place game in the afternoon. No one has had to play in a semi Friday night to play a championship game on Saturday afternoon. I was saying that that shouldn't change just because of the third place game being scrapped.

Agreed on who wins the late game on Thursday playing the late game on Friday, and the same with the early games.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

I didn't get it until just now. Although the Minnesota Rule still stands, it will no longer be possible for a team to win Thursday night and then be forced to play Friday afternoon.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

RedFreak said:
I didn't get it until just now. Although the Minnesota Rule still stands, it will no longer be possible for a team to win Thursday night and then be forced to play Friday afternoon.
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No, I think I'm wrong. :rolleyes: If Minnesota is in the top 2 (they get Thurs bye), they play Fri night no matter if they are 1 or 2 seed. IF the teams are reseeded after Thursday night, the Thursday night winner can be forced to play Friday afternoon.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

MaizeRage said:
Technically the trade isn't the consolation game for another Thursday game, since it's still just one gate on Thursday. The trade-off is the gate from the consolation game for an extra home playoff series, and potentially some extra money on Thursday since you'll have four teams' fans buying tickets instead of two. I trust somebody did the math and felt they come out ahead in that bargain.

No one will know until next year when people start buying tickets, but the WCHA likes to think of the Final Five as a "destination tournament" that will draw enough people regardless of who is playing just because it's great hockey.

UNO fans will travel great if their team makes it. The drive from Omaha to St. Paul isn't that much longer than it is from Madison or Grand Forks, and UNO drew better than just about any CCHA team outside of Michigan and Michigan State at the CCHA tournament in the years where they made it.
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On the 'trade', I was speaking from a fan's perspective. Instead of a semi-meaningless game on Saturday afternoon, you get a quite meaningful one (perhaps your team's only appearance in the tournament) on a Thursday afternoon. Regardless of how you slice up the ticketing, that's the net effect. I'm not sold that the fact that the game means something will offset the fact that it's on a Thursday afternoon. Asking people to play hooky from work for two days in a row might be pushing it, to say nothing of those taking a vacation to travel.

Even if it's not an attendance bonanza, I'm sure the WCHA ran some numbers on the potential added gate from the additional first round series, too. I'd also agree that they think the hockey alone is a good enough draw, but I'm not so sure - what makes the Final Five work so well is that it's more than the sum of its parts. In other words, it's not just the hockey.

As far as finances go, the advantages of the CCHA's current format is that 8 of the 12 teams get to host a playoff series, plus you get the gate of 4 games at the Joe. The WCHA's format will feature 6 home playoff series and 5 games at the X. It's understandable why the CCHA would rather rely on home series and the WCHA would rather rely on the X.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

blockski said:
I'd also agree that they think the hockey alone is a good enough draw, but I'm not so sure - what makes the Final Five work so well is that it's more than the sum of its parts. In other words, it's not just the hockey.
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Yep. It's also the Cream of Minnesota Wild Rice Soup at the St. Paul Grill. Yum-yum.
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

With the addition of more money maybe the WCHA can purchase new refs. Who is with me here?:D
 
Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Reseeding is dumb. They won't reseed. Gophers at night on Thursday puts them at night on Friday.

Gophers at night on Friday if top two.

Problem solved.

Easy Peazy.
 
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