This Week in the WCHA: WOTW

What a crazy week in the WCHA.

Unranked SCSU sweeps previous #4 DU. UAA splits with UND on the road. UW takes 3 points from UMD. MSUM splits with CC. UMN continues their tie Friday/win Saturday streak with MTU. No team has yet established themselves as a clear-cut favorite, and no team has really laid down and said "we'll take that cellar spot, please" just yet. The parity in this league right now is amazing. While that will make for a fun, interesting season in the league standings...it could also hurt the WCHA come NCCA-time. Especially when you have teams like Air Force and Princeton essentially locking up their NCAA berths already while playing cupcake schedules.

Time for this week's WOTW award. This week had decent potential on the whine-o-meter scale. It certainly would have climbed up had SCSU been swept by DU, as those SCSU fans are known to lash out when the chips are down. You can always count on some fireworks from the UAA/UND series, with Donald trying his best to rile up comments from touchy UND fans. But this week, one person beat them all out. That's right...one person took down all other contenders. And that person is:
None other than ScoobyDoo from USCHO. He really is a respectable poster for the most part, but ever since he got banned from attending live hockey games he has taken a turn for the whine. I think it started last year with his constant "FORECHECK" posts. He was like a little kid who just learned a new word...he had to use it at every available opportunity even if it had nothing to do with the given situation.

This year, he has left "forecheck" behind and moved onto this. The constant argument that everyone else said that the Gophers wouldn't be able to score any goals this year, but how he knew that it wouldn't be the case. I think he mentions it at least 6.5 times per series thread.

1st period against MTU on Saturday: This, followed by this. Yes, those floodgates were certainly opened. Two whole goals against the 10th place Huskies. Nicely done. After the game, the classic Scooby optimism revealed itself.

Scooby being gay (not that there's anything wrong with that). That was followed by his application to become the next Gopher assistant coach. Yes, you and Lucia are certainly on the same wavelength, being that he "agreed with you" and all. :)

Congrats Scooby. Welcome to the WOTW club. :D

**(and just like in the USCHO poll, the Gophers have moved to the top of the WOTW standings)**

What did I miss?

Well that offseason came and went. Now the season is upon us, and of course, there has been rampant whining. Seriously people, have you not learned anything?

Alaska Anchorage - Another year and another top 5 prediction by Donald. What a surprise. They already have five wins...yippee, look who those wins have come against.

Colorado College - Are there only like 5 CC fans total? Thinking of something to write would be wasteful, as none of their "fans" would read it anyway. Regardless, they'll have a decent year, and then blow it in the end. Sounds familiar.

Denver - How is this team not scoring like 7 goals a game? I guess we can forget about the Colborne for Hobey campaign, huh? Good thing they got lucky with Salazar and Wiercioch, otherwise they would be 2-7 right now.

Michigan Tech - You almost feel sorry for them. They were on an uphill trend, but I think even they know that they're destined for a 9th or 10th place finish this year. Should be a good battle with those Seapuppies though!

Minnesota - A good start for the Gophers has their fans on arrogance-overdrive. Most of them still have to clean their shorts out though after the pre-season Aaron Ness Circle Jerk that transpired. Oops. I think MeanEgirl has a harder slap shot than him. With them peaking this early in the season, the only award that they'll get will be the coveted Virg Foss.

Minnesota Duluth - I actually thought UMD would be better than what they are. The Connolly boys look good, but they'll never be a contender with Alex "I allow 11 goals per year due to my wandering" Stalock in net. The Bulldog fans that say he is a top 5 WCHA goalie are delusional. It appears that UMD can only beat teams from Michigan...and SCSU. That won't get them very far.

Minnesota State - Mankato continues to attempt to play a hard-nosed, gritty, offensive flow game with some goonery mixed in for good measure. They're like a NoDak team...except without talent. They better hope that they do well this season, because they will suck next year. How gay is the Ole song?

North Dakota - Seriously, the fans on SiouxSports.com might be the dumbest people in the world. Half of them are calling for Hakstol's head after three games. Where have they been the last three seasons? UND has been crappy in the early season each of those years...it's like their new tradition, since they don't win titles anymore.

St. Cloud State - I guess the rest of the WCHA figured out that if you put a body on Roe and Lasch early in the game, they won't do crap for the rest of it. If that holds true, the Huskies are screwed. While I doubt they will finish in their current 10th place position, a top 5 finish seems unlikely. Will they even make the NCAA's to continue their One And Done streak?

Wisconsin - You gotta love all the UW fans in the preseason talking about their highly talented defense. For being so talented, they certainly do suck at defense. Half of them play like forwards on the ice. At least they stopped playing the freaking boring trap...for now. I would venture a guess that by midseason we'll be seeing those 1-0 / 2-1 games from them that their fans seem to love so much.

With all that said, this week's WOTW award goes to Boston University, because everyone knows that they are highly overrated, except for the pollsters evidently.