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LESTER PARK…. Like them or not, and I’m sure they have few fans in this town, I have to mention this anyway: the Golden Gopher women’s hockey team has completed the WCHA regular season with a record of 28-0. They are 34-0 overall. But the most astonishing item in all of this is that going back to last season, this team has posted a record of 42 straight wins and counting. For this year they have 184 goals for with only 29 goals against. They have posted 16 shutouts. The list of individual accolades is lengthy.

In NCAA women’s hockey I have always looked at UMD, Wisconsin, and the Gophers as being the three powers in the women’s hockey universe. The Bulldogs and Badgers have had some pretty solid teams over the years. This is indisputable. I look at the women’s WCHA much as I look at the men’s WCHA: this is the best conference in college hockey history. Since the NCAA D1 women’s championship was established in  2000, with the first Frozen Four being held at the end of the 2000-01 season, no team outside of this conference has won the national title. Simple as that.

What this team has going on right now is about as remarkable as it gets. This is a sport that takes as much commitment and dedication as the men’s programs do, and there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow like the potential of an NHL career waiting for those good enough to go that far. All these teams are chock full of outstanding young women-student-athletes playing the game honestly and with great respect for it. Some have the prospects of playing at the international or Olympic level, but most are in it for the pure love of the game. My hat is off to each and every one of you….

THERE IS A NEW HEAD COACH out in Buffalo for the first time in 16 years. As the NHL Sabres have struggled this season, the time had finally arrived for Coach Lindy “The Crime Dog” Ruff (my nickname for him) to be dismissed. The club was 6-10-1 when Ruff was let go. The brother of former Wild player Brian Rolston, Ron Rolston, has been named to the position as an interim head coach, and team GM Darcy Regnier has stated that Rolston will be a candidate for the position on a permanent basis based on how the club does the rest of the season. Rolston has been the head coach of the team’s AHL affiliate in Rochester, NY.
As a longtime league and NorthStars fan, I remember Ruff as a Sabres player. Who could forget the NorthStar-Sabre Stanley Cup final in 1999 or the infamous Brett Hull skate in the crease debacle that still rattles Sabre fans everywhere, even Ruff himself? In fact, Ruff made so much of an ongoing stink about it that he was placed at the top of my hockey manure list for two to three seasons afterward. Then, at some point, it got out to the media that one of Ruff’s daughters was battling a very serious medical situation and that her life itself was in jeopardy. At that moment, I had to drop my rivalry dislike of Ruff and look at the human side of things. His daughter eventually overcame her battle and Ruff continued to coach the Sabres.
The bottom line on the Crime Dog is that he is a pretty good NHL-level coach. His time had come with the club as some of the veteran players were getting wrung out with him. He is a hardnosed coach and had some pretty decent results over the years. He will be back in the league in due time, maybe as soon as next season. He definitely earned my respect over the years…
WE ARE NOW between the one-third and halfway mark of the shortened NHL season. Who are the players emerging at the top of the heap? Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay has 13 goals in 18 games. U of Vermont alum Martin St. Louis, also of Tampa, has 20 assists in 18 games. The overall point leader is Stamkos, with 29 points on 13G and 19A. The plus-minus leader thus far is Francois Beauchemin of the Anaheim Ducks at plus 15 in 16 tilts. Your penalty “gangsta” so far is Brandon Prust of Montreal with 76 PIMs over 18 games.
Steve Ott of the Sabres is your hits leader with 82 in 19 contests. Zybnek Michalek and the Pengwah’s Brooks Orpik lead in blocked shots at 51 each. Claude Giroux of the Flyers leads in faceoffs won, by volume, with 277 in 20 games. Joe Vitale of the Pengwah leads in percentage (.677) for anyone who has taken more than 100 faceoffs this season. James “Real Deal” Neal of the Pengwah has 8 power play goals, and Ilya Kovalchuk of the NJ Devs has 2 shorties so far. Eric Staal/Caro, James Neal/Pens and Jeff Carter/Kings have 4 game-winning goals each. John Tavares of the Isles has 76 shots on goal. Brad Marchand of Boston has a .346 shots/goals percentage.
BETWEEN THE PIPES Carey Price/MON and Marc-Andre Fluery/PITT are tied with 10 victories each. Your goals against leader is Craig Anderson/OTT at 1.49 per game. He is also your saves percentage leader at .952. Shutout leaders are Pekka Rinne/NASH and Mike Smith/PHO at 3 each. My top club in the East so far is Montreal, with Chicago in the West and best overall. If someone asked me who I thought was the best overall player in the show right now, I would say Martin St. Louis without batting an eyelash. That guy is for real. Best coach just might be Bruce Boudreau of the Ducks, who has orchestrated a big turn-around with that club this year. See you at the rink! Let’s play hockey! PEACE
Marc Elliott is a freelance sports opinion writer who splits time between his hometown in Illinois and Minnesota. Elliott grew up in the Twin Cities with many of his childhood neighbors working or playing for the Vikings and Twins. He participated in baseball, football and hockey before settling on hockey as his own number one sport. Elliott wrote “The Masked Fan Speaks” column for the Lake County News Chronicle for ten years and was a prominent guest on the former “All Sports” WDSM 710AM in Duluth.