Those of you know know us at least a little know that we grew up watching UND hockey. The old Ralph was the greatest arena in the world as far as we're concerned. The Hrkac Circus came to power when we were 10, with North Dakota winning the 1987 NCAA title. We couldn't imagine anyone but UND winning. It's a good thing the squad did.
The Gophers were the chief hated rival, of course, during all those years. We saw dead gophers flung onto the ice. We witnessed the selling of glossy photographs of gophers impaled on hockey sticks outside the old Ralph. Times were good.
And then, of course, we decided to attend the U of M. For the first year, we couldn't imagine switching hockey allegiances. But old habits died. While we never became fully emotionally invested in Gophers hockey like we were with UND hockey -- partially because we spent a year covering the team while at the U of M and thus were also learning the concept of journalistic integrity -- we have clearly seen more than our share of Gophers games over the past 15 years.
Owing to the past 25-30 years of our life, then, we couldn't help but have a reaction to the news that the Gophers (and Wisconsin) are leaving the WCHA in a couple of seasons with the formation of a Big Ten conference in hockey.
This was inevitable, we suppose -- it had been talked about for some years, and Penn State's announcement that it was starting a program pushed things over the edge.
It sounds as though there will be room for quite a few non-conference games, so the old rivalries between the Gophers and pretty much everyone within a 350 mile radius will continue in some form. But our overall reaction is that it will just feel weird not having the Gophers in the WCHA. We won't say good or bad, because this deal will probably yield some of each. But weird? Yes, most definitely weird.
And, if we're going to get really nostalgic about the whole thing, a little bit sad.
Your thoughts, if you have 'em, in the comments.
