nmnhockeydad wrote:I have grown a bit tired of the bashings of the underdogs of the state tournament. Everyone of these teams bust their butts all year with the hope of making it to the State Tournament. Well then you ask how fair is it to Roseau (I use Roseau as an example but you could put any highly ranked team here) when a lesser quality team comes down to the show and gets beat badly. Get over it! Win your section and get to the tournament. It is not set up for #2 to go, so win and you reap the rewards. Just in case anyone thinks that I am a parent of one of the teams that made it, I am a parent of a team that was highly ranked and didn't make it. Still would not want to see it any other way.
a) I assume you're talking to me.
b) I've never bashed an underdog and have loyally rooted for underdogs 100% of the time my entire life.
c) My observation is with the MSHSL and its 'Premier Showcase' (State Tournament). I've always been a fan of Section tournaments for boys and girls hockey. Many of us believe that Sections are the best hockey of the year, both in level of play and intensity in the stands, etc. The same old-timers, year after year, with no connection to any team, are in the stands at the Coliseum, Aldrich, Parade, BIG, Vets in IGH for the Section playoffs. The State Tournament to me is an anticlimatic afterthought. I think you should attend the Section games and not whine if a great team is left home (Roseau, Roseville, Breck).
But the State tournament to the MSHSL is supposed to be exposure of the game to non-fans and 'Showcase' the game too, right? And I truly hope that the sport keeps growing and would be grateful if the State Tournament would help this by attracting new families and generations to the game. I'm saying that 12-0 and 9-0 games inside a great big empty downtown ain't getting it done. It's sad and embarrassing. I'd bet anything that there were more people at the Minnetonka-Edina, Roseau-Warroad, Roseville-Stillwater and Breck-Blake section final games than there were in the X for the Class A quarterfinal sessions.
Some of the guilty parties are Northern Minnesota parents, aren't they, who sued to force the MSHSL to hold this tournament in the X?
And gee, I had no idea that kids other than those on the top-rated teams busted their butts during the summer and all season to get where they are.....
