Someone Hates "The Video"

Amidst all the good feelings of alumni weekend and the "We Are - Penn State Hockey!" video, the NCAA hockey establishment is still not entirely in support of our intrusion into the only domain where schools like North Dakota actually matter. In response to the aforementioned video, college hockey blog Goon's World had this to say.

Yawn! If the hockey pundits think that Penn State University is just going to march into college hockey and start winning titles I think they are delusional. Minnesota is an established hockey program and they are having a hell of a time right now in the WCHA, they will be lucky if they get home ice and make the Final Five, they probably are going to miss the NCAA tourney again. Last time I checked Minnesota has all the advantages of a premiere hockey program. Big Ten School Michigan State is floundering this season and sitting in the bottom of the CCHA standings in 10th place. If some think they can just throw money at a big name coach and expect a winning program they are misinformed. I would be surprised if Barry Melrose would know where Penn State is located.

What a tremendously crafted argument. And by "tremendously crafted," I mean the opposite of that.

• I don't think a single person has actually said that PSU will "march into college hockey and start winning titles." I was once misquoted as saying something like that (my actual opinion is in this two-part post from November - 1, 2). Darren Pang says in the video that "Penn State will compete with anyone at the end of the day, and championships won't be far behind." You'd have to ask him I suppose, but since he's not Mayan, I don't think he meant that the "end of the day" is 2012. I would request that Mr. Goon please point me in the direction of someone associated with Penn State who doesn't think we'll take some hard knocks early on.
• Two tradition-laden programs in "hockey states" are struggling this year. Surely this means that a new program in a "non-hockey state" will suck forever. Or it simply means that those factors are overrated when it comes to program success. If tradition and "being established" don't guarantee success - and Goon's World correctly points out that they don't - how important are those things in actuality? If I'm wrong, someone needs to remind UNO that they're located in Nebraska, were founded in 1997, and need to exit the current poll promptly to make room for Minnesota or Cornell.
• We're excited about something that we have wanted since our introduction to Penn State hockey but doubted would ever happen. Sue us.

I haven't even mentioned this post from about a week ago, which smirked at the Buffalo News story about the source of Terry Pegula's fortune.

Want to go toe-to-toe on arena namesakes hoss? I'll see your hydrofracking and raise you this.

[Ralph] Engelstad was a controversial figure. He raised accusations of being sympathetic to Nazism owing to his collection of Nazi memorabilia stored in a private room within the casino-hotel, including a painting of himself dressed in a Nazi uniform (captioned "To Adolf from Ralphie"), a painting of Hitler with the reverse caption, and a collection of antique cars alleged to have once belonged to German Nazi leaders.

On April 20 in 1986 and 1988, he hosted parties to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday at his casino in Las Vegas which featured bartenders in T-shirts reading "Adolf Hitler — European tour 1939-45". Because of this, in 1989, the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Engelstad $1.5 million "for actions that damaged the reputation and image of Nevada's gaming industry."

Why does this guy have such a hard-on for Penn State? Maybe, just maybe, he feels threatened by the possibility of a shifting landscape in college hockey. If PSU is the beginning of a large-scale trend of big schools with big money adding the sport, that probably doesn't bode well for the North Dakotas of the world, no matter their number of championships or their proximity to Canada. I mean, it just took us to (presumably) rip two of the best programs from UND's conference. What other madness might ensue if/when others add programs? I personally don't believe there is such a trend, but maybe he does.

I suppose it could also be his perception of our arrogance, but like I've already said, it's a false perception. If it's neither of those things, I'm at a loss.

Edit: Goon's World clarified his position on Penn State in an update to the post linked above. Well, actually, first he tweeted me to tell me I don't recognize his clearly brilliant satire. The original post is copy/pasted in its entirety here, so you can judge that one for yourself. It comes off to me like he made a poorly-thought-out argument based on irrational feelings, was called out on it, and played the "I was joking, lighten up" card.

Then he went on to explain why he dislikes Penn State so much - because the CCHA told Alabama-Huntsville to take a hike, and it's widely believed that they did so to save the slot for us. How that's in any way our fault, I'm not sure. Sorry for being appealing, I guess. I like UAH, and I'm sincerely happy that our interests in the ongoing conference saga may be aligned after all. Oh, and we get too much attention from people like Doc Emrick. I guess you'll have to settle for NHL Network cramming your team down my throat every weekend. But after outlining why he hates us, he said he doesn't hate us. Must be that satire rearing its head again.

Anyway, thanks for the free pub, good luck with the nickname thing, and see you in multiple Frozen Fours down the road. I'm done with this one.