Just getting caught up on emails too, and glad I saw local TV news tonight.

Here are some more random thoughts after visiting the newest venue in the
NC$$ traveling three-game hockey extravaganza:

Lindsay's report noted the whiny UNH fans on our left.  She neglected to
mention the much more supportive Gophers supporters on our right, who heard
the same thing and invited Lindsay to take the extra seat they had so that
I would separate her from the idiots.  I've been to St. Paul and never felt
more welcomed in a home rink.

UHN loses hockey game but wins the post-game riot arrest tally.

Checking email on the road is always an interesting adventure.  We lucked
into a cyber cafe in Toronto one night, I had scoped out a public library
close by our Buffalo airport hotel for later in the week.  Turned out to be
the North Cheektowaga branch of the Erie County library system.  That's
right, the listed home for our beloved UMaine and Bruins alumnus Bob Beers
when he played at Orono.  We're saving the library card we had to apply for
to use the computer that one time so that Bob can sign it....

Next NC$$ Hockey Championships are at the FleeCenter in Boston.  If it were
down to, let's say, BC v. Minnesota in the final game (hey, it could
happen), imagine the following:  $ 500 scalping prices for lower bowl seats
once again, and the "home ice" feel of Xcel Center 2002.  Did many of the
same people who complain that there can be "home ice" at some hockey
playoff sites also complain about Anaheim as a site in 1999 ?   You want
neutral...I'll suggest San Jose, St. Louis or Miami....and I'd go to any of
them.

Nice to see UHN gassed it allowing 4 unanswered goals in two consecutive
Frozen appearances to finish their chances once AGAIN.

Had a Jackie Parker siting while on the HSBC concourse getting ice
cream...for some reason he looked much less upset than when I saw him at
St. Paul last year.  I said "coach, how's the new rink going ?"  with a
reply that next year is their last at WBA  and it's coming along good.   We
decided to drive home all the way on I-90 using the Mass. Pike extension to
use the first Big Dig tunnel and the new Z-bridge, and got a look at the
skeleton of the new BU digs.   Impressive...looks about the same size as
the Tsongas, but on a much more cramped site.  Don't look for big
concourses, but anything will be bigger than what they had at WBA (and
wonder if selling beer will carry over there too)

Just curious: would anyone care to share the identity of the group that
chartered a Cyr bus to the games in Buffalo ?  Please, if it were a group
of UHN supporters, I hope and pray they were overcharged.

We were there, so didn't see the live ESPN feed (and didn't tape it), but
wonder:
1.  Did they really show Ayers' mom and that damn little dog ?
2.  How did the renewal of the old Sean McDonough-Bob Norton broadcast team
sound ?
      some posters here recalled Norts and Kurtz on NESN, but McDonough was
earlier and far far better.
      ask Lindsay to imitate how McDonough used to say the name of Beers'
home town....

BTW, no fish allowed in Buffalo either...hehehehehe

Yes, they did abruptly blackout the Buffalo jubotron replay of Maine-UHN
game from Anaheim in 1999   I stayed in my seat for that one, but ran away
earlier when they started replaying Maine-Minnesota 2002.

There is no truth to the rumour that portions of I-90 in Massachusetts will
be re-named "The University of New Hampshire Trail of Tears"

If I ever meet anyone connected with production of any of the NC$$ "360,000
student-athlete" PSA videos, I will kick them in the shins.

Wings ARE better in Buffalo, but the better place to go is actually in
Cheektowaga....sorry.

Will begin taking reservations for Dan's Off-Day Beer Tour during the 2004
championships...let's hope more don't go the way of Commonwealth Brewery
before next April rolls around

Surely more posts will get me thinking about other things,  but that's it
for now.

Dan Doucette  UM78
  only an embarrasment to the Hansiatic League