Author: Al Daniel
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Jake Brandt goes the extra miles to ensure lasting UND connection
Uh, headphones? Skates? A two-billed hat that reads insurance agent by weekday and hockey analyst by weekend? All of those answers take turns applying for Jake Brandt in a given week. But he never tires of the inevitable banter that comes with plastering his name on his own State Farm insurance office in Brainerd, Minn. In…
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Saturday Night Live’s detractors have a petty, pointless case
Saturday Night Live is all but its own category among scripted entertainment programs. It is not a 30-minute sitcom or an hour-long drama, which each have a rigid set of main cast members and characters. It is not like a soap opera, which may run for decades and maintain a revolving door of personnel, but sustains…
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North Country cements status as newest women’s hockey hotspot
Women’s hockey devotees could have seen something like this coming when the current senior classes were freshmen. Or, at the very least, its eventuality would not have been a far-fetched prediction. For the first time in the NCAA tournament’s 17-year run, both North Country programs will be in the bracket. Regional rivals Clarkson and St.…
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How That ’70s Show and How I Met Your Mother are the same show
That ’70s Show and How I Met Your Mother overlapped for one season in 2005-06. Nearly three years after the latter closed its curtain, syndicating networks continue to tempt both shows’ fans and stoke their legacies with binge-level buffets. The more one absorbs those rampant reruns, the more one can retroactively tell that the two sitcoms have…
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10 most memorable NHL rivalry set-aside moments
Though a healthy NHL rivalry is an indispensable marketing tool, the times that call for solidarity over spirited opposition have their own pivotal place. As much as hockey fans sustain their enthusiasm through animated drama, the pure human element creates a balance by preserving a necessary sense of community. Adding to the latter’s importance, those…
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Karen Thatcher reaching delayed grad-ification in physical therapy
Karen Thatcher does not hesitate to initiate a change of course if she sees the need. She transferred from one Division I hockey program to another in both her playing and coaching endeavors. In between, she modified her preferred landing spot in the healthcare sphere on the fly. So when, at age 26, the 2010…
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Why now is a perfect time to put Ignatius Reilly on the screen
“Must you distract me at every level. I am working on something with wonderful movie possibilities. Highly commercial.” – Ignatius Reilly Only John Kennedy Toole knew if he was making a mouthpiece of his main character in A Confederacy of Dunces. But nearly a half-century after Toole penned his magnum opus, little has changed in American…
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What the Beanpot has that the North Star College Cup lacked
Six Minnesota Gophers seniors are one week removed from becoming the only class to have played in every North Star College Cup. They entered the previous weekend knowing they would hold sole possession of that distinction going forward. Meanwhile, four time-honored Boston-area programs are trying not to look past their one-off weekend engagements ahead of Monday’s…
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10 greatest minor league hockey markets in North America
Four minor league hockey franchises in time-honored markets are in the midst of a milestone season. The sport’s current brands in Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Milwaukee and Providence are each rounding out a year of operation divisible by five. Per the virtually unbreakable laws of the business, none of those cities have had impeccable track records.…
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Scott Sandelin milestone reopens Shannon Miller wound in Duluth
Scott Sandelin, his pupils and his rooters have every right to savor his entry into the 300-win club last Saturday as much as they see fit. They are excused from the inevitable discussion of the downer the Minnesota-Duluth men’s coach’s accomplishment evokes. That being said, we are barely two years removed from the same institution’s…