Siouxfan82

Congratulations to Scott Sandelin and the Duluth Bulldogs. They played solid hockey down the stretch run, very well coached.

To re-affirm your opinion of him, Chelios had apparently verbally committed to Gino, but on signing day he signed with Wisco. Badger Bob was obviously a better recruit thief than Lou Nanne and Glen Sonmor. He would have been quite an addition to the 81-82 recruiting class of James Patrick, Dave Tippet, Jim Archibald, Rick Zombo, Dave Donnelly, and Gord Sherven.

Being an enforcer does not necessarily require size, although it helps. The legendary Jim Archibald could not have been more than 5'10" and 175 lbs, but when he put on the skates, he was almost psychopathic.

Wearing #19 for the Blackhawks, same number former Sioux Troy Murray wore for the Balckhawks. Is this coincidence or by design?

Brady Murray back for his senior season this year would have been nice, also.

I think we Sioux fans have been a little spoiled over the years on freshmen production, most recently by Toews and Oshie, and in recent years, too many to list here. People have been ripping him about strength, but remember he is an 18 year old freshmen playing in a very difficult league. He will, in all likelyhood, fill out physically. I see people ripping him about his skating skills, but I recall the same gripe about Bochenski a few years ago. The point of this all is to remind everybody that he has FOUR years to play for this team, please let him get a chance to develop, like most other WCHA team fans allow their players to do. Perhaps, he will be compared to another Section 8 player we may all recall, one who had a mere 2 goals and 9 assists in his freshman year, then 22 goals and 22 assists in his sophmore year, and 32 goals and 37 assists his junior year, then turning pro. His name is Bryan Lundbohm. Give the kid a break, and let's see what the next three years may bring.

A verbal commitment is not binding on the athlete, who can sign the written intent with whomever he/she chooses. There are some rules, however, on whether coaches or school representatives can continue talking to an athlete after they have "verbally comitted" to a school, thus the big issue that arose after Lou Nanne and Glenn Sonmor tried to change Zach Parise's mind after he "verbally committed" to UND. Ballard is apparently one example of an athlete's change of mind. Another example is the famed UND freshman class in the fall of 1981. The six recruits of James Patrick, Rick Zombo, Jim Archibald, Dave Donnelly, Dave Tippett, and Gord Sherven, who all went on to play in the NHL. There was reportedly a 7th recruit who verballed to UND, but signed with Wisconsin, named Chris Chelios. Either he had a change of heart, or Badger Bob was more covert than Nanne and Sonmor.

Probably a lot, especially since it's now posted on the USA Today sports photos of the day.

The Buffalo Sabres website reported that James Patrick's retirement lasted 3 weeks. He had taken an assistant coach position with the team, and once he got out on the ice coaching, got the itch to play again. He is playing in Germany this season. The Sabres let him know the assistant coach position will be waiting for him when he decided to retire for good. What a gamer, 20 years in the NHL wasn't enough. Its too bad there are not any tapes of games from the '82 Championship team floating around for you younger fans to see. He was a joy to watch. It was an extremely talented team, having 12 or 13 guys who went to the NHL.

He has already left.

It generally takes longer for a defenseman to adjust to the speed of the game in the WCHA than it does for a forward. I recall Mike Commodore not looking too great his first season. Even James Patrick "only" looked average for the first half of his freshman season in the fall of '81, and was outstanding after the Christmas break. Time will tell, but for now, I think Radke is developing well.

tboneund and rochsioux already hit my two main thoughts. The rule book still officially prohibits hooking and holding. When I see a game from the '70s or '80s on ESPN Classic, you don't see much of it because the refs actually called it. Modern refs probably don't even remember the hand signal for the calls. The other big issue is the two line pass. It artificailly slows down the game. Allowing two line passes would open up the game for the skilled players.

Troy Murray would have been too young. He came to UND in the fall of 1980, and would have been finishing his last season with the Tier II junior St Albert Saints in the spring of '80. Tim Mischler would have been way too young. He graduated from EGF in the spring of '82 and came to UND in the fall. Craig Ludwig was still a diamond in the rough in the fall of '79 when picking the Olympic team, so I would doubt if he was given an invitation to try out. He certainly developed into a marvelous d-man. The Canadian Olympic team took Kevin Maxwell, who spent one season with UND in '78-'79, then went pro after the Olympics. The Canadian team should have taken Mark Taylor and Doug Smail, but I am ever thankful they didn't. Both were incredibly fast and extremely creative playmakers. I think the two of them must have combined for 15 shorthanded goals for the '80 champions. Good thread. It brings back some good memories.

The water bottle game was just part of a classic weekend of college hockey. The Sioux were trailing the Badgers by 3 or 4 points. The teams split with each winning 3-0 games. Chelios scored on the 200 foot shot, he was icing the puck while on the penalty kill. It hit a couple feet in front of Jon Casey and bounced over his stick. Ed Schultz was really into the game, but was just learning the sport. He was calling faceoffs at the "special spot" when there had been an offside call. One Badger fan a couple rows in front of him was getting under his skin, and at one point said "I'd like to go down and bop that bozo". He had the nickname of "Mad dog Schultz " for several years.