The Sicatoka

If Miami sincerely wants out, and if there was a drop-in ready replacement for them, I'd let them out, but they pay a reduced exit fee, enough to cover the league's transition expenses. However, I fear that puts WMU on an island. They'd likely be the next shoe to drop. A straight trade (StT/WMU) would keep balances and alignments and get a Summit member with the other Summit/NCHC members.

I've said in the 2023-24 season thread I believe the team needs to restore focus on power skating and edge work. In that same spirit I'm refocusing on my power snarking and edgy work.

You covering that this season? You need to retroactively rattle off the teams that didn't make the 16.

BOS: big TBL fans last night. But somewhere VGK is smiling ... and resting ...

Seconded.

Looks like he went 174-163 (0.516) this season. 31-24 (0.564) in '22 and 37-33 (0.529) in '21. https://colgateathletics.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey/roster/alex-young/13131

Ready for a belly-laugh? Koch: Long-term goal is to become an operations research analyst Armacost: ... award-winning educator and researcher in the field of Operations Research, ... You can't make stuff like that up!

That makes it sound like the military views it as "going to grad school" and the military commitment is still there. Would UND have an easier path luring Koch, and getting the paperwork through, with that slab of government concrete 13 miles west of campus and a former Dean of Faculty at USAFA as UND president? < knock on door > Uncle Andy: Come in. Bubs: Um, boss, do you still have connections in the Springs or the A-ring? Uncle Andy: < sits back in chair > ... Why ... Bubs: There's this kid, Koch, in the portal at Air Force, senior, right hand defense. He'd be a one-year rental. Looking at grad school ... Uncle Andy: You sure. Bubs: I'm here asking. Uncle Andy: Let me make a call, make sure it checks out. I'll get back to you. (Thanks to whoever put new batteries in my bug in Armacost's office. ) The article: https://gazette.com/sports/air-force-sports/air-force-senior-defenseman-brandon-koch-enters-transfer-portal/article_e90a1c44-c8f3-11ed-82e1-e7c5fd6695c6.html

Great question! I thought after second year at a service academy you were "in" for the military commitment time, period.

My strong suspicion is if a guy enters the portal at this time he has a landing spot already. Hope for the right one. The immediate entries are marketing themselves. The later entries are "sold" and just doing the paperwork.

It better; it's all we have.

Bank it.

Full disclosure: @SpudsSioux clued me in on what to look for. Boris seems like he could and would wear your blades to the tuuk in one practice.

Ya thinkin' there'll be a "Grizzly" Sather with a hawk sighting soon?

Seems one of our pipeline has found a new skating guru (scroll, you'll find it). Some guy in TOR named Matthews subscribes also.

Admittedly a tough crowd.

https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2023/wm18 The Fresh Prince ... of Lexington MA, Will Smith, is the scoring leader through five games. (Going to BC.)

Bad mental game -> mite hockey -> untimely penalties Like The Fixx says ...

I agreed with Sandy ("sure"). His dad was "Ethan's aunts" for him. Both came as strong power skaters. But my brain wasn't thinking Sanderson because I've been watching this season's replays on Midco and Sandy is a Senator now.

Someone in my section was calling it "mite hockey". Just like mites they'd all get hypnotized by, and chase, the puck. Nothing good ever comes of that.

Were they strong on their skates at the same time? Sandy, sure, but a 21-NHL-season dad had that in him when he arrived. Jandric, so so. OMac and Blake can make some jaw-dropping moves, but a stiff breeze knocks each over. The flip side is I really haven't seen skating improvement in Kunz or Albrecht or Ness or Jamernik. Schmaltz did get a little better year two; he got hard to move or knock down. I'll be watching Strinden in year two for skating improvements.

Four seconds into this video UND15 is on edges and gets hit by UAH11. UAH11 is literally shrugged off. How many guys on the roster on their edges can absorb that hit much less deliver back enough to knock the other guy down. That's why I'm calling for power skating to become a point of emphasis.

I'm not claiming that we're not doing it. It needs to return to being a focus, a point of emphasis because I don't see the power skating skills across the team like I did on past squads.

Me, hoping for new info here:

I don't know. I believe power skating needs to return to focus. The Ironman seems to be the focus of late. If that's the case, some power skating skills need to be added to the competition to make guys realize skating is as important as strength and endurance. It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't get to the puck. The only recent guy I recall with above average edge work was Ethan Frisch. He'd do an edge drill at the start of each period. He grew up with aunts who were professional figure skating coaches. Edge work. Power skills.