The Sicatoka

Wow. I was introduced to Tim once and didn't know he was 'sprig'. My condolences.

Problems come in all shapes and sizes. To keep the vocabulary simple I'll just say ... Judy's elevators lawn mowers

At first Hakstol had problems in the head job. He was used to being "nice uncle" to balance "tough dad" (Dean Blais). Now "nice uncle" Berry is having to figure out he's the "tough dad". That means making tough calls that not everyone will enjoy hearing. And Brad better figure that out quick as his 2016 goodwill is almost spent.

So he shunned the offer from the Quebec Nordiques?

Um, ... point of order. I've posted a long diatribe about how any one of four teams could leave the Summit and kills its autobid at the same time. But the Summit keeps whistling past the graveyard on this subject. The Summit needs to read the NCAA DI Manual, specifically 20.02.5.2 (b) and figure it out.

BGSU with an own goal.

You can't build yourself up by tearing something else down. Let's focus on improving what we have.

Um ... @MafiaMan ... you got that?

It's going to be Ethan Frisch and I'm very confident in my source and their knowledge of the situation.

Don't give them ideas.

6? Why not at noon like in the past? To make traveling to a regional even more difficult with less planning time?

I’d still swap ASU and OSU putting OSU where it could help Allentown numbers.

I believe Moy’s bracketology at USCHO with one exception: I’d send ASU to Fargo and OSU to Allentown to try to help attendance there.

Make no changes and you have a senior class that can skate their lane and produce nothing. I base that on three years of data. Skate your lane guys are dime a dozen in the USHL and other junior leagues. You have to be that good to get there. But take a risk and at worst you’ll have another lane skater, or you might get something that can also produce at the college level.

He should’ve followed the precedent of making decisions after sophomore years.

I’d start that list with Yon.

Google. You ain't getting more than that because I don't give goals to opponents.

Berry uses "culture" as a code word for two words he can't say aloud in public. (You know the words; dial up a Berry presser and play the word replacement game for yourself.) But, "culture" has a long history of releasing low minute, underperforming sophomores (and a few juniors too) for the good of "culture". Hak did it. Blais did it. Gino did it. Berry has enough 1999 DOBs in the pipeline ready to step in in the event of a "early departure". Will Berry quit with the word games, own his team and its name, and make some tough calls for the good of (ahem) the Fighting Hawks of the University of North Dakota.

Former UAA head coach Dave Shyiak is working for Andy Murray at WMU. Former UAA head coach John Hill left to be an assistant under Don Lucia at the Ugly Truss. Short answer: Far from impossible.

Can Blasi recruit? Can Blasi coach special teams? I hear he's looking for work ...

Since I made the games and the rules: Stratton can neither help nor harm anyone's score in this game.

I was expecting Hoff and Bowen and Yon each after three seasons to be exceeding Jost's one season output. Is asking for 40 points in 90 games excessive? Heck, how about just having more career goals after three seasons (90 games) than Jost did in 33 games (16 goals). Frankly, I wonder how many of the juniors would've gotten a junior year under Hak. (Hak and Blais both seemed release low minutes, unproductive players after sophomore campaigns.)

Over in the “Name-‘em” thread I’m predicting at least FIVE incoming freshman forwards. Yes. Five. I know there are only three senior slots that opened, but I also see a lot of passengers on that roster. And I’m pondering predicting one or or two more incoming freshman forwards beyond my already named five. Why? I’m going to say it: this junior class of forwards (the 2019-20 “seniors”) was a bust. How dare I say that? Easy. Tyson Jost 33 GP, 16-19-35 Hoff 92 GP, 36 points Smith 90 GP, 33 points Bowen 98 GP, 21 points Johnson 90 GP, 12 points Yon 89 GP, 12 points Goal scoring wise it’s Jost 16, Smith 13, Bowen 11, Hoff 10. Tyson Jost is nearly the highest scorer (second by just a point) of that group of incoming freshman forwards, and is the leading goal scorer (!), and he hasn’t been in a UND uniform in two seasons! Soak on that: Jost has played 1/3 the games of the rest and still leads in goals. And who’d have believed Smith (brought in as a role guy) would be second in goals in that class.

I’m going to start mine now and reserve the right to edit this up to (as it says above) first early departure or official release of the roster. Incoming: Frisch Caulfield Blaisdell Pinto Albrecht Michaud