The Sicatoka

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

Lost in this is now Minnesota has zero returning roster goalies.

Why would he? Because he's no longer a "college player"? By that standard any senior not playing in the national championship game would be ineligible because their season is over and they are no longer a "college player".

I thought Robson was a grad transfer from somewhere out east. My mistake. EDIT: Robson's situation is a bit sketchy. He's a transfer, and a guy who lost time due to an MJ mistake. http://www.startribune.com/gophers-coach-bob-motzko-says-two-outstanding-goalies-good-problem/499360561/

Technically not an "early" ...

Yes.

OK, so it's the off-season, ... a-a-a-a-a-gain. Here's a re-re-blast from the past to pass the time. The game: Name the new players on, *and* name any early departures from, the official hockey roster for 2019-20. Scoring: For every new player you name correctly you gain a point. For every new player you claim will come in but that isn't on the roster you lose a point. For every new player that comes in that you don't predict you lose a point. For every early departure you predict correctly you get a point. For every early departure you claim but they stay you lose a point. For every early departure you don't predict but that happens you lose a point. Entries: Due before the first early departure happens or official release of the roster this fall (whichever happens first). Final scoring when fall camp roster is released.

Nope. No curse regarding the logo either. That logo was on the hat of the 2016 Big Sky Conference football champions and made an NCAA tournament. Clearly no NCAA "curse" there. Seems hockey is just slacking.

Good to see ya swami. About your Point 3: I've long said I'm tired of seeing hockey become soccer. Games should be decided on talent, not a bad bounce off the glass. (A mighty sweep-check ability is not a talent.) Bad bounces will happen, but in today's 5 total goals per game world (compared to the 9 total goals per game world of the 20-30 years ago) that bad luck goal is 20% of the game (1/5) and not 11% (1/9) as it was in the past. Again, I want to see talent, not bad bounces, win games. The focus on a nominal talent (a mean sweep-check) has negated offensive talent and thereby exacerbated the luck (bad bounce) part of the game's influence.

Let's hope that Chaves gained some insights from working with Kyle Schweigert (and his staff issues) that'll be useful in mentoring another one of his direct reports (i.e. Brad Berry).