The Sicatoka

Defenseman != Forward Shaw is a senior. One defense slot will open. Then there is Poolman; his brother left after three seasons. The next question becomes does Johnson move back up front (Shaw's roster slot) to re-open that slot at forward? Now you can ponder forwards. Three seniors (Gardner, Janatuinen, Jones). Then ask the Johnson question again: fourth slot up front? Then ask: other departures? I don't see Yon, Bowen, Smith, or Hoff jumping ship and missing a senior year. So ask if there's a flight risk amongst Kawaguchi, Adams, or Mismash. I could see up to five open slots at forward. Not saying I know anything, I'm just saying five wouldn't be out of the question (seniors, Johnson moved back to D, one guy decides to leave). When I look at my roster and recruit tracking I see a recruit name next to every current roster senior, junior, and sophomore D (six for six). I see the same at forward ... plus two extras (meaning recruit names for two current freshmen). Yes, 13 recruits line up for the present 15 forwards. I'd say Berry & Company have their pipeline set and defined for skaters. What I don't see is goalie Anderson's replacement. I'm wondering if the coaches are holding off on deciding if they recruit another "puck eater" (goalie for practice) like Anderson or waiting to see if Thome and Scheel can shoulder the load (meaning do they have to try to find a potential starter).

Take nothing for granted. You must show up and play to win against anyone.

He was in the ice capades I think ...

To qualify for an NHL pension you have to have played 160 NHL games and be age 45. The pension amount isn't great, but it's more than a lot of working folks make.

No, no, no. Wham! Make It Big is the album that George and Andy earned the exclamation point. And how do I know we'll find the whole Deadpool soundtrack on Mafia's iPod. ... Shoop, shoop-bah-doop, shoop bah doop, shoop bah-doop, bah-doop, bah-doop ...

Classics never die.

It will be a problem. They only accept letters of credit from the Bank of Lichtenstein.

It came up in the tickets thread ... yup ... it's here.

Pack your bags. We'll leave tonight.

Sweet. Got peanut butter for the toast or is it BYOPB?

I invoked words from prayers ... but I don't think I was praying ...

Whatcha makin' me for breakfast on your George Foreman grill?

I thought that was just figure skating.

Did they drop off your new Jitterbug phone too?

Crystal in Moorhead and Fargo's sanitary plant have both undertaken advanced means to control the olfactory offending offerings they emit. Too bad Fargo put the city dump on the NW corner of the city. Wow can that be 'ripe' at times. Crystal in EGF should be pushed to the same. I don't mind Simplot on the days it smells like fries. And the pasta plant just north of Simplot isn't an offender; it smells like macaroni. However, the worst I've driven through lately? Jamestown. I-94. East edge of town. Lagoons. 95 degree day. Mild south breeze. Severely unpleasant.

I saw at least three guys pop up out of blinds and get shotgun rounds off at it. Quack. Quack. Blam. Blam.

Imagine having a cold (which is bad enough in summer) and having to breathe this yellow-grey air. Blame Canada!

Piker. I want OT and lots and lots of it.

So when we beat them will we be Top 5?

Youngest of the four selected is Caulfield and he's March 2001. Mancinelli is June 2001. Maybe something about HS year?

The kid's old man is a natural athlete. (How's that for sucking up to someone who haunts here now and then. )

I know with all smoke in the air from Canadian wild fires the last two weeks that my lungs feel like crap. I wonder how the team feels.

Tell me about your offensive line and I'll tell you about your season.

Put it in the "Jerseys" thread.

You don't have to be a "great football mind", (c) Dan "Common Man" Cole, to see what can be seen. NDSU, as I've said time and again, doesn't do anything exceptional. But what they do they do exceptionally well. Watch and you'll see they ultimately have only about four to six blocking schemes. They run formation variants of, when you observe and count, fewer than 20 differentiated plays. Why do you think that when they do go off script (fake punt in NC game?) it works so well. But even then, ... they execute the play flawlessly. And sometimes you have to do less to do more. NDSU's offense proves this time and again. I believe the UND offense focuses too much on number of differentiated plays and not enough on quality of execution of the given play. Show me a play where NDSU misses a key block and I'll show you 30 where UND does.