dden3

Avs send Grimaldi down to San Antonio again. I thought he had earned a spot on the big club - guess not. Ausmus was "cut" but I'm not sure if he ended up in San Antonio or if they will put him with the Eagles. Maybe neither. Haven't been able to track that situation. Quebec cut Vandevelde. Wonder if his NHL time is up.

Has Schmaltz been getting any time for the Blue Notes in the playoffs?

Saw in the paper this morning that Ladue was assigned to the Kings AHL team. Is their AHL team still playing? I know the Kings are not. Any idea what this means, if anything?

I've been carrying this missed Simonson play around in my head for 2 weeks. Thanks for refreshing it for me.

NHL could contribute some money as compensation for our "NHL Development Program" at the Ralph and that could fund the WH program.

The Avalanche are such a mess. I hate to see Jost go into that situation. Bad owners, bad GM, and rookie coach. And its been going on for awhile. They are at the salary cap and have some guys signed up to long-term deals who can't play dead in the NHL. Don't know what he can do except stay until his signing deadline is passed, but that isn't going to happen. He is not ready for the NHL though. Especially with a bad team where he is thrown into the fire immediately.

Not to mention the injury bug that we have had to our best forwards.

I also meant to add that Dean's team took a huge step forward on defense on Saturday night playing a much tighter physical game. Not huge hits, just not giving our guys time and space and taking the body much more. Our entire team is in love with the poke check and it really hasn't been coached out of them. Sometimes I can't believe my eyes seeing all the time and space the other team is given entering the zone with only the occasional stick waved at them as they skate on into the zone. Doesn't even look like a North Dakota team. Where is the team that so efficiently shut out St. Cloud two nights in a row in St. Cloud earlier this year. Or am I dreaming or lost track of time and that was last season.

Assuming that some of us may be correct and that we have some pretty weak young players on the team who are not progressing, how are these guys who presumably have scholarships gracefully put out of the program to make room for new recruits with better potential and more proven ability? How does this work in college hockey? Its not like football where you have a hundred guys to shuffle around. I heard the announcers say last night that Dean sat a couple of veteran defenseman for their lackadaisical play on Friday night. Of course he also switched up goalies. I think UND needs to start relying on more than one goalie at a time. Seems like we have been primarily a one-goalie team for a long time. Cam has had some weak games and we have had to stick with him. I know Bubba has a short roster right now with injuries, but some pine time usually motivates hockey players.

Thanks.

Where does the team and fans usually stay in Colorado Springs?

Purchased tickets by phone last week to the Omaha series. They are much less proud of their tickets this year than last, when they were ranked highly and were opening up a new facility. Basically got as many tickets as I wanted in the upper deck in the shoot twice zone for $20 a piece. Hope to see a lot of Hawks/Sioux fans there this year.

The green outline of the Hawk did not contrast very well with the green helmet on the TV feed I got. Seems like that could be much improved.

What are the hockey players saying? Its boring, but so is Hawks. Request to the NCAA: Prohibit UND from going ahead with Hawks since there are 50 other NCAA teams with a prior claim to this nickname.

We better go while the Canadians still have a friend in the White House!

Reagan had them in once and Clinton had them in. I hope this can work out for the current team. Not sure how a trip like this gets paid for. Ed Schafer could probably help too as well as Kennedy.

Will the team be invited this summer?

Anybody have the information on the Wyndham hotel deal. I can't find where I read that.

Seems like we have a lot of goalies in the fold and the current guy has a couple more years left if he stays and then there's Tomek. Wonder if we would ever go to a two goalie rotation like Denver has done quite often over the past several years.

What is the TV / Streaming situation tonight?

1. Johnson was left out to dry, but he is not playing aggressively. Sitting in net, not challenging shooter. Previous observations that he is slow with the glove when in the butterfly seem to be correct. 2. Keaton Thompson had a terrible series. Took bad angles both nights and swings with the stick before taking the body. 3. Team looked gassed. Don't know if its possibly the rumored flu in the team or whether they can't handle the altitude. Schmaltz was really tired Saturday night. Two of the top line haven't played for awhile and maybe showed in their conditioning. Anybody else notice that the top line started Sat night in the trap rather than the aggressive forecheck. I thought maybe the coaches were trying to save some energy?? The whole team seems to take the puck rather than the man and often took bad angles this weekend. 4. I think they will correct the defense and the health/conditioning questions. Goaltender needs to get some confidence and challenge the shooter and cut down some angles.

How embarrassing for the people on the Committee and all of the UND community to have such an ordinary and uninspiring choice duplicative of so many other schools.

Somebody came out and skated with them and punched them in the mouth and they weren't ready for it. I went to the Sat night game in C Springs and thought I had mistakenly bought tickets for the ballet. Wake up and play hockey, Sioux.

Kelley needs to be run out of the state. To change the rules now is outrageous. The guy is a joke.

I was also at the game in Fargo when the whole place went silent after the Leclair hit on Nelson. The Sioux ended a long streak of dominance by the Bison that year. Both Steve Nelson and Leclair had big games that day for their teams. I have no idea about these guys that came after Leclair but, for that era, was something else and came up big in big games.