AJS

That response was a response to an earlier post I had asking how many leagues will the autobid not already be in the Top 24.

Good call, I definitely did. How many are we talking? Outside of the Pioneer, is there another that usually steals a spot? Doesn't really change my overall thought process. Sitting today, it's kind of out of their hands, which although isn't a spot you want to be, but would take pretty much everything to go wrong to keep them from making it at 7-4. Although I do put more stock in the Coaches / STATS polls, it's also nice that Massey, Athlon, AGS all have UND higher than #26.

#26 in both STATS and Coaches polls, disappointing, given how valuable each spot is, but overall, in a pretty good spot. You most likely aren't going to move down with a win, so win the next two weeks, the floor is #26. Two teams in the Top 25 are from the Ivy league, so for playoff purposes, UND would be at that #24 spot.

Caleb Nelson is over, he's played in 7 including last Saturday. Skokna is at 3 (including last Saturday). The others I couldn't recall if they played or not against Weber, so these totals are going into last Saturday. Fort 4 (played in first four and has been shut down since), Beach 3, Cochran 3, Moore 2, Pierre 1, Schuster 1.

I will say this, if you have a problem with the STATS poll, Herder and McLaughlin are not the guys your anger should be directed towards. I'm sure they do more research than 95% of the other voters.

One persons opinion, but Neutral Zone had a scout at the U-18's (US won gold), very complementary towards USA's Top 4 D-man (includes both Sanderson and Kleven).

Prediction before today's polls come out. If UND is ranked in both STATS polls, they will be a lock for the playoffs with wins the next two weekends. If they're out, it'll be more of a 50/50 type situation with two wins.

Great work by the team winning these games they really did have to have. Still early, but they've set themselves up nicely. Now they have an eight game stretch, six on the road to finish off the first half. They have the potential to be a pretty special team. I realize they've had a relatively easy schedule, but only giving up 1 goal or less in 7 of their 9 games is spectacular. This will be a playoff team, but the next stretch will tell us if they are challenging for a Top seed or not. Optimistic / Thrilled: 6-2 (On pace for a Top seed) Satisfied / Happy: 5-3 (On pace for a #2 seed) At worse: 4-4 (#2 / #3 seed)

One of the many things I love about Midco is they seem to try their best to get these games on. Unfortunately, both USD and SDSU are at home starting at 2pm that day.

Very anxious to see the availability of Turner, Bennett and Morrison. Going strictly off this board, it sounded like Morrison was 50/50 last week (didn't play), just watching this weeks Day by Day, Bennett seemed to be moving pretty well in some of the celebration videos (was listed Doubtful last week / didn't play). Offensively, could really use McKinney back as well. Is Waletzko the only player that has officially been counted out for the year?

Unfortunately, they do.

Very interested to see how tonight's game will go, can't really disagree with anything that was said about last nights game, it was a really bad performance for most of the night. Small sample size, but we've seen a lot more quality / solid performances as last night was the first time this year they were completely out of sorts. The one thing that sticks out to me as the difference between last year and this year in this type of game, is having Pinto. What I mean is last year, when they couldn't score, it felt like they would never score. Every time Pinto is on the ice, I have hope the tide can turn. I wish they didn't switch off of Blaisdell so fast in the 3rd, I really liked him with Pinto / Michaud. A wins a win, you're not going to find a team in the country that doesn't have a couple games like this every year. Huge to come out on top and I'm guessing we see a much improved team tonight.

After listening to the 360 podcast, doubling down on my line of thinking. IF they pull this off and I'm not optimistic with the D-line in shambles, it'll be huge.

Really, not a lot when it comes to injuries on a week to week basis. Am I off on that? I'm using Holm as an example from earlier this year, who was listed as a starter for a couple weeks, but never played. I did look at the notes for this week and can't find the two deep, so I'm not sure where @MoSiouxFan found this weeks.

I'm strictly looking at it from the view point that I think UND has a really good team this year, if that's the case, you have to win games at home against teams that will most likely be below 30 in the PWR at the end of the year. For the next three teams, I'm basing the 30 or below in the PWR on where they finished last year, also taking into account the first couple weeks of this year.

Every year I like to break the season down into smaller sets of groups. I'm grouping the next 3 weekends together, all at home against Bemidji, Tech (1) and Miami. These are the ones you can't drop, at home against middle of the road to poor teams. Looking for UND to be 5-0 after this set, 7-1-1 overall going into Denver.

I wouldn't get too excited unfortunately, the 2-deeps once the season get going aren't credible when it comes to injuries. Ex: Holm was listed as a starter the first couple weeks of the season on the 2-deep and as we know never played. What I've never been able to figure out is there always is some movement (i.e. Holm did drop off eventually, so why then and not right away), so I'm not sure what has to happen for the player to actually disappear. Personally, I wish they were closer to how the NFL does them, realistic so we know what to expect.

I'll say this, IF UND happens to win this Saturday, with the injuries they have on the lines, it'll be the shot in the arm this program needs. Not only for this year, but for good or bad, long term, the coaching staff could sell hope. Another absolutely crucial weekend for this team and the direction of this Football program.

Non-conference games are so important, you need to win them, especially at home against a team that's middle of the pack. If this team is as good as I think they are, it's a must sweep.

@Siouxhky19 Mankato was a #1 seed in the tourney last year and lost very little, they are legit.

I was actually going to edit my post yesterday and add the same thing. UND is one injury on D away from Frisch needing to be in the lineup every night. To me it makes the most sense to have him be the extra skater at this point.

I'm not necessarily surprised that a 23 year old Senior looked better than an 18 year old True Freshman in his first game as a collegiate player. My personal philosophy I guess, but like I mentioned in my earlier post, I would prefer to get Freshman like Caulfield and Frisch, who are talented players acclimated and on the ice over a guy like CJ or Yon. We already know the ceiling of those two and what they bring to the table. That statement isn't meant to rip either of them either. This team is going to be very good this year, so I'm going to leave this topic alone. We're kind of getting into the weeds when we are talking about the extra skater. I really liked the line-up Berry had overall this past weekend.

Let's look at last weekend. Friday - I would rather have Caulfield or Frisch as the extra skater. Saturday - Tychonick. What ultimately bothers me is UND has young talented players that on each night are watching from the stands, because CJ is taking up the extra spot. There's a learning curve the first half of the Freshman year, let them get the minutes they need to improve.

I tried my best to refrain from talking about this topic until we see what ultimately happens, but it didn't work. The only thing I'll say is there are two players that clearly stick out to me as guys who should never play outside of injury (last resort guys). One played both games this past weekend. Mentally I'm bargaining with Berry that I'm ok with one of the two playing the extra forward spot, if that means the other is watching from the stands. I'll be very disappointed if we see both and there are other healthy scratches.

UND has played their fair share of terrible teams over the past couple years and never have been able to put together two games where they thumped an opponent like that back to back. This is a very good sign.