Snake

Their special teams have been absolutely brutal. What are they, 0 for 6 on the PP with a shortie against, while giving up 2 PP goals on the other end? Anaheim is getting their PP setup without any resistance, and the Wild are having trouble just dumping the puck on onside. It's been hard to watch.

So then I guess you won't be reading this thread anymore? I think most people feel this way, but a little speculation helps pass the time.

I hear ya. When I saw Rooney get to the puck first the first thing that came to my mind was "WTF?!?" Great hustle play by BC and somewhat a micrososm of the whole game.

I'm talking about the first of BC's two ENGs. Rooney came from the far wall where Chorney was pinching as the puck was wrung around the boards (stupidly in my mind). Anyway, Lee was covering the other side (middle) of the ice. I wouldn't say he got beat so much as maybe "out-smarted." There's no way Lee's going to win a footrace with Rooney, but with a 6-4 man advantage Lee maybe should have been more aware of the situation. There was no threat of icing & a clean pick off the boards by the goalie meant an easy clear up the middle for the D. It was more of a mental breakdown than anything. Lee maybe should have been retreating a little sooner.

That's pretty much exactly as I saw it. Keep in mind BC was short-handed so they had no fear of icing the puck. That was a huge factor that increased the odds of that play working for them. In that respect, the players on the ice for UND should have been a bit more aware of the situation and had at least one guy going back hard as soon as that play started to develop. BC could have scored it from 190 feet - someone for UND should have been hustling back to simply play goalie.

Not sure why my post got singled out in a rant about players 20 or 30 years ago, but oh well! Sure, we can't draw 1 to 1 comparisons of players 20 & 30 years ago to players today, but that's not necessarily the point. To many on this board, "Best Line of All Time" probably means the line that outclassed its competition DURING THE ERA IN WHICH IT WAS PLAYING. It's a clear distinction from the theoretical 1:1 comparisons between eras.

The Goren/Bayda/Ulmer line wasn't as flashy as the aforementioned, but they sure got the job done in 2000. They get my vote.

Take good care of El Presidente!

TRIOUXPER, you must represent! I must live vicariously through you! I will owe you many encore performances at Dad's when we bring home #8!

I couldn't have said it better myself. Go to the net and good things happen - it was pretty obvious suring the SCSU game.

I think one other thing that gets forgotten is that most of us were expecting guys like Brady Murray and Spirko to be on this team. Unfortunately, they were early defections and other recruits had to be brought in, perhaps before their time. If Spirko and Murray were on this team the role players that we are now expecting to score would probably be looked upon more faborably as doing their job instead of being under the microscope for their lack of point production. I'm with the rest of you on Kozek, though. Something's just not clicking for him.

It'll depend on if UND can take care of business since we're one point behind DU and only two ahead of CC.

Of course, I forgot to mention it won't matter because SCSU isn't going to sweep next weekend...

I think 1 point to clinch a tie. IIRC they are only 3 points ahead of SCSU, but SCSU would have the #1 seed in the Final Five by virtue of head-to-head record.

A faceoff win???

Internet feed is choppy at times.

We need to weather the "make-up call storm."

If "Ifs and Buts" were candy and nuts... Looking forward to a better effort from the other skaters not initaled D.O.T.

I disagree. You actually contradict yourself by saying they played well enough, but "let" DU score on a couple breakdowns in our own zone. In fact, there were more than a couple breakdowns and from what I saw it could have been uglier. Most of these breakdowns were because the team wasn't moving it's feet and was standing around watching most of the game. At least they had a good view - the camera guys for FSN were making me sick with all the zoom-in shots . I also don't think getting outshot 40-something to 20-something is a good indicator of playing well enough to win. Not to get critical of a single play, but in a game like this it's easy to do. On the GWG it looked like Fabian was in position to block the shot, but he instead elected to cheat toward the D-2-D pass, allowing the shot to get on net. It's a little thing, but it was a pretty aggressive, low-percentage play in a tight OT game.

UND's shot total has become a pretty telling statistic in their past four games - starting with the third period of the Saturday Mankato game. If we could get our shot totals up we just might play with the puck in the opposition's end for a little longer and consequently lower our shots against. The best defense is sustained offensive pressure, and we've had trouble generating and sustaining offensive pressure with 3 out of 4 of our forward lines. It also seems like we're flubbing up plays in our own zone way too often, giving the opposition second opportunities to sustain pressure in our zone and generate scoring chances.

I wish I could have heard the postgame. I think most of us are in the same boat in that we believe this team can play better - we've seen it. Unfortunately the margin for error is slim right now. I'm glad to hear Hak was unhappy, because in the couple years he's been here he hasn't let his emotions get to him too often. I think back to Oshie's post-game comments after sweeping the gophers. He said the team was stung by getting swept by Tech at home, and that they never wanted to forget that feeling. It provided them with motivation. It sees to me that this team has maybe forgotten what that felt like.

Last weekend: Three goals in two games last weekend against Duluth with a combined 40-something shots. Prior weekend: 3-shot 3rd period OT tie against Mankato. The phone's been ringing for a while - we better pick it up before it goes to voicemail...

SCSU played OK tonight, but the Gophers looked equally awful.

Couple things about tonight... The team didn't move their feet other than the DOT line. Lots of gliding around and watching. I think the replay of Paukovitch's goal exemplified it best when Pauk skated by Kaip and then Kaip just pointed his stick at the D-man who was trying to defend a rapidly developing 2-on-1. Maybe Kaip should have thought about moving his feet and back-checking instead of trying to direct traffic. I'm starting to think Miller (and others) have never met a drop-pass they didn't love to make. For whatever reason they're getting too cute when they should probably be putting the puck on net. Shot total in the low 20s once again - bogus. The D looked flat overall. I liked Genoway's energy and his assertiveness with the puck, but it was his own worst enemy at times. Many of the odd-man rushes seemed to be attributed to a D-man getting trapped deep without a forward rolling back to cover for him. What can I say about the DOT line other than these guys came to play. Sure, they were on the ice for a couple of the goals, but when you're team's only offense you've got to take some chances of your own. Lammy was pretty good. If they want to win tomorrow they're definitely going to need to move their feet better and stop dinking around when they get the puck into some prime scoring areas. The D needs to make better decisions with the puck coming out of our zone. We're going to learn a lot about this team tomorrow.

Well said.