I'm confused how people think the 01-02 season was a disappointment. Yes, it was a rough year compared to the previous 2 years, but as a fan, I remember thinking it was going to be an awful year. We had just lost a ton of talent, some to graduation, and some to early outs. I think we had something like 14 freshman that year. Bochenski was a freshman; Dave Lundbohm was a Sophomore; and Bayda was in his Jr year. Outside of that, no one really stuck out as far as talent. A lot of the freshman would become talented with experience, but I don't remember it being a disappointing year, because I knew it was going to be a rough year. I thought Blais did a great job as far as turning us around in the next 2 years to get us back into the heat of the competition in the NCAA's.
With that being said, this years team is similar to that years team, only they seem to be doing a little better. Do I think we'll go far this year in the NCAA's? Nope. Be lucky if we get out of the first round. But I do think next year, Hak will have a contender on his hand. Goaltending will be the ? again next year. Hak needs to go out and find a small goalie. These bigger goalies work for most schools, but for whatever reason, North Dakota has always seemed to do better (at least in the last 20 years) with the smaller goalie. Goehring, Kollar, Parise, etc.
