Wilbur

Kind of what you expect in an opener. Sloppy play at times, but you like the offensive creativity even with it being so early in the season. Grimaldi is a magician with the puck. He's got a magnet somewhere in his stick.

The emphasis in recruiting for the next however many years has got to be the defensive side of the football. Players that can tackle, cover people, and not blow defensive assignments. You're not going to beat elite teams with this.....

Good points. Danny is a bit too shoot happy to be at the top of the point. The top guy needs to be a distributor with the patience to set it up, and wait for the pk unit to show its hand as to what they are doing (pressure box, diamond, box, etc.). I think with Danny on the weakside you make the pk unit respect his presence which stretches them out a bit. That way you have a number of options getting the puck to the net. I like having O'Donnell or Rowney as the third body in front of the net. Size with hands in front never hurts.

Agreed. Kozek broke a bunch of sticks and missed the net a ton. Matty Franchise hit the net with more consistency.

And I thought only UND players broke the code....huh...

Talk about a guy that could shoot the puck....I wonder who had a better wrist shot....Kozek or Frattin?

My top moments at the Ralph: ~Just after Holy Cross ended Minnesota's season, and the ovation the Sioux got when they got on the ice to play Michigan....sent tingles down my spine ~Frattin's one timer against Minnesota in the playoffs. My lord.....I was sitting in that corner with my wife.....wow.....just wow..... ~Bringing my son to the Ralph for the first time in his Sioux jersey, and getting a picture of us with the scoreboard in the background after the Sioux won.

Yeah....not sure if he counts as a rookie....being he's a Freshmore....

I'll say 6-2 UND. With six different goal scorers. Lets play, which rookie lights the lamp? I'll go with Sanderson.

Hak made a great comment at media day. You lose a guy like Ben Blood who played upwards of 30 minutes a night, and you've got to find guys to eat those minutes. I trust in Brad Berry though. He knows what he's doing, and I'm guessing that the d-corps will be just fine.

Yes sir. Can't remember how many they are allowed.

I like that combination. Pattyn or St. Claire can play center, so you won't overly need to worry about a guy getting tossed on the draw. Plus a guy like Rodwell is tough to play against. Strong/big/physical....

You or I could be on the wing with them and they'd be fine.

Correct.....

Update: Grimaldi to play center.....that messes with my preseason line combos a bit..... Alright....trying this again....Although yzerman will put something way better together and make me look stupid... Knight-Kristo-O'Donnell MacMillan-Grimaldi-Parks Rodwell-Rowney-Chyzyk Caggiula-Pattyn-Gaarder *Edit* Reasons.....MacMillan and Parks were great together, can't split them up. Pattyn is a grinder that needs to be the Lamoureax type fourth line grinder. The Knight-Kristo line needs a big body to play with them that can produce, and O'Donnell fills that role. Putting Rodwell with Rowney and Chyzyk gives you three big bodies that can score and possibly matchup against a top unit. Fourth line....lots of different scenarios there....

You'd think that since the Alaska games are over two weeks away they'd probably try to see who has chemistry for now, and maybe put things in place for the U-18 game. Good question....very good question.

As long as we are sharing painful Sioux losses I'll need to throw in the loss to BC at the Frozen four in 2007. The last five minutes of that game will forever have me thinking "what in the hell are these officials seeing that I'm not?" And I never blame the reffs.....and I'm a Viking fan.....

Nope, he's seen that before too. Nice try though.... I will never understand going to an opposing fan base forum and trying to stir things up. I love opposing fans that come here and actually offer quality insight into whatever sport is the topic of discussion. To me, you must have very little going on in your life to take the time to get yourself all set up and fire your cannon at the castle in an attempt to start a war.....

I've seen this before. Bison fan comes on here trying to throw the fixation bomb at UND for the beloved agricultural school. ~I mean, think of UND games. All you here is Bison suck....Bison suck....when they aren't even playing the Bison.....wait....thats NDSU... ~Or after UND won the national championship in football you heard a chorus of "Bison Suck".....wait.....that was NDSU too.... ~Or after a bunch of their players got arrested, they went over to the NDSU fan forum and sandbagged the hell out of the situation.....wait....NDSU again.... "Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind." ~Buddha

Okay, bump.....Season just about four days away......and we all look forward to seeing how our favorite team looks against a team far less skilled. PS: Tate Maris has some of the sweetest looking pads I've seen on a Sioux netminder (as seen in the team picture). Maybe this year we'll see them in a regular season game.

So the players weren't the victims in all of this? W...t....f.......

Get your head out of the clouds. Its being talked about all over the state, and at major media outlets as well. If this was the only place it was being discussed I don't think NDSU would have held a press conference to appease the social media at the university of North Dakota. Get a fricken clue.....

The key is to finish in the top five of the WCHA, make the NCAA tournament, end up out east in a bracket that doesn't involve a Boston school, and not have a goaltender that goes absolutely out of his mind against you in the NCAA tournament. Thats a good route.

If the gophers goaltending is decent, and lets say they average an 88-89% save percentage and a 2.6 GAA they should win the league. With the talent they have offensively teams will likely have to score four goals to beat them or play tremendously in their own end. Their top two lines will be tough to match up against, and they have a ton of experience back on the blue line.....Alt, Schmidt, Marshall, Helgeson, not to mention incoming Skjel. Trying not to be too much of a homer here, but I think of all the teams in the WCHA, UND probably matches up better than any other team with Minnesota. I think its a toss up between which defensive unit is better, and right now I'll call UND's goaltending better with Saunders being a seasoned vet who saw a rubber factory worth of pucks in his career in Bama.

Ohh you're not kidding.....The chips just end up falling the right way for some teams.