hockeytherapy13

Fully agree. There's no way 20 would be in a suit lately, he's been good in all 3 zones.

I'm not sure 6 should be playing over 4 or 24 if we want our defense to be better at the moment (not that 4 or 24 or great defensively but it's an upgrade from 6's capabilities). Unless they want 6 as an extra skater and throw him on the power play. I am huge fan of breaking up 10-27-19. I wanted that even before the season started. I actually think 28would be good on that line since he is actually a capable defensive forward. I'd rather see 10 be the extra skater and just use him on a PK or to throw on the 4th line a few shifts. Seems like he's lost the offense spark he started the season with because he's been on the power play and hasn't done much with that. But maybe a new line in general would get that rolling again for him. Maybe 10 should sit out a night, keep 26 in as a good offensive player, and then bring 29 or 13 in and let one of those guys rough up some bulldogs to help maintain puck possession.

Something sad withing me feels that Both Howard and Spicer are going to have their big season breakout moments this weekend at REA... And none of us will be surprised.

At first I thought you were suggesting this as a new line combo lol. But the reality of what it actually is happens to be much sadder than that…

I don’t think anyone wants to roll status quo. But to say the season is done and we should start 6 every night over 2 (or anyone) hasn’t been watching. Get Judd off of a scoring line and put him with the shutdown line (put one of them as the extra forward to kill penalties), get DeRidder in the net and keep him there for good, no more switching. Break up our defensive nightmare of a top scoring line by getting 21 instead of 22 up there because 22 doesn’t have the size or grit quite yet. Get 18 on a scoring line again because he’s got the speed and skill to do it. Oh, and Stop taking 26 out of the lineup, FFS. And I think the one thing that goes without saying is they Portz has a lineup spot for sure as he’s been one of the best forwards the last 6 games.

Oh we are definitely going on the road. But being 5th against Omaha is better for us and looks better than 7th or 8th against St. Cloud or Denver. But there are 6 full weekends and 36 potential points left of regular season hockey left, dude.

The problem of just scrapping this season and getting young guys in to prep for next year is that there is still a lot of hockey left to jump up in the standings. If we end where we are or worse, future recruits will see that and the optics are bad, therefore keeping us bad in the future. They have the talent to move up and it’s time to switch lines up to make a move because what we’ve been trying isn’t working. On a different note that I can’t seem to get past. The one time Berry should have followed his season-long game plan is changing goalies in-game. We’ve seen goalies get yanked a dozen times this year to send a message... All. season. Long. But going into the 3rd Saturday when we were hanging on by a thread, Berry keeps in the rookie against the #1 offense in the country instead of throwing in DeRidder who had experience in big games. That shows a complete lack of feel for what was happening in that game and what his players can handle. Completely wrong move that was mind-boggling.

We would get destroyed with that defensive lineup. Number 2 has to play over 24, 4, and 6 for sure because he actually plays decent defense.

I am genuinely sorry about your trip to grand forks this weekend. The games really spoiled something that could have been fun your you and your son so I hope you able to find ways to make the best of the weekend. Between the reffing, the players blowing it defensively, and getting swept at home, I couldn’t help but thinking about how this was going for you even though you’re a complete stranger lol sorry again man.

DeRidder should have started the 3rd period, without question. We started leaking oil at the end of the 2nd period and needed an experienced goalie to finish things off. 100% on Berry there. Even Stoney can’t put a positive spin on the coaching tonight.

If a cake eater is going to play well in all 3 zones, I'll take him. His older brother, Mason, is a very reliable player. This Gopher team actually has grit and plays defense. This isn't like some of the other wimpy teams they've put out there, these guys go hard. Really not excited about their potential to raise a banner. I'd rather see their drought go another 10 years please but I think they are recruiting and playing too well. Agreed, goofs are recruiting too well not to throw up a banner here soon. They’re recruit very high end nationally rated kids, not just MN only. As much as a hate to say this…future looks very bright for them. https://www.therinklive.com/mens-college/big-10/gophers-say-nevers-again-as-edina-standout-follows-family-tradition-and-picks-the-u-of-m Anyone know if UND was looking at Nevers? Shouldn’t this be in prospective recuits? Sorry-wasn’t sure where to post. Do we need cake eaters? I like to see more recruits from the range aka Hibbing.....or whatever will be good players has anyone seen a goalie?

Not sure if this is better for this thread or the non-UND hockey thread but I think it's worth noting that Cole Spicer has 1 goal and 2 assists in 18 games this year. I know Duluth was down in the first half of the season but still noteworthy. All of our freshman are looking a lot better than that so far. Sure Blake and O-Mac have bad +/- and each needs to clean up that side of the puck but they are still producing at a much higher rate than Cole Spicer. Of course now that I said that, watch Spicer double his point total the weekend they play us

I felt the exact same way. Let him do the interviews from now on so we can get real answers.

One great thing: our 4th line Saturday against WMU is very hard to play against (Portz-Ness-Albrecht). That 4-line set-up looked very good but I'm wondering how do we get Costantini back into the lineup? If he is healed once the break is over, can we get him back in somewhere on a team where it seems like the lines are FINALLY taking their shape. Costantini is too skilled to be out of the lineup and if he doesn't play, I'm worried he hits the portal next year. But at the same time, it's hard to take out other guys after how well they played in the last game. That 4th line plays so well together with their physicality and it seems like James was hitting his stride on the left wing of that unit with Schmaltz and Caulfield. So does 18 keep riding the pine? Obviously he will play the U-18 with blake gone, maybe even lindenwood depending how far the US goes in the WJC. Just food for thought since I miss UND hockey right now.

No loss is hurting us worse than our home loss to Miami

With the speed of the game in Lawson, who do you take out of the lineup for him? Portz has wheels and Albrecht has size and proven himself defensively. Ness has had a decent run lately with a few goals but I guess you could take him out and put strinden at center since he brings size too. Just not sure if 21 is ready for the pace of this evening because it’s going to be wild. Although id rather see Farmer healthy and strinden in and Moore out since he’s frequently a liability haha

Bringing a forward in at this point in the season would make things even worse. These guys need to figure it out with the team they’ve got. Great get for the coaching staff here to build for next year.

This made me actually lol. Bravo

Except he has been constantly saying in articles and on podcasts that UND has been losing games in the 3rd period that were within reach. Just listened to the rink love podcast from this week where mentioned UND has to figure out how to keep the puck out of the bet and are 58th in save percentage in the country .

I have been thinking/fearing the same thing

Oh wow, you're right. I'm a dummy. I seriously forgot about Judd in my brain's lineup. Not sure if I should read into that or not but then again DeRidder has more points than he does

With us having so many forwards out injured this weekend, will they play Brent Johnson up as a forward (right wing) on one of the bottom 6 lines? Or Cooper Moore? Or maybe they just double shift forwards to play the other wing on the 4th line all weekend. Interested to see how they play that.

I agree that the losses so far aren't the problem, it's the way we have lost and lack of offensive chances in those games that have been problematic (and losing leads in 5 straight games). I'm ok with not getting a sweep this weekend, although that would be terrific and a great way to get out of the slump. Give me a split where we play well enough in both games to potentially win and I'll be happy as a clam. As long as we are continually improving and in both ends of the ice, this team has upside. Methinks Deridder starts. Deridder has been to good to not play so until he plays himself out of the net, it's all him. Not that this matters now but the last time Hellsten started in Omaha he delivered a big pizza to an UNO forward that ended up in our net and led the way to a Saturday win in Omaha. That game was a bummer because is resulted in us having to share the Penrose with Denver instead of winning outright and knocked us down to 2nd seed for playoffs.

Very well played

Dude I put that we would likely win between 1-4 games, didn't say we'd for sure win the whole thing but ok I should have put 0-4. I was giving Berry the benefit of the doubt. Simma donna I also said the coaches need to make some changes, NOT that we need to make a coaching change. That message was more of a propping up of Hak than anything. I was never on the Fire Hak train.