nascar99

Denver was in the Frozen Four in 2025 but knew they were outchanced/outplayed for a lot of the Semifinal against Western Michigan. They lost Devine, Buium, King, Thompson, Davis, & Caponi & still were aggressive all of last season & last offseason to make their 2025-26 team as good if not better. Caswell is an absolute stud, Epperson has been clutch for them & can produce any given night, Chyzowski is a reliable producer, Jamieson eats big minutes, Miller started the first half of the season pretty well. The only thing moderately "lucky" is how good Hicks has been, that was unexpected. And as we know, Carle is a great coach. Denver has the formula of recruiting players who are good enough to be reliable 3-4 year guys & simultaneously not ones either good enough or eager to sign pro early. It's a formula that Michigan, Boston University, Boston College, North Dakota, Minnesota have struggled with perfecting because so many of their top end guys sign after 2 or 3 years, sometimes even 1 year. Wisconsin built a Minnesota State or Minnesota Duluth style older roster & finally made a run even with Hensler and Schulz hurt

They will have to recruit Canadians and other non Minnesotans more aggressively

Is this a "top Minnesota prospect" by Minnesota standards or by North American standards? The former is a solid player but often overrated, the latter is an elite, Boeser type player

This noise about DuPont potentially to Minnesota is quite concerning IMHO

Posted in the 2025-26 Season Thread, but will also post here: Livanavage has signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he’s gone

Livanavage gone, signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins

Not related

I'll be emotionlessly watching from my apartment, fairly numb to what happens

Wonder if Andrew and Jubenvill enter the portal or stick around

Slept 4.5 hours and felt as empty as I did after the final horn when the Badgers started celebrating. Watching tomorrow night's National Championship game will be weird tbh

Depends on what DuPont wants. Presuming he's accelerated his education to graduate HS early, he can go to the NCAA and make a ton of NIL for a Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State type program, he can go to the NCAA and play for less NIL but a great program that builds great teams like Denver (or North Dakota). He can also stay in major junior in the Dub for his draft year and put up monster points and play all the minutes he wants. Just depends on what he wants. His family is well off (his dad Micki play in the NHL briefly and had a long European Pro career) so this isn't an NIL situation where he will automatically commit to the highest bidder.

Denver being the "Team of the 2020s (so far)" is just as annoying as Boston College being the "Team of the 2000s (plus early 2010s)". Credit to em and you tip your cap for what they do, but this is getting old. I guess it's better than Minnesota or Minnesota Duluth, but that's just small consolation.

It'll be a ton of Badgers fans who haven't been consistently dialed into men's hockey for years along with their normal diehards, plus the 3000-5000 normal Denver fans. Maybe they get more for the title game since it's relatively close, but as alluded to many times, their fanbase is small so who knows.

If Michigan had the goalie and defensive structure from tonight back in 2022 or 2023, they're in the title game at minimum. Those Wolverines teams had far more high end talent but lacked the elite goalie & the defensive consistency that they have now. Good on Wisconsin and Denver for winning tonight, but North Dakota and Michigan are just getting back revved up. Both will be back. Michigan wins tonight if Mews was healthy & in the lineup. North Dakota wins if they bothered to show up in the 1st period and on the PP.

Michigan would have won with my strategy. Denver would have won far sooner with my strategy. It's one of the handful of hockey things I have no shame in being arrogant about. I just don't why teams don't intentionally "shoot for bounces" more often. Goalie is rarely going to stop what isn't shot at him.

Gross but it will have to suffice for now

Denver goalies voodoo magic

Denver isn't an underdog. They sandbag/taper the regular season because it only matters to qualify. They'd be a 1st overall seed every year if they pushed.

F*** Denver

Denver's voodoo magic getting really old

If Mews didn't get taken out by Notre Dame early in the season, wonder what Michigan looks like tonight

Hicks was committed to Tennessee State before it became apparent they weren't going to start their program on time. Just wild to think about

Chyzyk/Jackson had 4.5 months to fill ~12-15 spots and put together a roster that got to the Frozen Four in Year 1 of the era. Very intrigued to see what they do moving forward.

I don't know why teams don't just set guys up wide of the goalie and then play pinball: shoot it off each other/the defender and in. It's not exactly "ethical hockey" but as long as you don't direct it in with your hand/arm and don't kick it, it's a goal. I could coach a team of meh dudes to 4.5 goals per game if we just played pinball out there half the time. My late night $0.02

I was not privy to the fact that Wisconsin hasn't lost in a Frozen Four Semifinal since 1978, jeez. They don't get there super often, but when they do, they advance. They're the anti-Michigan of Frozen Fours it seems. Michigan gets there super often but basically never wins (their last FF Semifinal win being the 2011 Hunwick game).