I Ranger

Easy call for me always Johnson!

The scary part about blowing these last three games to so-called inferior opponents is that there is a strong possibility of being 1-5 in conference after next weekend in Duluth with Denver the following weekend at home. That is one large hole to be in to start out the conference year!

That Bast-Tychinick pairing could be quite scary defensively!

Wade Allison was one of the three best players I saw in person at the Ralph last year so losing him for most of last year really hurt their chances and now having him back could be huge. Every time he had the puck I thought he was going to create a scoring chance. He is the real deal and probably could be playing in Philly this year as opposed to Western Michigan.

Vegas not taking Dumba.

Vegas' expansion draft was set up for them to succeed right a way with most teams unable to protect all the players they would have wanted to keep whereas in previous expansion drafts (such as the year the Wild came in) the teams were left drafting from the scraps other teams didn't want. Hence the reason you never heard of the majority of the guys on those initial rosters. The NHL made sure this expansion team wasn't a dumpster fire out of the gates.

It was Knight, Kristo, Nelson not Rowney.

I have two and I don't think I will be able to make so mine are most likely available.

Not to mention Gornall has to greatly regret his hasty decision as he would have seen plenty of ice time based on the lineups we were consistently sending out the second half of the season.

100% agree. He works hard but has horrendous hands therefore should not play on a scoring line. His assets are to use his size and speed for puck retrieval.

As you can see by the lineup that we sent out the vast majority of the second half, these are the type of players the head man prefers apparently. As has been stated on this board numerous times, when an offensively challenged team sits three pretty skilled forwards (Hoff, Adams, Yon) for a slow footed defensive defenseman at forward something is wrong. Offensive skilled forwards had extremely short leashes whereas our low-skilled grinder type forwards had miles. To me Smith is a great example. He had two or three good weekends in a row in November-December which bought him a regular lineup spot the rest of the year even though he did basically nothing in the second half.

I really couldn't figure out why Adams had such a short leash yet Kawaguchi was put out there every night. Yes Kawaguchi came on in the second half but all the things describing Adams (not strong, defensive liability) all describe Kawaguchi as well. I had Adams as the much better player in the first half. A stiff breeze could knock Guch off the puck and his skating is suspect at best.

This I couldn't agree with more but I've said I don't like our lineup decisions so often I'm beating a dead horse. I would take a line of Adams-Hoff-Yon (who are our healthy scratches) over at least one if not two of our current lines. Unfortunately or I guess fortunately since we just won two games in a row I don't see any lineup changes moving forward.

It's absolutely insane for a team as offensively challenged as this one to suit up a slow footed d-man at forward over three healthy forwards. We don't need two grinder lines. One is plenty!

I've said it for a while now that I haven't been a fan of the lineup decisions the coaching staff has been making.

Are we certain Hain is coming in for sure next year? His stock has really fallen in the last year and it wouldn't hurt to have him play a year in the USHL after his year with the NTDP.

Yes correct he was brought in as a D-man.

Gaarder and Pattyn were along with Senkbeil. All walk-ons in a year in which we lost JT Miller in July or August. It's hard to believe that team won the Final Five playing with 11 forwards the last two months of the year with 3 being walk-ons in Gaarder, Pattyn and Senkbeil and a fourth being a d-man in Joe Gleason.

Agree to disagree. In my opinion, he is our 14th forward and it's not close. The puck is a hot potato on his stick and his skating is atrocious. Slowest forward I may have ever seen play at UND.

People need to get over this. Eades is never coming back to UND. He was lucky he was able to leave in a way to not embarrass himself on what happened while he was still at UND.

I've said this before in previous threads that the love affair for this line could be this team's detriment. Like you said 26 had a good run before Xmas but they have done nothing since and don't need to be penciled in nightly in the lineup and playing 2nd-3rd line minutes. 11 needs to be in a suit.

100% agree

I'm nervous the love affair for the Simo line is gonna be the detriment to this team. The line was clicking best with Rieger and not Olson so that is one spot that can be replaced. Adams needs to be in on a team that struggles to score!

Does anyone know if we have an offer out to Cruikshank? Or is that just the assumption? I'd thought he would have made a decision by now.

I'm with you here! I've never seen a coach whine about everything and totally intimidate the officials into getting literally every call on Saturday night and he didn't stop whining even after.