I Ranger

100% agree. I wasn't sold on him as a top 12 guy this year. Not a fan of his play. I think his skating holds him back drastically and all he does is run into people and damn near cost us a chance at a national title due to his dumb decision late in the semi against Denver.

I see Heisenberg's site doesn't have him listed as committed to UND anymore. Not surprising if true.

That just sounds like more tickets available for Sioux fans to me!

I thought he improved his stock in this tourney as well. Actually I think that entire line of Brown, Yamamoto and Middlested all had a solid tourney. In my opinion, Clayton Keller was the best player in the tourney other than the Finn Puljujarvi (sorry don't know how to spell his name). I thought Jost looked solid but nothing flashy. I will be interested to see how the scouts quantify their performances in the semi's as I thought both Jost and Keller laid eggs in the most important games. The best D I saw was Jakob Chychrun. I thought Chad Krys was the most overrated player in the tourney. I would take Lindgren over him any day (based on this tourney only).

I think both were extremely talented but I'm still taking the 2010-11 team. In my opinion, the 10-11 forward unit was much deeper (Kristo and Nelson on the 3rd line) with two solid scoring lines Pony Express and Gregoire-Vande-Hextal. I would take this year's D-core but that 10-11 core was excellent and deep as well Genoway-MacWilliam, Blood-Forbort, Marto- LaPoint and then Simpson and Gleason as extras. Not to mention Dell had one of the best year's for a UND goaltender ever. Just goes to show how different a team is remembered when they didn't win a championship.

As mentioned, DOT and Pony Express plus Kristo-Knight-Nelson in 2012, and Caggulia-MacMillian-Parks last year before Mac got hurt at the end of the year. I would have to disagree with your assessment totally.

I agree with this assessment on Schmaltz as well. His strength improvement from freshman to sophomore year was undeniably noticeable right from the get go this season but he still has been dinged quite a bit. I think another summer in the weight room and junior year would be greatly beneficial to have the possibility of stepping right into the NHL after his junior season as to playing in the AHL next season. I think Boeser needs another year to gain strength as well.

Exactly. Give me RMU over the Gophs any day. It's not even close. The Gophs have the talent to perform great in a one and done situation but their struggles have been consistency in winning consecutive games.

Looks to me like no matter how the pairwise falls at the end that Quinnipiac will have the easiest regional and whoever of St. Cloud or UND gets shipped to Cincy will have an easier rout than through St. Paul. Obviously, I think a lot hinges on whether or not the Gophers make the tourney. I know in years past (including last year) that the AHA winner has taken out some #1 seeds (Mankato last year #1 overall) but drawing them as opposed to the Gophers in St. Paul is a big difference no matter how close they are in the Pairwise.

Yes Minnesota.

I totally agree all but I only watched him play in two games against EGF in which he scored 4 and 2 goals. He was invisible when he didn't have the puck and never backchecked and hardly even makes it back into the D zone. He is definitely a talented skater and player but is a long ways from being complete and I think he will learn some hard lessons next season if he plays juniors. Also, not having a letter on his jersey could be telling? But that is a total assumption on my part but just was kind of a red flag to me when 99.99% of the time in high school your best player/players are the captains.

I always wonder if the knee injury and surgery causing him to miss pretty much his entire freshman season really hurt his development. I was told the previous year playing for the U18 team that he was consistently the best player on the ice in games against NCAA competition. I didn't see it with my own eyes but was told by many who not only watched but played against him.

In my opinion, Olson is the first forward I would sit. Sure he brings a physical presence but to me nothing else. His skating holds him back drastically. He's the slowest guy on the ice and I thought Wilkie was starting to play quite well before his injury. Just needs to get the monkey off his back as well and pot a couple.

I was at the game last night and watched Johnson closely. Definitely a talented player and an elite skater but invisible when he doesn't have the puck. Floated back on the backcheck, did nothing in the D zone and rarely went hard after the puck on the forecheck but if he got the puck with speed through the neutral zone he was gone. Sad to say but these are habits that are built by playing inferior competition in Class A high school hockey. I think he will need to prove himself for a year or 2 in juniors and learn to play in all 3 zones to be successful at the next level. Which is what he will have to do if he wants to play in the USHL. No doubt he is a talented player though and I think he is much more talented than Loven at this point.

I will still say Jason Pominville for that prize. $5.6M cap hit for three more years for a player who should have been in the press box before Vanek and Zucker Saturday night. I hope they can buy him out after this season.

Yes I agree. I separated mine during my playing days and tried to come back after a week and got checked from behind and was out for a couple weeks after that. Even though the shoulder felt fine I was very hesitant to make any contact thinking I would reinjure it again. Not much fun.

Anyone have any insight as to the who the potential recruits on the bench before the games were this weekend? I believe there was one Friday and two Saturday.

I don't think you will see the Chyz, Simo, Pogo line broken up anytime soon.

Brad has said end of February a while back for St. Clair. Hopefully he is ahead of schedule on that timeline. On Tomek, I have not heard good things on that front.

That's not exactly lighting the world on fire in high school hockey for a possible first round pick. Tufte is 22 goals 15 assists for 37 in 12 games played for comparisons sake. Again I haven't seen him play just have heard from a few people that have.

Surprised to see Mattson jump up. I have heard he hasn't had the greatest high school season so far and has been very inconsistent.

I certainly want the US to win gold and now bronze but selfishly all I want is for Schmaltz and Boeser to come back healthy and ready for the second half! I would be alright if Wilson decided to bench the two for the third.

I wonder if having a brother playing his first professional year in the AHL after playing 3 years in college will be beneficial to Nick. I would imagine Jordan would be the first to tell him that playing in front of 12,000 a night at the Ralph is much better than a few thousand in the AHL travelling on a bus quite often. I think this could be to UND's benefit.

I think they both could use at least another year to build strength. Just look at the difference between year 1 and year 2 for Schmaltz. One year of building muscle at their age is invaluable. Boeser is extremely talented but he still gets bumped off the puck rather easily. Schmaltz is much stronger on the puck this year but another year wouldn't hurt his development.

This is my biggest pet peeve on this site. So many posters on here act as if Hak coached the team to dump and chase the puck even if they had an odd-man rush or a breakaway. Every team will dump and chase many times throughout a game. That's just the way the game is played unless you want the other team storming at your defenseman constantly throughout the game since you never get the puck in deep and keep turning it over at the red or blue lines. I don't disagree that Berry may coach with more offensive freedom but the dump and chase is all dictated by the opposition and numbers. If you don't have numbers or keep getting stood up at the blue line, the puck will need to be dumped. Berry would not be happy if our forwards kept trying to stick handle through defenseman and kept turning the puck over leading to odd-mans the other way.