I Ranger

Since Hak wasn't around for the Coaches show this week maybe he wanted to see Schmidt first hand before offering him. Hopefully that's the reasoning behind him not being around. Exiled One may know if he was at the game or not. From everything I gather, it seems like a toss-up as to where Schmidt decides to go as I have heard from different people that CC was first on his list, then someone said UND was his dream school, then there was the article from sometime ago that Exiled One posted that stated he wanted to go to SCSU and now someone on another board claims that the Gophers are his first choice. Anyone have any clue?

I think if we list Schmidt as a wait and see type player we will miss out on him. From what I have gathered, CC, Minny and St. Cloud have all offered so far so I would think if we didn't offer this weekend that he would really have to want to be a Fighting Sioux to wait for an offer from us and turn down those other offers right now.

I gotta agree with everything you say here. I think both Kaip and Watkins had pretty decent weekends. I thought Trupp was probably our best forward friday night and I thought Watkins was our best on Saturday. He seemed to have by far the most jump out of any of the forwards. I believe Oshie was playing at somewhere between 50 and 60% this weekend. When he was going down to block some point shots on Saturday night, you could plainly see that he was having more and more trouble getting up. It was quite obvious he was hurting. I have seen all but a few MN games this year and I thought that was far and away their best weekend of hockey. They seemed to be a totally different team than the one I have seen in previous weeks. In previous weeks, I thought they were being outplayed by teams such as Michigan Tech and AA and in the case of the Michigan Tech series were lucky to get two points as opposed to this weekend were I believe that the Sioux were very lucky to get two points.

I know I've brought this up before but does anyone know anything new on the D situation for next year. I have seen a few names thrown around for next year but haven't heard anything recently. Are we still recruiting for next year or do we plan on bringing in both Gleason and Fienhage?

I agree with needing to pressure their young D core. After watching the Gophers the last few weeks, we need to get after them and also pressure them when we do have the puck as well. Take it right at them at full speed and see if they can handle the speed. They seemed to struggle with Denver and CC in that area. Especially pressure David Fischer who has seemed to struggle mightily with the puck and almost coughed it up numerous times on Saturday against Tech. He might be to Gopher fans what Brian Lee was to Sioux fans.

I was actually thinking that VV centering Toews and Gregoire would be my best guess as to being the top line.

The thing that jumps out at me when I look at that list excluding Oshie and Duncan is that I don't see a definite number one line like we've had the past few years. I think we will be able to roll 4 lines and it may be hard to tell the difference between who is the first and who is the fourth line. That sure would be a nice problem to have.

I gotta say after watching Minny play Mankato last weekend and AA this weekend that I would be quite amazed if those two teams don't finish 9 and 10 in the WCHA. Yeah I know AA beat Minny on Saturday but they might be one of the worst puck handling teams I have ever seen. I love watching the Goophies lose but that was just a bad hockey game to watch.

I think it would be ideal if we could get two defenders and keep Fienhage and Gleason as 09's. From what I've heard, Fienhage is quite raw and would benefit alot from playing a year in the USHL as would Gleason. If they don't, I think Gleason is the guy who would come in next year.

UNH swept CC a couple of weeks ago at UNH. They didn't split.

I don't know the rules but I highly doubt you would have to forfeit a game for dressing only one goalie. That just doesn't make any sense. I would bet you don't have to dress any goalies if you don't want to and play with six skaters the whole game.

Budish would be an 09 and not an 08 so he wouldn't be part of this class anyway. He would sure make our 09 class pretty damn good though.

I totally agree with this assessment. I specifically watched him on Saturday night given on TV but I didn't see anything special and I wouldn't have even noticed him if I wasn't looking for him.

Anyone with Dish Network the game tomorrow night should be on channel 451. Its a sports alternate channel and my guide showed it coming on at 7:00 tomorrow. Go get 4 points in Madtown boys!

I agree the addition of Budish would be two great classes of FORWARDS in a row but we could really use some D. I really hope we can get some top notch d-men shortly before they all start heading elsewhere.

If OHL is true he won't be coming back becuase he will have lost his college eligibility due to playing major junior.

Exiled One I am assuming the next two "big name" commitments who are deciding between UND and the Goofs are Mattson and Budish. Am I safe to say that is right? For some reason, I have a bad feeling that both these guys are going to be Goofs. No inside info just from rumors and other things i've heard and read.

Sounds like we can cross Nick Leddy off the list as it appears he verballed to the Goofs. Hope we can find some other top notch d-man.

What about Miller getting his shot with Osh and Duncs? Remember it was between him and Frattin at the beginning so maybe they give him his shot now.

For some reason I was thinking the same thing. Hak always said last year that he wanted Forney to be a top 2 line guy and not a 3rd or 4th line grinder. But who knows maybe he'll throw him with those two to give him some confidence but I wouldn't bet on it.

Anyone know anything on Damon Kipp who is also on that team? Just wondering because I think we need to be looking to add some d-men for next year and he is rated pretty highly so I was wondering if we have had any contact with him. Also, any word on Corbin McPherson? I read somewhere that the Sioux were in his top three and he is another d-man that could come in next year.

Anybody else surprised that Trupp got the only other rookie of the year vote that didn't go to Turris? I would guess that Eaves gave him the vote since I believe you can't vote for a player on your own team. Also, I would assume Hak was the vote for Okposo.

That looks like one tough forward line-up to crack even if Duncs leaves. Brad said on his blog that Lamoureux will be on scholarship next year so you're free to guess how much. I would guess that we got him for quite the discount compared to what we offered last year.