I Ranger

Just got a room at the Hilton about a block away from the Bradley Center. Got it through a contact of mine. Just wondering if anyone else is staying here. Never met with anybody on this site and would like to meet up and through down a few. Can't wait til next week. Go Sioux!

I am different than all of you in the fact that I don't where any Sioux gear to home games. I only where Sioux gear on the road. All three times I wore anything Fighting Sioux to a home game this year they lost so I go with whatever I wore to work.

Highway 169 to highway 2 all the way to Grand Forks. Will be leaving at 1:00 just in time to have a few before we go watch the Goofs. Can't wait to get there. I have had butterflies ever since I found out we play Michigan.

I listened to the whole thing. It was a pretty good interview. Hak said all his focus is on Michigan and if they wake up Saturday morning still standing they will worry about whomever they will play that night. Also talked about the freshman and mentioned Stafford as being day-to-day so nothing really new on that front. The mention of Briggs was brought up becuase they asked Hak about Jordy and said that without a doubt the goaltending advantage in this region has to be UND's. Hak said that it is pretty hard to argue with how well Briggs has played over the last couple of months.

You forgot to list probably are most talented and biggest recruit coming next year in Michael Forney.

Heres a question I want to poise to you all. If Stafford does play this weekend which in all likelihood is going to happen who is in the stands Marvin or Miller? I personally would like to see Miller play as I think he has done an excellent job and has a much bigger upside than that of Marvin. But I believe Marvin will play due to his experience and the fact that he is a senior.

I think Carle has a better shot at winning the award now that he won Player of the Year in the WCHA over Potulny. Its pretty tough to win the Hobey when you didn't win the Player of the Year in your conference especially when that player who won it is also a finalist. For instance, two years ago when Junior Lessard and Zach Parise where in the Hobey hat trick. It's pretty tough for voters to vote for Parise over Lessard when he didn't win the Player of the Year in his own conference and Lessard did. Not saying that it can't happen though.

If he doesn't have much weight on his bones yet he may struggle considering he is already 20. There is a big difference from being 6-0, 170 at age 20 than 6-0, 170 at 18. That is why many players play juniors for instance Jake Marto to put meat on his bones and it seems as if Raymond may not be able to considering he played a few years of juniors and wasn't able to. Maybe UMD weight program will be better though.

I know everyone is saying that sweeping MSU may not help us in regards to the PWR and the NCAA's but I gotta say right now that CC has the best chance of missing the NCAA's. I don't know but does anyone have any idea what CC's PWR would look like if they lose there series to St. Clown.

I totally agree with this statement. UND's odds of winning the Final Five have to be much worse than that of Denver's or Wisconsin's simply because of the fact that some are predicting UND not getting by MSU and if they do and barring upsets they would have to play in the play-in game and then Minny on Friday night.

TRF beat Warroad last night in 4 OT's. Forney scored the game winner.

That be great if all this happens but a #3 seed after all that. If the Sioux make it to the Final Five Championship game there is no way they are a #3 seed. That would definitely make them a #2 seed.

I gotta think that we weren't recruiting Brad Thiesen to heavily because he verballed to Northeastern. I am guessing we offered him 07 and he didn't want to wait but on the flip side at least he will see plenty of shots come his way. Hopefully we will be able to find another goalie out there possibly Kangas but it sounds as if he waits until 07 it will only be for the Gophers.

I watch almost all of Minny's games and to say that Kessel is ALWAYS ON THE PK is a bit of an overstatement. I rarely see him out there killing penalties and he definitely wouldn't be considered one of the top four forward penalty killers on the Goofs so I am a little confused at where you come up with the ALWAYS ON THE PK. I do agree that his defensive game isn't as big of a weakness as Vanek's was but I don't buy your argument that he always kills penalties.

From what I hear, it would be tough to get him because we need a goalie for 07 not 06 and he wants to play somewhere next year.

Does anybody have anything new on the Lamoureux situation? Is he waiting until after the season to see what kind of offer he gets from the major junior team? I think it would help if Hak and the boys knew if he was going to be on board in 2007 or not. Also, it sounds like Lapointe is a good player and after a year in the USHL he should be a good one. From what I hear Berry stays in touch with him and talks with him quite a bit so I am hoping he is the next D to commit. He sounds like a very similar player to Marto and the year in the USHL should help put a little meat on his bones.

I just did the "what-if" calculations for the rest of the year and I found that if the Sioux manage to get hot and finish 10-2 they have a shot at finishing tied for second with Minny but would be third due to the tiebreaker. This is of course calculations I put together really quick and has the Sioux sweeping at home the rest of the way and splitting at CC and Denver. Hopefully it happens starting with Mankato this weekend. One Game at a time.

I have heard Derrick Lapoint come up a few times as being a potential 07 recruit for D. He is from WI and I read either on this board or somewhere else that he may come to UND. I have no clue about his talent though only know that he is listed at 6'3". Another name I'm gonna through out there is Ben Blood for 07 or 08. Again I have no clue about his talent just know that he plays at Shattuck. Anyone know anything on Hardwick at Lincoln and where he is going to go?

I agree with what everyone is saying about the possible recruits and in my opinion I believe we are the first choice for Marvin, Christian, Willert and Lamoureaux. The only thing that really jumps out at me is the fact that everyone on this sight can name a bunch of forward recruits that are on the Sioux radar but no one really has a D-man in mind. I know that we have a roster full of them right now and two more coming in next year but I would like for us to find one good one for 07.

I think the fact that David Backes is still around for his senior at Mankato is a promising sign for us with Oshie. I think he should easily be playing in the AHL this year if not in the NHL with the lack of talent in St. Louis.

After watching the game last night, I have to voice a few of my opinions on the USA. I can't believe that Bobby Ryan was the second pick in the draft. I thought he was terrible. He had about five chances to walk out in front of the net on the powerplay and just stood in the corner. I think he is vastly overrated. Also, I think that Kyle did a poor coaching job in this game. It seemed as if the Kessel line was on the ice every other shift and you could tell towards the end of the game. The US is deep enough were they should be able to run four lines. I think Wheeler was on the ice about two or three shifts. Anyways hopefully they get another shot at the Canadians but it will be alot tougher now.

I think there was an article somewhere where Travis said that Darcy is a mean, tough player. Dagies beat me to it.

This is great news. Everyday I check hoping to see that we signed a player or two and we finally did. I'm assuming Zajac next year and Trupp for 07. Sounds like we won two nice recruits over the likes of Michigan and Wisconsin. Hopefully this will be the start of a great 07 class.

I was talking this morning with someone who saw the Hibbing-Warroad game on friday and has seen all of Hibbing's games thus far this season and he said that Aaron Marvin was by far the best player they have seen this year. This includes players like Hoeffel and Fulton just to name a few who have committed to play D1 already. He told me that he was far and away the strongest player out there and was a beast to knock off the puck. Personally I have only seen him play at the State Tournament last year but I hope he is signed soon for either 07 or 08.