Stack

Two things: 1. Besides Marto and LaPoint stepping up for Genoway we also need Frattin, Miller, Zajac, Kaip etc to step up their play and provide some scoring. 2. One thing that is nice once we get to the Final Five and NCAAs, TV timeouts. With all of the TV timeouts a team can shorten their bench and a team can get by with three lines as the game goes along and also with 4-5 defensemen. It's nice to play four lines early with 3 sets of defensemen but not totally necessary with all of the delays. Just a thought.

My picks are a little different: 1. CC 2. UND 3. Denver 4. Mankato 5. St Cloud 6 Wisconsin 7. Minnesota 8. Duluth 9. Tech 10. UAA CC over UAA in 2 UND over Tech in 2 Denver over Duluth in 2 Minnesota over Mankato in 3 ( I hate this one but Mankato sucks against Minnesota) St Cloud over Wisconsin in 3 Final Five: St Cloud over Minnesota in play in Semis: UND over Denver, CC over St Cloud Finals: I don't know! CC and UND are Number 1 seeds. Denver and St Cloud are Number 2 seeds. Minnesota sneaks in as a Number 4 seed unless Mankato can actually beat Minnesota if they do Mankato is in. Is this the year St Cloud wins a game in the NCAAs? Weird but I actually think they do unless they play another WCHA team

Thanks for managing the league Azsioux. It was fun. A lot more challenging this year when the defense meant so much. Thanks again.

It was great to get two wins in Duluth but the price was great. We lost Trupp for the year. I'm guessing Genoway sits for this weekend at least and if he has a broken wrist he sits until the regionals. That's a heavy price to pay for two wins. We all know what these two guys brought to the team and they will be missed. Now we need guys like Frattin, Marto, LaPoint, etc. to step up and play a bigger role. We need Frattin to show that goal scoring touch he has, LaPoint and Marto to play like seasoned defensemen, and guys like Zajac to show some scoring touch along with their normal defensive play. Get well Genoway and Trupp.

Andrew "Lumberjack" Kozek

Well I know the guys from INCH love them. In their most recent podcast they kept saying that Miami was the best team they have seen all year. Great in goal, sound defensively and offensively and were senior laden. If Miami passes us I just hope we are a seed where we get put in their region. The reality is we aren't going to know squat until after the first round of the playoffs. St Cloud State is the fastest moving team up the PWR and could even pass us if they can sweep both Wiscosin and us. To me they are a scary team with their firepower. Let's go to Duluth and win Saturday and then see where we sit. Win Sunday too and then come home for the next two weekends. I love this time of year. My biggest fear when we play the first round at home is getting beat and not getting to see the boys in St Paul for the Final Five. But I'm confident this year that we get to St Paul and win at least one game there.

Another thing to consider is that when Miami plays another TUC they will get the nod over us for the 4th Number 1 seed. Right now neither teams gets a point in the comparison because Miami has only played 9 TUCs. The next one they play win or lose gives them the comparison over us. So we need to continue to win to get a Number 1 seed. We need to win 3 of our last 4 regualr season games, sweep the first round of the playoffs, and win at least one game at the Final Five. If we do that and CC does that we'll both be Number 1 seeds.

Tickets are readily available after the regionals. If Denver or CC aren't there you should be able to buy tickets for less than face value on the street. Like Sioux-cia said if you go to USCHO right after the regionals you can get tickets. Just remember that all of us that got tickets in the lottery are in the upper deck so the seats aren't great but hey you will be there.

My two cents: Duncan leaves along with Oshie. St Louis really liked Duncan at their camp and I think he'll jump Kozek stays. Until this year He was a decent player but at times played on the 4th line. He's got a great shot and can play in the NHL but I think he'll stay through his senior year. VandeVelde stays. He has progressed the fastest of the sophomores. He's strong on the puck and has developed his passing. He now needs to start scoring more. One more year for sure. Forney? I really don't know the story but with all of his injuries and hype who knows? I felt he should have done what Quinn Fylling did after his freshman year and went to the USHL for a year. I'm guessing he's played 6-8 games over his first two years. Tough to develop when you don't play. I don't know if he is just not that good, always hurt, or what. With all of his hype I'd expect him to play regularly. I'll agree with AZsioux and say he's going someplace next year and not stay with the Sioux. I forgot about Bruneteau's concussion. He won't be here next year. From the talk in the cities Gleason is ready now. Fienhage is a little like Finley and needs some time to develop his skating. I'm expecting Gleason next year and Fienhage to play a year in the USHL. The guy I've heard very little about is MacWilliam. Anyone have any insight? Currently the players I think need to step up their play next year are Miller, Zajac, and Malone. Miller has been sitting recently. Zajac and Malone are playing but are not that noticeable which is bad for a forward. I'm also hoping that Martens continues to improve and gets better and better. He creates when he's onthe ice but needs to improve his defensive play. With Bina gone and Finley and Chorney probably gone we will be very young on the blue line. Very scary in the WCHA.

I started looking at the possiblities for next year's roster. I went with the likely possibility that Oshie, Duncan, Chorney, and Finley are leaving early. What I was left with was: Seniors: Kozek, Miller, Watkins, Martens, Jones, Walski Juniors: Genoway, Zajac, Forney, VandeVelde Sophomores: Trupp, Frattin, Marto, LaPoint, Davidson, Malone Freshmen: Eidsness, Gregoire, Blood, Hextall, Lamoureux, Toews, Cichy, Bruneteau, MacWilliam, Gleason (the talk is they will also add another goalie, I had Gleason coming in and Fienhage waiting a year) Goalies: Eidsness, Walski, and ? That would give us 7 defensemen with possible pairings of: Jones, LaPoint Blood, Genoway Gleason, Marto with MacWilliam trying to break the lineup Possible forward lines: Toews centering Kozek and Trupp VandeVelde centering Watkins and Frattin Cichy centering Gregoire and Hextall Martens or Bruneteau centering Malone and Zajac That leaves Miller, Davidson, Forney and either Bruneteau or Martens in the stands. Of course this could all change depending if any of the four players I mention comes back as well as how these other players have developed. Thoughts?

Andrew " Lumberjack" Kozek

I will take T.J Oshie

Ryan "Major Duncs" Duncan

I need to make two picks also since I won't have access to a computer on Friday or Saturday: Friday night: Ryan Gopher Killer Duncan Saturday night: Chris VanDeVelde (assuming Major Duncs scores on Friday) Thanks.

TJ Oshie

I'm in: Chris VandeVelde

Gone next year and their replacements: Seniors: Lamoureux: (Eidsness) Kaip: (Gregoire) Bina: (Blood) Radke: (Hextall) Underclassmen: Oshie: (Toews) Chorney: (Gleason) Finley: (Fienhage) Duncan: (Cichy) That

Well we are the most penalized team in college hockey this year. Not saying they were all deserved but we do take a lot of penalties.

Kaip's scoring more and he's getting chances to play in situations that he didn't get to last year. Kozek is playing much better than he did the first two years and so far I'd say he is the most improved. One player not mentioned is our walk-on and very much improved player, Ryan Martens. Martens has gone from a healthy scratch to a player that creates on the ice. Even before the last two weekends when he got put together wirh Zajac and Radke he showed a lot on the ice. Without a lot of real game time I think he's shown he can play with everyone. My two most disappointing players are Miller and Chorney. I barely notice Miller on the ice and as a forward that's bad. I notice Chorney all the time and as a defensman that's worse. So Kozek and Martens: Improved Miller and Chorney: Not improved

I don't agree. The first goal was all Chorney. Lasch comes in the zone, Chorney looks up, no one trailing, all he has to do is body Lasch like all defensemen are taught to do and he never lays a hand on him until he scores. Weak goal for Lammy? yeah but if Chorney plays the body likes he's supposed to there is not a shot on goal. Now the second goal was not all Marto. The forward coming out of the zone coughs it up while still in the zone. Marto tried to take it back out on his own (his mistake) and coughs it up. They score. So my take is it's not Lammy. My big problem is why the Heck do our defensemen think they are forwards? You have to pick your moments as defensemen to jump into the play but for some reason our defensemen jump in constantly. Don't they realize their position is defense. How many times do I need to see Genoway, Bina, Chorney, LaPointe, and even big old Finley deep in the zone and then nothing to show for it. Hey that's fine but when we give up lots of odd man rushes because of it, IT SUCKS! Play your position and take the man. That's called playing defense in hockey@!#$

So far to me it seems like there a number of men that could be thought of as MIA: Let's see: Martens has played 10 games, has 1 point (no goals) and taken 7 shots Zajac has played 12 games, has 2 points (no goals) and taken 9 shots Trupp has played 13 games, has 3 points (1 goal) and taken 19 shots Miller has played 11 games, has 4 points (2 goals) and taken 12 shots Watkins has played 13 games, has 6 points (2 goals) and taken 36 shots Kaip has played 13 games, has 5 points (but 4 goals) and taken 26 shots. One thing I will say is that Martens has not played a lot even when he's dressed and the same goes for Zajac. Since we are the most penalized team in the country right now neither of these guys plays on the power play or the penalty kill so their ice time is a lot less than Miller, Watkins, and Kaip. What actually amazes me is that Bina and Chorney have not scored a goal yet. We need them to start scoring especially on the power play.

I predict that Derek Sheppard is the referee.

I just saw that as of this moment Duluth is ranked ahead of us in the Krach and Pairwise rankings according to College Hockey News: http://www.collegehockeynews.com/ even though neither is official yet. Duluth has swept St. Cloud, split in Denver, got swept at CC, and won and tied Tech. They have the second toughest schedule so far behind only CC. These should be good games but we need to sweep this type of series at home to get in the top half of the league especially since we go to Denver next weekend. LET'S SWEEP the dogs!

I saw and read this thread but it was not specific about the Sioux. Thus the new thread.

I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say the problem with the list is that it goes completely by the teams they play. Of course it does. The reality is that we should sweep a Mankato at home but traditionally we haven't or at least it seems that way. I feel that we have the toughest league schedule this year. The two top teams we only play one series against are Wisconsin and Colorado College. But that is offset by only playing a single series with UAA and Mankato. So we need to take care of business against the teams that are not as talented as we are. No more making their goalie look like he's a superstar.