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I've been looking at the returning players and new players a lot recently. Like everyone else I'm expecting great things from Parise. I'm also expecting Fournier to show this year why he led the uSHL in scoring two years ago. I'm also expecting to see a more mature Fylling come in and contribute big time. I think that McMahon will be an force on the ice this year both offensively and defensively. I've tried to guess the line combinations with some of these things in mind. I've also looked at the production of some of the players last year. I decided that this year it's time to break up Noterman and Spiewak. They are fine on a penalty kill but I think they need new linemates. Also I have seen Lunbhom's proudction decline rather than improve so I've moved him down until I see an improvement. Here are my guesses: Parise centering Bochenski and McMahon (I think McMahon will have a breakout year) Fournier centering Hale and Spiewak (Fournier needs to get stronger and stay healthy. If he does I can see the second line being very good. I'm sure this line will have a lot of changes depending upon who works the hardest this summer. You could see a number of players moving up and down. Fylling centering Noterman and Massen Lundbohm centering Cannady and Genoway (I've tried to keep the speed with at least two faster/smaller players on a line along with a bigger player but it's so dang hard to predict. Other forwards: Faul, Connely, Palmiscino, Connely D: Hale and Schneider Jones and Greene Fuhr and Marvin/Leinweber (I'm not optimistic about Leinbweber either. He seems to have gotten worse rather than better as his career went along. G: Siembida #1 Brandt #2 Sedevie sits unless these guys don't produce or get hurt. Watching Siembida I sure hope the coaches work on his tendency to go down right away. He's got a great glove hand but leaves too much room upstairs because he's down on the ice too quickly. The area this team needs improvement in the most excluding goaltending is special teams. We stunk it up last year on the power play. We played with anyone in the country 5 on 5 but our downfall was goaltending and special teams. We need someone on the point (schneider or Jones?) and we need someone who can stand in front of the net and not get moved out of the play like a Goren (Canady or Massen?)

I was at the games this past weekend wearing Sioux stuff on both Thursday (A Sioux Jersey) and Saturday (A Sioux pullover). I had a number of Minnesota fans give me grief which I expected. Asking me questions like "What was I doing there? or Are the Sioux still playing?". The one that I was asked 3-4 times was "Are you cheering for the Gophers?" My response was "Did you cheer for us last year?" The look on the Gopher fans face was incredulous that I'd ask that and then it turned sheepish when they fully well knew they had not cheered for us. I then pointed out that it was tough to cheer for Minnesota when the entire crowd booed every WCHA teams jersey that was shown on the big screen. Net result for me is that I hoped for a fun game (it was), I hoped Potulny did well (he did), and I didn't really care who won after that. Now if the game would have been out east rather than in front of 18,000 Minnesota fans I'm guessing I would have been hollering for the Gophers. At least Hockey East didn't win!