Sioux_Hab-it

I have to comment before this thread is put to rest. Some of you need to realize that Canada's entire population is only the size of the state of New York and that most of that population has to endure a long dark cold winter due to our northern latitude. So what else would we excel at or be obsessed with? The water melon seed spitting comment is funny but heck we can't even grow them up here. Someone else comented about all of the NHL teams being in the USA. Do you think the state of New York could support six NHL teams? Canada does with only three cities that have over 2 million people and all six teams have sellouts on a regular basis. I see plenty of empty seats in those US rinks including Detroit. I don't like the booing from our crowds but they truly save it for the team's that they recognize as a threat and cheer for underdogs to upset those threats. They booed the Swedes all through yesterday's game so I hope some of you can take it as compliment to the perceived talent of your hockey players. Finally, I have frequently voiced my opinion regarding the differences between North American hockey and European hockey. Funny how brave some of the Swedes were knowing that the Canadians didn't want to get any major penalties. The flops by their goaltender were classic. The icing on the cake for me was the Swede who bit Hickey's hand during a scrum in front of the Canadian net. I just watching Ruutu, a Finn, bite the hand of Buffalo's Peters in tonights game. You can have European hockey if you want it. If forgot to add that moving the tournament to Phoenix or Florida wouldn't work. Both are full of Canadian retirees each and every winter.

I fear that all of the two year and done players are finally starting to catch up with the WCHA. This certainly appears to be a down year and I think that Denver and Minnesota are continuing to make this recruiting blunder. Denver especially has tons of talent inbound but if these players bolt before realizing their potential in college hockey where does it get you. I think things are looking bright for the Sioux for the next couple of years. While it is true that they don't have a Parise, Stafford, Toews or Oshie on this team they do have a solid and balanced freshman class, most of whom will likely stick around for their full four years. Add Cichy, Kristo and MacWilliams to this mix next year and I think this team will be ready to compete with anyone in the nation.

If Canada takes that many stupid penalties against the Swedes you will get your wish. The Russians made them pay on almost every PP and were it not for the heroics of Eberle the outcome of this game would have been different. The Russian D did a great job of keeping Tavares away from their net.

But Hextall is given the player of the game. Nice to see this type of leadership from a freshman.

Should be good as Genoway went in after the puck and was then knocked by the Beaver D. Very poor call on that one.

No kicking motion he merely turned his skate.

There are certainly others including one who was a Tier One Junior scoring sensation however since you persist one word "Upperclassman". The expectations are different.

He is an upperclassman so there are certain expectations regarding leadership and showing up to play each and every game. Otherwise the playing time might as well be given to a young player who may develop into a leader.

Gophers don't fight it is probably another one of their slappy face washes.

A Peluso and a Hextall, this is to be expected. Keep the pedal to to the metal and blow the Beavers out.

Another Peluso, will we see him dance with Hextall?

Good start, take their crowd out of it.

It won't be me either. He should be grateful to the coaches that he isn't watching

Are any of the players on the U-17 team still available. Emerson Etem and Nick Shore scored some nice goals for Team USA in their win over Slovakia today.

The player who did both dirty deeds was Della Rovere and Goon will recall that I predicted he would be the Downie of this tournament. I think that one game proved me to be correct. However, like the rest of the Canadian team he wasn't wound up or a factor in the game until the stick in the face incident in front of the Team USA bench. That type of play seems to make him go psycho and you could see it in his eyes following the hit on Shattenkirk.

You know I was wondering where the hot dogging was coming from but Don Cherry revealed something in the first intermission of the Winter Classic that I didn't see from my nosebleed seat last night. It turns out that Hayes from Team USA may have in fact triggered alot of what happend in last night's game as after his goal he went past Team Canada's bench and cupped his hand to his ear. I remember that actions like that use to fire up Sioux teams and it obviously fired up Team Canada although the goals alone should have done the talking and Tavares didn't have to give it back to them.

You would be correct, as it has been pointed out in the sports media before that he has taken exactly the same path as Brett Hull, with a Canadian father who was a NHL player, played his youth hockey in Winnipeg, the dual citizenship, the US college route and playing for the USA. It is from the Winnipeg connection that he became one of Jonathan Toews best friends. I also read some of the comments about Tavares. He is great player otherwise he wouldn't have broken most of Wayne Gretzky's junior scoring records and he did score the two important first goals but there was another unsung hero who I would have selected as Canada's player of the game, Cody Hodgson. He is the player that won most of the important faceoffs and set up three of Canada's goals. He also hit four goal posts and if one or two had gone in everyone would be talking about him today instead of Tavares. Finally, Team USA at the U-17 tournament in BC should punch their ticket into the Semis with a win against Slovakia. It may be a chance to watch UND prospect Forbort on TSN this weekend.

Just got back from the game and wow did it turn ugly at the end of the first. The fireworks started when one of the Team USA players, Tagnardi I think, stuck his stick out from the bench into the face of DiDomenico. In the scrum that followed Della Rovere clocked VanRiemsdyk. If it weren't for incompetent international officiating both would have received majors and the game may have settled down but that was not the case. At least the wide wide open back and forth play, the on ice war and the bad officiating had me thinking back to some of the classic WCHA games I watched many years ago. Too bad their had to be a loser because going through Sweden is not going to be easy.

We still don't know the most important factor of all. Which team is going to draft him. Some teams have a tendancy to rush development and some are short of talented forwards. At least wait until after the draft to have this debate. I would be very nervous about the Islanders having an early pick if I were you.

Kristo only played the PK in the Germany game as well so he clearly has been pegged to be the 13th forward on this years team. Now that I have had time to reflect on last nights game I guess I was expecting more firepower from Team USA with that lineup of prospects but other than the top line they got nothing. The other thing that surprised me is that the Czechs outhit Team USA at least 2 to 1. Sagard may have been right with his comment about a lack of physical D-men on this team. Their coach also seems to be very business like and it seems to have trickled down to the teams character as their doesn't seem to be very much emotion on the USA bench, even when they score.

That was me and I did give the coach a piece of my mind in the third period. Team USA was losing races to the puck and could have used Kristo's speed instead of him sitting on the bench as the 13th forward. I know he heard me because he muttered something my way. Schroeder and VanRiemsdyk are very talented forwards and McDonough is a talented D and it was those three players alone that managed to salvage the win because the rest of the supporting cast didn't show up. I will cut Wilson some slack as he appears to be playing with a broken hand. As for fans at the game, where is the USA support. There were three tiny little pools of USA supporters, probably the parents. I can tell you that there were at least 4 x the number of Czech fans with their faces painted and wearing their jerseys and they were a loud bunch.

A team that doesn't belong in the tournament, Khazikstan. The good game today is the Czech/USA matchup tonight and I am off to that one at the end of this period.

Despite playing the worst team in the WCHA this one is scoreless.

Worst team in the WCHA and the Sioux still can't score.

Sioux need to go the net and give up the worthless play along the boards.