soohockey15

Ok, now repeat that post to us in English.

Not as bad as you're making it sound, there's absolutely no pitching on the market and Silva is a durable 3 or 4 starter who can give you 200+ innings a year, especially for a team with atrocious starting pitching.

Well Minot basketball started the year ranked #2 in the state, so I'd say they have a pretty decent squad.

Good point. We should get a better understanding after this week.

Oh, because I didn't play means I can't comment? My point was let's have all of the top four teams play each other before we start making assumptions as to who the best are. I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that the Riders are the current front-runners.

Maybe we should wait to see how these teams fare against Red River before we start making any real decisions about who will be contenders.

I doubt that this transition will have any effect on their respective eligibility.

certainly won't change how their season would've ended...

That is THE WORST fourth line in the history of hockey period...any level.

If Lee were still here there wouldn't be nearly as many defensive problems.

I got to watch RR play last night for the first time....good luck

How far this has fallen

You would blame the officials ....wow

Ha great points sir, and doesn't Martens out on the Second Unit for power play sum up the lack of talent we have to throw out there right now? Because thats what a power play is, you throw out your skill guys and let them do their thing. Now, with that said, I have to disagree about chemistry on the power play. 5 v. 4 is much different than 5 v. 5 when talking about chemistry simply because when with the man advantage you should know already what the plan is. You work on specific things in practice to set up shots from the slot, or to pull d-men over with your points and set up one timers/back door plays/etc. The Sioux are just struggling because when other teams use a pressure penalty kill they are failing to make that one extra pass, because simply put...if they all have one guy covered...someone is open. For that to work, however, you must make quick short passes to set up the long back door pass. They'll work on it i'm sure, but they need to start scoring on special teams because the future doesn't look to extremely bright for even strength. p.s. beyond the first line Hak could switch up the other three lines on a nightly basis and i wouldn't notice simply because they all do the same thing anyway.

Other than that Oxbow...GREAT weekend summary. You nailed the up and down offense and just Extremely extremely disappointing play of Zajac. He absolutely looks like a fish out of water. Never in my life have i seen a D-1 college hockey player let a puck bounce of his stick on a tape to tape pass so many times. Should never happen. I see mighty mites able to catch those. (Yes smart guys i know they pass harder in college)

Agreed completely on the Lamoureux bit, but have to disagree about that other part. This is a .500 WCHA team. It's not their fault all you guys crowned them before the season but I said on earlier posts before this season that they will have to rely on one line to produce and thats gonna catch up to them badly. Looking at their roster I saw no reason to believe anyone besides the top line would score. If you couple that with terrible coverage in your D-zone (which is not just defenceman, the forwards are terrible at covering the points and they run around and chase a lot) your working towards disaster. Toews made those other two A LOT better. Not saying they aren't talented in their own right, but if they are a 6 this year on the talent/effectiveness scale, then they were a 200 with Toews centering.

Alright, time for some thoughts on the weekend...and no one roll their eyes. I'll be objective as possible. After watching the Gophers play on T.V. so far this year, i figured we were gonna see a team that was a lot worse than what we saw this weekend. They were pretty good. But pretty good is it. The sioux were outplayed for AT LEAST 105 of the 120 minutes this weekend. They were faster, worked harder, beat us to nearly EVERY foot race and were so so much stronger in the corners that it all most made me sick. If their defense played at about a 7 on the weekend, ours played at about a 2. No excuse for the odd-man rushes...if you try to pinch and miss the puck...take the body. Not hard. Bina is torched because of this frequently and is behind the play often. Finley played alright and he was the best on the ice tonight at D. And he only played alright. The forwards are a mess. Vandy mentioned after the game that the sioux just weren't getting the bounces. Well...they were because had they not been getting the bounces it was a 4-0 game and not a 4-3 game. All three goals were on broken plays and fortunate bounces. Absolutely zero production from anyone but the Oshie line. Someone mentioned that a hurt Oshie is still the best forward for the Sioux and thats dead on. Some of these forwards are young..but not all. Miller isn't, Kaip isn't, Martens isn't, Kozek and Watkins aren't. Our forward group isn't very good and doesn't create anything. Couple that will an effort that left something to be desired and your just flat out screwed. Good news? Plenty of time to right the ship. Yeah yea we've seen this before...their just building up for a late season run. But they don't have a Stafford and Travis Zajac from 05' or a healthy Toews for the stretch run like last year. And i stress Travis on the Zajac because Darcy was the worst player on the ice by leaps and bounds this weekend. Here's to turning it around and fast because we were awful fortunate for a split this weekend. Rant Over

I know it....it's Red River by a landslide

I find it odd that you claim you played for Red River (obviously didn't) yet continue to take shots at them. Not saying this is one of them, but clearly you have issues regarding Red River.

Hak would've said no because he's already at a top-tier hockey program. You can't get any higher. I admire Schiano for his loyalty, but there are much better jobs (prestige) than Rutgers. Good for him, though, staying loyal to the school which has been loyal to him.

I wish Jon Toews still played here

It doesn't

The Sioux are 5-5 in the W...i'm not counting any chickens at all...the Sioux aren't good enough to do that

It's amazing seeing the decline of the Gopher power-play without a solid puck moving defenseman. Right now they dont have a guy that can dominate at the point and move it with a purpose. Keep in mind for the last five or six years they have had a Ballard or a Goligoski who were both fantastic with the puck. Fairchild, Fischer, and co. cannot move the puck as well. This year it shows

very much so in terms of potential with a rock solid D-core in front of him, other than that not many parallel's can be made after two games.