NDHockey

This is a first for me. A kid leaving high school hockey because it is too rough for him? I almost spit up my breakfast laughing at that. High school hockey has actually been wimped down in the last year ever since Jablonski's unfortunate injury. It doesn't get any easier in the USHL where it is more physical and guys drop the gloves. If he is going to run away from being the focus of attention on the high school level, how is he ever going to maintain success as the competition gets even more difficult and the physical play gets ratcheted up further?

It was a nice snipe. But you are being too generous on Danny's effort. He was lazy on that one. As a teammate, you can't expect your defenseman with no stick to effectively stop a rushing player in a one on one situation. Joe did the best he could but Danny should have been busting his butt on the backcheck to support his teammate. He didn't even turn his head to locate the trailer after the puck entered the blue line so I don't buy that reasoning.

That's not what Irmen says. In this article, he says he was a Gopher fan growing up. Watched them on MSC and wore their jersey as a kid. http://www.letsplayhockey.com/online-edition/vitalis/789-a-homegrown-pro-fargos-danny-irmen.html

How many times have we beat out the Gophers for a player from the Twin Cities that had strong family ties to their school?

They only recruited one Mr. Hockey candidate last year. I think you are about 10 years behind the times there.

If it was that cut and dry, I doubt they would even spend any time recruiting Hurley. It sounds like it is a moot point for us anyway since he has never mentioned us and it sounds like the Gophers and the Irish are the favorites. The numbers you cite won't matter for Gersich as he is a 2015 recruit.

They do interviews with some of those kids and Hurley's list came from an interview with him. As was mentioned, Hurley is still two recruiting classes away (2014) and Gersich is three classes away (2015). I am not sure how there is no room for a couple of guys who are 2 or more years away from even hitting college. From what I see, Minnesota only has one forward recruit lined up after 2013 so I think there is quite a bit of wishful thinking in cberkas.

Don't all schools count tickets sold as the attendance as opposed to the number of people that actually attend? I'm pretty sure that is the standard for how it is done.

Kind of a silly argument to make given it would appear their non-conference scheduling are other MN teams (some of whom will be in our future conference and are solid programs) and teams like BC and Notre Dame. I don't consider those weak teams to pad your win totals against. It's not like we won't be playing Bemidji or some softer opponents in our own right in the future.

Don Lucia did play there too. Plus, Notre Dame is a good program with a new rink and a nice TV deal in their own right. It's not like there are no other reasons other than Mario Lucia for Lucia to want to schedule them. I know we all see our team and games with them as being the most worthy but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of reasons for them to play an opponent with the qualities Notre Dame has going for it.

You're being generous if you really know his history. He has had issues on just about every team he's ever been on. Whether it was back in the Blaine youth days, Hill Murray, US team or now, he has been an issue and immature. Given all that has gone on here in recent times with off ice discipline issues, I am not sure I want to risk more of that and he is definitely a big risk in that department.

His scoring total at Edina is pretty paltry. Only 1 goal and 16 points for a HS forward? 5 of those points being against a terrible Bloomington Kennedy team. I know we need grinders too but those types get recruited as 20 year olds. Not 17 year olds.

Was it this kid? Sounds like he's been making visits to schools lately. http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120822/SPORTS03/308220012/Team-USA-hockey-berth-has-Cathedral-s-Poganski-demand

From what I have read, they've sold out their games for many years but the corporate seats are not being used. Sort of like the Olympics has been this year in London. These corporations buy up some of the best seats and then don't always have people using them.

It was terrible what happened to those kids. I could see the NCAA punishing their football program since it revolved around that.

An NHL team may lay out options but they'll leave it up to the player. JT Miller bails on us as a NY Ranger pick and I think that is on him. The Rangers have been successful with college kids that play a few years like McDonagh and Stepan. Not to mention, they just drafted Skjei in the 1st round and he'll be playing for Minnesota. Each individual is different. I think it comes down to how committed a kid actually is to the college route in the first place. If they sense he isn't fully committed to it, they probably allude to other options.

Like it or not, we took one for the team (NCHC). I am not sure why people are even discussing this when it was so clearly spelled out when the CBS deal came out in the news. There is no "maybe we can work something else out". CBS has the exclusive national rights and we have no national option beside them. Even our Hockey SID was apologizing to some extent on Twitter and said that it had to be done that way. I doubt our team will be on every week so we'll just have to be happy with the five or so games we do get. Minnesota has a sweet deal as they aren't bound to any exclusive deal like we are. Whatever BTN doesn't want to use, Minnesota can show on FSN. Lucky them

Incorrect. We don't have the FCS option any longer. That was widely reported at the time of the CBS deal.

I was down there this past weekend. Only a couple of blocks from Target Center. It is hardly as safe as you make it. A ridiculous statement even with the increased police presence. Minneapolis is a big place. Of course there are good places too. But the warehouse district is not a walk in the park at night. You can ignore it all you want but it has been troubled down there in the last year or so. More than usual. And I have been going down to that area at various times for 20 years so I think I can judge fairly.

Yes, the surrounding areas of the two arenas are much different in feel.

Such as what? There is nothing locally that isn't already done at Xcel that requires something like Target Center. I could possibly see them going after a one time event like a World Jrs. but that's not reliable either. When you look at their plans for improvements, none of it is specifically related to hockey.

The Target Center is essentially only going to host one weekend of hockey all year long so to expect them to make any major attempt at making the facility more "hockey friendly" is not realistic at all. We just have to accept it for what it is. A convenient location but not a great place for hockey. I have to say that I think the area around the Target Center is not quite as fan friendly as some portray. There have been more crime issues in that area in recent times. Part of that is probably due to the light rail transit. It can get out of hand down there in a hurry at night. I was down there this last weekend and it was a tad crazy. Not sure that area is quite as family friendly as I'd like to see for an event like this. It may be good for your average 20-something looking to party. But a lot of the fans that go to the playoffs aren't in that consumer demographic and bring their kids.

All this does is turn up the heat on Hak. You can only blame others for so long before people will look directly at you for not getting results. This move seems to be blaming Eades to some extent. That's Hak's prerogative but it also means he is running out of excuses for anything other than he simply can't get the job done. I don't know if it will all work out either. But I do think I'd look for some other changes first (style of play, type of player we recruit, etc) before I start pointing a finger at a guy who was in the trenches with me and helped me succeed quite a bit.

I agree. Total BS comment. Some fans foolishly making a scapegoat out of Eades after all he had done to help us. I didn't hear anybody complaining about his coaching or recruiting during those Frozen Fours years. I didn't hear anybody calling for his head after this past season either.

I think it is pretty clear that Coach Hakstol is saying his dismissal of Coach Eades is, at a minimum, part of the reason for why we hadn't achieved what we set out to achieve. But when I look at recent years, the defensive play and the recruiting have actually been pretty good. It is tough to see why Eades would be the one element that needed to change when you consider we got to Frozen Fours and did other good things with him. Either this move is a way for Coach Hakstol to shrug some of the responsibility for not winning a national championship or maybe there really was something away from the rink for why Eades was dismissed.