NDHockey

1. Minnesota 2. Denver 3. St. Cloud 4. North Dakota 5. Colorado College 6. Wisconsin 7. Duluth 8. Alaska-Anchorage 9. Michigan Tech 10. Mankato

I would doubt that the other players at that position had much to do with it. I mean, unless Blais is breaking NCAA rules and watching captain's practice, I doubt he'd have a good idea about who is skating better than who as far as centers go. Not to mention, it is kind of early to make that kind of judgement when games are still weeks away If it was really a matter of other players being better at that position, would Blais really be as upset as he kind of seems about Fournier leaving? I don't think so. He'd probably shrug it off and give Fournier his release. I think some people are trying to rationalize this situation as if it for the better and I don't really agree. Looking back on the thread where people put lines together, most people had Fournier as a pretty solid contributor.

I think some of this talk about bodyfat is making a little too much out of things. What are we fielding? A hockey team or a bodybuilding team? I understand that being in shape is a part of the game but I also know that just because you are in good shape, it won't mean that it automatically tranlates to success on the ice. I hope Chris does well whatever he decides on. I hope he didn't get a raw deal.

It is disappointing to hear this about Fournier. For guy who was a USHL player of the year and a 1st team all star to suddenly get cut, that really stings. I thought he would be a big cog to the team this year because he seems to be a pretty good set up man and I don't think we have as many of those as some other WCHA teams. This will definitely hurt the team this year. It will probably hurt in the long run as well because I thought he would be a big point player in his junior and senior year. 19.4% bodyfat? He must have been pretty lazy in the off-season to be that high. Not a good sign coming off the year we had.

I don't suspect that the Gophers will be national title winners again next year either. Unfortunately, I do think they will be better than our guys so I am not sure that saying they won't repeat really means much to me in that sense. On the topic of having a bullseye on their back, it would seem like the Gophers have that every year no matter what. I mean, will teams like the Sioux, SCSU, UMD, Mankato, etc. really get keyed up any higher than they already do to play the Gophers? I kind of doubt it. I mean, even when they were down in their last few years under Woog, the Sioux still got really jacked up to kill them because they are such a big rival. So I sort of doubt they will be unprepared for teams aiming for them considering they deal with that pretty much everywhere they go. I think the Sioux will be improved next year but I still think there are a few too many question marks for me to feel like they will do anything special. Hopefully they will prove me wrong but I feel like they should aim for home ice and have an improving club when the playoffs hit and see what they can do.

I think what I read on here by a few fans on Don Lucia is a little bit questionable in my book. That remark may not make me popular among Sioux followers but how anybody can consider that guy as not being among the top couple of coaches in college hockey is a head scratcher. In fact, it sort of makes me question if some people's Sioux loving (and Gopher hating) heart is talking rather than their head. I mean, did anybody question Blaiser's coaching when he won the title in his 3rd year and that wasn't a team of all of his own players? If anything, the one thing that you rarely see Lucia criticized for is not having an eye for talent or not being able to recruit top players. When looking at what the man has done in recruiting (his next incoming class for example), he has to be rated among the best in that area. So if you say that he has accomplished a lot with some talent recruited by other people, that says to me that he is a top coach. Besides, far over half of that national title winner was his players. If the man is a very good coach (almost a 70% win percentage) and he has also shown to be a very good recruiter, I don't really see how you can't rate him among the best with Blaiser, Berenson and Parker.

jk, I guess I am not as big of a believer in looking back on past stats as a barometer for the future. Different circumstances, many different players and different teams. Too many different circumstances for me to conclude anything on next year's club based on what happened on Sioux teams from 3+ years ago. I feel that those earlier Blais teams had a lot more talent than we had this year or will have next year. When I look around at the top scoring teams from this past season, I see most of them only had 3 guys with 20 or more goals. To expect that we will go from one to five in 20+ goals when even top teams this year didn't have that many is something I just don't believe. I mean, even in the top years for the Sioux, we didn't get 5 players in that range. I suppose I have more of a wait and see approach. I watched this team enough this year to know that I didn't see enough in them to believe that we are suddenly going to be filled with big time goal scorers (especially with Bayda gone). I think there are a few other teams in the league who will have a better offense than we have and I don't see them even having a handful of 20+ goal scorers.

I apologize if I rubbed you the wrong way. I was only making a comment on it. I think the CSB does the same for both domestic and international players. In other words, it has 30 guys listed as "1st round" for domestic players and 30 guys listed as "1st round" for international players. Since there are only 30 teams, we'll see a mix of players from each top 30 go in the 1st round. Although the way the draft has been recently, it seems like more European players listed get drafted higher than the North Americans.

I believe the list you are referring to that has Jones in the 1st round and Greene for the 2nd round is ranking North Americans only. When you factor in all the players from the international rankings, players like Jones are likely to drop a bunch of spots and possibly into the next round down or more.

We only had 3 players who had over 10 goals this past season and only one over 20 goals. So to think that we are going to have 5 players with over 20 goals is a little difficult to buy into for me. As much as I'd like to see that, I think that is overly optimistic. I could see the team gain home ice for the playoffs next year but we are coming off an 8th place season. Expecting a big leap to the top with the quality that Denver, Minnesota and SCSU has is also a bit too optimistic in my opinion for next season. I'd rather have realistic expectations going into the year and be surprised by the team rather than put heavy expectations on them that are a little too steep. I remember some people last year saying that Blais was going to work his magic again and that the last time we were "rebuilding", Blais won a title. Well, I think we learned a lesson because we got 8th place and some humble pie.