OETKB

It's looking that way. Playoff chances are now slim to none. Heck, I wonder if a winning season is even in the cards.

So UND is "Golliath", huh? I like it.

You better believe there is reason for optimism about this season. Barring injury, this should be a fatastic year. There are FINALLY going to be more than 5 or 6 upperclassmen on a Sioux team. In fact, we should field 10 or 11 per game. That will make a big difference.

Murray - Parise - Bo Stafford - Lundbohm - Massen Prpich - McMahon - Fylling Porter/Canady - Genoway - Hale I like putting Hale on the 4th line, because I think that will make the 4th line more dangerous. Fylling might be more productive with the other two than on the 4th. Didn't Connelly leave the team?

As "fiesty" as I felt Saturday, I knew I might get in trouble while posting. But keep in mind this is Siouxsports.com, not a Bison booster board, and I truly felt that Montana looked god-awful in the half of football I saw. To give props where they are due, the fake fieldgoal play was fantastic. Yuck.. I feel so dirty.

Sorry. Nothing personal. I just see a lot of negative commentary here about the webcasts. My point was... for those who cannot access cable or make it to GF to see games, this is the best thing to come along that I can remember. Also, I tuned in to the Montana/NDSU game after the UND game was done. I saw nothing in their technology that was any better than the dataflix stream. They didn't cut away for commercials, but the streaming was no better.

An inspired second half to be sure, but it looked less like NDSU played greatly than Montana forgot where they left their butts during halftime. I was not overly impressed with NDSU. They looked like a typical NCC upper-division team. Montana, on the other hand, looked little better than Crookston in the second half.

"Rough edges" notwithstanding, those of you who live in ND and can see the games through other media need to pipe down about the quality of the webcasts. I think it is great that UND took the effort to bring steaming video to those of us who have no other means to see games. Granted, there are things to be improved, but it was a good job for the first-ever broadcast. Also, I noticed that there was less cutting away from the field towards the end of the game. So it appears the staff was paying attention and making adjustments in the span of a single broadcast. Once again, I'm pleased as can be that I can now SEE UND sports instead of just listening. It's the best thing that has happened for out-of-state alumni in a long, long while.

NDSU wins over Montana. But I don't think NDSU played THAT well. It seemed more like Montana went to sleep for the whole second half of the game. UND will still beat the Bison this year.

Just finished watching UND's first-ever webcast, and it was a lot of fun. The picture is pretty good. I experienced quite a few short stoppages in the stream. Also, a few moments where the audio was ahead of the picture. However, I'd say 85% of the game was flawless, and that's good enough for me.

Connelly leaving is news. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me, because he really struggled on the scoresheet last season (zero goals) and suffered a concussion towards the end. But in any case, it is never a nice story to hear that a kid gives up on playing. I assume now that Palmo or Porter will be a regular on the 4th line.

I agree that UND's finish last season was very poor and leaves some major questions to be answered about the offensive side of things. However, it cannot be questioned that UND's top line (On paper) should be one of the best in the nation, followed closely by line #2, assuming Stafford ends up there with Lundbohm & Massen. There was a huge improvement from '01-02 to '02-03 for the big soph. class, and I have no reason to doubt they will continue that trend, regardless of the late swoon last season. Some examples of individual point production improvements: Massen 13 to 35 Lundbohm 23 to 52 Bochenski 32 to 62 McMahon 11 to 20 Schneider 14 to 41 Fuher 4 to 25 Defensively, you've got to remember that UND was playing 1 junior, three soph's and two freshmen for the majority of games last season (Marvin played in 30 games, although some were as a forward). Finally, for the first time since '00-01, the Sioux will have a team with more than 2 upperclassmen playing defense. Speaking of youth vs experience, here are approximations of the makeup for the 20 player normal rosters of the Sioux by year: '99-00 = 11 upperclass, 6 freshmen '00-01 = 10 upperclass, 5 freshmen '01-02 = 6 upperclass, 11 freshmen (ouch!) '02-03 = 5 upperclass, 5 freshmen (if you include Genoway) '03-04 = 11 upperclass, 5 freshmen and a look at the Goph's last season: '02-03 = 9 upperclass, 5 freshmen I'm not saying these numbers will always translate to success or failure in a given year, but look at what UND accomplished in '99-01 era (back to back Frozen Four appearances) versus what happened the last two seasons. Given all of the above, I believe you will see UND in the race for #1 this season, with the Goph's being the obvious favorite. Here is my expected order: UM UND Duluth CC MSU-M Denver SCSU Wisc Tech UAA And if there were a Frozen Four lineup I'd like to see, it would be: UM UND BC Michigan

Thanks for the reply! I do get that screen with the gray media player controls box, but I don't believe any "buffering" or "playing" messages appear. I'll try your idea of right-clicking to get statistics tonight at home. Perhaps I need to bite the bullet and get a new, faster CPU. Thanks again.

I have a computer that has 128 RAM, a 300+ MHz intel processor and runs on Win 98 SE with a pretty fast cable broadband internet connection. I downloaded windows media 9 and the dataflix website checker link tells me "You have what it takes to view," but I cannot get the game clip or press conference demos to work. A screen comes up, but nothing ever appears (remains black). Have you heard of this problem? What possible fixes would you recommend?

I'm surprised that UND doesn't have a single offensive recruit for the '04-05 season. There are 2 defensemen and 1 goalie. Anyone heard anything lately about forwards?

There were 3 distinct segments to last season, IMO. Firstly, there was UND offensively outmatching everyone they played early in the season, with poor goaltending. Next, there was an offensive collapse, also with poor goaltending and a shaken defense due to Hale's illness. Finally, at the end, Brandt was playing pretty well, the defense seemed to be coping, but the offense never recovered. In the playoffs, the goals for of around 2 per game were just too low, which was a shame considering that Brandt was finally giving consistent, solid efforts. Looking at the above posts, it seems like people are talking about the season as a whole. There was so much change over the course of the season, I don't think you can do that.

Mind you, I'm not saying I enjoyed watching the guy sob out there. It was actually painful to watch, although the celebration in the Ralph far outweighed my compassion for the kid.

Well, that 5 goal period may have been more significant than the comeback vs UM, but I was at that game in the old Ralph. When the go-ahead goal was scored, I jumped out of my seat, along with everyone else in the arena, it seemed. I swear, I don't know how the roof didn't blow right off the building, it was so loud in there. Hauser was reduced to tears in front of us all. Very memorable.

Agreed, Goon. The recruits of '01-02 were fantastic on paper, but have been a disappointment overall to date. Some good individual numbers from Bo & Schneider, in particular, but some very poor numbers from others, not to mention the departure of Fornier. Massen needs to use his size to create more garbage goals and crash the net more often. Canady & Connelly need to take their game to the college level. Its time for that recruiting class to show their stuff.

I too have been wondering why there are zero offensive recruits for the '04-05 season. Recently, we've had at least one recruit who was announced two years early. Not that I'm really worried about UND's recruiting. Murray, Stafford & Smaby are all excellent catches. J. Parise & Ziggy aren't too shaby, either. Mostly, I'm just anxious to see who else we can nab to make UND's offense the powerhouse it used to be.

I hope "they" feel he's not ready for about 3 more years! Whoever "they" end up being.

Once again, I want to state that I want Dean in the position. In my above posts, I was raising some questions about the last few years because I like to see the comments that follow. However, I'm not calling for his head or saying that UND should snub him. Having said that, "What have you done for me lately" is always the way in coaching. Flourish or perish. It's a tough world.

I'd agree that UND is probably capable of getting #8 this season. In my above posts, I'm just inviting some conversation about Blais and how he may have changed in the last few years.

Again, I'm not saying I want Blais gone, but rather bringing up a few thing I noticed and wondering whether these have anything to do with what is happening. Some Blais statements (approximate quotes) from last season: They had a great week of practice. I don't think we're going to get much better (before getting swept) The boys are sick of practicing. They just want to play games. (They needed practice, IMO) I'm not very optimistic (After a disappointing home series - referring to the rest of the season) Some of his comments last season were a concern to me. Especially the "Not optimistic" thing. Who needs the head coach to be talking like that?

All of this talk about Blais possibly leaving is silly, IMO. Obviously, he is not intending to leave, or he would not be making his lack of an offer an issue. If he wanted to leave, he'd sit quitely and then blame the administration for waiting too long after the fact. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that things are turning the other way. Thomas might be deliberately toying with Blais to send a message that the last two seasons have been less than satisfactory. From what I have gathered last season, there is talk that Blais is not getting the job done like he did when he first took the helm. Rip me apart if you wish, but that is what I have felt and heard in the last two seasons. Deano can't expect UND to be bending over backwards to please him when the WCHA record in the last two years has been around .500. Granted, I am very happy with his recruits for '03-04. Also, Parise was an amazing catch. However, can we expect the Thomas to go out of his way to please Deano during a period where hockey has slumped? When it comes to coaching, recent results get big contract offers, not history.