sagard

Gophers need to go 4-1 or better in my opinion to make it pretty much by merit. Some weird things could happen and they could miss at 4-1 or some stranger stuff could go down and put them in even with a with a series loss to SCSU. We will have a pretty good idea before Final Five. Especially if the Gophers don't make it.

I think he is referring to regrouping in the neutral zone and keeping puck possession vs. dumping the puck in and trusting your fore check to disrupt the other teams breakout. When you are playing teams that either have defensemen who can consistantly gather the puck and beat the forecheck or a team who obstructs the forecheckers very well you often don't want to just turnover puck possession. I don't subscribe to this being the primary reason UND has lost to BC the last few years, but I'd listen if someone claimed it was part of the problem.

I don't think he is in Kane's class either. But he really shouldn't be compared to a #1 overall pick initially when he will be lucky to be a top 10 pick. I think he is a PMB clone with hopefully a little more willingness to shoot.

I think your right on about the Gophers, but are giving CC far too much credit. I'm sure they had a nice weekend at GF, but they have been pretty bad at times this year as well. Their series with UMD will knock someone out. UW is the team I fear may reach out and steal the WCHA autobid. They can play well at times and are only two wins from the NCAA if they make the Final Five. I'm really hoping to relive the '04 WCHA Finals. Have CC and UW get rolled in the 1st round. Gophers sneak by SCSU and DU setting up another classic with the Sioux in the Final. Yeah I'm still drinking the maroon kool-aid.

Heck I still believe the Gophers can win it all, so sure the Sioux could win it easily as well. The draw is crucial as always. Some years it opens up for a team. Some years it's brutal. The teams I'd want to avoid until the Frozen Four are the ones mentioned, BU, UMich and ND.

I'm pretty sure those are the same whiners that call for Hak's head every fall.

Sometimes five goals vs. Tech just isn't enough to win.

I don't have a problem with it if the voters thought they were two of the three best forwards. It is hard for me to justify excluding players who excel despite playing for a less than stellar team. Going into the Tech series, Stoa/Schroeder were a combined +20. The rest of the Gophers were a combined -48.

Not a bad choice between Eidsness and our guy. I'd go with Eidsness for ROY and put Schroeder on 1st team all WCHA.

No way. He takes no chances and won't even enter the land o' lakes.

The majority of the tickets are already sold. The Gophers will make the tourney only with a series win vs. SCSU and a pair of wins at the X. There are some fluky ways PWR will let them in with a loss at the X to someone like Mankato or, but they won't get any favors from the selection committee.

That opens the door for subjectivity to play a role. So I wouldn't pursue it. Unless your considering a Saturday night win vs. UMD gets you an auto-entry.

Sweep the dirty badgers.

Most criticism of Lucia is fair game. He is signed through 2011-12. If I were a betting man I'd bet Lucia leaves the Gophers on his terms. If for some reason Lucia was let go or couldn't complete his contract, you can bet the "U" would look closely at Blais. I believe they would have last time as well, but UND locked him up wisely.

Club is great when bringing smaller kids as well. Bath room lines and smaller crowds really works. Less likely to run into belligerence in club level.

How about you make sure the Sioux win the league and I'll make sure the Gophers meet them in the Friday night semi.

When dealing with the Gophers and CC for a potential first round matchup, I don't think home ice matters much. The games will be sloppy and eventually a mediocre team will prevail. Not sure what to think of UMD. Guess I'll know more after this weekend.

In defense of the #1 seeds, the '00 Sioux and the '02 Gophers would have been number ones under today's sixteen team criteria. Making #1s six of the most recent nine. That said I totally agree that making the tourney this year is a huge deal. I wouldn't count out UND, UW or even the Gophers (if they get their $@#$% together again) as NCAA champs.

Our goalies have sucked for years and years and years. Two exceptions. 1. Weber in the 1st period of the '03 Frozen Four vs. Michigan. 2. Kangas the second half of last year. He did have a rough stretch last year as well, but it didn't last as long as this current funk.

Thanks Jim. Six of eight seems like an overwhelming tough task the way the Gophers have been playing. I sure like the regular seasons where the only question for the Gophers is whether they get a top seed far more than these past two. Worst comes to worst, there is always the WCHA tourney.

It's nice to see the jersey returned. I'm guessing it's extremely valuable to both Morelli and to many collectors.

I couldn't believe it when the formula changed and we got barely a whimper from the WCHA coaches or league. Maybe they didn't complain because they had no choice. As soon as UND/UW/UM miss the tourney due to a bad record vs. tough schedule it will be cupcake city. Or should I say double/triple helpings of cupcakes. The new formula narrows the range of RPI. A typical win near the end of the season will benefit a team 0.0020 to 0.0050. They use RPI as the top tie-breaker when differences between two teams in RPI are often in the range of one win or fractions of win. This is stupid. If they are going to make an asinine formula for RPI, the lease could do is change the tie-break formula in PWR to H2H or make a new stat with record vs. top 10 in TUC.

Rooting against Northeastern in the Beanpot is just plain mean. Of course it's real easy for me to say this with the Gophers having beaten them. Your series vs. MSU should be a good one. Mankato should have a tough time scoring in at least one of the games. I'm guessing it's like the DU series. Sioux kill on Friday, play a nail biter Saturday.

It was only from a fairness standpoint. MSU had a better record, won the season series, and won the comparison vs. UW. Unfortunately they lost tight comparisons with ND, Princeton and NM, which allowed UW to jump up in PWR.

PWR will decide who gets in like every year. The absolute most compelling reason to discount PWR and put CC (in the regional they would have hosted, I think you all remember it) into the field actually occured in 2004, but the NCAA went with straight PWR and CC stayed home. If the Gophers don't make the top 12-14 in PWR, they won't be in no matter how much we pay the refs. The Gophers need to hear the talk from the Don. Similar to last year they just aren't that great up front and need to make up for it with huge efforts in their own zone. Right now they aren't getting that effort. Last year they roughly nine periods with MSU where their NCAA lives were on the line, but managed to make the field thanks to Kangas. This years team is a potentially better than last years, but needs to come together and play all 200 feet every night from here out. The legs were willing both nights vs. UW, but the brains and goaltending wasn't where it needed to be.