sagard

You might be forgetting our obnoxious league members from the southwest. With the Gophers SOFT schedule this coming year, the number one is going to be just as close as it was this season despite the likelyhood of the Gophers having a better record. If either one of them finishes higher than the Gophers, they would likely have priority to the Ralph even if the Gophers were to gain a number one seed. My early prediction would be that UND and either CC or DU will be at the Ralph, with the Gophs and UW in Green Bay, and the lucky Colorado school heading east.

I think the '03 Gophers were on a virtually unstoppable roll. Maybe facing Michigan at Yost might have beaten them since Michigan was so close to beating them anyways. The '05 Gophers probably don't emerge from Mariucci if UND/CC or DU would have been present. Would they have beaten Cornell and Maine at an Eastern venue? They would have had to get the breaks, just like they required them at Mariucci. I really hope UND makes the tourney and hosts a successful regional. Does anyone know if they are going to sell regional tickets with the season tickets or if they will be handled separately?

Sorry for the bad examples. Do you believe there is any merit to my position that to make team Canada as a non-MJ player you need to absolutely exceptional to avoid getting overlooked? It seems like it would be only human nature to take the players you are most familiar with. Why risk a roster spot with an NCAA player or a junior player if you have plenty of talent to fill your team with known players. OT: I think it's time for the NCAA to relax about MJ players. Let each season of MJ count as a season of NCAA eligibility if you must, but it's soon going to be time to let non-WCHA teams have access to some decent players as well.

Here are five quick names, I believe I could find more if I looked eastward past Michigan. B. Morrison T. Zajac B. Murray R. Bayda B. Skinner I don't follow team Canada at all so I can't tell you who possible replacements would be, but I do believe there certainly were players of similar skills and talent on the Canada WJC teams in the years these players would have been eligible. I completely agree with your sentiment that Canada will take college players if they are good enough and that there is no conspiracy. I don't agree that college players are on equal footing for the coveted last spot on the roster that I'm sure many kids dream of obtaining. For a player like Toews, this will not come into play. For the players above it certainly may have.

Schafer is a whiner to the core. Sometimes he's right like in '03 when Cornell deserved and easier draw than MSU, sometimes he's wrong like last season when Cornell got the draw they earned. Either way, he's going to whine. He has also had plenty of issues with EZAC officiating. Getting by the Gophers in Minneapolis, though not easy as was proven certainly had to have been looked upon favorably than the other three brackets.

I love the idea. Sioux fans are loud, then can hold their own with us Gophers fans even when outnumbered.

Have the Gophers ever had or recruited any player who was a little more than a one dimensional forward or had decent character?

Now that's plain mean. You all should check GPL out if you think we NEED Sioux fans to get us all worked up. We seem to be doing just fine on our own in that respect. I like the Wheeler/Oshie comparison. Both dominated single "A" hockey in their last year of MSHSL, Wheeler has had a year of play at a higher level and of course Gretzky's blessing but that last I heard he was on the evil northern neighbors side anyways.

Why is everyone so hostile in the offseason? Those who think Cardinal is obnoxious are going to be in a rude awakening next season when the Gopher bandwagoners get on the various message boards. My personal opinion with no inside knowledge is that Mueller is far more likely to play for the USA WJC team this year than he is to play for the Gophers in '06-'07. Though I truly hope he does both. If the rumors of him hating the USNDT are true, there is no reason he should stick it out there. He's entering his senior year of high school and there is no reason he shouldn't enjoy it.

Obviously in Hills mind the "safer" option is what mattered most right now. Unless of course Lucia unleashed a long distance mind control mechanism and forced him to return. However if Lucia were capable of that I think the Gophers may have beaten AA last season.

At 44, Hill may not have felt that AA was going to get to the point where they needed to be in the next two years to earn himself the longterm contract there. If he seriously was worried about his next contract, then he certainly had every right to come back to the "U". If he did lose his AA post in a couple of years, his next post would likely have been an Assistant Coach some where anyways. Like Motzko he may feel he will have a good shot at earning the Gophers job down the road if he comes back and puts some years in again under Lucia. I personally think the Gophers will again raid some other WCHA school when it becomes time to replace Lucia. Unless of course some famous alumnus didn't happen to be working and decided it was a better time in his life to give the Gopher job a shot.

I love the analysis. I'd expect if you were to take the five year gap ending with the recruitment of '01-'02 freshmen group comparing to all the classes coming into the you would see that 8.5 month gap widen. The USHL lowering it's age limits will decrease the entire average age of the entire WCHA, but UNDs reduction really began once the puck dropped in the new rink.

Like UND the Gophers should have no down years. I expected the Gophers to finish top three and make the Frozen Four!

Yeah, it was BB who was the gold medalist those years.

You guys are paranoid. It's not like the Gophers had overwhelming success against the Sioux last year, despite the obvious biased officiating supporting them. I'm hoping for a Sterling/Sertich type of emergence from Potulny and Irmen.

The Red Line Report was published before Kessel committed, and doesn't pay attention to the rest of the WCHA (who happened to demonstrate superiority last April). http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/colu...ne-report_x.htm That said the usual suspects (UND, UMich, UM, DU, CC) are all bringing in outstanding players and will have the talent to win the NCAAs next year and down the road. The trick the next couple of years will be getting good NCAA draws and of course playing at your highest level at the end of the season.

Try him during the coaches show, I do.

Help him out people. His sight is one of the absolute best on the net.

Look around usahockey.com and you'll find it.

There is a big difference between soft and not being nearly as strong as the '04-'05 Sioux. Cornell was a prototypical big hitting checking team and it took them 50 minutes to wear down the Gophers. Then CU couldn't put the game away the the Gophers advanced. Don't expect the Sioux to be as physically dominant next years as they were at the end of the season this year, but don't fret there are plenty of ways to win hockey games and I'm sure the Sioux will win plenty.

That's usually my job.

This is to me the most noteworthy part of the wrapup: Saves