Irish
-
Posts
2,891 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
29
Posts posted by Irish
-
-
Although it is still early in coach Jones's tenure here, so far his teams have shown doodly squat. I don't see any stars in the wings either. Division I is going to be a long hall unless things change and soon.
-
Great = Almost every Evan Trupp goal is a highlight goal - i can' wait for the next one. Good win for the Sioux
-
MSU 75
UND 56
Final Score
This is a bad basketball team.........
Hey - I think we won the DAC this year!
-
I can't think of a Sioux team in recent history that has made me feel more schizophrenic. I leave each Friday's home game thinking we have the talent to go all the way and that we have finally started to put it all together only to leave Saturday's game thinking I haven't seen a Sioux team look worse (allowing rallys, taking stupid penalties, finding a way to lose). Our power play looks like the best in the nation and carries us for several games - our power play looks worse that a high school team and has trouble even getting the puck into the zone. Our defensemen look like the unit I thought they would be - our defensemen get toasted and have a stunningly high amount of poor judgement in turning the puck over in our zone. Our freshman and sophomore class looks like it is the nuculeus for great teams for years to come - our young players look much worse than our rivals. Our returning stars look like they are living up to their all-american status - our stars dissapear for games at a time (except Oshie). Our goaltending carries us - Phil lets in soft goals and allows 3rd period rallies. Our coaching staff appears to have all the chemistry working - the staff looks remarkably unconcerned and shows little emotion. We play with intensity and heart - we look like we just plain don't give a crap. I think part of the frustration expressed on this board to the dismay of some is that every time we think we are clicking, we seem to lose focus (often in the same game, usually within the same weekend). I don't know what to think about this team.
I feel that this is a coaching issue - getting the team to play consistantly up to its potential. I'm not criticizing the coaches. but just saying that it is up to them to get this team focused. Everybody knows the Blais method for dealing with these issues - I'm not sure what the Hakstol approach is (mainly due to his stoic nature). We need a lesson in focus and determination yesterday.
-
Now that's Sioux hockey. If we played with this attitude and intensity I would be satisfied win, lose, or draw. It's good to see us turn a visit to the Englestad Arena into 60 minutes of pain. I hope this is the start of a trend. When everyone chips in on the scoring, we tend to win. Even though not all goals were pretty, when we put the puck on the net and crash the net, good things happen. We definately outworked them this weekend. Keep it up Sioux.
-
"Patience"
-
Lot's of games left. Hak will have them firing on all cylinders when it counts!
When do you think that will be?
-
The only problem with T J is that there aren't more of him. If the whole team played with his intensity and heart we wouldn't split every series. We don't have anyone in our freshman or sophomore class that comes close to his talent. Lighten up you people on the morals committee.
-
But when Hakstol became head coach he said we wouldn't be able to tell the difference between his and Blais teams. Deans teams had fire and played with tons of desire or they sat. Lots of times Dean went with three lines because of what he called passengers. Come on Hakstol we all know you can recruit like crazy now you need to bring the guys together and play hard and with a chip on their shoulder, no more mister nice guy play hard or ride the pine.
Agreed - However I don't think we have "recruited like crazy" the last two years. One of our main problems this year is that we have no freshmen or sophomores who are lighting it up (although Vandevelde is playing well). No one who comes close to Oshie, Parise, Toews, Boshinski, Duncan, Zajek, etc. Just look around at other teams and compare our last two classes to theirs (Denver for example). If you think this year sucks, wait until we lose Duncan, Oshie, Lammy, Bina and Finley. We'll have no scoring and a goalie who has not played one period of college hockey. I'm not saying we don't have any quality players, but I don't see any difference makers in our Freshman and Sophomore classes.
While I'm ranting - Our inability to make our home ice a tough place to play really irritates me - Sioux fans have seen a very mediocre hockey team at home for the past 3 years. i'd give anything to see us play with fire, pride, and intensity this year. Why we have to wait until January every year to see what I consider "Fighting Sioux Hockey" is beyond me. No way we would play with this lack of intensity for this long with Blais as coach.
-
Good news - we've got the best goalie in the league - Lammy stole one tonignt\
Bad news - the Gophers handed it to us for two periods in a crucial game at our house. We need to do better tomorrow - the first period was an embarassment.
-
It doesn't
A Sioux sweep would be another nail in their coffin.
-
I would classify UND's 3-0 win at Northeastern as a game Phil stole. He also played exceptionally well in the fog game against BC. Otherwise, that could easily have gone down as a loss.
What bothers me the most is that Hak's teams are 0-23 when trailing after two periods. They haven't come back to win a game since mid-February of 2006 at UAA. That's no coincidence. It's a very troubling trend and goes staight to Sicatoka's point about the lack urgency.
I agree - we certainly are not a team to be feared on the road or at home. Another thing that concerns me - most teams we have played seem to have at least one freshman or sophomore who is lighting it up. We don't. We have some guys who show flashes of brilliance, then revert back to being average (much like our team). We don't have a difference maker so far in our younger guys. In addition, no one has made the leap to greatness so far like Duncan did last year. We seem to have many young players with potential, but thats about it. Most teams we have played have had much better contributions from their young scorers (Lapoint and Marto seem to be playing up to par). Take away Oshie and Duncan and we have almost no firepower. I know the season is in the first half, but It hurts to see other teams getting much better production from their young guys. We need some players to step it up to be competative.
-
One more thing...is it time to get Finley off of the Second PP unit. Better question- is anytime a good time to have Joe Finley on any PP unit?? I'd love to hear justification for him bein out there.
After watching our 3 power plays in the second period it looked like nobody belonged. I believe that Duluth got as many shots on our goal during the power plays as we did on theirs. They looked so bad, it was hard to isolate any one player. I'm not trying to bash the Sioux - I thought they showed a lot in the third period - just making an observation.
-
Hak was right - it was an ugly game - However, I felt the Sioux showed a lot of character in the third. They came out, took charge, and put the puck in the net. It's hard to believe it was the same team as in the second period. It looked like everyone did their part - no standing around waiting for someone else to do it. Great effort by Trupp for his first goal - the main negative - We had the three ugliest power plays I have seen in a long time in the second. Hopefully, they'll be more in sync all game tomorrow. This team has the potential to score in bunches.
-
Sometimes a good beating is a good thing brings everybody down to earth
We should have been down to earth the last two weeks then. How long until we get grounded?
-
I'm also extremely frustrated with slow starts 4 years in a row - not just slow starts but playing way below our talent. I've been as excited as anyone with our finishes - however 3 strait final four appearances with no championships = Woog. Eventually we have to put it together and get our s**t together all season. With our talent this isn't too much to hope for. I had hoped with the talent coming back this year we could avoid this kind of thing this year. We are definately underachieving so far this year.
-
I don't know if I agree with this statement. In 2001, we lost to Behrns and company at home and went on to win the national title. In 2002, we lost to them again but that whole season was a disaster anyway. In 2003, the Sioux won in the Alerus Center and made it to the NCAA Title Game. In 2004, we lost in Omaha but made it to the National Semifinals. In 2005, Omaha basically ruined our season with that come-from-behind win at the Alerus. 2006 featured a loss to Omaha in the regular season and a win in the playoffs, both on the road.
And in the years before 2001, our teams really weren't good enough in some key areas to win a national title or go deep into the playoffs, whether we beat Omaha in those years or not. With the exception of 2005, I don't think Omaha has single-handedly ruined our conference and/or NCAA title hopes. We have had much, much more success in the postseason over the past 6 years or so than Omaha has ever had under Behrns. Our annual war is the Super Bowl for Omaha. Our Super Bowl happens much, much later in the season. Maybe this year will be different, but it's probably too soon to tell.
I was refering to the time he was head coach here. (and the rebuilding necessary when he left)
-
Random thoughts from a frustrated fan -
I can't understand why with the athletic talent we have that we can't do a better job on kick coverage - I thought Omaha did an excellent job in this area - this has been a problem for us all year.
Our offensive line didn't do the job today - QB was hurried and had a hard time setting up. When we had 4th and one deep in their territory late in the game, they couldn't open a hole.
I felt that not going for 4th down on our last posession was a mistake - almost everyone in my area of the alerus felt we would never get the ball back. Lennon seems cursed by Omaha. I thought Omaha won the line battle on both sides.
We made key mistakes that cost us - \
Our season is far from over, but we need to correct a few things -
I hate it that Pat Burns has our number - He ruined Sioux football for about a decade.
-
Considering how successful the UND defense was last week by being more aggressive than they'd been, I'm surprised they would have gone back to an "unaggressive"--for lack of a better word--gameplan this week.
This may be the only "chink" in Lennon's armour - it seems that whichever unit is struggling gets more conservative in tight games (think offense in the Omaha game a couple of years ago). We usually have one unit (up until this year it has been the defense) playing balls out and the other unit just trying to hang on. This tendency to tighten up and try to let the other side of the ball carry the day has cost us in the past. i hope we can see this and make the adjustments against Omaha this year. If we go conservative next week, it'll be a long game.
-
It's hard to cover something you don't have a clue is going to happen...
That's my point
-
I can't believe the poor kick coverage for the Sioux
-
Kick coverage has been a consistant weakness for us - with all of our good athletes it's hard to beleive.
-
Two third and long conversions - our defense needs to cowboy up!
-
Rob Bollinger was at today's game.
SIOUX vs PIONEERS
in Men's Hockey
Posted
This isnt Rocket Science - every time the power play goes south, one thing is obvious - we piddle around with the puck until we lose it without ever getting it on net - how we can go from a good power play to this in a week or two is beyond me. The players must know what to do by now - all they have to do is pull the trigger.