Irish

In my opinion, a DI move should only be done if criteria are met before the move - namely confernce affiliation in place - funding sources identified or in place, and a reasonable reassurance that we will be competative. Right now, the only program that this move benefits is Football (suprise that this is the only sport with a 1AA option.) This could be the demise of Basketball, and all of the men's minor sports. I don't think that any of these criteria were met before the move. As to the funding - I just don't believe that it will be there. Many fans like me don't have unlimited funds to spend on sports - the increase in hockey tickets really burns me. We seem to be sacrificing loyal Sioux fans (who may be priced out of many things) for corporations or deep pockets who look at sports as social hour or corperate intertainment. I know that Division II has some problems but the funding crunch will soon affect everyone. There is already talk of doubling student fees and I don't know of any group that has less funds than students. I am worried that the loyal fan will soon be priced out of many things Sioux or treated like second class citizens because of money. I think we rushed into this decision - It feels like it was decided long before the facts were in.

I feel that most of the criticism of the Women's Hockey hire have more to do with process than end result. Why limit the school and insult some applicants with strong Sioux ties unnecessairly. My complaint with the AD has more to do with funding of DI than anything else. I am one of many hockey ticket holders who were told that the price of two tickets is going up $400 or else you can sit in the upper bowl. What a load of crap. If this was the seating rule when we first picked our seats, I could live with it. Now they feel like they have us over a barrel and are trying to squeeze every cent out. We need more of a corperate atmosphere at the Ralph (sarcasm). I believe that the move to DI was poorly thought out, especially when it comes to finances. There isn't a lot of new money to be gotten, especially with many loyal Sioux fans shelling out top dollar for hockey. I hope all Sioux fans are prepared to be nickled and dimed to death (look at parking fees for the shuttlefor example. This community does not have enough extra money for athletics to fund what they need. In addition, the Betty apparently will not do for DI basketball and it isn't even paid off. This latest ticket ripoff has made me a permanent supporter of anyone but Bunning. I hope he gets a clue that there is more to running a good athletic department than doing pushups.

Let's face it - other than the Crouse years, the Sioux women's BB team has had a history of disappointing in the tournaments almost every year. They have almost never played their best ball at tournament time. Look at 2005 and 2006 for example. This seems to be a consistancy going back to the years when we competed with NDSU. I think Robuck is a great recruiter, but facts are facts.

The Gophers - They are tough every year and you love to hate them. Everyone needs a rivalry like this. The Badgers second for the same reasons.

Simple - We have a freshman class without any impact players - Some may develop in the future, but overall they are a big dissapointment - sepecially when you see the tremendous production other teams are getting from their top freshmen. In addition, many of the returning players have not developed like we had hoped. At this point, after the first line, I'm not sure if we have a lot of talent. This worries me, especially if you think about next year. We definately did not reload this year.

What a crappy game - this is the worst team in the league folks. I hope our coaches are recruiting their a**es off because other than the Judys line (two of whom are likely to leave), I don't see much. There seems to be a lot of dead weight - at this time of the year everyone should be motivated and squared away. What happened to that Sioux team that swept the Gophers?

The Sioux peed this one down their leg. We need to be able to hold a 2 goal lead for two minutes against Mankato.

We got jobbed by the officials at Minnesota. Is there a link to the WCHA that we can email our protests?

If we were talking about any single game your assessment would be correct. However over the course of a season, there is only one person responsible for recruiting the players, developing their talent, implementing an offensive and defensive scheme, and developing team attitude and intensity - the head coach. It is his job to bring in the talent and get the most from it. Ultimate responsibility for the program is his. Please note - I am not calling for Hakstol's firing - However, I believe he is responsible for the team OOps - this was meant as a response for Redwing, not you.

I agree with every point. In addition, my major frustrations with this program right now includes the fact that other than Duncan, no one is progressing or getting better - think I'm wrong - name one person who is making even the expected progress from last year let alone having a breakout year. When Blais was here, he got major talent even in the old Ralph mainly because players knew if they came to this program and worked hard, they would leave playing like NHL talent. Why do you think Parise came here. Now, almost everyone is playing worse than last year. In addition, our style of play drives me nuts. We have gone from a program that had the most feared defensemen in the country to one in which even Alaska Anchorage and MTU players camp out in front of our net without fear with lightning speed. I'm tired of thinking "maybe this week we will put it together" week after week only to be disappointed. I feel that I am as big a Sioux fan as anyone, but having the Gophers reload and us flounder drives me nuts.

I saw a different game than you. Alaska Anchorage basically took it to us the last 2 periods. They camped out in front of our goal way too much and out shot us. We have some guys who don't show up at all - I'll be surprised if some of them score this year. This is not a good hockey team. Remember, this isn't the Gophers we tied, it's Alaska Anchorage . In addition, the poor play of the Sioux has killed what ever atmosphere was left at the Ralph. We are not a team to be feared anymore. Teams must love to come to the Ralph. We'd best ratchet things up soon or not only is this year shot, but we will be on a serious downhill slide. I'm not happy with the state of Sioux hockey.

That means that Minnesota had 5 years of hockey before we joined the WCHA. Within that time, they built their program to the point that they had 5 Olympic players. What have we built in our 5 years? - Doodly squat.

Here's my two cents worth - I'll admit to being a "Negative Nelly" as of late for reasons we won't get into. I see a surge of hope among fans after this weekend - not necessarly because of a split, but because most people see a return to "Sioux Hockey" - the hardnosed, intense kind that we love. I hope we can build on this over the comming weekend. Here's my idea of what needs to improve now that our goaltending and defense seem to be getting with the program. What concerns me is the lack of scoring - I know that it has been mentioned many times before, but I was still shocked when I looked at our season stats so far. Other than Duncan - here are our top scorers and their output: Miller - 7 goals Oshie - 5 goals Watkins - 5 goals 5 tied with 4 goals This is after 22 games - these stats scare me. If anyone would have predicted these numbers at the beginning of the year he would have been laughed off the board. I know that we have much more talent than the numbers show - I'm not sure what should be done to get our offense going. Remember - even though we split this week, we scored only two goals total. Is it chemistry? Offensive scheme? lack of intensity? poor bounces? - I don't know. I'm sure the coaches are working on this as well. I hope we find the key soon. If we can unlock the offense, we can play with anyone - if not, I'm afraid that the best we can do is split with the better teams. I hope we can open the floodgates soon - Almost every weekend I think "this is going to be the weekend we score in bunches". I know we can turn this around - however, the clock is ticking.

After Friday night's loss, there were multiple posts including mine that expressed unhappiness with the state of Sioux hockey - you can read them on this thread. JK, basically called all of these posts "incredibly stupid" without elaborating. I just pointed out the irony of his tagline about how tough and physical the Sioux play when the lack of intensity and physical play is the major complaint about our defensemen this year. The fact that the quote came from Clement has nothing to do with anything. The fact that this quote was on JK's tagline struck me as ironic because the Sioux have been anything but physical this year and he basically ripped us (the posters) for pointing this out.

I'm not really sure why you are trying to insult me - are you saying that this year's team is not disappointing or that we have had great goaltending and scoring? If so, make your case. If you can't back up your opinions with facts and think that insults are the way to go, shut your pie hole.

Among the many disapointments from this team this year has been the lack of scoring.

Yes, but crappy D-1 goaltending

I don't think there's one NHL team that plays as tough a game from the back end, on the blueline, as North Dakota does. They've got at least 5 guys that always play the body and are big enough and strong enough that just drive you into the ice." Bill Clement 3:45 of the 3rd period I noticed this on your post - Have you seen anything that remotely resembles this type of play this year - that is one of the points many of us have made.

Really? - make your points as to how this is a good, well coached hockey team with a great freshman class. It's easy to call people stupid when you don't have to back anything up.

I agree that this is pathetic hockey. Hakstol basically went to the final four the last two years with Blais's talent. Objectively rate the coaching staffs performance this year (the first year that most of the players are Hakstol's recruits) Recruiting - Name a freshman impact player - regardless of earlier speculation that our freshman class is just as good as the Gophers (they just didn't get as much press) and statements about how our recruits will play "Sioux style hockey (which usedto be hardnosed - this freshman class has not shown us anything yet Player development - most players have gone backwords this year. Game coaching - Just look at our power play and our ppk - pathetic - how we can have a power play with both Toews and Oshie and still be impotent is beyond me. Motivation - have you seen any of the games Intangibles - we have gone from being a team that you feared (especially in front of the net) to one that teams feel that they can camp out at will - In addition, we seem to take more stupid penalties than anyone I would be stunned if anyone could rate our staff at any higher than a C- for any of these catagories Week after week we hear comments about how we had a "good effort, but fell a little short". This will sell for a couple of weeks - let's face it - we are not a good hockey team. This is unacceptabe. I wouldn't be as upset if we appeared to be playing hard consistantly.

I'm not saying fire Hak, but I sure would like to have Blais back. That being said, there are some serious problems with this team - they are underperforming across the board. In addition, I'm not wild about this years recruits - who is making an impact. almost no one has improved from last year including Toews and Oshie. These are all coaching issues - you can't tell me that if a Blais team played like this heads wouldn't roll. I strongly disagree with your comments abour expectations and tradition. They should be alive and well - this is the type of season I haven't seen since Bjorkman.

Agreed This is totally unacceptable - the Gophers on a 20 game tear and us on a horrible losing streak. we should not be a second tier team ever. I'm so tired of the "great effort - just a little short", "bad breaks", "the real season is just starting", "Hak will get us going soon" comments I could puke - Let's be honest - this is one pathetic hockey season. Things need to change right now.

Agreed!