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Did he say anything about LaDue or MacMillan?

Are there any rituals or sacrifices that need to be performed in order to ensure a UND victory? What or whom should I lay at my altar of Gino Gasparini?

So to summarize for this weekend: Mark Mac a possibility LaDue unknown & N. Schmaltz definitely out Is this right?

I meant a lesser program within hockey as far as tradition goes. Within football, you are right; Miami would slaughter UND..but Bama would beat you guys silly in football. I don't know of any college hockey teams that would beat UND silly. My point: UND is the creme de la creme in hockey. Miami is not the creme de la creme in football. It's all good though, Miami has a quality hockey program that shouldn't be taken lightly. Anything can happen on any given night.

I agree. But my post was mostly for chuckles instead of being serious and to start some good-natured back & forth talk .. that's why I put that wink in there. But I think there's an element, albeit small, of fans from lesser-established programs to want to impress the fans of programs who've been around since early-mid last century. IE, if we were to play Bama in football, we'd want them to recognize us as being legitimate rivals; & they'd be like, "Yawn, whatever."

I think it's cute when fans of lesser hockey powers come on board and try to impress UND fans with how good their team is. Kinda like how a little brother wants to impress a big brother or a son trying to make his dad proud of him. But seriously, if UND plays with a lot of edge throughout, I think we'll have a lot of success..

Living in the past makes us depressed & worrying about the future makes us anxious. Both make us gray, unhappy & think bad things.

So losing & suffering are good for spiritual growth, just not hockey. Gotcha.. What about a spiritual hockey player?

One trait or knack I've noticed with this team is their ability to ramp it up in the 3rd period, to take their game to a higher level. I think this has to do with the quality of their physical training, their mental toughness & the leaders on this team. The coaches can preach this until they're blue in the face, but it's up to the players to adopt it as part of their identity: a team that can finish. All champions finish games strong, whether it's in the regular season or the national tournament. Let's see if the guys are still playing this way in April.

That would be an unequivocal truism of the highest order. Maybe someone who's wasted his money in numerology training can tell us if 8 & 15 are winning combinations (8th championship in the year 2015).

No offense directed at you, but I wonder why UND never partook in goofy rituals like stickers on helmets, decals in locker rooms after victories. I'm guessing it's because winning itself is the most important kind of ritual..

So what's the scoop on LaDue? One of the team's more important players.

I'm assuming you mean the girl's h.s. team, right?

If they convert just half their "just missed" chances, 14-1.

Was following the real-time chat & I lost count of how many times UND shot it "just wide". If I had a shot of vodka for every time I heard that I would've died of alcohol poisoning in the first period. If just half those shots had been on net the final would've been like 12-2. lol .. Maybe they would score bushels of goals every game if they made a concerted effort to shoot wide instead of on net.

Maybe this isn't the right thread, but does anyone else think that T. Poolman is ahead of his time for a college hockey player? He seems to "get" it at such an early start to his collegiate career. Some guys don't blossom until much later, if at all, but the college game seems to come pretty easily for him so early. That's how I'm reading his play so far, but I live in the SW so I don't have as clear a perspective as someone who lives in GF & goes to the games. I'm basing my perspective on his offensive abilities & am wondering if his defensive side is just as good.

How dare you.

Sioux-cia: I'm going to extend an olive branch to you. You're no doubt a very nice lady & I don't get my kicks outta insulting other people. Enjoy your evening & see you in the hockey threads.

I'm kind of a newbie to message boards so I wasn't expecting that kind of a reaction. Some people are really sensitive & crave arguments: Me: "Have a nice day." An innate arguer: "Have a nice day? Is that what you said?! Who made you the final judge on what kind of day it is? What if I don't think it's a particularly nice day, did you ever think of that?! Huh? And you TOLD me to have a nice day instead of ASKING me to have one. How presumptuous & arrogant of you."

Eff me, I should have known better than to enter this thread.

Sioux-cia:I didn't intend to ruffle any feathers here, yours included. Just stating my observations & opinions over the course of almost half a century. What I said may be the furthest thing from a fact, but it is my opinion to which everyone should be granted one. I love all peoples & believe we can all learn from each other. Edit after reading your latest post: Geesh, really? The old "you must be a racist" canard because you don't think like everyone else? I'm married to a beautiful Filipina, btw.

Whatever, just stating an opinion to which everyone is entitled...Try not to get your panties in a bunch.

I was born & raised in Grand Forks, & since leaving in 1990 for the navy have lived in south Phoenix, Arizona. Some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people here are some Mexican & black-American citizens that I know. ((emphasis on long-established citizens & not new immigrants like Fargo is getting)) That being said, predominantly white areas like ND, SD, Maine, MN, etc. are perceived by other new immigrants like big, juicy, ripe fruits to be eaten. They don't move here to s. Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago & all the other big urban centers because our taxes & resources are already maxed out & exhausted. They go to Vanilla-ville because it's ripe for the taking; not implying any animosity here, just stating the obvious. Here in metro Phoenix, many non-whites are long-established citizens and aren't newcomers like those LSS sends to the Dakotas and other white states. However, I have in the course of my job worked with some new Somali immigrants &, well, no comment there. A sidenote for my homies back in NoDak: In my experiences in the navy & in Phoenix, AZ, I have noticed some HUGE differences between the way whites & non-whites think; regardless of how long they have lived here. Whites are ingrained with & accustomed to order, formal procedures, respect of personal property & other distinct European traits. I don't think anyone above 40 would argue with this & except the most hardcore cultural Marxist. A newsflash here, but you don't or won't ever get the same reverence of these traits from other ethnic groups. You can try drilling these concepts into non-whites heads, but they ain't ever gonna think like Lars Johnsson from Hatton, ND. Ever. Period.. People are different & they always will be. You can have all sorts of fantasies in your beatnik liberal arts sciology class or some trendy Starbucks about everyone being the same, but it's just wishful thinking & masturbatory groupthink. Again, I'm glad people are different as there are many things we can learn from each other; I just don't pretend that we share the same values. That being said, I enjoy the diversity of people here in the Valley, but I also am aware that with diversity I am going to be coming across people who won't now or ever think like me. And that it is foolish (& possibly dangerous) for me to pretend that they ever will.

Exactly. A lot of fans deal with defeat by ignoring the reality of the present moment and focusing instead on next season. It makes dealing with defeat today a lot easier. If they lived in the present, and even went back 10+ years, they would realize that the hockey program has underperformed and not lived up to its expectations and the expectations of its fans. And that's not a comfortable feeling, so let's put on some blinders and focus on next season instead, after all, we were young this year and next year we've got some promising recruits coming in ... And some might think that by firing Hakstol you're firing a quality guy with the right intentions. Well, he may be the nicest guy with the purest of intentions in the metropolis that is GF, but that certainly isn't hanging banners at the Ralph now, is it? The one thing I take away from Hakstol's coaching style is that, from what I've read here, he refuses or is unable to make in-game adjustments. If anything, that's one thing a coach needs to do if things aren't going as planned. Sure, if you're winning 5-0, no need to change anything. But if you get into a national tournament game, fall behind a couple goals and lose the game because you didn't want to deviate from the original gameplan, it makes ZERO sense. I can't comprehend that stunted kind of thinking. Not just in games, but in life in general. If any person refuses to make adjustments in their life when it's needed, negative results smack them in the face. Yet Hakstol has demonstrated over his long tenure an inability to grasp this basis life concept. Another species that didn't adapt too well were dinosaurs. Hakstol may be a fine recruiter and may have a good hockey mind, but maybe he's stuck in ego for being unwilling or unable to change strategies on-the-fly: "If we change our gameplan, it means maybe it wasn't the right one we've been working on all week or maybe the other team's original gameplan is better than our's. That would be admitting a deficiency." I dunno why he doesn't change strategies during the course of games, just speculating. And yes, other high-end programs would not tolerate such a long drought. Think the Alabama head coach would last over 10 years without a national championship? No, because they have a culture of winning and their fans EXPECT it. UND fans have become complacent over the years if this is the model they accept. A model of being fine with winning regular seasons but not national championships. Maybe the fluoride level is extraordinarily high in the GF water supply & it's shut down its residents' higher thought processes? And then for those who want Hakstol to remain: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results every time. I know, a little cliche, but appropriate. I will say one thing for Hakstol: he presents a good image for the program. Meaning, he's a sharp-looking guy and he says all the right things about the program and what he expects. In other words, he's a good front man, reminds me of a politician, and maybe this is a (very) small reason he's kept aside from his huge contractual obligation. And if Miami were to get into the tournament after a total crap season just by winning 2 playoff games at the end, while UND does not after scratching and clawing all year and almost winning the regular season title, would not seem fair at all.