tnt

... and we are spoiled by our coaches having a nice mix, but if you lose 8 recruits in 2 years you have to expect the mix to be a little off.

Good luck competing on a consistent basis when you always are wondering how many are leaving. That balancing act isn't as simple as you think it might be.

To me, practically every game going to overtime versus St. Cloud doesn't constitute skating circles around us. Denver didn't either. It remains to be seen with St. Cloud, but I would guess the field will even out again now that Denver has suffered some of the same losses we have had to deal with.

Pull ups are all about core strength, so if he has already improved that, he most likely won't have to answer questions about pull ups anymore.

From what I gather there were those that didn't appreciate the response either. To be sure it wasn't a diplomatic response, but then again I don't know how diplomatic I was when I was that age if someone was calling attention to my inadequacies.

Mittelstadt basically just shrugged it off saying that his hockey skill was most important, which it is. He hardly seemed embarrassed, nor did he mention an injury or anything that deterred him from that part of the combine.

Yeah, so they lose 4 early and we lost 8 early over the last two years, plus another two this year.

Flip Ohio State and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is already getting good recruits, don’t need them to have a championship to help them get even more. Don’t know if Ohio State will ever be a huge threat with lack of fan interest in the sport.

Does the fact St. Cloud’s season ends before the Frozen Four increase the odds of guys leaving early? The fact that they could see ice time before the NHL regular season is over has got to make it more attractive, especially if they can burn a year on their initial contract.

The rope-a-dope only works if you have a goalie play out of his head and one team miss a ton of golden opportunities. Would guess if they spend 2/3 of the game in their end the next game the odds may catch up with them.

Yeah, losing him and Poganski on a team that already wasn’t real fast will hurt. Robby Jackson talking about UND having to catch them before they could punish them physically says there is a little discrepancy in speed between St. Cloud and UND.

You act like you can just snap your fingers and it's done. BU has a ton of talent they plugged in, but let's face it, they just got hot at the right time, and UND was hurt by teams that did that.

Wonder what is going on. She said she wasn't ready to speak about it now, but might be in a week or so. Team related, or personal?

Actually is for Terry Casey, #12, who died in a car crash way back. I think Darren Jensen was in net for the championships.

Lingren is already gone. Would there be other threats outside of Mittelstadt and Novak?

Would think if Poehling 's brothers weren't at St. Cloud he would be gone, but you never know if he will stay to play with them another year. A lot could depend on how they do in the National tournament. If they don't win it, St. Cloud's flight risks might form a pact to stay.

I agree, actions speak louder than words. How many times have you heard blowhards spout off empty guarantees that don't even come close coming to fruition. When we start parsing people's words to detect any little detail to catch them on, I think we are overthinking things.

Well then Jost sure made Gersich look good last year. Great players bring up the level of play of the people around them.

... and listen to fans rag on you because the puck slipped over your stick and you couldn't get it out of the zone. Seriously, while the Hollywood celebrities have to deal with the Paparazzi, they get huge amounts of money, while these guys have to deal with scrutiny and reap an education. Sure an education is worth a lot, but they also could be making a nice living in the AHL and not have to deal with fans that think that whiffing on a puck is a capital offense.

Could very well, but Tim Hennessey said this morning people he talked to says both he and Gardner are leaning towards staying. He did say that he has heard that in the past and it has gone the other way, so take it with a grain of salt.

Who do you replace them with, guys that fans will say aren't scoring either? Guys who scored a lot at their previous level didn't score much last year, so who are you going to find at the last minute who will put up more goals, and even if they put up a few more, they may have to figure out things on the defensive end like Adams.

Had the same thing happen. You would think they would want their fans to get a hold of as many tickets as they can, but it is St. Cloud, so it doesn't surprise me.

As I recall, you were one of the people that continually were ripping Hakstol for not winning the Big One.

When you win it all, you often times lose your core of elite players, except in Denver's case. It is very hard to overcome that one year, but even harder when you lose another big part of the core the year after. Personally, I believe that if Tyson Jost stays we are challenging St. Cloud and Denver for first place. Our powerplay is improved, our penalty kill wouldn't have given us as many issues, and we have someone that can rise to the occasion in big games and as the games are deep in the third and overtime. We had what, one shorthanded goal all year. Jost gives us so many more shorthanded opportunities, and not only would we not have gotten to so many overtimes, those that we did get to might have fallen in our favor. Say what you want, but the coaches fully expected him to be here a second year, rather than the 2nd one and done after Eddie Belfour.

It is frequently the case on the All-NCHC teams that to the victor go the spoils. Unless a team doesn't have someone who sticks out, they most likely will get the benefit of the doubt between players that are close.