tnt

So I assume I won’t see you speculating on any pairwise scenarios before the season ends.

If the season ended today we would be playing them in the first round. Better get the special teams figured out, and quick.

Most Blue Chippers are committed their sophomore year in high school or sooner. The team has problems to be sure right now, but I would say you have bigger problems to worry about in life!

Until he doesn't do what the "experts" want him to do!!

Less than a year before everyone calls for his head because he didn’t fire a coach!

Even if Stick is a caretaker quarterback, he is a winner, because that is what they ask him to do. Who knows how good he could be if he needed to open it up all the time. People kept talking about Joe Mollberg’s talent, but look how far that took him, as the turnovers kept him from reaching his potential. Stick did what he had to do for the Bison to win, which makes him a winner in my eyes. UND actually needs more guys like that, instead of guys that try to be the hero when it isn’t warranted.

Hey, I would love to have the women's hockey program around still because I went to games occasionally, but I don't want it around because of the expense it created. What they started out paying Brian Idalski was ridiculous, considering what other coaches were being paid.

You beat me to it. The hypocrisy is staggering. Seems like they just all spew the Schlossman talking points.

Exactly, to whom much is given, much is expected. Mismash was fairly invisible against St. Cloud and Omaha, and three games is too much to not at least be fairly noticeable. Can’t say I remember how Adams played against St. Cloud, but he has the talent to be more of a consistent threat as well. Sure, everybody was bad, but some have the skill to be much better.

So when do we hear the obligatory, “no way we lose to Bemidji State”?

Bottom line is when you see Brad Schlossman not predict a split, UND is in trouble. He doesn’t exactly have his hand on the pulse of this team, or others in years past for that matter.

What?

If you listen to Frank Seratorre on Brad Schlossman's blog about officiating in Denver, it certainly sounds like a familiar refrain. Maybe Don Adam should take a closer look at the perceived homer calls Denver is receiving.

Think Starman might need glasses.

True, but I thought they would be ready to go for an important pairwise series with Union, and they left a lot on the table in that series. I think this series will say a lot about their focus level going into the second half, because they should come out like they want to win the league not just finish top 3 or 4 for home ice.

Should be hasn’t worked out too well for us against Anchorage, CC and Union, so hopefully they are ready to go for a hard fought series.

Is he going to Sarnia or opening up recruitment for NCAA?

Definitely done well, especially for a freshman, similar to Mismash. I just don’t think that makes him NHL ready. We were raving on this site about Jost being unbelievable last year, probably more so than what I’ve seen on GPL about Mittelstadt, but that next step is a big one.

He hasn’t exactly been ripping up college hockey at this point. There have been many games I’ve seen where he wasn’t that noticeable, except if they had a power play. He might be able to hold his own on the offensive end, but you better be able to play at the other end as well, as Edmonton has shown so often over the past decade. That said, I imagine Mittelstadt will put up a lot better numbers the second half with the confidence he has coming off of the World Juniors.

Thought Bubba was your guy.

It looks like Cruikshank might be done for the season with Penticton due to injury.

He has seen first hand as an NHL assistant under his buddy Scott Arniel how fast you get fired, and now to see Hakstol recover a bit from the fire he was under a few weeks ago, I’m sure he likes the pressure to win here more. Heard he is content to be here around family as well. Wonder if Blais has second thoughts about leaving. Schlossman’s stat about Hakstol being one of the longest tenured coaches certainly is alarming and would give one pause.

Definition of arrogant 1: exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate one's own worth or importance often by an overbearingmanner an arrogant official 2: showing an offensive attitude of superiority : proceeding from or characterized by arrogance Even if we had the right to be, why would we want to be! At one time the gophers had the right to be, but as they say, pride goeth before a fall, and Karma apparently caught up to them. I kind of started this diversion from the thread, and seeing that IHTISNB's jab can be taken as a tongue in cheek, wink, wink, statement, I probably took it in a different way than it was intended. That's the thing about the internet, you can't always detect tone and intent. Sorry for derailing a thread that everybody, including myself, is excited to see pop up, because each time it could be about a future star.

How could anyone take this other than arrogant and condescending? Oh, but we have the right to be, so it's all good.

I would say that St. Cloud is one of the best at putting together a team despite not always getting the top end talent. They seem to have to step out early a lot and get players before they are considered sure fire college talent. Joey Benik, Mike Essiymont, Ryan Lasch and Garrett Rowe come to mind. Then they seem to find guys like Kalle Kossila as well. They might have to do things the hard way in that regard, but I certainly respect that they can put a competitive team on the ice year in and year out not having all the built in advantages, and I think our coaches respect that as well. That's how our '97 National Championship team was built and that's when we started to get back into the top end recruits again. It's funny we are talking about this considering how many times our fans lament us not having enough finishers and top end talent.