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So Ryan Poehling scores 8 goals all year for St. Cloud but has a hat trick along with the shootout winner in his first game with Montreal. Go figure.

That’s so true, why rush it, if that is indeed the reason he chose to go elsewhere. In contrast to Donovan’s zero points in 16 games, Bryce Brodzinski has 16 in 16. Doesn’t mean Donovan won’t end up better, but if he rushes it and loses his confidence, was not waiting a year worth it in the long run?

Truth be told, I thought the same thing as well, but it’s funny how perception and stats don’t always mesh. I did a double take when I saw our power play was at 21.5 percent last year which by numbers is good. It didn’t always past the eye test, but those numbers are quite acceptable and had we met them this past year we would have been sitting pretty well. Our penalty kill was much more of a problem the previous season. If we can get our power play back up over 20 percent next season, I am thinking we get back in the tourney and finish top 3 in the league. If special teams don’t improve the hot seat gets hotter, because they know where the focus needs to be again.

Don’t mind taking a flyer on some exceptional local talent that have a great work ethic and know what the program means. At the very least they can probably be role players and the scholarship depends on development. I have more of an issue with getting a bunch of role players earlier than you need to when you don’t know how the young talent is going to pan out. Then you have an overabundance of role players. Don’t know if we get Harrison Blaisdell if we didn’t recruit him early, but who knows. Hope Ethan Bowen benefits us for recruiting him early as well.

If we are having this same conversation next year, then I think that will be a big problem, but I have a feeling if we do better, you might be comparing us to another team next year then.

Got an email today saying that they won’t be running shuttle buses next year from the parking ramp, but stating that Coaches Club membership comes with a parking pass. That’s right, while attendance is going down, find more reasons for fans to want to stay home. Didn’t use the shuttle, but I would think they should be looking for parking solutions to make it easier for fans.

But when you have one, ten goal scorer and the average over the past 15 years is probably about five, that is more than expectations. We'll see if it was just a blip, but you aren't going to compete nationally very often when you have one player on your team barely get to 10 goals.

Never mind the fact it is the same ones that ripped on a coach who had us relevant late in the year every year. Gotta suck to go through life as an eternal pessimist. I guarantee you that we will hear some say we were lucky to win that game next year if we get outshot badly.

I'm not saying it is the end of the world, but with our lack of scoring, the more guys with high end potential the better your odds you get some who hit. So you wouldn't have a problem if we lost Caulfield, Rizzo or possibly Blaisdell either? I'm just more in the realm of making some hard decisions rather than pushing off someone who has a higher upside than many of the guys we have in the system now, but like I said, I don't know if that is pure speculation or not.

If that is the case, then I’m hoping the rumors about losing Donovan due to being pushed off are wrong.

Would certainly lead to a ton of competition. Mismash - Michaud - Kawaguchi Adams - Pinto - Rizzo Hain - Senden - Smith Blaisdell - Weatherby - Caulfield Keane - Hoff - Bowen Yon - Johnson (maybe back to defense)

I deleted it almost right away because I had mischaracterized it anyway.

Good team, but that might not be good enough to win it all.

Other way around.

Berry should be watching the movement on UMass power play. They have a lot of talent, but they shouldn’t have a power play twice as effective as ours.

But back then Bluebloods like Minnesota and North Dakota simply wouldn’t lose to a team like Holy Cross or Canisius. Happens much more often now.

I don’t know if that’s the case or not because parity is so much more pronounced and everybody plays decent defense now, but coming off of last year’s upset you sure can make a case for it. To come out like they did is unbelievable. I imagine the NHL leeches are hanging in the hallway outside St. Cloud’s locker room just like they did when we lost to BU in Fargo. Two years in a row we would have had a nice path to the Frozen Four if we would have made the regional.

Would bet that being he is from the Iron Range that Duluth is very interested as well. In the past I would say regardless of that proximity that UND would have a very good chance because of their facilities and success. Now, we have to lean more on the facilities and hope that guys can see that the pipeline should have us on the rise again.

So why the big secret about who you think it is? It's not like you said it's 100 percent certain. Perhaps you enjoy watching the speculation.

If more of these guys realized that moving to the next level too fast can change the trajectory of your career, maybe more of them wouldn't be in such a hurry to move up too quickly. That can be said at many levels. Mid round range draft guys are most likely going to need a good while to develop anyway, why not stay an extra year in Juniors and be ready to make a splash when you reach the next level, rather than having to sit on the bench while others eat up the big minutes.

I’m hoping this isn’t a situation where the coaches have decided to bring Bast in, and Frisch doesn’t want to wait. Losing Donovan hurt, and they are lucky Senden didn’t decommit when they were going to push him off for Huber. Hopefully communication will help prevent something like that.

Don't hear much about baseball, golf, or women's swimming though and the fact that they weren't as big of a drain on the budget, I would think they would have a bigger axe to grind.

If UND gets minimal help from the incoming freshmen class next year, you know there are some problems. You look at the numbers that guys like Taylor Ward and Grant Cruikshank put up this year and it makes you wonder. These guys didn't have anywhere near as good of numbers as guys who are at UND right now, but seemed to transition well to college hockey. Cruikshank would have been our leading goal scorer. I know there was talk about him being recruited, but I'm guessing we didn't offer.

It's funny how it is o.k. for the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications to cut programming and Monday papers and leave a gap in coverage to improve the bottom line, but when UND does the same with the albatross of Women's Hockey it is inherently evil. Absolutely amazing that Schlossman pays more attention to the program now than when they were actually in existence. Of course crusaders and hypocrisy seem to go hand in hand now.

How about a recruit announcement or two during this downtime so the fans can look forward to something other than watching all our rivals in the regionals. Better make the most of this time because I hope we never have the time to recruit during this period again.