tnt

Did anyone see Dean Blais pour a vial of water from the Ralph onto the ice at the Xcel during a pregame ceremony tonight?

A lot of times Parise's net front presence isn't pretty, it's just determination to get to the hard areas. Sure he has finishing skills, but if our guys would get to those areas more often .. well, even a blind squirrel can find a nut on occasion.

I agree totally, but in the same regard the same situation applies to college. That is why I am concerned we haven't got production from some older guys coming in that had a track record, and we will definitely need production from younger guys next year. With the group coming in, I would think a few of them could make a noteworthy impact.

It bothered me on Friday that he tried to feed Brad after the game with the "not a lot you can do" line because you played so well. Thankfully, Brad was up front and had the same line of thinking that I had that they didn't have a shot on goal until the 9 minute mark to start the game, and you have to come out from the start like they played at the end. TH still downplayed that after Berry left the interview going back to the "what can you do" line. Now Saturday was a completely different story, being that they seemed to have consistent effort throughout.

Maybe not a downward trend as much as you could look at it that since the NCHC has become a league, it could be argued that Duluth, Denver and St. Cloud have been consistently better than UND in results that count. If we were back in the WCHA, that would never have been a standard that was acceptable. UND had always prided itself on having the most league titles and national championships and won more than their fair share of playoff championships. Hopefully we start with the latter this year, that will propel us going forward into next year.

While I agree with your thoughts, the contention that we would have won the regional championship may be a bit of a leap considering we lost to Duluth in the NCHC Championship game the week before with Tucker Poolman playing some of that game. That said, I would have loved to seen that game happen, as UND would have had a big chip on their shoulder because of some of the things that went down in that NCHC final.

That is my biggest concern is that we should have guys that were the top scorers in their league at least having moderate success their freshmen seasons. Like I said, Kawaguchi just didn't lead the playoffs in scoring in the BCHL, he obliterated the next closest guy. Watching guys produce that weren't even close to him and basically the same situation with Weatherby this year, has me pondering the reasons why? Next year to me will really be a reflection, because with Jones and Gardner gone, the freshmen will get plenty of playing time, and even though these freshmen aren't at the very top of their leagues in scoring like Weatherby and Kawaguchi, they are all very highly touted. If we can't get a 10 goal scorer out of one or two of them, it will really concern me, and will not bode well for us next year. You always have the expectation of the upperclassmen picking it up and carrying the load, but that hasn't been the case so much this season, which is why things haven't gone that well.

Good call. Teams that open themselves up a little more probably are giving us a few better looks and odd man rushes, which is probably what this team needs to score more. That's likely what we will be seeing the rest of the year, so fingers crossed.

With a sweep this weekend and Miami getting swept by Western and I would guess we would be up to 18 or 19 already. I'm not a pairwise calculator guy, and the bottom line is we don't need "ifs" right now anyway, we just need to win.

Michigan did lose at home to #51 Merrimack tonight, so there is that. I guess misery loves company.

Maybe this is the year they take advantage of the Frozen Faceoff winner automatic bid. We certainly are due. I think UND will have to find a way to get home ice for the first round though, as it would be quite the gauntlet otherwise.

Minus 9 though, not exactly a recipe for winning hockey. Would be interested to see if anyone on UND is minus 9.

Why, so you can talk about how great the program is when they are losing to Canisius? I prefer to go into every year thinking they have a chance to win it. So because Trevor Olson didn't get the five minute major against Denver like many thought he should have we won a Championship, so that must make someone a better coach. To each his own I guess.

This picture confuses me. Why is Eades wearing #16 with the “C” on it. Marc Chorney was captain when Eades was a Junior and wore #16. Eades always wore #22 and was Captain as a Senior. Odd he would take a photo with someone else’s jersey on.

...and if they do, why?

You may need to go to exotic locations to watch Fighting Hawks hockey because bidding on regionals might not become fiscally attractive in the future should things deteriorate further. Just curious, are you a season ticket holder? I get what you are saying, but I also don’t want to end up like Wisconsin under Mike Eaves. It’s like I said earlier, if you win with that kind of defensive system, fans can live with it, but scoring once or twice a game and losing, well ... that brings us to this frustration level. Thankfully we have guys in the pipeline that will hopefully turn that trend, but if not, you lose those elite prospects that want to score goals.

I would argue also that if they were going to come out against Canisius, it should have been Friday to let the guys know that they couldn't come out like they did, and that losing against them would absolutely crush the Pairwise for us.

True, but those stats can lie as well. The coaches talked a blue streak last year about the puck possession numbers of Simonson and Olson, and even had them playing frequently when we needed a goal to catch up. You absolutely need guys like that on your team, but not so sure the ice time down the stretch was warranted simply because they possessed the puck well. Another thing that jumps out at me that points to lack of aggression is our shorthanded goals over the past two years. It was nice that Senden got one the other night, but it would be interesting to see shorthanded goals for and against across college hockey the last few years.

We will win twice this weekend, and really if our talent is as bad as it appears at times we shouldn't be able to sweep. But I think you will see how they can play when they really put their mind to it and feel like they have something to prove. I guess we'll see if I'm right about that.

Shouldn't we also be concerned then that our coach that is out recruiting says that this is the most talented team since the Championship team?

I know, but that was his direct response to my point that goals are the most important analytic.

I said the only analytic that matters is scoring more than you give up, and you said you disagreed.

That's my concern, that next year we will hear that you can't count on freshmen to lead you, then the next year, well we lost JBD or someone else, and so on... The fact is Denver isn't missing a beat with a rookie coach who lost all of his elite players. Could Denver come back down to earth a bit, sure, but don't see them slipping out of the tournament at this point.

So you're saying Corsi is more important than goals? You're arguing just for the sake of arguing.

You stress that we work hard. Do you think the most talented guy on our roster, Grant Mismash, works hard consistently?