tnt

Top seven teams in goals per game right now are Minnesota State, St. Cloud, Nebraska Omaha, Penn State, Western Michigan, Princeton and Northeastern. None of those teams scream out high end recruits. Poehling for St. Cloud was, but his numbers are on par with those of Mismash. I think in today’s game having a great power play is a great equalizer if you don’t always get the high end talent, because even many of the so called studs sometimes struggle their rookie year. Remember Charlie Coyle’s rookie year before he left?

The number 2 team in the pairwise is getting it done despite scoring less than us. How well would we be sitting if we played like we did the first half of the year defensively. We would be challenging for the Penrose. Obviously not losing if you score 2 goals was unsustainable, but 3 goals should be a standard that we haven’t lived up to the second half. With where we are at, we need to make sure if we get to 3, we win.

What route is that? Walk ons like Coltyn Sanderson, Connor Gaarder or Steph Pattyn? Those kinds of heart and soul players are the difference between us and Minnesota. Yes, we are short on the high end guys right now, but it’s not like there are a bunch of those available for next year.

Assuming kind of a walk on or minimal scholarship replacement for Gornall. Don’t think this has any bearing on Rizzo since he wouldn’t come for a few years anyway.

Glad I was wrong that if they lost on Friday I could see them getting swept, but man let’s get that Friday win for a change and then keep on rolling.

Hate to say it, but if UND doesn't win tonight, I don't think they win on Saturday either, as you can only go to the well so many times. They can use the character phrase all they want about rebounding, but at some point that character has to be there on the Friday game so they don't put themselves in that position all the time. Hope that tonight is the night they do that.

I could actually see the goaltender thinking she was going to shoot it behind her leg, so had that been the case it might have worked better. As it was, it was a pretty nice blocker save by the goaltender. It definitely wasn't the highest percentage shot, but for her sake it was just lucky it didn't dribble off the end of her stick and not get a shot at all. After all the coverage her breakaway goal in the first game got, I would have thought she would have used that fake and went a different way. She certainly wasn't shy about doing the spin orama move when she had shootouts at UND, so maybe she liked the attention she got while trying those trick moves here.

Yeah, with all of those Olympians and they didn't make the Final Four.

Yeah, we always seem to lay an egg on National TV this year. Really need to reverse that trend this weekend. Remember when we were the king of Prime Time?

...and to think we thought we had too many guys to play at the beginning of the year. The thing I liked best about Gornall, is that you didn't need to worry about effort.

You were complaining about our lack of scorers in the top 10 in the league. I was merely pointing out that our best forward wasn't in the top of his league either, and the recruit everyone is hoping that commits isn't anywhere to be found either.

Wonder if Penticton fans complained about Jones not being in the top whatever in scoring last year. I assume you don’t want UND to recruit Rizzo from Penticton either then.

What? No paternity test?

What’s more concerning to me is that since they got swept by Duluth they have put a ton of focus on special teams, and after the extra week off, this is the result? It’s bad enough going 0-6 on the power play, but giving up a short handed goal to boot was the killer. The thing I am most concerned about is the culture that they always preach seems to be lacking. Undisciplined penalties by “leaders”, and lack of effort and backchecking have crept in. The old phrase that the freshmen aren’t freshmen anymore after Christmas is backwards this year, except Kiersted. Some played well before Christmas and have been MIA since. Since Mismash didn’t make the World Junior, he hasn’t been noticeable. It’s almost like a “woe is me” attitude, which kind of mimics when they get behind and aren’t fighting back like they should and take frustration undisciplined penalties instead. As Barney Fife would say, “Nip it in the Bud”, because you don’t want to have new classes coming in that see this as acceptable because culture truly is important to the consistent success we have had. See a program like Minnesota during their down years as perfect example how you can have talent but if a culture to go with it isn’t there you can struggle.

Are you Brad Schlossman?

That's a great point, if Jones is close to our leading scorer now, how much more production would he have playing against 3rd and 4th line opposition.

It's easy for fans to look purely at stats to judge players, because not being able to watch them it is what we have to go on. It can also be deceiving to get the full picture of a player, because we don't always know the role they are meant to play. Dixon Bowen had similar stats to Keane on a team that scored a lot more. Kawaguchi put up so much better stats than Nick Jones, but again on a higher scoring team. If you look at a guy like Nolan Walker, who I believe is a St. Cloud recruit, his numbers are very good, but if you take away his power play points, his production is basically the same as Senden's. I understand there is a reason that he has a lot of power play time and Senden doesn't, but then again, that is not what Senden's role is. Maybe there is a reason that UND always is a great 5 on 5 team, while not so good on the power play. Perhaps they need to find a way to get more players good at both, but sometimes good two-way players give up a bit at the offensive end to be responsible defensively. I trust the coaches can work at resolving the issues we have had at being a little short on top end talent, because I think the losses of 8 top end guys the past few off seasons has really been more than most teams could deal with. I think Jost leaving after one year was the biggest surprise to the staff and hurt us the most. How much better would this team be with Jost. The power play and penalty kill would be that much better, and I think Gersich would also be better not having to be the man, and having Jost taking the attention of the other team.

People said that before the Big even came about, and while getting better, they are far from dominating. It is also hard to judge attendance because butts in the seats is so out of line with paid attendance, and that goes for both leagues.

I haven't seen Schlossman advocating for a longer suspension for Cole Smith, or that the NCHC isn't doing their job protecting players. Does he believe that it is only in the NHL that it is a problem, or is it he doesn't want to bite the hands that feed him?

Just good natured ribbing. I think Gardner was one of the first to greet Boeser coming out for warmups in one of his first games in Winnipeg.

Seems to me that Fargo has seen their fair share of restaurants close lately as well.

Obviously, not a very realistic prospect, but thought this article was interesting, especially under the "Weighing Options" section where it says his brother is going to Denver. Don't have an opponent recruiting thread that I saw, so he is technically still a prospective recruit, albeit very small chance. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/teen-phenom-matthew-savoie-sidney-crosby-1.4500318

No drive thru?

For some reason, Bowen has gotten a pass from scrutiny, maybe because he always seems to be working hard. Could have used that hard work on that back check when Duluth scored to go up by 2 on Friday after we gained the momentum. If I'm not mistaken, his +/- is down near the bottom as well. Need him to step it up on both ends of the rink, but I guess that can be said of everybody.

The narrative is much different after the losses at Duluth last weekend. Those were the first times we had lost the entire season when we scored 2 goals in a game. It appears to me that this board would be so much more optimistic with at least a split in Duluth. To be sure, we need to score more than we have going forward, but we also need to get back to being able to say that if we score 3 goals we will win the game almost all of the time.