tnt

I think you can win with either philosophy. Michigan was playing well with a lot of first round guys, while Wisconsin beat Michigan State, us, and nearly Denver with the usual Hastings experienced team that was very hard to play against. Hopefully UND has a nice mix that can make them a contender for a while.

Would think UND would have kicked the tires on him with all the rumors about him entering the portal before the Davis commitment if he was a fit or if there was interest both ways. Who knows. Would be interesting to know why he wants to leave Maine.

…and we’ve got 3 guys that are or will be first round picks, one being a forward, along with a freshman who put up 18 goals in the toughest league, yet you don’t think we have a first line Hmmm! Logic probably isn’t your thing.

The glue line, sponsored by 3M.

Who knows, maybe when talking to some of the forwards, the potential recruit asked about the available money, and UND figured if that was part of the initial conversation, they would rather go a different direction. Would love to be a fly on the wall regarding Chyzyk’s conversations with recruits and parents.

Sounds really happy to be here. Maybe he would be one that isn’t going to bolt after a season if he isn’t playing all the time, and can hang around long enough to be a Strinden, James type guy as an upperclassmen. Since Littler, Klee,etc. left maybe Chyzyk felt we needed to replace guys they felt would be four year guys.

Hopefully UND doesn’t have the year after a good year setback that Berry’s teams had. Will the players have that chip on their shoulders this year, and work as hard as they did last summer to get UND back in a good position. Teams like Minnesota will have that fire to get back as well, so UND better not take the NCAA tournament for granted. Will the leadership be as strong as with guys like Strinden, James, and Livanavage, who were determined to turn it around? Hopefully Jackson has addressed the year after good year blues,and will have his team ready to tackle a new season, and leave successes from last year in the rear view mirror. It appears he is sold on getting the guys who are willing to work, which is a great start.

I will say that the depth we had over Duluth last year was the big difference, but with the addition of Victor Plante, and being able to put Shaugabay on another line with Barrett Hall, I can see Duluth winning the league title for the first time in over 30 years next year. I assume they keep Kleber and Hansen, along with adding 2 nd team USHL defenseman Carter Murphy, and they have some good depth. Question mark is the loss of Gajan, but Duluth always seems to be strong in goal. We really need Zellers and Reschny to be the difference makers the Plante brothers will be next year, and hopefully Simpson has an impactful first year like Zellers.

Other than Sanderson and Kleven, UND’s success pulling a big name from the NTDP hasn’t been great, and you could argue that Sanderson was due to us getting to him before he became the elite name. We certainly will get players from there, like we are doing, but we may have to supplement them with elite guys from elsewhere.

Would guess we will get guys from all over, and many will end up playing in the CHL. Some years there will be local guys from Moorhead, or the surrounding area, sometimes there won’t be as many local guys with high end skill. 1982 team had 17 Canadians sprinkled with some local guys. I think there will be local guys that can play a role most years, then you take where the talent leads you. Don’t be blinded where they are from like Minnesota.

Guessing it will be tough.

Would think his draft team wouldn’t want him to go back to physically dominate in a league he has already proven that. Would think it would be sign with the NHL team or go to college where he can work on building strength and going against guys closer in physical stature to what he would see in the NHL.

Being that all three will be portal guys, right?

I certainly wish Klee, Littler and Strathman would have stayed, but I like the philosophy of not having a distinguishing line between who will be sitting most nights and who will be in the lineup. With the usual number of injuries, you are going to need those guys to contribute, so the more competition the better. As long as the coaches are distributing playing time fairly based on production and work ethic, I think it weeds out the guys that don’t want to work for their playing time. Have no problem with those guys seeking out other opportunities to further their careers, and wish them well except against us. As usual, next man up, and with this philosophy, next man up shouldn’t be much of a drop off.

Yeah, didn’t Chris Peters on that podcast say that UND was tied to more than one player during World Juniors? With that much smoke you would think there would be some fire.

We could use four games like that when we get to the NCAA tournament.

Reschny did say he plans on working on shooting more, and towards the end, Swanson was even putting the puck in the net more, just like Schmaltz did from his freshmen to sophomore year.

Bottom line is you need guys to buy in, and Chyzyk knows the guys that will bring the right attitude, and also has a plan for future rosters. Maybe he knows CHL guys that are ready for the 2027 season and by adding a senior this year, along with Reschny probably leaving, they will have room.

So if we had a first line of Reschny, Swanson and Zellers, and a second line with Kernan, Simpson and a CHL guy, the potential could be very good. After the CBS line, was our second line super elite for our 2016 Championship team? Like I said before, I would rather have someone who they know will be a team guy than someone who is only coming because they were told it would be better for their career, and might cause team issues if they aren’t pegged a certain place in the lineup. Not saying you can’t have both, but you better be right, because we see how talent without grit played out with McLaughlin, and how our problem became Boston Universities problem.

Yeah, there is no guarantee any guy in the CHL is going to put up 11 goals like this guy did, much less be responsible on both ends, if indeed this is the guy. Just curious why Sioux Daddy upvoted my “At defense” question.

With Verhoeff & Emery, it could be four.

I’m still hoping for the Rucks or Belchetz & Command.

At defense?

Yeah, even one step further removed as I completely forgot that Prince Albert and Medicine Hat are still alive to get there too. They finished their series early so out of sight, out of mind.

Landon DuPont with the game winning goal to put Everett into the Memorial Cup finals. Carels’ Prince George team lost 1-0, and has some work to do to get to the final, down 3-2 in games.