tnt

Agree with Yzerman in having heavy lineups when necessary and more speed and skill when needed. I love the energy and speed when both Yon and Bowen are together, and if Hoff is in with them, that line can fly.

My point was more about people looking at Jones's numbers and assuming he would be the odd man out of the 3 guys coming in. Just saying that there are so many more variables to who will end up playing the most.

It's really tough to say how people adjust to the next level and what their new roles will be. If you went strictly by numbers, Easton Brodzinski should have been playing for St. Cloud before Bowen played at UND, but Bowen fulfilled a role we needed. Jones knows what to expect from college hockey, and even though Kawaguchi put up bigger numbers, they both put up about the same percentage of their teams goals, 35 percent for Kawaguchi, and 33 percent for Jones. The fact that they are both Captains, says a lot about their standing on their current teams. I suspect both will see quite a bit of action, but if they don't, it means some guys stepped up their games a bit from last year. Can't complain if that happens. Bottom line is while the real high end guys might not be here, the competition for ice time is going to lift the level of play for everybody else.

Not saying he will be a great pro, but it seems strange that someone with his college career doesn't get a sniff from them.

Kawaguchi with 6 assists tonight to take over as the playoff scoring leader and Gabe Bast with a goal for Penticton.

What's the scoop?

So, does Will Butcher still entertain signing with Colorado after this year, or does he go elsewhere because of the snub last summer? How do you not try sign him after last year? That's why Colorado is a mess.

Jost misses his shootout attempt, but it was neat they let him do it.

Was she the spokesperson for Standing Rock in the DAPL crisis?

We need to rethink this cutting of Women's Hockey. Apparently we were recruiting a Big-Time prospect from Switzerland!

I thought if he ever came to the U.S. he would be arrested on the spot, so he might be bolting. Just keep him away from the Junior High Schools!

That's what I'm saying, you couldn't find something else to cut that would yield more towards the deficit than the women's hockey team.

... and how many of those salaries topped the $80,000 per player figure that was pointed on some threads?

I know we are talking about replacing goals, but points from the defense should help the overall goals go up. (I guess that is a "duh" statement) Let's face it, as a freshman you are more worried about not getting burned and I'm sure the coaches make sure they are taking care of that end first. As we saw with Stecher, jumping into the play and forcing the other team to defend can pay off big dividends as well because it is hard to account for everybody. We saw guys like Peski and Johnson quite fearless in jumping into the play late in the season, including our loss to BU. If we can add some offensive output there and Bast can add a little as well, that should help our overall output. Add to that equation the better ability to skate the puck out of your own end and make that great outlet pass that can hit your forwards in stride more often than was the case this year, and improvement could come from that alone.

What do we mean by top 6 forwards? Do we mean will they be in the top 6 forwards in production, or will they be thrown out there in certain offensive situations. I can easily see Bowen and Yon thrown out there early and often when you need the energy to get the team and crowd going. I don't necessarily know if either or both of them will be 10 goal scorers, but we didn't have a lot of them this year either. Regardless, I like what they bring to the team, and there is always that potential to take that step to producing in the 10 goal range.

Yeah, that was horrible expecting him to make the lineup on merit.

We usually have one freshman that surprises us. Could use a couple of them next year, as well as no players back sliding in their development, and all of them taking a step forward. Also hoping that the power play improves without the stars. Good old puck movement, taking away the eyes of the goalie, and getting shots to the net. Wind up the grinders like they were against BU, and minimal outings like the home games against Michigan State, and Saturday games against Omaha and Western Michigan. Need players to buy in from the start into the Gaarder, Pattyn, Gornall, Bowen and Smith work ethic, and get the rookies on board with that style from day one. Optimism-- Pass it on!

Women's hockey may not be in the Olympics much longer if there are only 2 teams that can win it every year. Kind of like UConn women's basketball, who cares anymore other than UConn fans!

180 games isn't a horrible NHL stint.

It seems a lot of people sensed this coming, a lot of people not necessarily always in the loop. That is why it seems odd that Idalski was totally out of the loop on this. Could a reporter ask him and Faison if there was no indication given that this was a possible solution? Was Idalski in fact around showing this high end recruit around campus? Could this be an in your face moment from Idalski? Have they had discussions about a new contract for Idalski, and if not why would Idalski not press the issue because of how that could affect recruiting? These are questions I would like answered, but not confident anyone from the Herald would ask some hard questions. They were one sided on the nickname issue until it was gone, then played Devil's Advocate to try keep the issue alive to sell more papers.

Think you are too far away from this. If you listened to the radio here daily when the money was flowing from the oil, they kept talking about how higher education kept asking for more and more money, all the while increasing tuition. Guess what, you keep asking for a bigger piece of the pie, and they run out of apples, something has got to give. UND should have both programs, and I should have a Ferrari, but sometime reality has to set in. Do you keep giving a kid everything he asks for as you go through the toy department of a store? At some point someone has to be the adult.

If you haven't figured out that college sports is big business now, you haven't been paying attention. If you want to compete at a high level you can't have dead weight holding you back. UND chose to carry dead weight for a long time until their hand was forced because of the necessity for budget cuts. Do you continue spending when you can't meet the mortgage payment, or do you figure out what isn't essential or what is dragging you down. You must have something invested in this, but no matter how much it hurts it had to be done.

It's pure economics. You may end up saying the same about your country when the out of control spending hits a point of no return. The cuts that will need to be made then will end up hurting you a lot worse. Did you plan to ever retire?

All people that are season ticket holders for men's hockey get in free. I know because I went to many games.

I blame most of this on the people that wouldn't take no for an answer on instituting women's hockey. Tim and Swyg talked endlessly about it being a black hole and it fell on deaf ears. They said all it needed to do was get going like women's basketball and I believed them. If anything the attendance is going down even though people get in free. If anyone should be ashamed it should be the crusaders that wanted a program without regards to it's financial viability.