tnt

Isn't it still possible Providence could play Notre Dame. In that scenario, I would think Providence winning might be better for us. If we've learned one thing, it's just take care of yourself, because if you don't you'll find yourself on the outside looking in.

Nobody wants to go into the playoffs on a sour note, but yeah, incentive a little higher for UND at his point, but then again I thought that last Saturday before the clunker against Omaha.

Any idea when the Chik-Fil-a is supposed to be built? I assume the road access has been approved by the city already.

If people don't see 1st round draft status behind a recruit, they don't get excited as much. Then they rip the top draft picks when they don't live up to expectations. Forbort, Jordan Schmaltz, Finley, Lee were not considered very good at times compared to other defensemen on the team, but many of the guys coming in without as high of expectations like Stecher, Poolman, LaDue etc, ended up being fan favorites. That's why I don't understand how fans are questioning the talent coming in when they have seen the Caggiula's produce beyond expectation, while some of the big names struggle at times.

It isn't necessarily the high end talent that is going to make you a great team, but if you don't have those guys you better have chemistry. Don't know if Minnesota has any player that is better than Jost, Boeser, or Poolman, but they have way better chemistry than we do right now. Usually if you have players coming in that are close to leading their league in scoring you would think they would have good talent. It doesn't always turn out that way. Guys like Camarrata and Wilkie didn't transition well, although hoping that Wilkie can still find his way.

So you're saying that they didn't want the National Championship game to be for unlucky 13 in a row? I read ya!

I would bet he had somewhere around 10 wrap around goals in his career, which is quite a few. When you think of the average shooting percentage for a player, why not utilize something that has worked for you. Some people need to pull the trigger more and just try get the puck to the net.

What about BC vs. Lowell series? BC isn't far behind in pairwise, but if they beat a higher ranked team it helps our ranking. Kind of torn.

You're right, St. Cloud lost a good chunk of their scoring from last year, but basically had a great defense in place coming into this year so it was basically a wash. I figured if we were going to make up the lost scoring, a few guys would have to jump up, and Boeser and Jost would have to be great on the powerplay together. Not too much time being able to see that with injuries and such. One more guy like Luke Johnson or Keaton Thompson helps out our depth on those units so when injuries showed up, we wouldn't have suffered quite as much. Perhaps the coaching staff will have to assume they can get character guys like Gornall, Gaarder, Pattyn, Sanderson at the last minute if needed and keep better stocked with the higher end guys, because I don't know how you anticipate losing that much, even with winning it all.

Yeah, but St. Cloud doesn't have a formula about how to comprise a team that wins them anything. When you lose all the guys that you did, along with many that you didn't expect to lose, how do you keep that formula intact. The coaches don't just recruit the best players every year like the gophers used to. No matter what you say, you don't just pull Troy Stecher's and Paul LaDue's out of the woodwork and boom they are instant impact players. Heck, people on here were saying how out of place Paul LaDue looked, and he was an older player coming in. Losing 1 player early is one thing, losing 5 is quite another on top of your senior class.

So you expect multiple first round picks every year? Even first round picks don't necessarily produce their first year in college. Bottom line is you don't replace that much NHL talent with rookies and expect to be close to the same, especially at defense. Of course it would have been nice to have guys like Keaton Thompson and Luke Johnson, but I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted them around either. You complain all the time about not winning a National Championship and then we get the mass exodus that sometimes accompanies a championship you wonder where all the talent is.

That, and maybe people in Grand Forks won't take it for granted since it isn't here every year.

From what the Herald said it is going to continue to rotate between Fargo and Grand Forks.

As well as another kick at the can for the World Junior tournament.

Really, talent is down. Who'd have thunk losing 4 guys who are playing in the Big show and replacing them with rookies that we would be down a little? The thing is, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion if the talent you mentioned had been playing, or putting up points in the last several weeks. If you would have told me that through injuries and other factors Boeser would be tied for 86th in the country in goal scoring, I would expect us be struggling for home ice.

If he is trying to be unbiased, I would hate to see his biased announcing!

Apparently ASU wasn't the target. If they plan on waiting until everything shakes out with ASU, they could be waiting quite a while. The last thing the Big Ten needs right now is another drain on their pairwise rankings.

I think that people are kidding themselves if they think the Big Ten isn't going to rise to a higher level in the years to come. Once Wisconsin has a few more years of Granato as coach, they will be contenders once again, and looking at Penn State and some of their future recruits, I think they will as well. Pennsylvania is producing more talent every year, and that will only benefit them. Michigan and Minnesota will continue to get NHL talent. It seems Notre Dame will always be lurking for the NCAA tournament and contend for the Frozen Four on occasion. The question marks are Ohio State and Michigan State. I have a feeling they would be good in cycles much like Western Michigan and CC could. I tend to believe as others, that we would help the level rise substantially, and could help the Big Ten turn the corner as a high power conference. I still am not sure if that is what I would want, as there are pros and cons both ways.

Don't love the pick considering his track record. Hopefully, he is trending in a new direction with the St. Cloud series prediction.

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/victoria-royals-feel-need-for-speed-in-whl-bantam-draft-1.1928587 This could go on committed thread as well. Interesting Victoria took Luke Bast, then selected Gabe later, hoping he would flip from the NCAA. The article was from 2015, but would imagine Luke would still be a prospect.

Because Minnesota would logically draw more on a yearly basis being they are the hometown team. Subsequently, the NCHC was forced to sign a contract with the Target Center if they wanted their tournament in Minneapolis. I wouldn't doubt that after the contract is up, the "X" could be a very strong possibility.

I would guess that people would contact the Engelstads about the opportunity to move hockey conferences and the fee that would go along with it. If the Engelstads thought it was something that would be best for the hockey program going forward, they might help defer those costs.

A lot of people didn't even want St. Cloud invited into the NCHC, and if you believe the report that Duluth would be invited next if UND turned it down, then it's basically a wash because CC, Miami, and Western don't inspire much passion from our fanbase either.

I just think people are so gun shy about things that you would think would be common sense with the whole nickname issue and dropping of sports that they may think administration will say one thing and do another.