tnt

How nice it would have been to have a great skater like him playing in Mariucci.

Yeah, Friday they looked a lot more tentative playing on the bigger ice surface and it showed. Saturday, there were also mistakes, but some of them were from being aggressive.

Not according to some. I think people just focus on their every play and see if they are making mistakes, but aren't quite as focused on the upperclassmen. You can pick out mistakes on everybody on the defensive units. I was kind of impressed in that they played more confident and weren't afraid if they made mistakes, especially on Saturday. It gives me hope that once they start gaining that confidence they can really take the next step.

Nothing, if we can take care of non-conference the rest of the way, but just how competitive it was last year from being in the tournament and being a spectator, nothing is a given, especially if there are numerous teams from our league with good non-conference marks.

True, but you will be playing tough teams every night, so splits are inevitable in a lot of them.

That's what I'm seeing. I know this isn't popular, but Minnesota is a good hockey team, and seem to have a little motivation.

Maybe Cam should try confront people going through his crease to see how they would call that.

What amazes me is how people didn't expect this team to struggle, and even more so on a large ice surface. UND likes to be aggressive and it looks like they were afraid to be because they were worried about coverage. They looked like they wanted to be more aggressive penalty killing but were slow to get back in the lanes. As bad as they handled the big ice surface, Minnesota only scored one goal without a man advantage. Hopefully they are more disciplined by not taking penalties tomorrow and if they do, in their coverage.

To tell you the truth, I think it would hurt the GPL faithful even worse if nobody responded, and their attempt at trolling failed miserably.

There have been rumblings that David Quinn is a possibility to be one of the next college coaches to move on to the NHL. Will be interesting to see if that is the case, as we know he can recruit, but much more to the equation that he will have to prove in my eyes. Hakstol took many different kind of teams to the Frozen Four, and maybe one of his best jobs was one he didn't take to the Frozen Four where he couldn't fill a roster of forwards for quite a while because of injuries. Would also be interesting to see if Quinn did leave if they would still be the hot college in Boston going forward.

Yeah, sometime there aren't enough pucks to go around and guys that think they should be on the powerplay have to accept other roles. That can cause chemistry problems if it isn't handled correctly by the players and coaches. You definitely can win more times than not with a conglomeration of great talent, but getting through the adversity that is bound to crop up at some point isn't always a given, even with an abundance of talent.

Heard some UND students chanting "Bison suck" at the football game. I hope they realize it makes us look like Jan Brady when they are constantly obsessed at what the Bison are doing. Kind of like after we won our hockey National Championship the chanting that was going on by a few about the gophers and bison. Their obsession only makes us look worse.

Why don't they start some priority points system for football now by giving people points for attending football so when it does take off like it has at NDSU, the fans that have been in full support of the team forever, are rewarded for their past support. I realize it is all about the $, but at some point loyalty should count a bit as well. Wasn't happy when the point system of the Champions club moved away from rewarding long time season ticket holders with points in their system and made it all about what have you done for me lately. Trying to get actual seats at the Regional hockey tournament last time around was difficult because of that change. I sense the same thing will eventually happen with football when it gets popular like it has at NDSU, the people with the bucks will jump on the bandwagon and make it difficult for the past loyal supporters to access decent seating home and away. Again, I realize this is how college sports is now, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

Yeah, sometimes it is a matter of burying your chances, as Duluth found out last year. Next weekend would be a good weekend to get on the scoreboard early and often.

What baffles me is the play calling at the end of the first half. Either go for it, or don't. Don't go for it when there isn't enough time to do anything. They ran 2 plays that the only outcome was percentage wise more in favor of Weber than UND. Don't try to pad a running backs stats when there is a possibility of a fumble, just take a knee.

... and maybe someone should tell the celebrity activists that being a celebrity might hold significance to some people in certain areas of the country, but in the Midwest we are not awe stricken by their presence, and to the contrary think they are so far removed from reality that any stand they take actually hurts any cause they are trying to support.

The announcers that were doing the game put the blame on the bad line change as well.

Yeah, because just like Dave Hakstol, Lee was good enough for pro hockey but wasn't equipped to handle college hockey.

I know that's what you were getting at, but just wanted to throw out there another reason why it won't be easy to win in Mariucci. I think we have the same kind of problem sweeping Minnesota there as we do at St. Cloud. Too lazy to look it up, but not a lot of sweeps outside of the Toews, Oshie year.

That is why I like to count on our coaches for grading performances on a night to night basis. Would be interesting to know the grades from last Saturday.

Yeah, it's kind of ironic that we are forced to play 3 freshmen because Keaton Thompson turned pro, another whipping boy that some people wished would leave.

You mean like one of the past whipping boys Nick Mattson?

Kawaguchi with a hat trick and assist today in a 4-3 Chilliwack win.

Yeah, but even being able to practice on Olympic size sheet, I find it hard to believe the freshmen defensemen won't struggle with gapping at Mariucci.

Can you imagine the outrage on here if we go 4-4 over the next eight?