tnt

I certainly don't want to be in a situation where there are special rules for Notre Dame, like the old Minnesota rule, or other concessions to support their huge ego.

Did you like Chyzyk last year with the Sioux? If you looked at his numbers, he didn't stand out, but you could tell he added something to the lineup.

I think this is similar to the football scenario where fans are concerned who else recruited this guy and how many stars does he have next to his name. Fans look at all that crap and get consumed by it. I like Bubba's answer to that by saying they know what they are looking for and the roles they will play and don't care what others think about them.

I think they keep rotating between St. Paul and Detroit. Neither would let there hockey status accept anything less.

Michigan didn't scare many people last time we played them in the tournament either. I'm with Schlossman, just about any of the top 16 or so teams could win it all, and it wouldn't surprise me.

Why didn't he follow his other brother to Minnesota, does he like Johnny better.

I think they check people's tickets so much because there were so many empty seats in the lower bowl that people buying the cheap upperdeck tickets would just drop down. The thing I don't understand is why they don't have a little more time between games. We ended up just staying in the arena for concessions rather than frequenting a local establishment because there didn't seem to be enough time. Maybe the Target Center wants the extra business, but it doesn't benefit the downtown businesses quite as much.

I see they have Boeser at the bottom of the first round a few spots behind his linemate Novak. But they seem to think he plays for Sioux City. Nice to see Troy Murray mocked for Winnipeg though.

When were all of the improvements supposed to take place. I thought that was part of the agreement, the big upgrades that were supposed to take place.

Did I hear correctly that it was Achilles surgery? Pretty scary stuff if so, and a reminder to everyone that tomorrow isn't promised to you.

If no underclassmen leave, sometimes that means they want to stay to try to achieve an NCAA Championship together. I'm hoping they can get that done this year, then I wouldn't mind some leaving early. With a lot of the leaders on this team being seniors, it might be tough to even make the NCAA tourney next year, especially if they lose an underclassmen or two.

You can probably say the same thing about most teams in their losses. Even though they didn't look good last weekend they were still at about 20 percent which number wise isn't horrible.

Thompson was NCHC plater of the week last week, but paired with Panzarella I believe. I really think they want to stick with the Mattson-Ladue, Stecher-Ausmus pairing, which leaves you no other choice but to go with a couple offensive-minded defensemen. It could just be they need more time to get used to each other, or maybe now that they have a couple weeks off, they may want to rethink the Ausmus-Stecher pairing. Even though they have been the best pairing, they both have great defensive capabilities, and maybe they may choose to mix those with offensive defensemen. Either way I think we'll be o.k.

Guess he won't be working the West Regional at Scheels.

This much I agree with. Thought the call should have went both ways at the least, but I think this should have been an opportunity for Hakstol to express in big games like this and the NCAA tourney, don't give the refs that opportunity. Macmillan had taken bad penalties that almost cost us one game in the tourney 2 years ago and killed our chance to come back in the other. Also had a bad one vs. Wisconsin in regional last year but made up for it with the shot off his body for the winner. I wonder if Hak expressed to them before o.t. to watch their step because of the possibility of a makeup call. I know I was expecting one if there was anything close, but certainly didn't expect two. Hopefully they can get the win tomorrow and learn from this in games that have even bigger consequences down the road. You would expect a little more consistency in a game for first place though.

If Blais' team ever makes it to the conference tourney, he might get his team to the NCAA tourney--that's a start.

That's the way it normally is called, but they knew Blais was mad, so they made an exception. Then, after they had the 5 on 3 in OT there were a few other cross checks by UND that went uncalled, because they knew Hakstol was mad. Nice job by your officials Adams, officiating off emotion!

Oh, I thought you meant just committed. He committed a little while ago. Give me a guy that people call a diamond in the rough like Stecher anyday. Guys like Tucker Poolman who have to work just to get a chance many times end up performing better than the hyped recruits. Would be interesting to see how the top recruits they had in the past have performed compared to guys like Poolman and Stecher.

Who is that?

I'm thinking that Teemu Selanne played with Winnipeg when Brad Berry did, or at the very least they know each other.

"He isn't doing it" is a lot different than he didn't do it in this case.

Are you saying Bubba doesn't contact anyone after they verbally commit?

Just saw the headline over at GPL that Mankato validated their top ranking with a win over Minnesota. They validated that with me with wins over Omaha and Duluth and their consistent winning in college hockey, when you can get nipped by a Bemidji State or a Lake State at any given time. I know it may be nitpicking, because I sometimes think people here don't give Mankato enough credit unless they play us, but it did come across kind of arrogant to me, like beating a 20ish pairwise team validates something, especially when their fans think they are crap right now.

You mean the same Nick Schmaltz that people thought was a huge upgrade over Rocco after one exhibition game? Don't get me wrong, I like his upside better in the long run, but Rocco would be much more noticeable night in and night out. I think right now Schmaltz is much more one dimensional. True, that one dimension is phenomenal, but in order to continue to take advantage of his incredible passing skills, the opposition has to perceive a threat of him scoring more often. Thoughts of all the chances he missed don't run through my mind like they did with Rocco, but his passing ability does. This isn't meant to be a rip on Schmaltz, just that his impact right now isn't that what Rocco might have brought, and that's o.k. because he is still learning to be that consistent impact player. I just think if he would shoot more often, that would complement the rest of his game, and if we can get him and LJ going, that makes us that much better.

Yeah, and wasn't that first game of the year only the first or second time they have beaten UND? Bemidji is 10-7-1 against Duluth in their last 18 according to the announcers.