tnt

But Gibson was the goalie that played in the critical game and took a stupid penalty when the U.S. had a powerplay to take the lead.

Have 2 tickets for each game of the gopher and badger series. Seats are right above entryway in the upperdeck on the end the Sioux shoot twice. Only 6 seats are in the row. $400 takes all eight tickets.

St. Cloud brought in Joe Rehkamp for the second half. It is kind of a two-edged sword though. If you bring in a guy he is not going to be an impact player, and you are probably giving up a partial scholarship for another walk-on type player. I really appreciate what some of the walk-on's have done for us this year, but we really need to add some skill players to make up for the excess of grinders we have right now. Best scenario, is to get a skilled grinder like we had in J.T. Miller and next year we'll hopefully have in Stephane Matteau. I'm hoping that a few of the walk-ons we have playing this year are sitting next year, because it means we have upgraded the skill, or if they can make a huge step in that department, that's o.k. too. Does DiPuma have an offensive upside, or is he another grinder type if he comes in next year?

Did anyone hear the extent of Rodwell's injury? Crazy that as Schlossman said that half of the Sioux forward lines are walk-ons or defensemen. When you consider one of the other two forward lines is made up of all freshmen, and you would think that the other teams would be able to exploit that inexperience more. The Sioux have really hung in there with a depleted lineup. Hopefully, the Sioux can get many of the players back in the next few weeks and come together for a strong finish, as it appears it will be necessary to be a top 3 or 4 team in the WCHA.

Hopefully saving a bunch of them for the next home series!

What? He didn't take his timeout until it was 4-2.

While were at it, what are the odds that one or both of the Sheppard boys follow Minnesota to the Big Ten Conference? I would bet the Papa is trying to get them in the Big Ten as refs.

One has to wonder what role Denver and Miami had in getting him as a candidate for the job.

Doesn't mean there isn't a bunch of really good players in the BCHL, just that it isn't as lock down on defense as the USHL. Ryan Reilly is a perfect example. Last year he had 5 goals 9 assists in 42 games, so far this year he has 21 goals 22 assists in 35 games. True, he is a year older, but I think part of the difference is the league.

To be fair, he might have been over that shortly after he let his thoughts be known on it. Who knows, maybe he regrets letting his emotions get away from him.

That's kind of my point. I think people don't remember how great they thought such and such would be. I am certain that people thought Seth Ambroz would be the cream of this years rookie crop. I would bet that people were pretty excited about getting him to commit approximately the same time as Bjugstad and Marshall. What about Kessel, Wheeler and R.J. Anderson? R.J. Anderson had just as much high expectation as Brian Lee did here. Cammaratta is the only one of the three that has distinguished himself as the go-to guy on his team at the USHL level so far. True, Guertler is young, but so is Cammaratta and Luke Johnson. The potential is there from all those players, but they all need to develop at the level they are at to hope to be impact players in college. We have seen a ton of those players like Danny Mattson and Michael Fink that seemed like great recruits but who didn't even end up on the team that recruited them because their development ended in the USHL.

As already stated, he is the coaches son. His dad was very upset with North Dakota because of his perception that the coaches pushed Forbort to the US development team instead of returning to Duluth East. Don't know if he would let that get in the way of his kid having a good college experience or not, but thought it was worth throwing out there to ponder.

The same things were being said of Ness, Hoeffel, White, etc. Minnesota will be hoping that a few more of this group turn out to fulfill their promise than that group. While I think Minnesota has assembled on paper a lot of talent, I think the Sioux have too. It might just be that Minnesota fans talk up these guys a little more because they are local and have seen them play. I don't think potential wise that Matteau, Jordan Schmaltz, Nick Schmaltz, Keaton Thompson, Luke Johnson, need to take a back seat to any of Minnesota's recruits. All this talent needs to be developed and fill certain roles, and that is where the coaches make their mark.

One has to question the expectations of the fanbase when we have two guys coming in next year that are possible first round draft picks, yet the thought is that we are being out-recruited!

Remember when it felt like the Sioux were losing a very high-end recruit in Michaelson? Not saying he won't end up being a good college player, but he is struggling to get shots on goal, much less points in the USHL. We lost out on Patrick White a few years back as well, and turns out many gopher fans wish he would have come here. Luke Voltin has been just as impressive as Fasching so far with the development team, and I tend to think that when they get here they tend to get better year after year, as witnessed by the totals of guys like Frattin, Trupp and Malone. Bottom line is both the Sioux and gophers will get high end guys, so it is a matter of how they end up playing out.

I don't know if this is a youth thing or not. Is the inconsistency, even when they are at home due to youth, or are some of the players satisfied with where they are at as a young team. In other words, do these players hate to lose. I know when the Bison made their tournament run with Ben Woodside, they had the talent, but it seemed like guys like Woodside just hated to lose. The thing I have always liked about the Sioux hockey team is that they don't always fill their roster with just plain talent, but always had the role players that just bring it all the time. Don't want to brand any of the basketball players with a label yet, but it sure seems like they have the talent based on some performances. Hopefully the consistency will come, but if it becomes too much of a habit, I'm not sure another year can fix not having most hands on deck every night with their lunch pails.

Don't see it changing much at all for most of the schools that already recruit out of Minnesota. There is already a lot of competition for the elite in Minnesota, and I think those schools are each going to get their fair share. Don't know if Michigan will recruit in Minnesota much or not. Have no doubt Michigan State will, but Michigan seems to want to be mostly Michigan recruits, much like Minnesota gets mostly Minnesota recruits. Don't know if Minnesota would go for recruits from Michigan unless we are talking big-time recruits, partly because of the ego factor, and vice versa. One thing that could really make things interesting because of proximity, is if Illinois and Iowa enter the mix for recruits from Minnesota, then I can see a few schools getting shortchanged and needing to find new recruiting grounds. If you look at UND's roster this year, you can see how the hockey landscape has changed over the years. How many different states do the Sioux have recruits from anyway?

I don't think the Sioux had problems recruiting in Minnesota before St. Cloud, Mankato St. and Bemidji State ever had Division 1 programs, so I don't imagine they would have a problem now. There is usually a lot of talent in Minnesota, so where would all of those players go? Sure, Wisconsin might pluck a few more, but I don't see the other teams I mentioned getting rich just because they can play a few more games nearer to home, as the prestige for a few of them playing in a different WCHA wouldn't hold much for some recruits.

True, they are not the best competition, and to that end, the Sioux didn't play Kristo and Nelson that much and got reps for the guys on the fourth line who usually don't play as much. I'm sure this was a big game for Bismarck, while the Sioux just finished finals and had enough focus to take care of a team they were supposed to beat. Comparing scores usually doesn't work that well when the motivation is a lot different.

True, but I wonder why he hasn't created enough offense to stay in a St. Cloud lineup who is hurting for depth like we are. They too are moving defensemen to forward. It isn't exactly like playing time would be a given here either.

I know at one point his brother Chris looked like he was a great prospect playing defense as a 9th grader. Haven't heard much about him lately. Wonder if he hasn't progressed a lot, or if I just am not hearing his name around recruiting circles and the times I see game stats.

If he is a healthy scratch at St. Cloud, chances are he could be a healthy scratch here, unless he and his brother are able to have the chemistry they had in junior hockey. I would assume it would be hard to crack our lineup too, especially if the Sioux recruit to avoid the same kind of problems they are having with depth this year.

You do know that the WCHA tourney was held at the Target Center for the years between when the Civic Center was torn down and the X built. I didn't mind it there. It is better at the X, but the Target Center was fine too.

So you can't point to anything concrete. I would believe that more people were going crazy on live chat to the negative rather than the positive.

Since you seem to be spouting on GPL, do you mind pointing out where Sioux fans are saying that Forbort could be putting up big numbers in the NHL? Most Sioux fans agree that Forbort has struggled early this season along with Simpson, but both of them seem to be coming along pretty well lately. If you could point out specific posts where Sioux fans suggested Forbort was the greatest thing since sliced bread, your credibility on this board would be increased.