tnt

He hasn't exactly been standing out in the USHL after playing a year in college. Don't know if part of that is after effect from an injury or not.

Yes, but you can also make assumptions of who the one and dones will be, but it doesn't always work out like that. Heard some people think that Forbort would be a one and done, and some thought Kristo might be. Others thought Toews might be done after one and Oshie after two. If you can get an extra year out of some of those players, it doesn't guarantee you a championship, but it sure is fun to watch those players.

There are injuries that just require rest to heal and activity in itself can cause it to flare up. Even the casual athlete has incidence where the doctor will tell him to just stay inactive for a period. Plenty of reasons for an athlete to be inactive for a long time, and this is just an odd new one that not many people have heard of before.

Would Chad Johnson be miffed if the Sioux brought in a Tommy Schutt from Lincoln who the Sioux were originally looking at a year or so ago? How about a Jared Hanson with Lincoln who is a 1993 birthdate with good size and 14 goals? Might be a little more miffed with the latter being their 2nd leading scorer. Of course there are educational eligibility questions that would need to be answered, but it does beg the question, do you possibly burn a bridge for a player to help fill out a lineup this year? At least with Chad Johnson they would have someone they know and have a relationship with. Who would have thought with our unbelievable depth last year that we would be going from feast to famine.

Usually you get guys like Brent Davidson who plays a game or two here or there his first year, then gradually gets more playing time each year of his career. It might be totally reverse for some of the walk-ons that came in this year. A lot of them have played most of the games this year. Makes you wonder how playing a lot one year then not getting to play much subsequent years might take its toll. We saw that Mitch MacMillan, a recruited player, left St. Cloud from the drop-off in playing time from one year to the next. Do walk-ons have a different look at losing playing time? One would think that it is inevitable that a few of the guys playing this year won't being playing as much next year. The nice thing is that they certainly will push the guys that are in the lineup down the road, because they've had a taste of bigtime college hockey and certainly will want to stay in the lineup.

Yeah, they already haven't been able to dress a full lineup.

I think in the end we know the coaches have more information than us. From the outside, it would just seem unusual that you didn't recruit a guy the first time around, then when he hasn't proven himself at another school which doesn't have the same history, you decide to bring him in. It seems fair to ask a guy who left a team supposedly because of playing time to earn himself a scholarship. If he walked on it would just be a bonus to have the depth, even if he wasn't an everynight player.

I was just wondering if an event that would probably be just as big, if not bigger than the Final Five because of its novelty might draw 5000 or 6000 Sioux fans coming from Minneapolis, Colorado, ND and such. Maybe that many fans wouldn't actually travel. But if they had 6000 seats to spare one night last year and 10,000 the next, I guess my fears were unwarranted.

Had a friend who went last year and said it was pretty full. Are there two levels to the arena? Maybe she meant the lower bowl was full. If there are plenty of tickets, it would be nice to see the "Sioux" have a bigger crowd than Omaha for both games.

Yes, but you now have time to recruit to fill that position. I would say that he should come in as a walk-on and prove himself like Gaarder to receive scholarship money. If they didn't think the chemistry between the brothers was worth taking the plunge before, why now, if indeed it comes to fruition. If he can't find playing time at St. Cloud, what does that say about our lineup. Maybe there were other issues at St. Cloud where he didn't want to stay, but I would think there are plenty of other recruits to draw on now. If he could play right away, then I can see the J.T. Miller angle, but he wouldn't be able to play until after Christmas next year. Hakstol didn't bring in someone after Christmas this year because I'm sure no one was available that could be a difference maker. If he will fight for playing time here, I have no problem because depth is always a good thing, but I also think the Sioux will have a lot of depth next year and could add some more skill with the scholarship money they have that went unused with departures like Cichy and Bruneteau and the Miller fiasco.

What has changed since they didn't recruit him the first time around? He was frustrated with playing time at St. Cloud, but didn't want to stay and work his way into playing time. I think Motzko is a pretty fair coach and wants to win, so I would have to assume that he thought other players gave them a better chance to win. I would hope and assume that if he did come here, he would be a walk-on, because like I said, if they think the line combo would be good, why didn't they recruit them together the first time around.

On the coaches show Hakstol said the outdoor game against Omaha is in the works, and Hennessey said that Blais thinks it will be a reality. The Sioux would play Friday at the Qwest Center, then play outdoors at the baseball stadium. Hakstol said the people working on getting it done know what they are doing. It would be interesting to see how many Sioux fans would go down knowing that many of them most likely would only be able to get tickets for the outdoor game.

I have 2 tickets for sale for the Friday game versus Wisconsin. Seats are in the upperdeck on the end the Sioux shoot twice. Seats are in 302 Row D seats 1 & 2 on the aisle. $40 each.

These tickets have been sold.

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.