tnt
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Posts posted by tnt
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I don't know how many people saw James Patrick his first season here, but even some Sioux players were questioning how he was a high draft pick the first half of the year, then the second half he exploded. Not saying Radke will do the same, but it is a bigger adjustment for some players. Doesn't mean they won't turn out to be as good as, if not better than players that are ripping it up early. Give Radke a chance to blend into his surroundings. Seems like that is the philosophy of Hakstol. Hope is a good thing, I'm not so sure the same thing can be said of high expectations.
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What opportunity did Nate Ziegelmann have to show his abilities? Life is not always fair. I'm not saying that Jake shouldn't be given a chance, but there hasn't been a lot of awful goaltending to remove one of the other guys yet. A few bad games and he'll most likely get a chance to prove himself again, although I am one Sioux fan that hopes he won't have that shot because it means the other guys aren't giving him that crack to get his foot back in the door. If there should have been chronic complaining about Jake not getting in the lineup, it should have been from years past, certainly not this year.
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I'll just add that Minnesota should have the #1 bullseye on them heading to CC. Don't construe these posts to mean I am taking away from Minnesota great play of late, I am only saying that the Sioux are not far off the pace having played a really testing opening schedule, and mostly without our key play, Brady Murray, I might add. Take Potulny out of Minnesota's offense and you lose 30% of your goals. Brady Murray is our Ryan Potulny. The Sioux need to win 3 of their next 4 and they will be sitting pretty for the stretch drive.
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Gophers will, and have always been very impressive on the big ice surface. They know how to use it to their advantage. While they have been impressive, if the Sioux had pulled out one in Wisconsin (which they probably should have on Saturday), the Sioux would be sitting at 8-3-1 in the league. The Sioux also have played their toughest teams on the road. You have to admit that the gophers were steam-rolled in the 3rd period twice at Denver, although pulling out a win from strong goaltending like a good team does when they aren't playing their best. Briggs sure has looked good to me Goon. Sure he may fade a bit, but our goalies could as well. Let's hope CC has a surprise in store for the gophers next weekend and we take care of business against Anchorage, because that would put us back at par with them, or maybe even a hair ahead.
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Before the St. Cloud series the paper said the Sioux had 18, 5 on 3's against them and 2 for them, 1 which was all of 2 seconds.
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Marto's upside could be very good if he does indeed fill out his frame, because he is very good already despite focusing solely on baseball in the summer and really playing a total of one season of high school if you take injuries into account. It is because he hasn't played hockey year-round that his name is not a household name in recruiting circles, at least not to the average fan. As said before, coaches know he is out there.
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Don't know if anyone caught this or not, but Brooks made a sarcastic comment about how he even made some Canadian friends at the University of Denver. Don't remember his exact words, but it was kind of a "God forbid" type statement. Of course there aren't any gopher fans anymore that have a problem with Canadians, except a few. According to most of them, there never was any.
Just by Dan Brooks' statement, you could tell how he felt about that type of attitude. Only problem is he was preaching to Mazzocco, who is one who seems to have come full circle.
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While Blake Wheeler may be good, I don't see him dominating the WCHA, especially in his first year, and let's face it, if he does-- he's gone. I am trying to come up with really big players who have dominated the WCHA. I don't consider Lee Goren a really big player. Most of the guys I worry about have been smallish players like Ballard, Bonin, Crowley etc. I am sure other fans would say the same of Blake, Panzer, Parise, Greg Johnson, Tony Hrkac, etc. Heatley is probably an example of a big player dominating, but he didn't dominate beyond some of the small players. Anyone else have examples of bigger players dominating?
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Let's not forget that the first year of the Ralph we had 9 or 10 freshmen in the lineup and played the gophers tough all season including a win in Minneapolis, and if it wasn't for poor goaltending they had a decent chance at two other games. I guess what I am saying is that anything can happen when these teams play and I am not counting my chickens just because the gophers are young at defense. If they were young and untalented I would be more convinced, but they have a few games under their belts, so they won't be completely dazed, although the environment will be a little different. Some players, no matter how young seem to thrive under adverse conditions. Put me under the cautiously optimistic category.
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Are we talking about Robin Anderson? I thought he was done officiating.
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Anyone know who is officiating? I hope it isn't Sheppard. Even with a young team, I think powerplays favor the gophers. Five on five I like our chances.
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Speaking of that blocked punt, it could have easily been a touchdown if the Duluth player would have had the sense to pick it up and run it in instead of just diving on it. Even if the Sioux would have recovered it, it would have been Duluth's ball anyway, why not pick it up and run with it? I guess it is so engrained in the brain to dive on a loose ball that it is hard to separate it with a blocked punt.
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Hakstol seemed happy about the effort throughout, just not the penalties. I didn't watch the game, so I can't say. Maybe some of the people who say the effort wasn't there watched the game and have a different opinion than Hakstol, but there are probably others that think it is natural that if the Sioux don't win, or win easily, it is because they weren't trying hard enough. Believe it or not, other teams can beat the Sioux, even if the Sioux are trying. I think people are going to be comparing everything to the Maine series. While I expect Maine to be good, I don't think beating them the first series of the year means the Sioux should automatically be on their way to the Frozen Four. They have that potential, but they might not score at the same pace they did last year. I was, and am skeptical that this crackdown on penalties is going to help the Sioux like many are. One would think that if the Sioux fans were correct in that we were clutch and grabbed all the time, that two teams like Maine and Mankato would translate into more powerplays for us. I would much rather the Sioux play 5 on 5, as I think that is to their advantage. That said, we did outscore Mankato on the powerplay this weekend, but to expect to kill 15 of 15 powerplays all the time is unrealistic.
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Saves in the game were 30 (or 31, not sure) to 22 for Volp. Not acceptable.
However, good to see the Sioux really turn up the heat in the last 10 minutes. That's the Sioux team I'm used to!
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Not acceptable to you. If something is unacceptable, there needs to be a consequence. What are you going to do about it, quit watching Sioux hockey? With as much trouble as the Sioux have had over the years with Mankato, I can't believe the griping of so many Sioux fans. 3 out of 4 points in Mankato hasn't been the norm for the Sioux, save for last year. Remember that with Parise and Bochenski the Sioux were swept there two years ago. Last year Mankato had so many injuries that they couldn't field a competitive team. Those players that saw ice time during those injuries have grown up a bit, and the players that are back give them the depth they didn't have. Mankato is going to give a lot of teams a run for their money this year, especially at home. I for one am not going to complain about 3 points out of Mankato, no matter how we got them. I'd rather have 3 points having been outshot by a little, than be snakebitten like the Sioux were two years ago. The Sioux did have 5 freshmen in the lineup that haven't played a WCHA series before, granted a few played pretty well. I'm looking on the bright side of how well Lamoureaux played in his first game.
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All people did was whine about Parise being mugged last year. It's a problem fast skilled teams have complained about for years.
Regardless of our point of view, there's no dispute that our own players were at times guilty of doing the same thing in times of necessity.
Now the league wants to clean up that part of the game. Good for them! But we can't expect it to be an easy process to change years of how the game has been played and officiated.
We have to put up with some crappy looking games until everyone adjusts. I give credit to Coach Hakstol who complimented the calls the refs made for the most part. I didn't see the game but I think this is what we have to expect for a while.
Let's just give this process a few months to see how it works out before we start calling for more changes.
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Hakstol and Whitehead did say in the pregame though that there are things that they have taught players for years that have become second nature that are penalties now, like a slight pick to rub a player out and to keep players from getting in on the defensemen too fast. They intimated that it could cause more injuries if they aren't allowed to do that because the forwards will be going a hundred miles an hour. I had no problem with the little stick checks and such, it was the complete mugging that went uncalled that was a joke. Stafford had a great stick check coming back last night and was called for a penalty. If you can't use your stick backchecking, good luck to teams playing Minnesota on the huge ice surface. IMO they are taking this too far and if tonight's game comments by posters are any indication, it is already totally inconsistent, depending on who the home team is. I know that giving the refs grief is par for the course for most fans, but I do think they went a bit overboard in the first period tonight and large portions of last night's game. If it was a little further into the year and Maine had their powerplay in gear, the game could have been over in the first ten minutes. Oh, and by the way, even though I know it is probably an automatic call in overtime, I didn't think Maine removing the net should have been a penalty shot. If someone had a wide open net I can see it, but it wasn't like the Sioux got a great shot to begin with.
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I am very skeptical that the Sioux will benefit from this obstruction crackdown. I guess time will tell. Let's just see how many times the Sioux have more powerplays than the opposition, and let's see how many times we have the benefit of the 5 on 3 for a full two minutes. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see us having an edge in the powerplay category. I can still see the marble theory come into play and evening out of calls, especially after the outcome of the game has been decided.
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I think the officials are going to have to use some discretion on penalties. That was not a fun game to watch at all. Didn't even get a good look at Zajac and Kaip because they don't kill penalties. If this is a glimpse of things to come, the Sioux better get their powerplay in order, because special teams will win our league, not 5 on 5 play. I am much more confident that the Sioux are better than a lot of teams even up, but less so on the powerplay. Still plenty of time to improve though, only one week into the season. I'm concerned that many clean hits that are a bit harder than average will be called penalties due to a perception that they need to clean things up. With the size of our defense, I would like to use that to our advantage, but it could turn into a disadvantage if our defensemen's elbows are head-high to begin with. Don't need to worry about Bina though. All in all, an ugly win, but nonetheless a good win.
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I believe our friends to the south have Canisius on their schedule as well.
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It's way too early to start complaining about special teams, especially when the team hasn't even had one full practice with the new coaching staff. Even though the Sioux did give up two shorthanders, they were 3-8 on the power play, 0-7 on the penalty kill and scored two shorthanders themselves.
Has anyone mentioned the obscenities being shouted during the moment of silence for Wendy Blais? They seemed to be coming from the student section. Very low class, IMO.
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Amen to that. Just as it is too early to complain about the powerplay and sloppy play, it is also too early to draw premature conclusions. Virg Foss implied in today's Herald that the Sioux have already answered the questions about losing Bochenski and Parise. One game against inferior competition is hardly a barometer. I will agree that there are positive signs that the Sioux can minimize the loss of the two, but to suggest that freshmen will replace them is not wise. They can very well put up big numbers, but there are things that you learn in the WCHA that can only be learned through game experience. My hope for the Sioux is that they tackle the loss of the two by becoming more of a team and getting more production throughout the lineup and not leaning on one line in key games. The Sioux had decent support from other lines last year, but seemed to rely on the top line in critical situations. Hopefully each line will take it upon themselves to be the difference-maker this year.
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Maybe it's wishful thinking, but hopefully Massen will get off to a good start for his Senior season and put last year behind him.
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I have a single season hockey ticket for sale in section 302A right above the entryway in the upper deck. Please email me at briane@youngmfg.com if interested.
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Ah yes, that wonderful brand of DIAA caliber football that has the Northern Colorado coach refusing a penalty on the kickoff which would have killed more time off the clock and given them better field position. Not only did he accept the terrible field position, but he played ultra-conservative on top of it and forcing his team to sweat out a last second field goal attempt. By the way, gotta love that former Division I quarterback Tony Stauss, he is quite the gem. Wish the Sioux defense could continue feasting on him.
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The difference between that season and this season is that they were coming off a National Championship and weren't as hungry the following year. They lost many games by a few points and last year they won those games. They could easily have lost 3 or more games last year without incredible finishes. I just hope they take that into consideration and don't take anyone lightly.
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If I were Hakstol, I would play up our NHL-size ice when in competition in recruiting with Olympic ice schools. Let's face it, if you have NHL aspirations, wouldn't you want to be playing 75% of your games on the surface you will be playing on at the next level rather than 25%? Things happen a lot faster on the small ice, and being able to practice and play on that daily and in most games would be a benefit I would think. Just watching the World Junior evaluation camp, you can see how fast you had to make a decision with the puck once you got it. Just my 2 cents.
Coach Berenson Rips Irmen
in Men's Hockey
Posted
I think Michigan should try to think beyond the smell and try to figure out how to beat Minnesota. Maybe his players shouldn't shower as often, perhaps it is a plot to play on the minds of Michigan players. Obviously Michigan didn't want to check him, thus a free path to the net all night.