tnt

I believe Colin Forbes backed out after Gasparini was fired. Not sure if he went to major juniors or where, but has played regularly in the NHL.

Don't get me wrong, the jury is still out, and will be for a while concerning coach Hakstol. I am just saying that we have more tools left at our disposal than Minnesota. No, Minnesota didn't have a coaching change, but then again, Hakstol has been around to see how things worked under Blais for quite a while. I don't see a huge learning curve here. Why mess with 5 WCHA titles in 8 years. Maybe its a matter of the players not responding to Hakstol's threats like they did to Dean's. Responding to him differently as head coach is possible, but he needs to make it a non-factor. Whatever, I am not one to believe things can't and won't be turned around. In fact, if they can win at least one this weekend, things could turn in our favor. I fully expect to win at home from here on out against Denver and Wisconsin and sweeping Anchorage and/or St. Cloud on the road is certainly possible.

The Sioux lost Parise, Minnesota lost Vanek. The Sioux lost Bochenski, Minnesota lost Ballard. The Sioux lost Lunbohm, Minnesota lost Riddle, Koalska, Potulny. If anyone should be underachieving, it should be Minnesota.

What, all of a sudden the Sioux are the Minnesota Vikings and have no shot at winning. Oh yeah, that's right they beat the Packers. How some Sioux fans think the Sioux have no shot is beyond me. The same people with a 6 or 8 game winning streak will be flaming gopher fans about how great the Sioux are and wait till we meet again. How about some middle ground, the Sioux aren't as bad as many of you think they are, and are never as good as some have claimed them to be in the past. A little bit of motivation goes a long way.

Very disappointed is all I can say. It feels even worse with Minnesota getting swept. We could have put ourselves on par with them had we taken care of business. We'll see what this team is made of this weekend against CC. If they can catch CC in their afterglow and win twice, top 3 is still within reach. If they continue to play uninspired hockey and be satisfied with slipping into the last home ice spot, then I don't imagine they will have what it takes to go far in the playoffs. It is all ahead of them if they can get a sweep or two on the road. Splitting at home against CC and Minnesota isn't the end of the world, however when you compound it by playing unemotional hockey and splitting with Anchorage and Mankato and nearly losing the second to St. Cloud when you were coming off a losing spell, well that isn't Sioux hockey and what fans have become accustomed to. I wish I could say that goaltenders have stolen games from us, but it really doesn't feel like that this year. Here's to hoping they start to play like the team that was predicted to finish second.

I believe Markovic played for Slovakia, and he certainly didn't look out of place. With Toews coming in, I'm not sure if they are looking for someone else. I guess it depends on what Oshie is going to do.

I know Lee wasn't at the evaluation camp, but Johnson was, and to tell you the truth I wasn't all that impressed with him in the games I watched him. My friend, who has coached a lot of WCHA players wasn't much impressed with him either. Not saying he isn't a good player, but they got to evaluate him a lot that week. Perhaps they thought that it was worth it to give a very talented player a chance to show his skills at the next level.

I don't think Hammy has much credibility beyond the POI borders because his objectivity is suspect. I agree views are slanted somewhat depending on your favorite team, but he is overboard. Sagard on the other hand has a lot of credibility in my book, he tells it like it is without trying to flame when the facts are positive towards his gophers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Are we talking about Robin Anderson? I thought he was done officiating.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.