stickboy1956

Mike Chambers ‏@MChambersDP5m Hockey coach George Gwozdecky has resigned from the University of Denver. Story will be posted http://www.denverpost.com/sports in a couple minutes

Link to noon press conference here UND vs Yale replay news conf.

Disagree - Penn State could have moved to CCHA and WCHA could have stayed as is. The fact is that Big 10 made the first move - nobody forced them to do anything. They acted in their self interest, as did the schools that formed the NCHC. Those are the facts.

Our D's issues have come from losing players in coverage and not being able to get the puck out of our zone to spend time at the other end of the rink. Huge improvement from Fri to Sat re zone time, which leads to fewer coverage issues in our end. Mac will benefit from playing with Simpson. Mattson has been bad with the puck and worse without it this year. He needs to simplify or his minutes will be reduced/gone. We also need some goals!!

Budish is good - we would take him - 'nuff said - move on.

Lack of HD is only a small part of the issues with the current MIdco production. Watching the FoxSportsNorth coverage last weekend, their production should be exhibit A for MIdco Sports Net regarding where they need to go regarding production value and on-air talent. Except for Wooger, all the on-air talent was fairly restrained on the homer meter IMO. There was very little officiating whining or put-down's of the opposition, which is all too frequent in the Wally/Frank broadcast. Hankinson and Clymer also did a nice job of providing some true insights. They were also helped by an experienced production staff, which would tee up highlights that Hankinson would elaborate on, avoiding the obvious. This is the standard Midco should be striving for and their customers should put the pressure on them to follow through. Currently, the gap his huge.

Observations ... No team had a territorial advantage - fairly even zone time. UMTC converted their chances and we did not - might be a tell on who has more finishers. When you play against a team with that much skill, our D won't be perfect - calm down. What to improve on tonight: -Defend the front of our net better - UMTC packed it in last night, didn't allow 2nd chances. We had 2 D behind the goal line on their 2nd goal. - Get to scoring areas - we need to take advantage of the big rink and get open on the weakside of the rink. We got to the paint but Wilcox was strong low. We need room to snipe.

NHL CSS Mid Term Rankings - NA Skaters Thompson 51 Tambellini 62 Johnson 78 http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=77886

I actually like our speed at F vs UMTC D-men on the big pond.. Gain the zone wide with speed and work plays from the goal-line. Lot's of puck possession.

@SchlossmanGF Brendan O'Donnell expected to be scratched tonight with the return of Grimaldi. My line chart Parks Knight Kristo Grimaldi Rowney Caggiula Mitch Mac Mark Mac Gaarder Seinkbiel, Pattyn St.Clair

I'm surprised UMTC hasn't brought back their 70's/Flyers Stripe jersey as an alternate - great look from their most successful era.

I think it's too easy to blame the D for our 3rd period woes on Sat. The ice was tilted our way because UMD clogged the neutral zone, didn't allow us puck time in their zone, and created a bunch of turnovers that led to lots of puck time in our end. Our forwards/ didn't adjust to the UMD trap - they didn't get open. re: coaching - all our coaches from Blais forward, including assistants, have been Gino disciples. I don't believe from a philosophy standpoint there is much of a diff between Hak, Sandy, Eades, Berry, Blais.

Lucia is very pompous/pious. He will lecture youth coaches about skill dev/practice to game ratio, whine about NHL teams grabbing his players early - and yet he won't blink an eye when his own sons bail on their buddies and HS team for more games/"better" competition. Not saying leaving early for Jr is always a bad thing - MN kids should think twice though - there is plenty of exposure available and good coaching. Bugstad, Leddy, Nelson, McDonough, Gardiner, Oshie - just to name a few who developed quite nicely in the MNHS system.

We need a different look for the PP - we don't need impatient forwards playing the point. We have enough skill at D to man the point for both PP sets.

If they were smart, they would move the entire "Hockey Day Minnesota" event to the X.