farce poobah

If we don't turn over the ball, and if special teams are average (no blocked punts!), I think UND's defense wins it. 14-3 Sioux.

... and Winona at four is hilarious.

I don't suppose you know anyone who works at the Kohl Center?

WAY too early to face probably the toughest series of the season. On the other hand, I may be happier to play WI right now rather than later. They lost their top 5 scorers and a couple guys on D who logged a lot of minutes. Maybe we can catch them before they are ready for the juggernaut named Sioux. We absolutely need Finley or Jones, and if both are healthy I like our chances. I don't think WI has the firepower to beat us 5x5, and in a match up of powerplays I'll take Toews-Oshie-Duncan any day of the week. The wild card is how does the home team react to the distractions of Banner Raising Night and the accompanying hoopla. Here's hoping they spend the night watching the rafters.

Positives: ** Oshie Toews and Duncan looked better than last year. ** Phil looked solid in goal, just one iffy play in several periods. ** Several of the rookies can play the game at this speed - Bishop, Zajac, Genoway stood out for a lot of people. ** Some of the guys who didn't play much last season also played solid - Bina, Brad Miller. ** Depth on PK - can roll 6 forwards through Negatives: ** Second PP unit - guys who've not been in that role at UND. ** Without Finley and without Jones our D will have troubles. We need at least one to be playing well at Wisconsin. Status Quo: ** If you wear a Holy Cross jersey around the Ralph, be prepared for a lot of high fives.

You will kneel before T.O.D.

FINAL Iowa State 28 UNI 27 UNI with a 51-yard field goal attempt that missed with 6 seconds left. Sounds like a great game. And a heartbreaker. Guess that makes the Sioux 3 points better than Iowa State.

Might be kinda fun watching Matt Carle grow into an NHL all star. But I don't know how you could possibly give up all this to go watch professional hockey in California. Like, the arena would be a step down.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=11797

I stepped away from this for a couple days, so I tried to write a summary of this thread to make sure I got everything right. Can you guys check and see if I got everything? Schneider is both a great big sieve on a sucky team and a great goaltender destined to carry his sucky team singlehandedly to the Frozen Four, if he has to give up 14 goals on 81 [edit: 83] Sioux shots to do it. Boyle is a big time player, and he proved it by scoring zero points in two games at the Frozen Four, which makes him better than Toews, who only had one goal in one game. Toews is too young to make the list and too young to be the MVP of the West Regional. CHN thinks more of their readers are from BC and Michigan so they had to pick their players so that it will help their ratings. Plus, Boyle scares the snot out of Starman, so he had to put him on the list. Michigan has good news - two preseason All Americans. The bad news is that these are the same guys that led them to a phenomenal run in last season

Oh, the irony.

I really do NOT LIKE the new "nickname comparison" factor. Teams nicknamed after large predatory mammals win the comparison against smaller predatory mammals; all predatory mammals win the comparison against all other mammals. Non-human mammals win the comparison against humans. And of course, teams with Native American nicknames rank at the bottom of the NCAA heap.

More proof that UND>NDSU.

[puff, puff, puff] Just got back from work. Hurried back because I was sure this would be a nailbiter. Thanks for posting the game guys.

Sux to B.U., buddy.

Its in now. Cool. Thanks for forwarding!

Just got back from the Twins game. (which was also fun, Boooooof! Booooooof!) You guys collectively deserve a SS.com Hall of Fame Thread nomination. I'm laughing, I'm crying, I piffed my pants, .... one for the ages. Would like to hear from anyone who saw it in person - must have been something special to be there. Congrats Sioux!!!!!!!!

JK, Great start to a thread. As a perennial optimist, I share the sentiment, and I agree this team has the potential to be great. So what are the possible shortcomings of this team? What did we lose that will be hardest to replace? I can think of two things, both of which have been mainstays to recent Sioux success: 1) Mean. We lost a bunch of mean, particularly Smaby and Prpich. Will this year's team be mean enough, will we play with the same edge, that recent Sioux teams have had? A team takes on the character of its best players and its lockerroom leaders; last year = Smaby, a guy who fractured his arm and then went back out for a few more shifts. We've all seen talented but underperforming teams (not to name names, but we've seen somebody's season end the last 2 years ) and the difference is mixing in meanness, grittiness, "role players" with the abundance of pure hockey talent wearing Sioux jerseys this year. 2) Goal. The most important position in hockey, and JPar was a great fit for what was needed behind the Sioux defense - terrific at making the first save and putting rebounds where a D can get it. Will Phil step forward and end his career the way Andy Kollar did? or the way Jon Casey did (after seeing national titles from the bench as an underclassman, leading the team as an upperclassman) ... I think he has the potential to surprise on the upside. All in all, the ingredients are definitely in place. What becomes of that potential is, as the cliche goes, up to the players.

My favorite use of a helmet was at the 2001 WCHA Final Five when Karl Goehring made the save with a header.

I hope UND doesn't limit their thinking to UND alums ... we'd never have gotten Blais, to name just one, if thinking gets too narrow. That said, I think James Patrick would be a great choice, both as a coach and as a recruiter ... This also opens the door to naming an associate head coach - which could be the new hire or Eades. (We'd probably lose Eades if he was not named.)

OK, so I'm coming in to the end of the discussion here, but from what I can read, it sounds like Kessel is going to turn pro because he's sick of playing in 3rd place games. Did I get that right?

Hey, I'm happy to see Johnson go to school get schooled in the WCHA.

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