dagies

You admitted that the two teams with the larges discrepancy were teams that normally commit a fair number of penalties anyway. That leaves Michigan as unexplained but maybe that just an exception. Overall, a difference of 24 is only about 1.5 per game on average. We fans complain about Toews and Oshie getting mugged, clutched and grabbed, and then we complain when the games are called too tight. Woog made a good point last night when LaPanta was relating a conversation Hakstol had with Campion essentially saying he'd rather not have every ticky tacky call made. Well, there is some validity to that, but like Woog said, you get to the NCAA tournament and they call the games really tight and then you are complaining that the officiating is much tighter than it was during the season. I've watched the game almost 3 times now, and most of the calls I cannot argue with. I do think Bostrom dived on one call. You could maybe argue a couple of calls but mostly it looked ok to me. My 3rd time watching Kaip's penalty it does look like he tried to give Briggs an elbow as he goes over him. Hopefully tonite the Sioux won't be in that position quite so much. After trying to refute your argument so far, I will say this. After reading your post and seeing the information you put forth, you have swayed me a little bit in your direction, more than I would have expected when I read the thread title. That said, we have to be very careful what we ask for. If we want our star players left alone, we have to put up with a lot more penalties being called, and many of them will be on our team. We have to live with that until the teams adjust.

I was surprised at the lack of chippiness we usually see between these two teams. You've come up with one reasonable explanation.

Black is slimming.

I noticed that on TV last night. Surprising considering the rivalry.

Some interesting statistics After 1st period SOG: Sioux 7 MN 15 Scoring Chances Sioux 3 MN 6 After 2nd period SOG: Sioux 20 MN 21 Scoring Chances: Sioux 14 MN 13 After 3rd period SOG: Sioux 27 MN 38 Scoring Chances: (didn't see FSN post this after the game) The numbers really tell a tale about the 2nd period. Overall: Penalties: Sioux 12-24 MN 7-14 PP: Sioux 1/5 MN 2/11 Sioux had 1 SH goal. MN scored once with an extra attacker (delayed penalty) Sioux scored 3 even strength goals. This is significant because I think MN had only given up something like 1 even strength goal in the last few games.

I suspect these were a promo item from Nike to introduce this product to the college market which is why they look so similar to Denver's, etc. If this style of jersey catches on I would assume each school's jersey would be individually designed as they are now. That said, I think these jerseys are pretty sharp looking, though I wouldn't want a design that's similar or the same as someone elses.

That's what seemed like such a killer on Duncan's goal. The Sioux had made plenty of mistakes, it seemed to me, that gave opportunities to the Gophs to get back in. Fortunately, none of them were quite as aggregious as that turnover, and the goalie didn't make the save, but Lammy did. It's the kind of goal, to be honest, I was fearing the Gophs would get with too much time left in the game. This one came to the Sioux. I could see the reverse tomorrow, but hope not.

Why would you be surprised? Let's put it this way, there was a man with her.

It's this kind of beauty that has us looking forward to the next 10,000.

It also looked like some Sioux were dogging it late in the 3rd, even in their own zone. Didn't understand that.

Oh, and Kozek appeared to be favoring that shoulder. There were times when a Gopher had the puck on the boards and the healthy Kozek would have smoked him, and tonite he just tried to play that puck. It's too bad, because I think we could use that physical presence.

Got to see the game at Senser's with Runningwiththedogs and her man. Thanks for the company! Didn't have the best view as the screen was far away so had trouble ID'ing numbers and such. Had I known the Sioux would take 11 or 12 penalties before this game, I wonder if I would have even watched it. I would not have expected to survive that many penalties, especially since the Sioux didn't have that many PP's of their own. Capping that is the fact that our captains took a penalty each, and our honorary captain 3? Gutty performance by the PK. I see Hakstol lauded Lammy's play and I was thinking he might be the PotG for the Sioux as it seemed like the Gophers had WAY too much time with the puck in the offensive zone, but he seemed to handle the shots very well. Haven't seen any stats yet but look forward to them. From what I saw on TV, though, I disagree with the fact the Sioux played well the first 10 minutes. I thought they looked rather bad from the start well into the 2nd period until the DOT line finally came out and sustained pressure in the offensive zone. I think it was the next shift or 2 when Fabian tied it up. Oshie again snake-bit on that scoring opportunity (PP?) late in the 3rd. Key play was Duncan converting the Gopher turnover to give the 3 goal cushion. That did this heart good, let me tell you. That's the kind of opportunity it seemed to me the Sioux were giving up, or just about giving up all night. Though we didn't quite give it away out front like Duncan's goal, it seemed there were too many passes out of the zone that weren't made with authority, and were kept in by Gophers. These seemed to result in multiple scoring opportunities. I would like to see that fixed before tomorrow night as I doubt we can escape 2 nights in a row that way. Very heartening to see scoring from the lower lines again. Huge. I'm not sold with Genoway on defense, but I do like him as a player. PP sure looked ragged at times, which was unfortunate given the big ice. Someone mentioned the bouncy puck and I noticed the same thing in the first period for the Sioux in the offensive zone, and it seemed the same for the Gophers in the 2nd. Could it have been that end of the ice, maybe? Gutty effort to battle back, regardless of the mistakes and weaknesses. MN hasn't given up very many even strength goals in the past several games. And the Sioux have had difficulty scoring. Tonite that might be the story of the game. I was surprised that this game was very clean in that there was very little crap after the whistle and tempers getting out of control. That was good for the Sioux, I think. I very much look forward to watching the replay so I can pick up stuff I missed the first time through, plus hear the commentary. One thing that heartens me is that I'm not sure if Gordon would have made the difference tonite. Maybe that's shortchanging the difficulty MN had with one less forward to throw out there, but while Gordon is a good player it seems to me the Sioux showed tonite they can play well enough to beat the Gophs again tomorrow. Naturally the Gophs can play well enough to beat the Sioux, but there's a chance. The Sioux didn't just "luck" this one out. GO SIOUX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes.

I understand that, I think Prp was farther along, but maybe your memory is "longer" than mine.

The Sioux still have a ways to go, IMO. They gave MN too many chances to get back into this in the 3rd from what I could see at Senser's (admittedly a long and fairly bad view).

cujo2 I agree. PCM, I'll give Zajac some time but it's high time, IMO. He should have his skates under him by now. I wonder if he's trying to be his brother, and not himself.

I thought tonite was surprisingly clean.

They had a good game tonite. Okposo was sick at times.

Okposo scares me.

Biased? You should always be careful about anyone who claims they are "fair and balanced". The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.

Oh, you beat me to it. Exactly who I was thinking of!

My gut says nothing happens this weekend, and I hope that's the case. If it does, I predict either Jones or Radke is involved, and O'Brien is involved.

Woog's Wisdom

There's a quote in this story that I think is very relevant to the whole nickname discussion. The story itself has nothing to do with the nickname issue, but I wanted the source of the quote to be credited:

Just checking to see what the crowd might be like at Senser's for the games this weekend. Anyone going?