dagies

I was also one who questioned the process although I will say I was not opposed to the actual hire and was willing to give the guy his fair shot. Hakstol has shown that he was probably as good a choice as one might have expected to get. I suppose long term results prove the point but so far I can't see arguing the choice. Being that I had publicly (at least on this site) questioned the process, I felt it right to send a congratulatory email to the coach last summer, explaining that while I was one who had preferred a different hiring process to be conducted, he had my support, for what that was worth. I was not opposed to the final selection regardless of my view of the process. I didn't want to be seen as critical at one point and backslapping him at another point down the road. It just seemed the right thing to do. And I don't remember who asked this question earlier, but yes, I included my full name.

I agree. I would have liked to see Radke play more this year, but he seemed fairly solid at the end of the year. Will be fun to watch him develop next year.

Looks like even the smart player who were affected by the rule change understand it MAKES THEM A BETTER PLAYER. Moderator's Note: Previous quote of article from Hockey's Future was removed because of this notation at the end of that article:

Yeah, and he was always yelling "HEADS UP!" right before a Sioux player laid on the big check along the boards.

I think this is correct in a lot of cases, but a couple of the gopher spin masters had a different point of view which didn't work out to well for them. Yes, unfortunately (or fortunately I suppose) Chucko appears to have a longer college career ahead of him than Zajac. Zajac certainly exceeded my expectations this year. Sioux and Gopher fans both have been very spoiled with very high achieving freshmen as of late (Vanek, Parise, et al). While both teams may continue to have someone come in with that potential (Kessel?, Toews?) in future years at some point fans of one or both teams are going to come down WAY too hard on some poor freshmen players for not carrying our teams.

Good luck, Colby. You were great this year and a real weapon the PP.

I'm not knowledgeable to "pick" this up when I'm watching a game. Have read other comments that the Sioux do a fair amount of this as well?

There's a fair amount of Les Reaney discussion around pages 26-27-28 of this thread. Check it out.

Kozek the 2nd star and 2 goals and 1 assist in a 7-3 win over Matt Watkins Vernon Vipers last night. Watkins with 1 goal.

Sweet! I love it. Avatar calendars! You avatar goes up for the month, and your sig line along with it.

If the Sioux need another defenseman, this guy is likely available and might have an incentive to come cheap (brotherly love). Bert Watkins

Someone posted this interview somewhere else. Stafford Q&A with Hockey's Future I've been one who has been concerned with how well Drew liked playing college hockey after hearing an interview on the radio with him last year. It appeared that he might not like school all that much. This quote makes me feel a lot better about his chances of sticking around:

Thanks for the heads-up, star2city: I love that quote!

Love to see that he played a physical game as well as skilled.

This is stacking up to be a really LONG offseason.

I hope Duncan IS a center. From what I could research off of Heisenberg's site, and BCHL sites, etc I could only find out Duncan is a forward. I realize a lot of rosters only list F and don't differentiate between wing and center so maybe he is a centerman. We could use some centermen. From my research, I found these guys generally listed as centers: Kaip Zajac Toews These guys were sometimes listed as F and sometimes as a C, or at least referred to as a center at times. I don't remember reading anything about any of these guys playing center though. So hopefully Duncan, or one or more of these guys has good experience as a centerman: Murray Kozek Watkins Stafford

"poorly" Pat. Not "positively". ??

That didn't stop Blais from formulating line combos in the past. I haven't paid attention to Hak's team to see how he put lines together....

I don't envy Hak's position right now because he's got these D lined up for sure right now in 2005: Marvin Radke Chorney Lee Jones Smaby and/or Greene could be gone. Bina may (probably?) not be available. Will Foyt be available as a D or as an F? It's possible neither of the Matt's situations will resolve quickly (may or may not). And even if Bina's situation takes a month to resolve right now that's a pretty critical month of recruiting time. So Hak needs to make some decisions on recruiting (or not recruiting) at least 1 defenseman for 2005. And right now time seems to be of the essence. You don't want to just go out and find a body because you're desperate, when that person will just be taking up space in future years.

I think a line comprised of 3 of the 4 you name could be very effective (Kaip, Porter, Prpich, Fabian) as a Red Pepper line.

I guess Tampa Bay is right. You just can't develop into an NHL defenseman at UND.

I think there WAS something about "settling scores".

Not that I want to put the wrap on this year yet. But there's something I want to comment on that I don't want to forget later. Power Play How about the #1 PP unit's play through the NCAA tournament? Sparky, Zajac, Stafford, Genoway and Fuher? This unit was very dangerous and capable. We'll miss Genoway and Fuher but if we can find a couple of guys to fill those roles, SZS'l line really was impressive moving the puck, making opportunities and scoring. Hopefully we won't be losing any of those guys early. With luck Murray will be back and healthy and probably will factor in on this unit too. Between Murray, Radke, Lee and maybe Chorney we should have a couple guys who can handle the puck on D and man the point on that first unit. If they can find an effective second unit, that will make our PP a very strong weapon.

We love you Matt. We love you more than Edmonton.

I previously thanked those who run the site. However I agree with Federov that PCM's contributions exceed the norm of most posters (the stories, recaps, and the information research to prove us wrong about our positions ) and deepens the whole experience here. Thanks, PCM!