dagies

Just started listening a few minutes ago. All I hear and read is Zaba making saves. SOOOO. Anybody notice ZABA HAS A SHUTOUT GOING

CC came to MN and swept the #1 team in the nation in their own barn. We come right back out to CC's home and play them tough. Sounds like we had a little undisciplined play at the end that cost us. That is to be criticized. But on the big sheet, with a fast, offensively talented team we kept their SOG manageable and gave ourselves a chance to win. Sounds like had we buried some chances we would have won. Hakstol can't make players score goals. I don't like to lose, but I can accept this one. Hopefully this team will knock off the undisciplined play tomorrow night at bad times. We can play with CC. Last week, lots of us wondered if we could even share the rink. Can't wait for tomorrow night. I bet the boys in Green can't either.

Good looking kid. Just proves baby clothes should be green, not blue or pink.

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't recruit some of those high flyers. Still, I would guess the coaching staff thought their best options/chances were with some BCHL'ers this season. That, and I think Duncan had a choice between the USHL and the BCHL and chose the BCHL route.

I like to imagine waking up with a million bucks under my pillow but in the end it's pointless.

Ok, that's just funny.

On defense there can be stars who don't score a lot of goals.

I think it is entirely possible that comments people make on a message board COULD impact how a recruit feels about attending a particular university. I think it depends on what is said, and whether or not their is a prevailing opinion that might be negative, etc.

Great article, Pat. Drew sounds like a good interview. I like that he feels he learned some things that might help him as a player down the stretch.

I believe he's accelerated his schooling and is considered a senior in high school now.

Wooger: Toews - pronounced "Lundblom"

I think all this proves is that UND is better at playing together as a team, and MN players play more individually. (shall I add the winking smiley here?)

I may be naive but I can't think but it can help, though I won't argue that it would be a major factor. For a young kid to have a section yelling his name, or to see signs from a particular school saying they want him? Yes, I would think that contributes to developing a positive connection to the school in the kid's mind. I can't see how it would hurt, and if it can't hurt it can only help. I don't think a lot of players would go to a university to play hockey if NO fans whatsover came to the game. Just play the game in an empty building. How much fun is that. So the kid is thinking about a fun crowd and atmosphere to be in. Have fans of a particular university showing you their interest in having YOU at their school playing hockey only seems like a positive to me.

The man asked for how it could happen and I think PCM laid out some reasonable scenarios. I gathered that some CC players got under the skin of some gopher players this weekend. If so, we'll have to do a good job of staying out of the box. I don't think CC is real big. Maybe if we can bang them around a bit they'll lose interest.

It's not clear if the Kessel to BU thing is legit or not. Gives non-gopher fans some hope but could be false hope. Time will tell. Regardless, Coach Hak got the job done on a big time recruit, it appears. Congratulations to him. WELCOME JONATHAN, TO THE FIGHTING SIOUX!

This is the way I read that statement as well.

Isn't there a story about Chelios verballing to Gino, then going to WI? And I thought maybe Kobesew or Kolonos had verballed to Blais and then went to BC. I'm not really sure about this though. Anyone?

Wonder which gopher fan that reads these boards called up and tried to get Hak to comment on Toews and Kessel....

I always thought the checking line was out there to shut down the other team's top line.

..................................so what have I been doing here these past few years?......

I didn't say I agreed with everything he says. Still I think he does a pretty good job of describing the game.

Personally, I think Woog does a good job of giving credit to the other team when they deserve it, or being critical of a gopher, or correcting Mazzacco when he complains about a penalty call. Woog is a big time homer, but IMO he's plenty balanced in his evaluation of the game. I think he does a great job.

I'm curious....did MN have a coaching change over the summer? Right. Didn't think so. Now, let's look at the guys who we generally think are performing to or exceeding expectations. Seems like the prevailing attitude is we're pretty happy with our freshmen. They are Hak's first class where he's the head coach. Most of our angst seems focused on the upper classmen, guys that were used to Blais as the coach. Hypothetically speaking, what if these upper classmen aren't responding to Hak the way they did with Blais? Of course, that would be overlooking the past few years where the "lack of intensity", "we didn't get the bounces", "we ran into a hot goaltender" was used too often IMO. Certainly, in this hypothetical situation, Hak can be held to some account that he's not getting some comfortable players ready to play each night. Can't argue that. But if his freshmen are responding to him in this manner, what happens if next year's class responds as well as this year? How much credit should Hak get then? I don't know what the issues are. I don't know if it's coaching, or talent, or what. I'm willing to see how this plays out in the long run. I'm not any more happy with the way things are going right now than anyone else. But I'm not yet ready to lay sole blame on Hak, either.

I remember fairly well many MN fans earlier this season saying there is no additional pressure to be ranked #1 because everyone guns for the gophers anyway. In reading that board today it appears there are many who would not agree with the earlier sentiment.