dagies

I saw a quote from Bradford earlier this fall and if I remember it correctly, he said the BCHL was a more offensive oriented league and the USHL a better defensive league. I was left with the impression that he felt overall the hockey was better in the USHL. I think he might have said the BCHL was a bit rougher but don't remember for sure on that one.

I agree. It could be a long year. And then again, it may not. Time will tell. For those above who think that any criticism of the team is being called into question, you're reading too much into your detractors. No one has to LIKE what's been going on, but analyze the situation with a little perspective before calling for the coaches head, or blaming all our problems on the refs, etc. I'm critical of a transition game that looked horrible against MN and apparently has been a problem at other times. I'm critical of forwards to don't come back to help out the defensemen break out of the zone, or coaches who either put a system in place that allows that to happen, or don't correct the forwards RIGHT NOW. I'm critical of player leadership that appears to take repeated bad penalties on the ice often at bad times. I'm critical of putting defensemen into roles that they may not be able to handle (if you're asking them to make passes that stretch their capabilities) IF YOU DON'T CORRECT IT IN TIME. Remember, one way to improve your players is to put them into situations that cause them to stretch their comfort zones. When you do that sometimes they make mistakes. But they might be better in that situation when faced with it later on. Could be the coaching staff is doing this now. OR, is finding out what kinds of things our players are and are not good at, analyzing it, and putting a package together that incorporates their strengths. I'm critical of players who won't or can't change and adapt how they play to fit how rules are being called on the ice (IF we see other teams/players adapting more quickly) and the coaches who don't assist them in that process by letting them watch the game from a location where things aren't moving so quickly (bench/press box). I'm critical of officials who have a mandate and sometimes follow it and sometimes don't. Plan your work, work your plan. As for the officials, we complained for years about the crap our guys had to skate through. Do we honestly think our guys didn't do some of the same things we saw other teams getting away with?? I haven't seen our coach complaining that our problems are caused by the referring, or many players (of any team). While I will question how few times we've been on a 5x3 PP while we operate 3 men down 2-3 times per game I know from watching the games with MN we USUALLY asked for it. See 3 paragraphs above. So I say let's have a bit more pride. Quit blaming the refs for all of our problems. Quit calling for the coaches head WAY to early in the process. Quit ripping on the quality of talent on this team. Let the head coach settle into his role and grasp his responsibilities Let the players work through their myriad and individual areas for improvement. Let the officials call the game properly and observe it over a period of time Let the player leadership mature into their roles. Yell, scream, and criticize decisions and play if you feel it calls for it. But don't oversimplify the problems, and don't give up. How would we like it if our team or coach did that?

While we don't like getting outplayed in the 3rd, don't forget that NE didn't play last night. Another reason to have some perspective.

By the time the pony express got the news up here it was too old to draw interest.

Just got home and read this thread. Wasn't expecting to beat BC but hoped we'd see the right effort and execution to show we're back on track. From reading this thread it looks like we didn't possess that for the first 40 minutes of the game which is very very discouraging. Very. Nice to see the guys put it together for a decent third period, but we saw a good 3rd period in Mankato and what did it get us? Outplayed at home against MN. So I'm hopeful but not necessarily optimistic. I hope like all others that this team can build on its third period tonite and maybe it can. I guess we'll see tomorrow. Cudo's to Porter for getting a couple of big goals. Hopefully we can get a few more guys rolling. Hey, those of you who listened or better yet watched the game, how did our offense do in transition tonite? Did we do better making that first pass and passing in the neutral zone? Overall, losing to BC in their building 4-3 isn't that bad. The way we played the first 2 periods, however, seems to leave a lot to be desired.

Good, our identity is becoming more clear! gopher fans are arrogant, Sioux fans are "righteously indignant". Someone start the count!

Not at all. Blais made comments as well. Doesn't mean gopher fans couldn't reject their merit or accuracy. In fact, I think even a few did!

I think people are reacting to Lucia's (perceived) righteous indignation.

The Herald says McMahon is on the trip and will play Sat.

Yes, I do, don't I.

Rough play? Oh no not that.... Chucko got a penalty on Sat for hitting from behind or boarding I forget which. All I know is I saw his hand with the butt end of this stick go into the upper back of the Sioux player he put into the boards. Am I naive enough to think young Chucko really buried the end of that stick in his gloved hand so it didn't dig in to the Sioux player's back.....? Nope.

Someone might correct my memory here but I heard Fabian interviewed between periods of a game on the radio earlier this year and I believe he said he came into the zone and Smaby hit him harder than he's ever been hit in his life. He was talking about how he's told the rookies that if they can survive in practice against our defensemen, they'll do just fine in the rest of the league because our guys beat you up.

It's never wrong to go and watch live college hockey.....if you can cheer against the evil neighbors

I agree. I noticed Murray was constantly dropping the biscuit but no one was there. Or if there was they had the wrong color jersey on. Don't know his injury but maybe he didn't want to carry the puck deeper or shoot himself for some reason and that's why he kept doing this. I was thinking he needs to be more aware if anyone is following him.

Murray looks really fast from what I saw. And I noted he put a pretty good lick on a gopher during one of the games. Good for him.

Yes, in watching the 2 games on TV every time Spirko had the puck I was paying close attention. He's fun to watch.

Seems like they are missing out on a good opportunity to get into public view now that the NHL is locked out.

I get frustrated with our power play but to be honest, I think it is improving. At times this weekend it looked very good. At times very poor. But I think it's improving.

You're close. It's "one man's goon is another man's hard-nosed player".

Just a scheduling situation. It happens this way every year and it makes it really tough to really evaluate league standings until after Christmas.

I've only watched these 2 games but I thought we are better on face-offs than recent years. I think we won the face-off battle both nights. At least both nights we led after 2 periods on face-off stats. Zajac won several.

Watched both games on TV. MN looked awfully good. Yeah, maybe Lucia tinkered with a few players but come on, how could they lose to AA? R Potulny is absolutely money with the puck. He also seemed to know exactly what he was going to do with the puck. Shoot for an upper corner, and he normally hit it. I never want to see him with the puck again in the offensive zone. I'm struggling like everyone to understand what's up. Though we had a better showing on Friday neither night was I terribly impressed with the offensive flow and transition game our team had. Penalties can take their toll as in Friday's game, but on Sat it looked like the first game of the year. I was thinking about this as I sat in the car for 5 hours today...Are the Sioux installing some new offensive systems that call for the defenseman to make a long first pass? Would that be why Woog was critical of Sioux forwards for not coming back to help out all weekend? I have no idea so am throwing this out there...Maybe we're asking our defenseman to do something new with the puck, and they are struggling to get it done effectively. It's the only rational answer for our horrible transition game. As some else noted, passes 2 feet behind all the time. No flow, no tape to tape full speed flow. I can't believe our forwards are consistently as "lazy" as Woog was criticizing them, so there must be another reason. This was all I could come up with. There's no reason why the loss of Lundblohm, Hale, Parise and Bochenski should cause our transition game and ability to carry the puck through the neutral zone to vanish. We have enough guys who should be able to handle this. So what's up? Radke looks like he's got a ways to go but is catching up and you could see some potential. Also nice to see he's not afraid to be physical. Spirko is fantastic handling the puck in small areas. Really fun to watch. Zajac also looks strong, but Spirko might be the more dynamic player. Kaip looks real solid as well. Great freshman class. Looking forward to seeing Lammy play more too. What did Canady do that he only got a shift or 2 in the first period and then sat until the game was out of hand in the 3rd? Or did I just miss him on TV? I don't buy that our defenseman have to be that afraid of playing defense. Hit the guy with the puck, don't slash him, don't hook him, but get in front of him. Don't throw the stick out at the guy without the puck who's skating by you... Looking for answers....

Slappy, fans have every right to expect whatever they want from their own team. I have no idea why you would come here and make an issue of that.