dagies

jk, I was scoffing at first but as I read on I admit at the least you have an arguable position. I think Schneider picked it up at the end of the year. I'm not concerned about him next year. I thought Stafford suffered a lull in the middle but came on strong again at the end. Excited to see him next year. Massen lacked intensity too, I thought. I hope he can come back with a new effort next year. This year Zajac has been setting up a lot of Chucko's goals in SA. How nice would it be if Zajac was setting up Big James next year on a regular basis? I agree with jk on Canady. Though he played less I thought Brian played better than he had the previous 2 years. I think he has a chance to play regularly again next year. And I think other than 1 of 2 penalties I thought he did very well in that area. Prpich needs to cut down on some of the penalties. I agree with jk's position that in his first year I was very impressed with how he handled himself on the ice (even if other team's fans weren't) but this year I didn't like about 1/2 of his penalties. Prp would be one of my votes for captain IF he can still play with an edge but stay on the ice. Genoway showed stretches where he was outstanding and stretches where I thought he was barely noticeable. I don't think he plays a very "noticeable" game in the first place so maybe it's more me than him, but we need to see him consistently being a factor on the ice. A great improvement from the year before. If he can keep that progressing he'll have an excellent year next year. I grade this as a "good" year.

I'm no expert but if it went in off a Canuck maybe they give the goal to the last Calgary player who touched the puck but don't give any assists. Maybe Woog was the scorer that night.

Great article.

What if the coaches go after each other.

Lessard signs

More fun with numbers. I've compiled a list of goaltenders from the past couple of years that played in the WCHA & USHL. Let me know if I've missed anyone. I think I started this list last year so it contained anyone who was playing in 2002-03 or 2003-04. I added Karl Goehring because he is the standard to which all UND goalies will be compared against, for good or ill. I've listed their save % for each year of USHL or D1 hockey. USHL stats are listed with a U next to it. The data was collected from hockeydb and USCHO. The data is listed in order of the year they played but I didn't bother listing the actual year as we are comparing what they did each year vs. actual dates head to head. It appears to me that many, not all, goaltenders take about a .01 drop in sv% in their first year in D1. In fact, most seem to be D1 career about that much below their junior stats. Rough overview there, but that's a quick take.

Aha. Again the "haves" and the "have nots"! Just for kicks: Karl Goehring Fargo Ice Sharks 1996-1997 32 games 1909 mins 79 Goals 4 SO 2.48 GAA 13W 18L 954 svs 0.924 sv% Phillippe Lamoureux Lincoln Stars 2003-04 50 games 2873 mins 134 goals 3 SO 2.80 GAA 22W 23L 1499 svs .918 sv%

I have looked for that in the article and can't find it anywhere...

I misread Mad Man's post. I thought he was saying that was Commie's first goal. In fact he was saying Commie scored the first goal of the nc game. Big difference. Sorry about that.

Man, I forget Stafford is THAT young.

grrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgllrgrglrgrgrgrrgrgrgrglrgrgrgrgrllgrgr

jk, how's this? Should be a good season next year. Here's our incoming recruits: Lammy - USHL Goaltender of the year Radke - Top Defenceman in the AJHL Zajac - MVP of the BCHL (interior division) Spirko - skilled forward in the mold of Davey Hoogsteen (11th in the USHL in scoring and tailed off last 1/3rd of the year. But scored more goals per game played than anyone else.) Rylan Kaip - McMahon/Porter type? You hate to lose guys like Parise. But every year I get excited to see the new guys coming in. This class looks like it should contribute. We should get consistent and solid goaltending next year. We should continue to have a solid offence. We lose Lundbohm, Hale, Palmo and Parise (knock on wood). Bringing in Radke (offensive D), Zajac, Spirko and Kaip we should, repeat should, be able to replace if not deepen our offensive capability. Our Defense should be even better with Bina and Smaby having a year of exp. We might lose the intangible leadership of Parise. On the other hand, we might pick up a team where more guys feel they need to step up and carry the load. Should be a fun year. The team (at this point in time) appears to be a contender again.

Article on Phil in today's Herald Lammy

Conboy appeared from afar to be one problem after another for Dahl. He may not have needed to do much for it to be the last straw.

We can talk about Conboy being done at St. Cloud. It's at least related. Ok.....well, that's about that.

Conboy gone from St. Cloud State due to a violation of team rules Conboy booted

Agreed. I don't buy Nike gear out of principle, and I'm glad now I have a jersey I like because it looks like it will be an awfully long time until I get another for 2 reasons: 1. I don't buy Nike stuff 2. The Nike knock-offs are not the same as the on ice jersey. Gemini produced an exact copy back in the good old days. I want to wear what's on the ice or else I'll go with a sweatshirt or something. Bring back Gemini.

Only on TV but I'm ALL for that.

How about Alice Mini Cooper?

While we are on the topic of the Anthem, I'd like to turn off on a different road (since this one seems to be dead ending). I would like to propose one of 2 things regarding the Anthem at hockey games: 1. Do the Anthem BEFORE player introductions. Due to the overwhelming numbers of contemporary singers who feel they need to "over-sing" the Anthem, I find it sucking the life out of the crowd right after we got worked up during intro's. Why not play the Anthem, then work the crowd into a lather and drop the puck. Keep some continuity in the emotional flow of the game. They do this at my niece's D3 basketball games and it works MUCH better. 2. Singers, the Anthem is a great song on it's own. It's not meant to be prettified. It doesn't lend itself to prettifying. It's a grand song, not a pretty song. It's not a love song. It's a strong song. Sing it straight forward. It sounds SOOOOO much better that way. I will say this year's Final Five as a whole was MUCH better than previous years.

I think you are wrong if you think that practice has ended at Mariucci. I will say I was not at Mariucci this year for the first time in many years, so maybe I'm wrong.

Well, there's the "haves" and the "have nots". I'm the "skates not".

I did not mean to imply that a season trifecta was better than a back-to-back national championship. My point was that you really have to do well consistently in that one season in order to win all three "titles" whereas you don't have to be as consistent to win any one of the 3.

I'm at 173! Does that make me a better college player than Sagard at 200? O wait....