dagies

Got my copy of the book for Christmas. Just finished reading it a few days ago. When you read the book, you understand better Blais' comments about how "the program is bigger than anyone one person". What a storied tradition. I have nothing to do with the book, but I would say that it should be required reading for any Sioux hockey fan. I know others have talked about this book before, and that is why it ended up on my "wish" list. I'm glad they did. I showed it to one of my SCSU fan/friends. He is a big hockey fan and he even wants to read it. He's very jealous of our history. I went to UND from 1984 - 1987. Man, I wish I had been about 4-5 years earlier!

I quite emailing them because I sent 3 emails in the past that were not responded to. I'm glad to hear improvement is in the offing. Can't wait!

Good one, CAUNDfan! :biggrin:

Go4Fan, I want to be clear that I agree there are plenty of Sioux fans capable of acting in the same manner as I am currently accusing goofer fans. Just that the goofs are on top now so you notice more of them. Every team has plenty of good fans, reasonable people who enjoy talking up their team, and beating the competition. Every team has their share of fans who cruise the gutters. CAUNDfan, be careful. Fans should mock the goaltender whereever they are! :biggrin: That being said, no one said one has to like the fans from another team. I myself have heard enough goofer fans yelling "Oh Canada!" when the Sioux were beating the gophers to last a lifetime. Go4Fan, I hope you will participate in this board. I think you might be the first poster from another team I have ever seen here.

Go4Fan, I agree that there have been Sioux bandwagon jumpers, and a guy out there right now called Falconer who is the worst. But to say that the Gopher fans are confident and not arrogant is not correct. You probably aren't one of them. And many of you are not arrogant. But there are plenty of them coming through the woodwork. If you were a Sioux fan and read these posts from other sources, you might perceive arrogance, not confidence. To be fair, there are lots of "confident" posters out there as well. But I believe anyone who says there are some pompous gopher fans is not exaggerating. By the way, welcome to our board! "Just win and the silence from sioux fans will be deafening. Like i siad, reality check for the sioux is coming. I guess they forgot we did just as well out there as they did." "Then Ballard is back for sundays game. They can watch there powerplay guy in Marronn and gold. Do think Blais is still kicking himself in the butt." "Okay i do have something to say. I expect a sweep, nothing less. UND is feeling good about themselves. It is time to put them back into reality" UND stands no chance Especially at Mariucci. Ralph Engelstad is the devil THE GOPHERS WILL SWEEP! Screw the Sioux. Reality check is coming The Gophers have a very good shot at the National Title this year, even better shot next year, and the year after that and so on..............North Dakota better head for the hills. Meet the offense from ####. Your nightmare is just begining. Don't kid yourselves. North Dakota's filled with nothing but right wing commies!!!!!!! Ralph Engelstad is the devil! GO GOPHERS! Re: North Dakota: Great Lakes Invitational Champs!!!! Who the #### cares? Prepare to get demolished this weekend. It's payback time baby! And here is one from a gopher fan to other gopher fans: "Gopher fans don't need to get so arrogant because it looks like the team is tremendously better. Remember that is why every team in the country hates us. Let's let the team do the talking." Hey fans do this stuff all the time. I admitted already the Sioux have had their share. It shows up when a team is playing great, they go away when they aren't. the goofs are up right now, so some of the fans are feeling their oats. Some of us read this stuff, and we want to win a game even more than before.

I agree, Scott. It's going to be tough to get points but there is a possibility if we play like we do in the first period of many of these games THE WHOLE GAME. I would like nothing better than to toss some water on the goofer fans right now. Many, not all, of them are pretty pompous. Probably like some of the Sioux bandwagon jumpers of the past few years. I don't expect to see Kollar play either game this weekend. I expect a Brandt/Siembida rotation. We gotta stay out of the box or we'll get killed. Keep the aggressive approach going. Get the puck OUT of our zone. I'm excited about Massen playing on a higher line. Looks like he is creating and getting some chances. I thought he played well on Sat night game that I watched. Saturday night is our chance to win, IMO. I think there is a gathering of fans to watch the game at Grandma's. Otherwise, I don't know where people go before the game.

Taz, if there is one thing missing on this board it is Hobey Dan to stir the pot a bit. Don't feel you have to be nice. We're all too nice here. :biggrin:

Any bets that we won't be able to read about this game again tomorrow morning.......?

Overanalysis: I wonder how this weekend;s games will affect the Sioux from here on. We let MI back in the game, and MI takes it to us in OT. But we squeek through with the win. Tonite we allow State to get back in the game with a horrible last 9 minutes or so. But we come out and play aggressive and take it to State in OT and we win the game. After the game on the radio Skarperud said this team needs to learn how to play with a 1-2 goal lead. Anyone think they might have learned something tonite?

Heidisioux, I have been wondering about the 3rd period thing too. Here is my take on it. The Sioux teams of the past were loaded with very fast forwards. They ran other teams ragged in the first couple periods. This years team has some speed, but not overwhelming. But we do have more size. We are not wearing other teams out at this time. And our inexperience in showing in how we play with a lead. Once we learn how to play with a lead better we'll be ok. Any agree with me? Disagree?

I saw Kollar suited up on the bench on tv tonite. I doubt they had 3 goalies suited up, so I am guessing he's the guy.

I thought Siembida looked pretty good. Seemed to have good position most of the time. Too bad that 4th goal snuck through. I would have felt badly for him had the Sioux lost the game. He does like to get out from the goal and a couple of times I was scared he was going to get himself in trouble, but got away from it. Looks like he could be a solid goalie. Way to go, kid. I guess he met the team at the Mpls airport on the way to MI, and then he gets thrown in the championship game. Hennessey just interviewed him. Sounds like a pretty sharp guy. Way to go, Blais, in finding him. Good weekend for the Sioux. I'm looking forward to seeing them at Mariucci next weekend.

I'm getting tied of poor play on the special teams. With all due respect to Notermann and Spiewak who are very effective on the PK, they don't have much else going well on PP or PK, in my opinion, and haven't when I have watched games this year. I hope they can figure that out somehow. I haven't played the game so I don't know what it takes. Anyone have any insight?

Probably doesn't hurt that Massen played on the top line as per his point production. Good to see him contributing. Also good to see Fournier get a couple more assists too. I'm cautiously optimistic about yesterdays game. I have to be careful here because all I could see were scoring updates but couldn't listen or watch the game. But it seemed so similar to recent games. Other team comes out with lead, Sioux play well and gain lead, Sioux lose lead in 3rd. Only this time they found a way to win in OT. They deserved that. I just hope they can find a way to put a team away. It sounds like they played a pretty good game yesterday overall. But lets face it, MI was without a number of their good players, missing more than the Sioux are missing. And we barely pulled this one out. IF Siembida is going to play tonite it will be interesting to see how he does. He's going to get thrown right into the fire, that's for sure. Let's hope he can handle that kind of pressure. It's a tought spot to be put in, but like Tom Kelly, I like that Blais is going to throw the new guy right in, so they don't sit on the sidelines and get themselves psyched out. Good luck tonite Sioux. Keep up the aggressive play, and keep it for 60 minutes. Protect your goaltender.

Mazurak hurt his knee in the WI? series? He has a sprained tendon or something like that. I think the prognosis was for him to be out about 6 weeks. That would have got him back mid Jan though I read somewhere he was hoping to be back by the MN series. That was very optimistic.

"Don't know if anyone noticed on Kolanos winning goal, the Sioux were lined up three across at the blue line, with Panzer in the middle (this after an excellent Sioux chance, a tip by Spiewak, just missed, with both Sioux wings on the forecheck). Kolanos basically got Schneekloth to lean inside, where there was absolutely no room to go, then beat him outside. A successful one on three, not too cool. The defensive positioning, however, was excellent, the Schneekloth whiff, very poor" Sprig, this is the kind of hockey talk a novice like me really appreciates. Now I want to go watch the end of that game to see what you are talking about. Never played the game, but try learn about the game as I go.

HKN, I have to agree with some of what you say.

Geez, was that it? I've got to quit relying on memory. I think you are right.

Now do I have to respond to your other thread to, or should we just cut this down to one? I was wondering how much of this might be related to remedial training for the younger guys. Lets hope they are quick learners.

Here is an interesting article from today's Herald. Essentially says that Blais has decided this team is not going to be an offensive force this year and is going to change to a more defensive style of play. My first response to that is UGH. I have seen this team go into a defensive shell in the 3rd period of the Mankato Friday game where we were up like 5-2 or so and it stunk. I hope the whole games will not look like that. Not only boring but we weren't that good at it. http://web.northscape.com/content/gfherald...VFFRONT1228.htm

Yes, the Sioux should be disappointed if they lose today. MI is also a very young team like the Sioux, and are missing a number of their young players. Imagine if the Sioux were to have lost Schneider, Jones, Fournier and Bochenski. We'd be in tough shape today. A win should be expected today. I don't think Massen is going to be on the first line today. If memory serves, Blais commented that he thought Skarp and Bayda were playing real well together and wanted to get a center to play with them. It was either them or Bayda and Bochenski. I can't remember who he commented on. He would like to put Lundbohm with them. I predict Spiewak will be centering the first line of Skarp and Bayda today. I'm looking forward to seeing who is on the ice. in the Postgame of the last St. Larry game, Blais had said the team will have conditioning tests done the following Tuesday, and then would go on Christmas break, and immediately on return from break would have conditioning tests done again to see if anyone "fell down" over the holiday. He said he fully expected every player to enjoy some time off but that they must keep up their conditioning over break. If there are any surprises in the line-ups today I would suspect it is due to a failure to keep up their conditioning over break. This is just my guess.

I agree Heidi. While I have not been impressed with Andy's play for most of this year, I was and am still pulling for him. I feel badly for him as we all know this is not how he wants things to go. But as Scott said, you are only as good as your last game and Andy had more than a fair chance to work himself out of his funk earlier this season. It is now someone else's turn as long as they can prove they can play better. If Andy can come back to prove he is equal or better than our other goaltending options, then I will cheer him back on the ice. As stated, it is also true that this team needs more improvement than just in goal. This team is where it is currently at because of the play of the whole team.

I agree with the PP observations, HKN. In Mankato, I think the lines were Bayda, Spiewak, Lundbohm Notermann, Hale, Skarperud? Bochenski, Fournier, R. Connelly Canady, McMahon, Massen? I'm not absolutely positive on the 2nd and 4th line combos but I'm pretty sure I'm close. And the 1st and 3rd lines were about right on. I tell you what I think; these lines worked well. However, Blais was critical of the backchecking on that 3rd line and it was broken up. I would personally rather see them work out those kinks if they worked well together offensively. However, there might be a reason Blais is paid the big bucks to coach and I'm only a fan. One could be because I have never played the game......:biggrin: HKN, I sense you are not happy with the changes in the lines.

whew!

Nice article on the Brandt in the Herald today. http://web.northscape.com/content/gfherald.../BRANDT1227.htm