dagies

It was reported this week that Hakstol said that O'Donnell is healthy. I think there was some credible talk earlier that he'd been dinged up for a while. Could be a matter of playing his way into the lineup during practice now?

WOW!

I'm pretty close with you but would take the green geometric logo jersey over the diagonal stripes. That jersey style just never "took" with me.

Yes, but did they try for Doc Emmerick, or did they just settle for Hammer?

Just win, baby.

I'm so sorry, SiouxSurvivor. You should have invalidated my entry for being vague. I will take MARK MacMillan. That was who I was thinking of when I wrote my selection originally. Thank you!

Friday - MacMillan Saturday - Rowney

I like your concept idea. I'll be frank. I think the new font used on so many UND items, and that used at center ice, is just terrible. I can't put my finger on it but it seems 2nd rate. I think your concept looks much better.

I'd like to have seen some better play as well, but I think we have the right coaches to get there.

BTW, I wasn't complaining or insinuating anyone owed me more notice. Those were just my observations.

I've heard Hak say that he worries less about SOG and more about scoring chances. Unfortunately, that's not a stat that's tracked officially. Would be interesting to attend a scoring chance idendification seminar some day and learn a little more about what makes a Grade A or a Grade B chance. Would be interested to compare those stats Friday over Saturday to see what that looks like, considering that SOG took about a 180 degree flip.

What I find interesting about that explanation is that I can normally find both the Friday and Saturday game on my DirectTV schedule so I can set up the DVR. This week, before leaving for Grand Forks on Friday morning I was only able to find the Friday game. As of Friday morning the Saturday game didn't show on the schedule. Perhaps they anticipated a bandwidth issue and therefore did not advertise the possible showing in order to avoid getting people's expectations set. Personally, I have no idea why they pulled it and have no conspiracy theories as to why. I just think they knew they weren't going to show it earlier than when the news came out on Saturday.

Yes, it's probably fair, then, to ask if the system these guys are being asked to play fits their abilities. I don't know the answer to that, but I've got faith that Berry is the right man for the job and am confident that will come around. The toughness would have been squeezed out of MacWilliam by the new rules and the officiating of those rules, not by UND's coaches. But, again, I understand your point about Berry. I'll still stand by Berry and am confident in the end we'll be happy with the results regardless of whatever is the reason for some of the current issues.

I think Berry coached the group back with Schneider, Greene, Fuher, Jones, etc. They were tough and defensively responsible then. I doubt Berry forgot how to do that. But do you really think this group of D-men are built the same way those were? Even a big guy like Forbort never has been a physical player. I'm not a coach but I think you have to tailor your style to the type of players that you have, not try to force them into a system that's not conducive to their skills. I was there for both games this weekend. I cheered for Pattyn even though I would normally agree that may not have been the smartest thing. On Friday night the Sioux played like they didn't care if they were even in the rink. My buddy and I commented that was clearly evidenced by the fact that there were 0 power plays for either team until into the 3rd period. Playing Sioux hockey, how is that even possible? So I was happy to have Pattyn come out and showed that he cared about something, anything, on the ice. I would normally be critical for the reasons you mentioned, but this time I actually appreciated it. It backfired because of a fortunate bounce off the back wall out to Hanowski and he made the team pay. But if the Sioux had killed that off I think they would have really had a nice momentum swing. But even more impressive was that the team responded after that, and didn't deflate unlike Friday night after the first goal.

Just call it "The National Cup".

Thing is, Hak seems more willing to be human when being interviewed by Katie and I've wondered if it isn't because of the connection.

I think Katie Hale does a pretty nice job.

HAHA! It does suck to lose a 2 goal lead. Even at that point I said to myself the Sioux need 5 to win this game and I was unfortunately correct. What kept me from feeling horrible was the nice rebound in OT. Rather than give up to MN's mo built over the last several minutes of the 3rd period the Sioux really outchanced the gophers in OT. Seemed to me they really took over the mo. A couple of posts, and don't forget the puck rolling off Simpson's stick on the wrap-around chance that I was sure was going to win the game. I don't disagree that the tie sucks, especially coming that close to winning. But at the same time I'm at least encouraged with how the team responded there and I think that bodes well for the future. I guess we'll see, but overall I felt like the team improved over the weekend so that's a silver lining.

So...you play a guy who shouldn't be in the lineup to ensure that he can't make himself unavailable for the lineup?

Hopefully all we learned last night is the gophers have peaked and the Sioux have yet to.

I just cannot believe the diagonal striped jersey is going to make the final. Not my favorite

Friday Rowney Saturday Mark MacMillan

I wonder if the refs are looking at D1 hockey as a teaching level, and that's why they spend more time talking to the players about what they did. If that's true, I can understand why they are doing it and can actually agree it could be a good thing. Just looking for a positive.

I've not heard anything about this "rumor" but I cannot believe Grant Potulney's personal feelings about Grimaldi had anything to do with what went down. This just sounds laughable on the surface.

Exactly. CC was called with a bogus penalty on a clean hip check. I think that penalty allowed the Sioux to tie at 1, if I recall the sequence correctly.