dagies

Received confirmation from someone I know and trust who says that my memory is incorrect and MN will play the Friday night game if they are playing on Friday.

I'm only going off of a very sketchy memory here, but I thought there was something a couple years ago where the WCHA said it was not going to use the automatic Gopher/Friday night game deal?

Watching Saturday's game I thought Bucky looked VERY good. Eaves has been happy with his team's play lately even if they weren't winning and Hakstol was similarly impressed. If they play like they did on Saturday I think they will give any team all they want. This is why I think they will beat Mankato who will not be an easy opponent.

I will vouch for your early optimism. Reading above it starts to remind me of 1997. I think the team has a chance because they have solid goaltending and seem to have a fairly balanced offense. I worry if the defense is strong enough to shut down the opponents sufficiently. We could use LaPoint but such is life. Like Sagard says, anyone in the tourney has a chance and I think this team has the makeup to be a contender. I also agree they cannot be considered a favorite. Just a challenger. A team no one should want to face. I also don't want to face MN in the tourney. Like yzerman19 said on another post, they owe us and one day that bill will come due. Just like we owe BC.

Matt Frattin

Agreed. And happy to have a solid place in the tourney. If you are the better team, you're the better team. So what if you're a 4th seed or 8th? Better to lose to a 10th seed than a Holy Cross. Sure, it's nice to have last line change, but if you're good enough to win, then get in and win.

To me Tech looked pretty bad this past weekend. Sioux in 2 over Tech Denver in 3 over AA. Alaska has some spunk but not enough against Denver. Badgers in 3 over Mankato. Mankato is another late charging team but Bucky impressed me this past weekend. If they play like they did on Saturday they will be tough for anyone to beat. CC in 2 over Duluth. Unsure why Duluth is swooning. They deserved 2 points in the Friday night game against MN but since then have not shown much. CC is a very good team. MN in 2 over SCSU. As others have said it's about as good a matchup as MN could have asked for. With the friendly PWR bump after winning one game against Tech and getting SCSU I think somewhere the hockey gods are smiling on Lucia. SCSU has not been a big game team for a few years, are 0-4 against MN, and as others have pointed out are the perfect team for MN to exploit. SCSU does have a chance against MN's porous D. The key may come down to goaltending. Weslosky can be a world beater and he can be a sieve. Same with the gopher goalies. I just lack too much confidence in SCSU to give them a game. I'm wrong about a lot of hockey stuff, and I hope this is one of those times.

Funniest post of the day.

I haven't read up on stats or compared Schroeder to other forwards who have won the award in the past (although winning the award is about being compared to your current contemporaries, not past thresholds). I'd have to see Eidsness has been more important to his team than Schroeder, though I'm sure that can be debated. The Gophers have been largely a one line team and Schroeder makes that line go. The Sioux have ridden Eidsness for every game since November, I think. Without Eidsness the Sioux might not be even getting home ice. Without Schroeder where would the gophers be? How much better or worse? Certainly they wouldn't be better, but would they be a lot worse?

Not only that but 1 win over a crappy team...They must have had plenty of other things go their way tonite in other games. I agree with those who say the Sioux played fairly well tonite. I was very impressed with the Badger PK even before the shorties. Eidsness left too much net open on the 2nd? goal. That hurt. I will agree too many passes were in skates tonite, but other than that I think the Badgers just really played well. They kept front of the net clean and the Sioux rarely had 2nd chances and there were a lot of ping pong balls bouncing off Connelly tonite. But not to Sioux sticks. Maybe Connelly gets the credit for turning them in the right direction I don't know. But I think the Sioux had their chances, but *WARNING* not the bounces. Hopefully the Sioux can get a little more cohesiveness working on the PP for the playoffs. Finally, with a little luck, maybe we got some of the crap out of the way that has bitten us in the last game of the year the last couple of years. Could we be that fortunate?

Big Chief was right. Saturday night at Plymouth Senser's is UFC night. By the 3rd period the UFC stuff was blaring. I think Bloomington will be my destination from now on.

USCHO says 8 central and WCHA site says 7pm. FightingSioux.com radiocast says it starts at 6:30pm. FightingSioux.com schedule shows it at 7pm. I'm going with 7pm

My buddy and I are meeting in Plymouth tonite.

Thanks for giving me MafiaMan's seat. Was nice to watch the game with you and hrkac.

From watching this weeks press conference I think Hak agrees with you. He appears totally focused on the very next game, not worrying about playoff positioning or the Cup. That could be all talk, but I'll bet he doesn't sit people tomorrow just because he can. I'll bet the only guys who sit are guys who need to recover from an injury. Everyone else plays in an effort to keep the edge as sharp as possible going into the playoffs.

I feel for you if you're not successful. Mob rule can be ugly.

I was at that game and while I would agree it wasn't a 3-0 pasting I didn't feel so much like the Sioux dominated either. I thought the game was rather evenly played, but goaltending was the difference. I also thought the Sioux were capable of playing better than they did. I do think the team payed for that effort that night, and there's been a couple of other games that could have gone against them but didn't. Is it luck? Is it hard work begetting luck? Is it just hard work and makes the break? I don't know but I do think this team's strength is in character and balance but they're not dominant. Therefore they are susceptible to losing to anyone if not everyone is ready to play. I know the team knows that because players have said that repeatedly. The key isn't knowing it, it's doing it every night. Hopefully there won't be a let down this weekend. The Sioux have been better at home than on the road, so that's another factor.

Regarding Sensers, if they get it on Friday is there any reason to assume they won't get it on Saturday? I.e. is there a different broadcast/sat arrangement on Saturday? I'm assuming not but want to check before making plans. Thanks

Thanks for flying this flag because whether or not Duncan is the most deserving I cannot see McBain's all around analysis standing up based on his defensive numbers. Maybe Bucky had a bad start to their season and that caused McBain's +/- to plummet but he's had all year to bring it back up and, like you have well pointed out in 2 posts, his +/- is horrible compared to others. Does +/- mean everything? No. Is that stat somewhat dependant on the other 5 guys on the ice? Yes. Would you expect a top D man to be playing against other team's best lines and could that hurt your +/-? Yes. But relatively speaking McBain's stat STINKS compared to his peers. Duncan is a top line player. That means he's usually going against the opponents best players. Even with 2 freshmen wingers his +/- is not even on the same page as McBain's. Other defensemen can do it. Duncan and other forwards can do it. McBain can't? Then maybe he's not the MVP.

Thanks so much for the info and updates. Always like reading your posts.

Nice! Duncan is probably one of the least flashy of the great players I'll ever see. In my eyes his true value/worth is more apparent this year than it ever was playing next to Oshie and/or Toews. I used to see him more as a scorer, and this year it's a lot easier for me to appreciate just how great he is on the ice. He's a little guy but finds open space, can work on the boards, can handle the puck in tight spots, almost always finds the right place to pass the puck and rarely makes a mistake with it, kills penalties, is effective on the PP, takes defense seriously and is good at it, etc etc. And, is a very good leader (at least apparently). Schlossman did an outstanding job of laying out a case FOR Duncan for MVP. He includes a lot of below the surface data and points of view that the casual fan usually wouldn't consider all that much when evaluating players. We've been so fortunate to have Duncan at UND and even more fortunate to have him on the team this year. He didn't have to be here but he is. We're lucky for it.

I think Greene was saying "Thanks for not breaking my nose".

I have no clue if Mattson is coming next year or the year after, but let's not forget that media outlets often don't have any more information on when a player is actually coming on campus than most of us. Often they are going off of "conventional wisdom" or the last known best information. Again, I'm not saying he's not coming next year nor am I saying that he should or shouldn't. I'm just saying I'm not going to take this article's statement of fact as the last word.

A brain? A brain might tell a guy that the money is right, the opportunity is right, and the organization is right, and that the schooling can be finished during the summer term on a campus with some of the very best hockey training facilities can be found. Facilities that, I'm guessing, are made available to alumni players as needed.