dagies

I am of 2 minds on this. Goetz and Paulson are on the committee as well as the state board, so they obviously signed off on this arrangement I would think. In that respect, it doesn't bother me greatly. On the other hand, if one candidate was so superior to the others there should be no risk in supplying the additional names because the board would probably see the reason for the committee's high ranking of the top candidate anyway. However, go into any business setting. If 3 people interview a candidate and 2 of them like and 1 dislikes that candidate, they're probably not going to get hired. I'm not greatly concerned that there was a travesty here, but I wonder if it couldn't have been handled more politically acceptable.

I was surprised to hear Lucia on the pregame last week say he thought about playing Frazee because he's working hard in practice and doing what he needs to show that they can put him on the ice. I thought he was done for the year, to be honest. So in that respect I could see him getting a game this weekend. On the other hand, I just don't see how Lucia can play anyone other than Kangas right now unless he's pretty much giving up on the year. And I don't think he's done that.

There are certainly some that come here to flame but there are some who have legitimate comments who are treated as if they are flaming. I'd prefer we treat each according to their actual posts rather than lump them all together.

That's what makes him so entertaining. That, and the old charges that the Sioux "over recruit".

I can understand, from a Gopher fan's perspective why you might feel that way. Here are a few reasons why I don't think you need to feel quite so hopeles: 1. In this rivalry it is very unusual for anyone to sweep. Yes, it has happened at the Ralph and at Mariucci, but it don't happen often. Those are exceptions. The safe bet is a split. 2. The Gophers outplayed the Sioux for much of the last series, though circumstances have changed some. 3. Gophers are at home. 4. Lucia has just started playing Kangas both nights. I expect that continues this weekend. 5. The Sioux have also played down a bit this season and though they have played better of late, it's been against the bottom 4 teams in the league. 6. Sioux played probably the worst game of their season this past Saturday, at home. So it's a little hard from a Sioux fan's perspective to be overly confident of a sweep this weekend. Anything can happen, I think. I still think it will be up to the goaltenders.

Oh, Donald....please don't go!

So what would be the reason, then?

You'll have no problem seeing in SRO. Those are great spots for watching the game. Get there early to get your preferred spot, however. While the gophers often play soft they didn't in the Ralph and I don't expect they will this weekend either. This is a big game for rivalry and playoff reasons and I think the gophers will play desperate. I just hope the continue to take off the 3rd period.

Good luck to Nick on Friday. I hope he's well enough to go. Yup, as someone said..good parenting.

There is that.

I was very surprised to hear Lucia on the pre-game show on Saturday say he thought about starting Frazee but decided to go with Alex. I figured Frazee was done as a gopher but I got the impression Lucia wants to play him again soon. Maybe this weekend, maybe not. Barriball can score, he just hasn't this year for some reason. The gophers have guys who can pot the puck. Carman has been solid so far, with at least a couple of goals. I, too, worry about things opening up on the Sioux especially if the Sioux make ill advised decisions with the puck, and I've seen too much of that over the last month. If there is one positive to take from the horrible performance this last Saturday, the Sioux won't/shouldn't go into Mariucci with big heads. Someone said it earlier, but the coaches should have everyone's attention this week in practice. This is the first time I can remember the Sioux winning but the day after I still felt like it was a loss. Hopefully the boys can use that embarrassment to propel them to a better effort this weekend. I think goaltending will tell the story this weekend, both ways.

IF the NCAA or WCHA starts calling things closer, us fans have to help out by not whining about every call and the penalty filled games during the first part of the process. We're going to have to live through that for a little while to get where we want to go.

One thing I noticed was that Oshie seemed to have different body language in the 3rd period on Saturday than any other Sioux player. Almost like he was trying to pull the team along by himself. I give him a lot of credit for that.

Sioux can play well enough to sweep but they can also play poorly enough to get swept. It's hard to predict anything other than a split at this point. MN is also inconsistent, and I think goaltending will tell the tale this next weekend.

As far as Shyiak's comments, note what Shyiak said in Schlossman's piece about scoring being down.

dagies was robbed!

Phil only let in 1 goal on Friday. It's tough to say a goalie didn't play well if they only let in 1. He was a rock this weekend, and outstanding tonite if not excellent last night. The Sioux owe Phil most of the 4 points they put on the ledger this weekend.

I had thought the same thing watching the game tonite. I think I can pick out 4 shots in the last 2 weekends that he's shot high and missed the net. Of course, Tormey probably ducked! Early in the season the team lost a couple of games they felt like they deserved to win. Tonite evens things out a little bit. Our WCHA point totals are pretty close to what we actually deserve. I don't think I've ever seen a game where the Sioux could seem to change things around too much. 13 shots? Is AA that good or did the Sioux just make them look that good? I admit I was very impressed with the intensity that continued to bring shift after shift after shift. They seemed to just wear the Sioux down in the Sioux's defensive zone. Only Kaip's line seemed to have much success cycling the puck themselves. Phil was excellent this weekend. Just fantastic. Thank you Phil!

Unbelievable. Duncan misses the empty net by a foot. It felt like it took that puck 3 minutes to roll down. The camera guy must have known I was counting every revolution....

I watched the video of a few older press conferences and Hakstol seems pretty frustrated with how games are officiated in the WCHA and says there will need to be some discussions after the season. He indicated he wasn't speaking for all coaches, but certainly for himself. Sounded like he would like to see more of an NHL style of officiating over how things are officiated now.

I watched 5 minutes of the Bucky game and in that 5 minutes there was a stoppage of play. The whistle had blown long enough that everyone had stood down. A Badger was standing in front of Kangas, who brought up his stick and popped him in the chest. The Badger gave him a rather mild push-back, and suddenly Peltier hits the guy in the head from behind and knocks him to the ice where another gopher jumps on top of him. I was thinking the same thing as you about Lucia's whining. Who's wearing the "halo" now?

dagies for Duncan. He's due.

You are incredible. Thank you from this Sioux fan.

I would imagine you are right. Great idea.

I did see Chay Genoway wrote him a note on his guestbook on behalf of the team.