burd

SPIRKO!!!!!!!!!!!

For anyone his age, anything is possible and the world is out there for the taking; that's just part of what it is to be 18. But right now Jost has to be feeling that in spades. He is playing in one of the nicest hockey rinks in the world which will be his home rink and which is home to the national champions. And he is having major success on a world stage. Pretty heady stuff. But here's the thing. He comes to UND and he has two other first rounders welcoming him to the family but telling him he needs to work on his backcheck.

I'm sympathetic to the various kinds of frustration Q players and fans felt--we have been in that situation too many times. But I think they were not prepared for the reality of losing that way. They had cut through the schedule like butter, including a not-so-bad SCSU team, and beaten some very good HE teams, including BC, which has been the most successful program in college hockey for a generation. But they got handled by UND, and it just wasn't an experience they were prepared for. They deserved to be there, no doubt. But now they will harden up a little and when they come back they will be a little more seasoned and a lot hungrier. Like our boys were.

The thing I took away from that game and all the past FF games the Sioux have been in the past 16 years, is that we deserved the win, but Q probably deserves more respect than the score indicates. Part of that, I realize, is that this UND team was the whole package.

One other thing about this team. Even though we are now all warm and fuzzy and throwing love all over the place, we need to be honest: those guys still haven't given us a full 60 minutes of hustle. Sooner or later, that has to change.

Our defensive corps was as good as we have had in quite a while, when you factor in their offensive capabilities, but the "stone cold finishers" we had in Boeser and Caggiula were difference makers all year long. We've had so many extremely gifted forwards in recent years who just weren't pure goal scorers, but those two definitely were, in addition to their other contributions (Can you imagine Bochinski backchecking like Boeser, Schmaltz and Caggiula did?). And obviously it was Schmaltz who put them in a position to score much of the time. That's partly why it would be so nice to see Nick and Brock possibly team up with Jost this fall.

There probably isn't much that has not already been said about this team, now that they won their last game. But watching off-ice video of Cam Johnson, it is a little ironic to me that so many of us were worried that he would not be able to stand up to the pressure of the big game. We saw him let in weak goals his first time on the ice and figured he probably had a confidence or nerves problem. Maybe he did--then. But you see the footage of him in various situations and at various times this year, especially late, and he seems so calm and pleasant. The cliché" about goalies is that they are a little bit weird, and they have to be a little bit that way to do what they do. But this guy just seems to be at peace with himself and enjoying his teammates. At least from my narrow perspective. I'm a little conflicted, because I'd really like to see what Tomek can do, but now I want to see how much Cam can accomplish in his career at UND as well.

I think UND teams have become known for their commitment to the team game, but this bunch has really built a culture of unselfish, hard-working play, and Stecher has been an important leader in that respect. Like many on that team, he is a huge talent, but it's the little things that often separate the best from the rest. Cliche' but true. It will be very interesting to see how he fares at the next level.

If the players read this site, and I suspect many of them do, they must be amused at the pure speculation that goes on.

In those four years when UND made its hockey comeback by winning two titles and being in the mix all four (1980-84) , I had to rely on the San Francisco Chronicle or San Jose Mercury News for results. You can imagine how frustrating that was. Seems like the Pony Express days now.

. I may have missed "all these posts," but I think some people are just sharing the credit with the coach who brought these kids to the program and, with all but the freshmen, coached them. It was Berry's team this year, and no coach deserves more credit than he does. I don't think many would disagree with that.

I don't think we should discount the advice our coaches are giving these players. While these are college age amateurs, I'm sure the coaches take very seriously their job of properly advising players when they are ready. That trust in our coaches to further the players' careers in the game is part of the reason potential early departures come here in the first place. Certainly the coaches value a college degree, and they will always want those players to stay, but they also know they are entrusted with the responsibility of being honest with their players about their readiness to move to the next level. If the coaches lose that trust, players like Boeser and Parise will go elsewhere. Workmanlike players are the heart and soul of our program, but I don't think you win banners without some elite level players whose ultimate goal (expectation) is to play professional hockey less than 4 years after they matriculate. These guys have parents, friends, and former coaches who all have opinions about what they should do, but their college coaches are ones who are best situated to give them good advice, particularly when they have the NHL experience our coaches have. At least I think so. Maybe not.

Amazing you can hear that above all the other voices in your head.

I thought about leaving early and taking a big fat NHL contract but decided to stay for 5 years, and what did it get me?

I hope Stecher understands that every Sioux fan wants him to go for it if he feels the time is right and is behind him 100%.

I remember Rube and his teams pretty well, since my first games were at the old barn. Not the old Ralph--the old barn. A good friend of mine played and spent most of his time on the JV team as a freshman. Gino coached the JVs. He told me he and many of the young guys hated Gino and thought he was a dictator. They wanted to play for Rube, of course, because he coached the varsity. Gino was probably just a tough taskmaster, and that may be why he got more out of his boys. And back to Yzerman's first comment. Most people nowadays probably don't appreciate how important Serge Gambucci and Fido Purpur were to Sioux hockey. The hockey culture they established in Grand Forks was an important reason why the City and the University cared so much about Sioux hockey and the program's success. Serge would take his Central teams to the Twin Cities and play with the best teams they had to offer. I do not recall whether Gary Gambucci, who played for the Gophers, was a son or nephew.

The backchecking which we talked about much of the year and which Berry talked about in the NC postgame is a big deal in so many ways. In addition to the culture that builds when first rounders buy into it are the immediate, on-ice effects. How many goals resulted directly from backchecking? How many odd man rush goals did we give up compared to years prior (and we know Hak stressed defensive responsibility for his forwards too)? How much puck possession time did we gain through successful backchecking? Schmaltz really matured this year, and his backchecking skills stood out as much as anything. We've got us a bunch of pick-pockets. It's just criminal.

You hate to see guys leave early, especially those like Stecher who have such fine character. All departures hurt, but the more players we develop well enough to get offers before they graduate the more cred our program gets with recruits who are serious about picking a college that can develop them for the NHL. Long term benefit from a short term loss.

If Stecher, Schmaltz, and Boeser stay, the school should make a public sacrifice to the Hockey Gods. I'm thinking a stray gopher fan dressed in green and white would serve that purpose well.

An observation that might be either irrelevant or just wrong. I think Hak's and Berry's coaching philosophies are very similar, as are their game systems. Both teach commitment to defensive fundamentals and discipline, and I assume they are both tough taskmasters. But I think Berry is a little more of a father figure to those boys--tough, but with a softer side to him. Hak was loved by his players, that much has been made clear over the years, but I think he will succeed at the NHL level to a degree Berry could not partly because his personality fits a business discipline as compared to Berry's fatherly disposition. Although it is hard to think Berry can be more successful than Hak was from year to year, that difference in their personalities might allow Berry to accomplish some things Hak did not when working with college kids. I have NO BASIS for this conjecture. I don't know Hak or Berry personally, and I don't know any current or former players. Just another uninformed fan's opinion. But what the heck, there are few things as risk free as a fan's opinion.

Thanks

How can a person get the video replay of the game?

I just don't know if I've seen a Sioux team with this much talent at every position. And on top of that, elite scorers who were just as good in the neutral zone when they didn't have the puck. It was interesting to hear Berry say at the postgame that they stressed that this year, and it showed. When you have first round picks at forward backchecking and stealing pucks for odd man rushes the other way, you have something special, and not just in goals scored. It makes every player on the team want to take their defensive roles seriously and play an unselfish game. Bochinski was fun to watch and one of the best pure scorers UND has had, but he didn't match the total team contribution Boeser made this year, IMO.

We need pics, Oxbow.

Be sure he has barfbags.