burd

I agree about Bucky, but you understand that wanting the Gophers to lose early is obligatory for fans everywhere. Still, when the Badgers are playing their best, only their own fans could want to watch that stifling brand of hockey. I'd much rather see a UND/Gopher barnburner, as long as there are no toothy grins afterward.

Just got back from the game. Looked to me like UW definitely outplayed the Sioux. They were consistently beating us to pucks. All that talent they have on the blue line shows at times--pretty tight. The Sioux were not passing particularly well. They didn't look like they were less intense, but UW had more jump, and they had the edge in physical play as well. I think Duncan felt he should have buried the one shot he had all alone from his office space. If the Sioux meet these guys in the FF, they can make up for this one.

It's not a question of whether the player played his position, much less whether he played it better than a teammate. The question is whether he played his role. I think Joe has played his very well. The layoff hurt him, but he can interrupt the flow along the boards and behind the net in ways that look unspectacular but are critical to this team. There were times earlier this year when our D simply could not gain control along the boards in order to start the transition. That has improved, and Joe has played a big part in it, IMO.

Nate Wright

Everyone thought Bob Johnson walked on water--Shepherd is just confused again.

OK, I'm a knuckledragger when it comes to pairwise, so let me ask this: We keep winning and everything takes care of itself--I get that. But do we always want our sworn enemies (think gophs) to lose if we probably will not pass them in pairwise ? Is it likely we would have benefitted from the gophs winning last night? I know it's impossible to know now for certain, but is it likely? Be nice if someone cited a rule saying we are always better off when the gophs lose, either by a lot or painfully in overtime.

Watching him tonight, he's starting to do with the Hawks just what he did so well for the Sioux. He controls along the boards and comes out of the corner better than any Sioux player I've seen. He has dominated a couple of shifts that way tonight.

Play by play guys on the Hawks/Ducks game tonight really went on for a long time what good things folks in Montreal were saying about Toews and what a great example he has set for the city of Chicago and the Hawks. Compared him to the Golden Jet the way he always has time for fans.

The last thing the refs should have done was give Gwoz an audience. When I saw him walking across the ice, my first thought was that the refs should treat him like he's invisible. Wait until he got across the ice and calmly skate back cross to the Denver bench and tell the assistant coach and the players that their coach has no business being on the ice and that if he wasn't off right now, the team would get another bench penalty. The officials have complete control of that ice, and they blew it when they even acknowledged Gwoz' presence other than issue another penalty. I don't have a problem with Gwoz, acutually. He's a good coach, and the move proved to be a shrewd one. But when he went on the ice he was fair game for being humiliated. Making his own captains talk him off the ice would have done that.

Yeah, that's why I'm so eager to give Jim the benefit of the doubt.

So does that mean we can come in from the ledge now? It's getting crowded out here.

Finley was also uncharacteristically weak on a bunch of clearing passes last night too. I guess Denver deserves credit.

The question has been raised in the Denver game thread about our pairwise ranking, and I thought it might deserve a separate thread. I know little about the system and usually just enjoy the games and hope things work out--a "you win and you're in" way of looking at it. But I'm a little concerned that, even though this team is really playing good hockey, they might find it difficult to make the cut. You can win and move down in the rankings or lose and move up, depending on the ranking of your opponent. The Sioux have no more games on the schedule where they play a team ranked above them (T 14). If they run the table for the remaining schedule (not talking about the conference playoffs), you have to figure they will be in, but if they lose even a game or two against poorly ranked teams, it seems they might face some real problems. Even if we make it to the Final Five, only the gophs and Pios are there to provide highly ranked opposition. It would be especially unfortunate for this team, which appears to now be as good as anybody, to miss the cut. But that seems all too possible, even if they win most of their games from here on in. I know that you can only play one game at a time on the ice and that the computer games play themselves, but anyone else concerned about how difficult it might be for this team to get in?

Falling below the cut-line would be especially hard for this team, since it is starting to play like the team we all were expecting this year (solid D and goaltending and scoring up and down the lines). This could be a very good tournament team, especially if BE can be that big-game player, but I'd hate to have to rely on winning the conference tourney to get in.

We're getting to that time of year when goaltending means everything, and it's huge that BE had the kind of game he had tonight. He's been very good this year, but this was he first showing that he can be the difference maker against a playoff caliber team. The point is nice, but getting that game out of Eidsness is bigger IMO. Speaking of points, is anyone else a little concerned that pairwise points might be hard to come by from here to the FF, given the low rankings of the teams we will play from here on out? I don't understand the system very well (even Algebra made my head hurt), but there don't appear to be many point-rich weekends ahead.

Pretty good, Chuck, but you totally overlooked the quality of cheerleaders. Your credibility took a little hit here, I'm afraid.

Vossberg was begging for a beatdown all night, but I wouldn't characterize his getting into it from the bench as an attack. Grabbing, pushing, face-washing, chickensh!t stuff, yeah, and illegal. He was properly flagged, but it was lightweight. As far as I'm concerned the Pios got just the beatdown that was coming to them--an 8-3 arsekicking. I hope the Sioux stay out of the box tonight and hang 8 more on them.

You almost have to count Dustin Penner, though he played D1 for two years. Couldn't make a junior team in Canada and was looking to hire on with somebody as an apprentice electrician, I believe, applied to Bottineau at the last minute, rode the pines quite a bit the first year, then blossomed. For the locals up there, he's a come-from-behind success story.

I think we have as much talent on this team as we have had on any team since the new rink--it's just spread more evenly up and down the lines. A lot of people will say that's crazy, and with the record so far, maybe they're right. We do miss that player who can destabilize the other team's defense every time he's on the ice. Vanek, Heatley, Parise, Toews, Gerbe all did that. Still, I really like this team. If they can get stellar performances from BE and sweep this weekend, look out.

I think you flipped it, Stack. Denver has 7 of its last 12 on the road, including 5 straight in Feb. Their schedule from this point on is not an easy one. I think if the Sioux take two this weekend, Denver will end up in our rearview.

Yeah, you're not quite there yet at 42. You'll have to take your chances from the upper deck for a few more years. If this were a Badger event, the cutoff would have to be around 36 . . .

In a perfect world, they would have an "old throwers" night when old guys like us would be escorted (or wheeled) down to the glass during the second period to chuck a dead gopher onto the ice. They could hand out slightly thawed dead gophers at the door for those who prefer not to freeze their own.

It's a problem. I usually keep a gopher team picture at hand so I can throw up on it. Hope that helps.

I love what Chay G brings to the team, but he he's also scary with his turnovers. Some notable ones tonight. Maybe having Finley back and in shape is even more important in that he knows Genoway and covers for him well.

It was tough to tell with Tech's video whether some of those third period goals were soft. A couple looked that way. Nice night for the Sioux. Nice for BE get a shutout, especially with some big time saves.