burd

His vision is freakishly good, and his feeds are easier to handle than Grimaldi's were, another guy who seemed to see it all.

A LOT of very good players on this team, something we've been commenting on since early in the season. That said, Blake is the straw that stirs the offensive drink on this team, IMO. And he seems to be working on his D and situational awareness.

Will we get to see Ryan take his lap on the NCHC broadcast?

I really like Ludvig a lot, but his inability to gobble up pucks at times is his Achilles heel, IMO. That save late in the 3rd last night must have had UMD guys shaking their heads, though.

I would think their loss hurts our PW as well?

The Sandelin Adjustment

The problem with playing a program like UMD this late in the year is that you can’t move up in the pairwise even if you beat them. Likely to move down just for playing them.

Zach Parise stick skills

He’s a part of a lot of good memories for Sioux fans

3-zip is nice, but against a cellar-dweller like UMD?

But that’s not the point you continually make. Throughout his time as head coach, you could be counted on to continually diss Hal because he did not win a banner, despite winning many tourney games. I’m sure you’re a loyal, long-time Sioux fan, gf, and probably knowledgeable, but you rarely, if ever, even talk about the game itself—only the failure to win banners. One would think you get more out of the program’s failures than its successes.

Agree

Agree big time. It’s a great game, and championships are fun, but for those if us who experience it as fans, it is most definitely part of the small stuff of life. It appears, at least, that those who place so much importance on the banner count are usually unhappy with their experience and are missing out on something good. We’re watching a game we love, not feeding the poor here.

I’ve never seen a top 8 this good. Whether those teams are still top 8 or not, it should be a great tourney. People with FF tx are in for some good hockey.

I'd agree. And hopefully Karl can help settle Ludvig down. Ludvig is capable of helping them go deep, and no team wins it all without strong tending in the tournament.

MIght be a good thing they ran into this now, rather than a month from now. Johannes' returning will be important, IMO, but they have time to adjust.

Now we will see how these coaches respond to a major game-coaching test. The film of those two games will soon, if not already, get some prime time viewing by other staffs, and you can bet other teams will learn from it and try to emulate parts of what CC managed to do.

tired bit

I loved Hak, partly due to his character but mostly because he delivered top notch hockey teams year in and year out. He took a tremendous amount of grief here, though, because some people judge by banner count only.

I'm confused by the "Hak's roster" thing. Sometimes, fans stress the fact that assistant coaches do most of the recruiting, other times not so much. I suppose it varies by programs.

Ice rough? Lot of pucks jumping over sticks.

And UMn could get swept too.

You are right in a limited sense, of course, but I see that as being just as tired a rationale.

The woulda coulda shoulda folks come out in force every time a little adversity hits. I love that old worn-out pitch that if you aren’t panicking and pointing fingers of blame its because your “standards” are too low. We set our own standards in our professional and personal lives, not on the games played by someone else’s college-age kids.

CC scored 7 last night without breaking a sweat. They still need to climb at least two PW rungs, and they smell Sioux blood in the water, so what's to say they won't score 14 or more tonight? About the only way to prevent something like that from happening, IMO, is to start three goalies and try to completely seal off the goal. That and position one of the three skaters out by the red line as a permanent floater. Maybe you catch a breakaway goal, then you pull another skater back to the crease area to protect the one-goal lead. Call me crazy, but I'm just a realist. What else they gonna do?