Sterling

I agree. If the Sioux expect to beat WI this weekend, I think they'll need at least 4 goals each night on Elliott to win or tie. The goals we allowed vs. Q were to easy for them. (due to combination of defensive breakdowns and poor goaltending). I fear WI will exploit the other mistakes we got away with.

I predict that all the Gophers fans I know will tell the NCAA to just hand them the title again, just like every year...

You'd scream too if Finley were standing on your foot!

Good post and I agree. WI doesn't surprise me in that they were ranked #1. Many on this board predicted it. The majority of us also feel that it is somewhat of a token ranking and will likely be short lived. BC and Mn defintiely belong where they are ranked. Losing to Holy Cross has absolutely no bearing on this poll. Their incoming freshmen, their improved defense and their returning goaltenders give them an edge. Briggs was pretty good throughout the season only to faulter in the end (hope that happens again). As for the Sioux, losing Parise in the minds of the voters is a big reason why we're #6 instead of #1 or #2. We all feel Lammy can be the guy but he hasn't proven it yet and his backups haven't seen a shot in the WCHA. I hope Phil can establish himself with 2 road wins in Madison. These polls will fluctuate as they always do as upsets happen, but being in the top 10 statistically is a good position to be in at the start of the season.

This all sounds good but I'm going with Minnesota. Free beer at Blarney's is too good to pass up.

I'm going to beat you up and steal your lunch money at recess!

Chad Mazurak and Brad Williamson

WCHA 1. Mn 2. ND 3. WI NCAA 1. BC 2. MN 3. ND April 2007 Rankings 1. ND 2. BC 13. MN

Hope you're right. If so, next year will be just as promising as this year if not more so.

I'm OK with our recruiting class this year but I feel they will likely need more time to develop before we see great things from them. My slight concern is our next round of early expected departures. We will probably lose Toews/Oshie/Lee shortly after we win #8 and others may follow (Chorney, Finley). I could be wrong but I don't see immediate "big splash" players in this year's freshmen class like Oshie/Toews/Duncan. Forney could be if he can handle the pounding from a WCHA schedule. We definitely have a nucleus of talent to build with for the future but its always nice to have a couple blue chippers to bring it together (like this year). Next year could end up being a rebuilding year to a degree (still top 5 in the league though). My darkhorse surprise is Vandy.

anyone know if Merritt's Wade Macleod is on our recruiting radar?

1. They've won national championships with worse goaltending than they have now. Hauser. 2. They lost Harrington (big deal). They'll not be worse on defense this year. 3. Potulny scored 90% of his goals from one spot on the ice. The teams that shut that option down won the games. Kessel created too many adversarial relationships within the locker room and Chcuko just sucks. Irmen was their biggest loss but they have plenty of firepower to score goals. If they are not the team to beat this year, who is? WI, DU, and CC lost too much. Duluth perhaps?

Toews 25 Oshie 22 Duncan 18 Lee 15 Kozek 14 Porter 13 Watkins 10 Vandevelde 9 Fabian 8 Kaip 7 Forney 6 Miller 5 Radke 5 Chorney 5 Zajac 4 Bina 4 Genoway 3 Jones 1 Finley 1 total 175 TrunkMonkey, I doubt this prediction is much of a stretch (could be considered somewhat conservative) and it doesn't include several other players that will likely break the line up for a fews games this season such as Bishop and Martens....

Last year we scored 164 goals and were one of the highest scoring teams in the WCHA. 61% of those goals were scored by returning players so I don't see a lot of pressure being placed on incoming freshmen to score(which is good). I think we can all expect Oshie, Toews and Duncan to be around 20 goals each this season and our defense is better. We only lost 4 goals on defense from last year (Smaby). Its reasonable to assume we will get greater goal scoring production from the defense this year. We only scored 14 goals on defense last year and Brian Lee will absord what we lost offensively from Smaby himself. If we can get 10+ goals from guys like Porter, Kozek and Watkins (here's the guys with the highest level of pressure to perform this year), anything we get from the freshman and other players like Fabian/Kaip is a bonus. All we need is a fraction of the level of productivity from our incoming freshmen over last year and we'll be in great shape. Vandy is a big body sniper and depending on the role he is given by the coaches, has a good shot at scoring 10 goals. Forney too if he stays healthy. Who knows, Miller, Bishop and Zajac could all contribute more than we think. IMHO I think we'll score 175+ goals this year but the bigger question is, how many will we give up? We're going to have another great season of Fighting Sioux Hockey!

Prison only works if sexual predators like Rodriquez stay behind bars. Dru should still be alive today. Besides, how many get executed immediately after sentencing. He and his rear-end will be suffering plenty before the axe falls on his nuts.

no question, if Lammy gets hurt, we could be in real trouble. Our defense will have to reduce the ave number of shots on goal this season. I suspect we'll be more disciplined on D and be shorthanded less often this season too. That will help. I doubt we'll have any trouble scoring goals though.

After he gets the death penalty, let Dru's family decide and execute on the method of death.

Enough with this Kessel crap. Old news. Time to look forward to another season. Lets start by making some unscientific WCHA predictions. Here's mine (subject to change based on everyone elses influence) 1. North Dakota (call me a homer) 2. Minnesota 3. Wisconsin 4. Minn-Duluth 5. Denver 6. St Cloud State 7. Colorado College 8. Mankato State 9. Michigan Tech 10. Alaska-Anchorage

I realize Miller has more games under his belt and my opinion on Vandy may be somewhat biased as I know the family pretty well, but watching Miller get pounded and pushed around for 15 games last year without registering a point, I have doubts about his ability to adjust to D1. Don't disagree that Vandy is unknown, but he is an NHL draft choice with good size and is a natural goal scorer. I'll take Vandevelde over the other two.

Based on Toews' maturity exemplified in todays article, I think there's no question he could wear the "C" or an "A".

Guess Briggs will have to rely on an Oshie line jail break for his heart ailments this year. (frazee will likely be too drunk to know it) Thanks for the confirmation.

I agree with your line combos but would replace Miller with Vandy. I've heard goalie pads/gloves will be smaller this year. Is that true and will it impact Lammy's play?

really? that's great. Their house just sold a few weeks ago so I figured he was gone for sure.