Sterling
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Posts posted by Sterling
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While at the Manitoba game last week and the two games this weekend my friends and I couldn't help but notice how horrible the music at The Ralph has been so far. The music they are playing during warm ups and breaks in the action this season flat out sucks compared to the music over the last few years .
First of all the music during warm ups is absolutely horrible. How could you ever replace the opening song "Right Now" by Van Halen (which they have been using for the 4 year that I have been going to games) with "The Kids Aren't Alright" by The Offspring? Tell me how you replace a band that has one of the greatest guitarist of all time with a whinny pathetic power-cord playing band. I don
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You really went out on a limb with that one. Not many people have the courage to predict that one of the best programs in the country who is ranked sixth nationally will "do just fine this year." Any more daring predictions?
I predict that all the Gophers fans I know will tell the NCAA to just hand them the title again, just like every year...
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Probably a lot, especially since it's now posted on the USA Today sports photos of the day.
You'd scream too if Finley were standing on your foot!
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I don't pay to much attention to polls, but I do think UND has the best team in the WCHA on paper. Despite the losses, UND returns 3 of their top 5 scorers from last year, which is better than anyone in the WCHA but UAA and UMD. UND lost only one defensemen and has a proven goaltender coming back. Not to mention the fact that UND returns all their freshmen which was the best freshmen class in the country. Wisconsin lost all of their top five scorers and although they return Elliott they will need some younger underated players to step it up. Minnesota lost 4 of their top 5 scorers and still has a question at goaltender. This means that they will rely heavily on Stoa and Wheeler to step it. The strength of Minnesota this year will be their defensemen. I think the Magnauton Cup will go to UND or Minnesota. After that I feel their is a big gap between 1-2 to 3-6, which 3-6 I feel will be DU, UW, SCSU, and UMD. Then I think there will be a large gap between 7-10 which I feel will be CC, MSU, MTU, and UAA.
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.
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This all sounds good but I'm going with Minnesota. Free beer at Blarney's is too good to pass up.
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How dare you treat us like we did to you. Don't you know that we're UND?
I'm going to beat you up and steal your lunch money at recess!
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Small players that come to mind that were great defensemen are Curtis Murphy and Russ Parent. If he turns out to be half the players they were it would be nice. Is Genoway that small, or are there other players that he is being compared to? I agree that the less expectations that are placed on freshmen, the easier it is for them to come into their own without the added pressure.
Chad Mazurak and Brad Williamson
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WCHA
1. Mn
2. ND
3. WI
NCAA
1. BC
2. MN
3. ND
April 2007 Rankings
1. ND
2. BC
13. MN
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I'm not so sure we about Oshie, Lee, Chorney and Finley. I'd say Oshie is the closest of these four to leave, but even that is IMO not a forgone conclusion. I do agree that this will be Toews farewell tour.
Hope you're right. If so, next year will be just as promising as this year if not more so.
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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.
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anyone know if Merritt's Wade Macleod is on our recruiting radar?
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Here are some reasons why the Golden Rodents are not the team to beat, either in the WCHA or NCAA:
1) Average Goaltending: Briggs and Frazee are not championship material. I'd take Lammy over either of them.
2) Shaky Defensemen: Last year, their blueliners struggled to take care of the puck in the defensive zone at times. That cannot continue if they hope to win anything other than regular season titles. And I'm sorry, but it's going to take more than Eric Johnson to make up for it.
3) No more Nodaks: Potulny and Irmen left for greener ($$$) pastures, along with Phil "Boy Wonder" Kessel and Kris Chucko. They are going to have to find scoring from other places to make up for these losses. UND lost a lot of talent to the pros as well, but I don't think we relied on any two players like the Rodents did on Potulny and Irmen.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Rodents will finish in the top 5 of the league and probably make the NCAA Tournament. But they have to address the above situations if they want to win more than regular-season titles.
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?
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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....
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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!
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I see how well this posts...
I know you can't take these numbers to seriously BUT:
I like to look at % change in weight, it is a fairer comparison.
Everyone from Finley on had a hell of an offseason.
Miller??? this was the offseason a year after an injury, he should have gained weight.
Toews gets the hardest worker award, just beating out Ryan Duncan and Ryan Martens.
I seriously doubt Bina was never 180 unless he was weighed after swimming in a snowmobile suit...
Height Wright Height Weight % Weight
2005 2006 2005 2006 Change
28 Robbie Bina Defense 5'8 5/8 180 163 0 -17 -9.4% * Serious Injury (and 2005 lie
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In 1989, I has 2 young cousins tortured and murdered by Wesley Allan Dodd, in Vancouver, WA. He was busted and guilty from the start (since he kept a journal of his victims and planned assults), and was hung (he chose that method) in Washington within the year of Billy and Cole's murders. The death penalty sounds like a great idea, and I agree, that they do not deserve to live, but on the other hand, I really wish that he was alive and suffering for what he did. I do not doubt that prison would not be a wonderful place to be, with the other inmates knowing the reason that you are behind bars. Think Jeffery Dahmer.
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.
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I havent heard much about the goalies this year but do you think it will be our weak spot?
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.
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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
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Sterling-
Hmmmm I may go more with replacing Bishop with Vandevelde rather than Miller unless both Bishop and Vande outplay him.
It's an interesting situation to be in:
As I see it, the upsides are:
Miller: experience (as it were), stickhandling
Vandevelde: Size, work ethic
Bishop: Speeeeeeeeeeed
Quick clarifications: I do know that Miller didn't play a lot last year, but he has more games at the DI level under his belt than both Bishop and Vande combined.
Second, I didn't list offensive potential behind any of them because they all hold that as an asset.
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.
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Based on Toews' maturity exemplified in todays article, I think there's no question he could wear the "C" or an "A".
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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.
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My new more-thought about line combinations is as follows:
Line 1 Forwards:
Toews
Duncan
Porter
Line 2 Forwards:
Oshie
Kozek
Zajac
Line 3 Forwards:
Fabian
Kaip
Watkins
Line 4 Forards:
Miller
Forney
Bishop
Extra Forwards:
VandeVelde
Martens
Foyt
Line 1 Defense:
Chorney
Lee
Line 2 Defense:
Finley
Radke
Line 3 Defense:
Jones
Bina
Extra Defense:
Alexander
Genoway
Goalies:
Grieco
Lamoureux
Walski
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?
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Not this year. He did not apply in time, so expect him to play for the Jets this year.
really? that's great. Their house just sold a few weeks ago so I figured he was gone for sure.
Sioux vs Badgers in Sconnie
in Men's Hockey
Posted
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.