PCM

Congratulations to the Mavericks for one heck of a season. I think almost everyone (including me) wrote them off at the beginning of the year. Their success has been phenomenal. How bad is Stevenson's shoulder? An injury like that certainly isn't what Mankato needs heading into the playoffs.

I want to see Kasey Moreland in a Sioux uniform.

To me, that didn't appear to be a factor.

Having been at the game, one point I'd make is that Reichmuth was consistently leaving huge rebounds, many of them straight up the slot. The trouble was, when the puck bounced out, most of the time the Sioux were crashing the net and they'd overskate it before they could get a stick on it. I lost count of how many times this happened. Blais pointed out after the game that the huge rebounds sometimes created odd-man rushes for the Bulldogs going the opposite direction. Also, the Sioux were clearly the better team and controlled the play in UMD's zone for long stretches. The Bulldog's were extremely fortunate that some of the sloppy play by their defensemen and goalie didn't result in Sioux goals. The thing I noticed about Reichmuth is that even though he made some bonehead plays and he was lucky that they didn't cost UMD the game, he plays with a great amount of confidence -- unlike Siembida and Brandt. He never seemed to be shaken, even with the game appeared to be very lopsided in UND's favor. Oh yeah. And I think Parise needs to relax and start having fun again. He looks like he's pressing way too hard to make things happen. It's hurting his game.

Yeah but, after reading that, I think the rest of us do.

Because anything is better than maroon and gold?

I assume that it's a way of telling Massen, "If you're not going score, you might as well play defense." And how much ice time would James expect to see as a defenseman at this point in the season? Not much, I'm guessing.

Dave Hakstol was on 1440 AM this morning with Tim and Swyg. Tim asked why James Massen was wearing a white defenseman's jersey in practice. At first, Hakstol joked that they were trying to generate more offense from the blue line. But then he said it was a way of sending a message to certain players. "We don't need anyone who's half way there. You're either in or your out." Tim asked if James is still playing D. "I would hope not," Hakstol said.

Based on what Dave Hakstol said to Tim and Swyg on the radio this morning, I wouldn't expect David Hale to play this weekend. Hakstol said that David's still in Rochester. He'll have a final consultation with the doctors at Mayo today and be back sometime tonight. Let's hope that the docs can provide David with some good advice on how to keep his illness under control.

Weck? As in "twain weck?"

I prefer UND teams with a good blend of size and speed, which is what I consider the 2000 Sioux team that won it all.

Buffalo Weally Wild Wings?

That's a joke, son! Obviously, you didn't get it.

There's also an article in today's Duluth New-Tribune about the Bulldogs' first trip to Ralph Engelstad Arena. I couldn't find any "bulletin board" material in it, however.

There's an article by Virg Foss about the upcoming series with UM-Duluth in today's Grand Forks Herald. Blais sounds hopeful that David Hale will play this weekend.

Tim Hennessy and Scott Swygman interviewed Dean Blais at Lola

Blais is the last coach on tonight. Rich Glas went a bit long, so Blais will have a little less time to work with.

But what about his hockey team?

Blais said on the radio Monday morning that David Hale was in Rochester, MN, undergoing tests at the Mayo Clinic. His comments led me to believe that David was not fully recovered.

KVLY-TV in Fargo also ran a story about how they are now friends and push each other in practice.

HDogsK, Thanks for the info on Jensen. I was going on what I remembered about him last season when he started for Mankato against the Sioux at the REA. I remember that most expected UND to run up the score on the Mavs because Jensen was a third-string walk-on. I didn't know anything about what he'd done prior to that.

Most of us don't knows what's going on behind the scenes, but I think we can get a feel for some of it. David Hale's absense might be more keenly felt in the locker room than it is on the ice. Blais mentioned in last night's pre-game show that there had been some finger-pointing going on in the locker room after the loss to Mankato on Friday. That tells me that some of the team chemistry is gone that helped make the Sioux winners in the first half of the season. In another thread, I suggested the possibility of breaking up Bochenski and Parise. I didn't propose it as a means of spreading the scoring talent out. I suggested it because based on some of Blais' recent moves, I suspect that there might be some friction between those two players. Why did Blais try moving Parise to a wing and making Lundbohm the line's center at Denver? Why did he put Palmiscno on that line Friday? It appears to me that once Parise's goal-scoring numbers went up after the WJC, his assists went down and the number of goals Bochenski scored went down. Could that be a source of friction between the two players? Could it be why Blais has recently tinkered with putting different set-up men on the line as a means of helping them both score more goals? I disagree with the idea that the team doesn't have enough scoring depth. The Sioux can put two very good scoring lines on the ice and, frankly, that should be enough. They won their last championship with two scoring lines. Going into the Mankato series, UND was third in the nation in scoring. At one point, four of the WCHA's top 10 scorers played for North Dakota. Every team has a certain number of players who don't score much. Putting Canady in that category is unfair because he hasn't played much because of injuries. Although I expected more of Genoway, for all practical purposes, this is his freshman season. Some guys have to be role players rather than scorers. There's still time to turn this season around with a strong finish, but time is rapidly running out.

Goon, I guess I just assumed that Blais would do this at the end of the season. I'm not advocating that we stick with our current crop of goaltenders no matter what. On the other hand, now that Craig Perry is working as an assistant goalie coach, is there anything to be said for hanging on to Brandt or Siembida in hopes that he can develop one of them into a solid goalie? I don't like our current goaltending situation any better than anyone else, but I'm not sure that a revolving door from season to season is necessarily the answer, either.

Recruiting goalies is an art, not a science. It also appears to involve some luck. Last season, the MSU Mavericks came into The Ralph with Jason Jensen, an unheralded third-string walk-on goalie who helped Mankato sweep the Sioux. Saturday night, that same goalie made 48 saves and enabled the Mavs to sweep the Sioux again. In contrast, Josh Siembida, who was recruited by some of the top schools in college hockey, has not played up to his potential at UND. Why was Siembida brought in? Because Andy Kollar, who'd had a stellar career behind Karl Goehring, didn't play well. I don't know where this idea comes from that Blais somehow avoids recruting the best goalies avaiblable. Do you think that he planned to have mediocre goaltending last season and this season?