Big A HG

I've re-thunk my decision: Minnesota Minnesota-Moorhead St. Cloud North Dakota State At least NDSU and Moorhead aren't in the picture right now.

I didn't read it, but was already laughing when I saw two things: 1) New York Times 2) "Op-Ed"

Amen Goon.

Michigan was an over-achiever a bit this year, like us. They have great skill, but they didn't have much goaltending all year. Hunwick came in thanks to Hogan's injury, and kind of carried Michigan for their stretch run, but he was still their backup. The 2008 team seemed like a team that should have won it all, but it's the tournament, and anything can happen, and Notre Dame put an end to that in Denver. Then, you look at the 2006 and 2007, they played two championship-calibre Sioux teams, so I can't say they really choked those years. Michigan, yes, has been a disappointment with their talent, but I wouldn't say they had a poor loss except for the Notre Dame Frozen Four game in '08 out of the past 4 years. However, the Sioux have had some great teams to win a title with in recent memory (especially the 05-06 and 06-07 years), but failed to win one...so I'd call it unfair to chastise Michigan when we haven't been much better despite our recent Frozen Four one and dones.

Is it October yet?

Michigan was in the 2008 Frozen Four.

I'm not sure they'll do one this year. The stuff they had last year was about 5 years (or more) worth of stuff, and part of the change was in part due to the switch from Nike to Reebok. So, I'm not sure they'll have one this year.

I don't know how Hak is going to figure this thing out. This team is deep, but not in a great way. The skill-level isn't extremely deep beyond the handful of top players on the roster. Beyond those guys, the rest all kind of average out to be mediocre to slightly above-average in terms of skill level, which makes it hard to sit certain players a lot, but makes it hard to keep putting them in as well. The bottom guys are all much better than most D1 teams, but they still don't add up to be a whole lot in the end. I'm not sure if I explained that right. I think all the guys from top-to-bottom skate hard, and play well as a team, but I'd like to see some depth to our high-octane offense...part of which I think Hak limits with the guys. We'll see how it pans out.

I think the biggest differences are as follows: -It's a do or die situation against an unfamiliar opponent in an unfamiliar location -------Look at the last part of the season. It was against teams we've all seen plenty, in places they've all been to (minus a couple away games for the freshies). Until Yale. Same situation as last year when it was UNH. -Using the refs is a bit of an excuse. UND should still be able to dictate play. But, Yale is a much better team that most will give credit to, just because of the conference they play in. -Back to the do-or-die situation. The last couple of years, all the pressure was on us. The team knows they will go home if they lose, in a game where they know they should win. It comes down to, in my opinion, gripping the stick too tight and overthinking a lot of situations instead of just playing their game. -Two completely different game-styles collided, and one has to give. Our style has been proven to be ineffective against most Eastern teams the last few years, and that includes most regular season games.

I think they are just gripping the sticks a little bit too tight. They know what losing entails, and it just brings that added pressure. Once they loosen up a bit, they'll be fine. Let's just hope it's still a 1 goal game when it happens.

Yessir!

Who owns the rights to an S with tomahawks in it? The Shicago Blackhawks?

Yeah, what Bob said right above me. I'm limited only to viewing online or listening to Tim.

I'm assuming that it will switch to the NoDak game when it approaches? I'm so used to watching on TV thru FCS that I'm not used to having to scramble to find these games online.

What's the scoop on where we're all watching the game online?

5-10 years from now we'll all be talking about how great it was to listen to Doug and Frank on FSN North compared to whomever gets some tenure as their replacements.

As much as I hate the Gophers, I never once minded listening to Doug and the Rug. Whenever you heard their voices, you knew it was something college hockey. And, as much as they were homers, they weren't afraid to dish out a little respect where it was earned.

Is that for sure?

Any word on Nick Ebert? It was said that if he liked his visit (was here for the MTU series I believe), he would commit shortly thereafter. Well, being the impatient person I am, I wonder what's taking so long?!

Yeah, JPar played one season with them back in 08-09.

A little Ryan Duncan update: In 62 games with Salzburg, Duncan has 30 goals and 35 assists. He leads his team in goals, and is 2nd in points. And while I was at it, N*than G*rbe (censored for our younger viewers) seems like he hit a sophomore slump with the Portland Pirates, scoring only 10 goals and adding 26 assists in 42 games with them. Last year, G*rbe managed to put up 30 goals and 26 assists in 57 games.

Take away that 8-1 thrashing, and Lee playing like crap in the Final Five, they were a tough team for us as well. They have the scoring. They have good goaltending most of the time, and their defense is better than in years past. Plus, they didn't have Roe against us and their lines were a bit scattered at the F5.

I think SCSU will be tough. This is one of their best teams they've had in awhile, and they've had some decent ones in recent years. I can see them as a Frozen Four dark horse with good potential.

The problem with this comment is that the faster and harder you push technologies that aren't reliable, and have very little in the way of energy output, the greater the chance it will fail. If you let capitalism run its course, someone is going to have a breakthrough beyond what we can imagine right now, and then getting rid of all our combustible engines is then something viable. We just don't have the technology to do that until one of these major breakthroughs happen. Yes, there are methods to creating clean energy right now, but none of them can do what fossil fuels do. Once you obtain a way to provide cheap renewable energy that has as much output as fossil fuels, then we can start getting rid of fossil fuels. You'd destroy America by trying to replace everything before there is a good enough technology in place...but what progressive liberal isn't trying to destroy America these days?

We are now ONE day away from tournament action. East and West regionals start the action.