Big A HG

This is one thing I CAN agree with. I'm not a daily ref-basher around here, and as inconsistent as the WCHA refs are, throughout the course of a season everyone gets their breaks and their bad luck. However, the fact that they continually allow what you describe, Goon, is the problem. Even if they call it very fairly in terms of what they call a penalty and what they don't, it still makes things tougher for the guys with a lot more skill. However, with that said, you still don't see Mankato's, and UAA's winning the conference title. You still see the best teams regularly fighting for that position. About the goals beind down...yes, the goals are down. But, how much of that is the way teams recruit in the WCHA now-days thanks to the reffing issues? I'm not saying no one recruits top-tier players, but many teams, including the bottom-halfers of the league recruit the grinders that will wear down the better teams in hopes of keeping it close and having a better chance at winning. Look at the way UND recruits, it's a mix of offensive and defensive-minded forwards, not just all skill guys. I think if the league reffing changed for the better, you'd see goals go up again. Also, I probably should have stated that teams score 5-6 goals regularly instead of 6-7, but that's my mistake. With Saturday and Sunday's games left, there were already 5 teams to score 6 or more goals in the country, and 13 teams to score 5 or more goals. Those guys can score with the same pads that we can't score on. The term "reguarly" can be interpreted differently between each individual who reads what I wrote, but what I mean is that many teams can score a decent amount of goals enough to not consider them a rarity. If a team plays 5 games, and they score 1 goal one game, 3 goals in two of those games, 4 goals one, and 5 goals another, that's a good amount of goals that averages out to be 3.2 goals/game, which would only be 5th best in conference (all games considered). If UND averaged 3.2 goals/game, we'd have a very different standing in the WCHA and the NCAA (PWR). The pads aren't the problem, it's the skill level...whether it's bad offensive skill for us, or great defensive and goaltending skill from our opponents, or a combination of both.

How many goals do people want scored? Other teams have no problems scoring 6-7 goals regularly. The only reason this is being brought up is because we have a team who isn't scoring goals, so y'all are blaming the system. The system works, the team isn't. How 'bout this...when you score a goal you get 6 points. Then, the goal scorer gets the opportunity for a shootout-style goal for an extra point. The, scores can be in the 30s-40s and everyone is happy because there's "tons of points" just like the NFL (face it, the NFL doesn't score much more than hockey if you make TD's count as 1 pt and take away FG's which are dumb anyways). If it isn't Brian Lee, it's Joe Finley. If it isn't Joe Finley, it's Coach Hakstol. If it isn't Hak it's the goalie's pads. When does the whining end around here?

Why not just remove the roof at the Ralph and make the team play in the elements year round? Talk about home ice advantage....

I was really hoping the Blackhawks would try and take advantage of a deal for him to give them that little extra edge for the rest of the season. Didn't happen though... Also, Stafford potted two tonight in a Sabres victory.

The problem is with reducing goalie pad sizes is that it also includes our goalies. So, in the end, I don't think it makes a ton of difference other than the total amount of goals scored.

Not sure where you live, but if you live in/around the Twin Cities, you should be calling your local radio and tv stations and thanking them for buying up many tickets over the past few seasons. This year was a little different with Favre coming in, but last year the Vikes had a division winning team and barely sold out their first home playoff game in what seemed like forever...not to mention all the regular season games where the TV and radio stations came in and scooped up remaining tickets many times. It's not like the Packers were an amazing team their whole history. They went 29 years between championships, many of those years being losing seasons, yet the Packer faithful showed up week in and week out throughout those years and have sold out each game since the 60s, even braving the cold weather. Of course I was having a little fun with what I said, and there are die-hards and bandwagoners for each and every team out there no matter the sport, but the Vikes have a pretty bandwagon-based franchise. Not that it will get any better once they move to LA...

Vikings fans = Bandwagon fans Sioux fans = Well, depends on if you're a Vikings fan or not... I'm a Packers fan so I'm always dumb enough to stay on a moving wagon long after I should have jumped, so count me in.

As of a couple years ago, Ray already had an offer from Bemidji State (more than like a partial at best), as well as a handful of D3's. That BSU offer looks quite a bit better after what happened last year with the conference switch taking place this upcoming fall.

More hilarity on the SiouxSports forums with more and more idiots who want Hak fired after his first less-than-stellar season...which isn't even over yet. Without knowing for sure, I'd guess that the elementary school kids in GF must have typing lessons in computer class on the Sioux Sports forums.... Having Blais here would REALLY fire up the ol' whiners here with his inconsistency as a head coach...overachieve with crap teams, underachieve with great ones...

The Shepherd/Hunt crew hasn't been all that bad over the last couple years. There are a few guys who really wanted that most-hated spot in the WCHA that Derek once held, but Anderson, Thul, Adam, among a couple others have really "stepped up" their "games"....especially Anderson. The guy has the face of a woman and is the biggest cock I've ever had the pleasure of talking to.

I'm not "wowing" the fact that you enjoy BSU hockey, that's understandable. It's the use of the word "resemble" in that statement. You resemble BSU hockey?

Wow

Some of you are goint a little overboard about speculation. People speculate that Chay is guaranteed to be healthy for next year when in reality he may never be healthy enough to play again. Until Knight and Hexy are seen skating on my tv, I anticipate them being out.

Mr. Simpson, Mr. Mattson, Mr. Forbert....Meet Brian Lee and Joe Finley, they'll be showing you around. (it's a joke)

As far as I'm concerned, Denver is a much bigger rival for ME than Minnesota. I love to spank the Gophers, but it erks my like no other to lose to Denver. Reasons: -Both have 7 titles, second most in the NCAA (Michigan, 9) -Gwozdecky -Paukovich -Gwozdecky -Multiple title game losses to them over the years -Gwozdecky -How good they always seem to be Minnesota is a great border rivalry and there are a lot of Minnesota sports fans in and around GF that make things interesting, but throw those aside and Denver easily takes the cake for me. Everyone knows a Gopher fan, and that makes it fun to be able to rub it in their face after a sweet victory, and that's part of it. Also, many students/players from UND are from Minnesota, and that's a big deal as well.

I've been saying the same things as well....so I concur also.

I read an article about how one manufacturer was showing off a TV at the CES that featured yellow added as a fourth color. They "SAY" it's supposed to enhance the picture more than you can imagine...I'll wait to see for myself before judging though.

Just get yourself one of these (when it comes out): 82" 2160p (4 times great resolution than a 1080p tv) What you'd use it for? I dunno, it wouldn't look any better than what's already available because nothing is shown in 2160p, but you can say you have the best!

Hopefully Zach Parise and TJ Oshie found a loophole and are coming back to fulfill their years of eligibilty left...rockin' their Olympic gear.

Well, so much for that, Hambone.

Instead of bashing our sophomore goaltender, why don't we bash a senior wearing a letter who has failed to step up in big games....Mr. Vande Velde. He's been a dud this year and only has as many points as he does from getting to exclusively play on scoring lines with other guys who put the puck in the net. He's going to put up his worst number since his freshman year if he doesn't turn it around quick. Yeah, he'll win more faceoffs than he loses, but it hasn't led to the goals we should expect from him. Time for Chris to take ownership of our offense...

Here's a question regarding Eidsness... Would you rather have him hot during November-January or February-April? I'll take the latter. He has had some bad games, but he'll figure it out. He is capable of getting hot, too. We haven't had a Freshman/Sophomore goalie get this much playing time since Karl Goehring, who had less than Brad. Karl then took us to two Title games, winning one, the following two years. Eids will only get better, if we give him a chance...it's not like he's terrible right now. Brad also has the 18th best GAA right now in the country, which isn't stellar, but it isn't like he's a bottom end goaltender....that while having one of the youngest, if not the youngest D-corps in the country in front of him. It'd be nice to get the very best players from North America each and every year, but it's not realistic. Keep in mind, he was a freshman who led us to a MacNaughton as well.

Malone Kristo

I'll name an obvious one....VANDE VELDE. What a letdown this year. Sure, he wins a few more faceoffs than he loses, but hasn't been deserving of his scoring line roles. He used to be a power forward that was incredibly hard to knock off the puck. Now, someone looks at him and the puck is going the other way. He's managed to get a decent amount of assists just because he is on a decent line, but only has 6 goals...at least one of which was complete garbage and luck. He should be a 20-25 goal guy, but might not get to 15. I think he's trying too hard to be a goal scorer, insted of letting them come. GAME ON CHRIS!

This thread is a joke. I don't care if it's tongue-in-cheek, created because it's "healthy to vent", etc. Hakstol should go NOWHERE. What has he done with his five and a half seasons? 4 Frozen Fours 1 MacNaughton 1 Broadmoor 0 Missed Tourneys Consistently ranked in the top 10 It's insane to think that Hakstol "should" have won a title by now just because we are North Dakota and have had great talent. There have been much more talented teams over the past 5 years that haven't won the crown. No one has been as consistent as this school since he became our coach. Now, take this season. It's the youngest one we've had since 05-06 (which had a much more talented class), we've lost our Captain/Pts Leader (at the time)/Hobey Candidate for more than half our games, another senior has missed time, our last senior mentioned has failed to live up to expectations, Hextall has been out, Kristo missed a couple games for WJC, and we've had a pretty hard schedule. All that AND we are still a top 10 team in the country, despite our failure to live up to WCHA expectations at this point. This season isn't over, yet many are treating it as such. Blais never got stomped once by the Gophers at Mariucci? How 'bout Gasparini? Hak has a WINNING record against the Gophs since his time here, he's obviously done something right. Who knows, maybe this horrible season we are having will be the one where Hak gets his glory in the end, and all you idiots can shut up...hopefully permanently. Rant over.