yababy8
-
Posts
979 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Posts posted by yababy8
-
-
I second this
Thank you! I don't want to be critical of anyone who wants to post about the coaching tenure, I just would love to see a thread that isn't all about that.
..I just threw up a post suggesting a change to the Grimaldi line, Doesn't anyone have a thought on that? Everyone knows everyone elses position on the fire Hak thing.. Who thinks Rodwell would be a better fit to Grimaldi's right??
-
Ok here is another angle to discuss; line combo's.
In years past I have thrown out my opinions regarding line combinations. This year I have not done it at all, except on a coupe of occasions to suggest a couple of times people I feel should not be in the line-up. I just haven't had strong opinions about it like in the past. I have also noticed a pretty significant reduction of line combo suggestions from others on the forum this year as well.
I do think the coaching staff has done a very good job of getting good lines together as the year has gone on. I actually would say it might be one of the better jobs they have done in the Hak era.
Having said this I do think about a switch on the right wing that might be fruitful; Move Rodwell to the Grimaldi line and Johnson to the energy line. Why?
Because, I think Rodwell will be a little better at finishing hence we will generate more scoring with Grimaldi and the General working with him. I'm not saying I don't like Johnson but you can definitely see him kind of skate through the play a bit. The game is not clear(slow) to him down in close yet. Johnson is a great puck mover and very strong on his skates, he plays on his edges well so I don't think our energy line will miss a single beat with him on it.
Rodwell is the most improved player on our team right now. He is reminding me of a Porter type of senior(ahh, had to watch the goal. It never gets old!
) -
All good arguments...I'd like to add one:
4. gfhockey being named extra-special associate head coach. Let's face it...his keen insight of the game and clear knowledge of how to win championships, along with his ability to relate to the young players by teaching them the basics of jager bombs and keg stands, is what we need to put this team over the top.
Might not be all that bad of an idea as he might be the missing ingredient that adds that emotional fire to the equation. Although I'm not sure how it would work when they deny him access to the bus?
-
ahhh....you might want to rethink that one.
Alright, I'll bite. Give me your team and I'll give you my comparison.
Oh and I'll be judging your sportsmenship as well, so pick '07-'08 if you want.
-
Agreed - If we added in a respectible power play we might be hard to beat.
I agree. I think the path to a respectable power play is gaining the zone in good stead.
-
I think we need a better coach to win #8. Thoughts?
Tough crowd, I meant this year. Some one tell me how to edit thread title..lol
-
its not perpich.....it is PRPICH
No wonder he was such an antagonist. He got picked on as a child for having no vowels in his name.
-
who is purpich?
ha@! ya know the guy that was always thirsty and drinking water...
I fixed it.
-
I'm feeling the need to start a new thread in the hopes of having something good to read as an alternative to the fire hak-keep hak threads that seem to be the only mid-week threads which have been getting activity recently.
I'm not against fire the coach debates, it's just that it seems like the wrong time to be so focused on that now. If it was either the off-season or this year was in the tank-sure, but when we are bidding for first place in our conference, in the middle of a really impressive winning streak and in the top 14 in the nation having 'fire the coach' as the only choice for good reading on here is kind of lame. So I'll take it upon myself to remedy it. :-)
There are so many things worthy of discussion going on with this years team. I've kept no secrets about the promise I see in this team. We have a bunch of guys showing really impressive play lately.
Here are a couple of discussion topics that come to my mind:
The make-up of our defensive core is unique in a few different ways. Our offense is driven in many ways by our blue liners.
Our forwards are all developing very well. You could throw out quite a few names in a discussion about impressive development.
...So what does this team need to do to win it all. We are all gunning for #8 right? This is how I see it..
My three keys to a championship
1. Goal tending. Gothberg is the man. He needs to make a decision that he is not going to be scored on no matter what. He can get there but what does he need to get him there. Maybe Prpich should come back to town and give him a beat-down marine style and build him back up with an edge?? Hey it's a thought what can I say..
2. Ok here is a cliche, Play with a fast pace, smart, creative, aggressive and attacking style all of the time. Chips, give and go's, forechecking, 360 spin-o-Rama's, all of it. This team is impressive pretty much all of the time when they are playing this way. When they sit back they struggle. Therefore this team should NEVER move into any kind of prevent style no matter how ahead they get in a game. Hak always talks about how the team needs to be playing on their toes and not their heels. This has never been more true than this years team. This is where some emotion is needed. I think Hak lacks the emotional offering to the team sometimes. Maybe Purp can pay him a visit too. How bout that alleged Brooks speech he gave his team back in 1980. Do you think Hak would say the "f" word?? I digress..
3. Obtain possession in the offensive zone. Grimaldi and Mark Mac do well in the breakaway realm, as do Parks and Cags but this is not the nuts and bolts of our offensive capability. As I mentioned before, this offense is driven by its defensemen. Once we gain the zone we are good. It's getting there that the coaches and players need to perfect. We saw what can happen when we fail at this during the Sat game against Omaha.
I have to offer a bonus key; When to pinch? One of the key components of our offense is pinching the defensemen up to keep the zone. We have been doing it well mostly. The challenge will be how to manage this when we play the best teams in the country in the tournament. i.e. BC and Minnesota. We haven't had to deal to much with getting burned. Omaha did it to us but that is about it. The problem is if we chose not to pinch against a great offensive team then we f-up #3 above and that would not be good. In other words the pinch is a part of what we need to accomplish #2 and #3. So what do we do? That is a tough one..
There you go. Some "stuff" to stimulate some stimulating discussion. Am I fired??
-
Because the team that's favored every year should win the title every time, right?
Cough, cough, 1980 Soviet Union (men's Olympic hockey)...1983 Houston Cougars (men's basketball)...1985 Georgetown Hoyas (men's basketball)...cough, cough, 1997 Michigan Wolverines (ice hockey)...cough, cough, 2004 LA Lakers (NBA)...2014 Denver Broncos (NFL)...
Hey don't leave out the 1998 vikes
-
Brad made a good point in his recap about the stretch where UNO took it to UND. After Gaarder got tossed the game took on a different landscape. Still thought Rodwell played well, but just didn't see the same from Pattyn. Thats an extremely important line for UND, and hopefully they stay in tact for sixty minutes tonight.
Changes tonight.....
Thompson in for Mattson (won't ever happen)
.
I had Mattson as one of the leaders in mistakes last night. Not that he was an outlier by any means and also not like the team was making that many mistakes but I did see him make a couple. Thompson has looked pretty darn good when he has played too. So that is a tough one I think.
I do like Mattson overall. Especially when he skates with the puck.
-
Carry the frickin' puck in more!!!
This slinging it around the boards garbage has had minimal success so far this season. Last night was a complete joke.
I 'kind of' agree with this.
This is the way I'm seeing it;
Per usual when comparing a team's play between good games and not as good games there are a few things that one can point to as the reason(s). While that is the case when I look at the Sioux's play last night and compare it to, let's say, last Friday in Denver, there is one thing that really stands out from my vantage point and that is puck movement. Specifically, puck movement in the offensive zone, down low, along the boards. So I'm talking about forwards, I'm talking about cycling and passes and chips to gain the zone. In games when the Sioux are really dominating they are doing this well. in games they are struggling in they are not.
Allow me to clarify a bit more,
When the forwards do a great job in this area you see them putting the puck in the holes where their support will get to the puck first. It's seeing space or geometry or what ever you want to call it. In the games where we are dominating we are doing this at a very high level. Tons of hockey IQ to enjoy as a fan. Often times my experience lately is that I didn't even see that angle and I get all in awe at the pass or chip.
Now last night it was not so much that way. I saw over and over again the player either whip the puck right through the "good area" and around to the defensemen's "good area"-so to speak or the player would try a low probability move, chip or pass in lieu of getting it to a good spot. Bottom line is they were not moving the puck to the good spots..
The difference in doing this or not, in my opinion, is everything. That is a bit rhetorical to say but I say it never the less. Moving the puck intelligently allows the dump to work, it allows the power play to work , It GETS THE PUCK BACK TO THE DEFENSEMEN.. Anyone notice how infrequently our defensemen had possession in the zone last night? I can't hardly remember a D to D pass in the zone the whole night.
It's not that hard of a thing to do and with the puck battle advantage our players absolutely have it is a very effective element toward offensive posseseion.
If the Sioux can keep a good focus on this down low high quality puck movement I think they will succeed. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again, I think this team has the potential to be one of the best teams to take the ice in the new Ralph.
.
-
Dope is for dopes!
I'm assuming you're talking about alcohol given it's CNS depressant characteristics?
-
Then again, they're all probably too busy finding they're spirit animal to go to a hockey game on Friday & Saturday night.
There is more weed smoked in one night on the St. Cloud campus than there is in a semester on the CC campus.
-
That's not entirely true. While it is true that the student section is rather small, CC regularly has one of college hockey's highest attendance as many local people from Colorado Springs support the program. To CC's defense, the enrollment is only 2,000 students plus the arena is very far away from campus. That said, the fan support isn't nearly as rabid as UND.
While CC has decent attendance at their games further analyzation would reveal a low level of passion relative to attendance numbers. Their fans do not compare well to the programs in other cities like the Twin Cities, Madison, Duluth, Mankato, Bemidji, and others.
I own a retail business about 12 blocks from campus and pretty much never see a CC fan. Every once and awhile a customer will have CC garb on so I will try to spark up a little dialogue. 90% of the time the have no clue who their star players are, what the name of the conference is they play in, and/or what other teams they play against. It's pretty shocking.
-
CC 'fans' don't even travel the 20 miles from campus to World Arena.
your off by about 15 miles.
-
Those comparisons at the end made me laugh....thanks I needed that.
Hey you're always allowed the most liberty in the extra credit section. Bottom line is the recognition is not unwarranted.
-
That's bold. Don't misinterpret me, I love the optimism and believe this team is looking better each series though.
Just curious, what are the different areas that you see this team has going for them over the past teams?
Excellent query,
The short answer is this; This team doesn't f_ck up.
While I have always been a strong supporter of more offensive prowess with respect to many of our past Sioux teams( just check my history on this forum to see how I feel about the value of dynamic offense), the number one thing I pay attention to when watching and re-watching Sioux games is who screws things up. I could go back to pretty much any team since Hak has been at the helm and point to more than one player on each team that perpetually mucked up possession. Of course this was and is my perception and my opinion but I do recall it was others as well.
I don't want to go through the last 8 years and throw players under the bus because that is not nice to some very passionate members of Sioux hockey alumni. I am although going to pick one guy out because I need him to make my point. Chay Genoway. (its ok he's currently making a half million a year). Now this guy was probably the best skating defensemen I have ever seen and he bled Sioux green. I really was a fan of his for that. But he had a weakness. He would get toasted by a good forward and give-up plays which allowed opponents offense in vulnerable situations. Every team has had Genoways over the last several seasons.
Tell me I am wrong when I say that we as Sioux fans have seen team after team dominate play against opponents but yet lose games when the other team gets odd man rushes once or twice a game and scores on them. You know what I'm talking about. The, "wow we have been kicking their ass! They can't even get the puck out of our end" Then they get a two-on-one breakaway or two during the course of the game and now we are losing. Shots 35-15, but we lost.
This years team is starting to look different in that they are not allowing the odd man rushes. Even when the opponent gets past our defense we catch them and shut them down. Why is this?
Because we have 7 awesome defensemen.
I was at the Denver series and Friday night was a sight to behold. (Sat was the standard Colorado high altitude/bought refs game I have seen for 12 years here but Friday was impressive). I focused on our blue-liners looking for weakness in their game. Every one of them was dominant. Simpson and Schmaltz go from 99% solid to Hobey caliber play throughout the game. They are complete. Shooting eye, skating, passing, decision making, calm under pressure, defensive control, outlet passes, jumping into the play both to keep possession on the boards and up the middle to score. All of it. Top notch All American level play.
Now the other 5 guys and I'm not talking burgers and fries. Here is the best way to say how I see them; in a comparison with our top two I struggle to find any significant reduction in the level they are at when I break down their game. I watch Ladue and Stecher pinch and I am in awe. They are so effective. They never get burned. They should get burned! They are frick'n freshmen??
If you took these four guys off our team and had to look to Mattson, Ausmus and Thompson as your guys. Well Asmus is pretty solid-Very few and little F_ck ups. Mattson, now that he is skating with the puck, is starting to look like a bit like Chorney and finally Thompson, Hmmmm? leads the team +/- and scores in critical situations. (BTW Hakstol screwed up not switching the lineup for Sat in Denver. Poor respect for altitude. I appreciate him wanting to go with the highly successful group from Friday's annihilation but ya gotta respect high altitude fatigue.)
Ok so there you go. I obviously am pretty high on our blue liners right? But is that enough to justify my claims of great potential? Maybe not. So I will add a little mustard. Two more reasons why this team can be great:
1. I think Hak is a great coach. I have some issues with his what I would call 'lack of focus on offensive creativity'. Just my take on him. Having said that I think he is destined to excel the most with a team that's strength is at the blue line. Given my assertion above then this may be his most appropriately skilled team to coach to a championship.
2. I haven't said anything about the forwards? Well about the forwards. In the course of this season we have all seen the offensive zone game plan; Gain the zone and move the puck to the point and cycle between a winger and the two defensemen until a shot is there, shoot and get bodies to the net.
I have noticed a change in the offensive zone puck movement the last few weeks in two areas; A) The defensemen are moving the puck to the wingers of the circles and the forwards are looking for shots and feeds through the middle depending on how aggressive the defense is toward the top of the zone. Our forwards are doing very well at this. Rodwell, Parks, O'donnell, chyzyk, Grimaldi, St.Clair and others are preforming with a lot of hustle and smarts in this role. I.e. they are not f_cking up. This is a second dimension as compared to before X-mas. B) The defensemen (mostly Simpson and Schmaltz) are moving deep into the zone with a frequency that I have never seen before in the Hak era. I think this is not only indicative of how talented our defensemen are but also I think it speaks to my first point. We don't f_uck up!
That's my spiel..
For extra credit I say this,
Rodwell is starting to remind me of Porter.
St.Clair's penalty kill is starting to remind me of Travis Zajac.
and a couple times a game O'Donnell kind of reminds me of Stafford.
how about a healthy McMillan? a cross between trupp and Oshie? maybe Panzer??
com'on who's with me?
-
out of curiosity how long have you been watching und hockey? as from my memory I can list at least six teams that would be better than this one..87,97,98,99,00,04,11. and there are several others that could be on the list as well.
..Why no 08?...
a couple of ways I could answer this;
If I was going to be a wise guy I could say, Longer than you have been able to read well as I said "one of the better" not better than. I further qualified the statement with a "developing" into clause... But I'm guessing you are a gentlemen and thus would not deserve such a gruff response...
or I could answer your inquisition into my qualifications and say to you that you have me on 87. (Although Greg Johnson is my all time favorite Sioux player and Dixon Ward and Russ Romaniuk were fun to watch put the puck in the net) I saw my first game two years after the 87 team. Not that this matters because a comparison to that team would be silly at this point.
Having said that I would agree that this team is not the 97-99 team. As far as 04 and 11 go, I would say 04 was better (I was at World Arena when that all ended). 11, now that is a bit more of a question. That team was really good in many way but it's weakness was at defensive depth and completeness. It also relied a bit to much on Frattin's deadly shot (It was something to behold that shot!) but that is not relevant to this comparison because beside the goalie question, consistent scoring is this teams "need to improve" area.
I will explain why I think this team has a big one up on many of the recent great Sioux teams and could thus be on the verge of greatness in my response to Heaven no beers post. I am impressed by his response to my rhetoric. It was what I was fishing for.
-
Exactly, I would say 8-1-1 would be in our dreams.
I guess I see this team a bit differently than everyone else right now. I think they are developing into one of the better Sioux teams I have ever seen. They are certainly skilled in different areas than usuall but some of those are things that even the best teams over the last 12 years have lacked and in my opinion have been weaknesses which have cost us championships.
The only real concern I have for this team is at goal and that can best be described as a question mark more than an overt weakness.
-
If the Sioux played the following teams in a six weekend period home and away series how do you think they would do?
Quinnipiac, Union, Northeastern, Providence, U Mass Lowell, Ferris State.
I would say we would go 8-1-1. That would be our record against a field comprised of 60% of the current top ten teams in the Nation!
I would add that I think it would be likely that we go 10-0.
Omaha would probably go 6-4 against them and they are not even ranked!
-
so who screwed things up for everyone? ie, who lost to the ECAC?
-
I think tonight is the night that everyone realizes this teams championship potential.
Well? Who sees it?
-
I think tonight is the night that everyone realizes this teams championship potential.
NORTH DAKOTA @ UMD BULLDOGS - Friday
in Men's Hockey
Posted
What direct TV channel is the game on?