Siouxtimestwo

Let's get something going on the powerplay here. It's time for Oshie to make something outta nothing.

Yes there are. And if you want to get a base hit in a pitchers park you still have to get a hit off of the pitcher who's standing 60'6" away and run the 90' before you get thrown out, just the same as a hitters park. I never played hockey, I only know it from my years as a UND student, so maybe a shorter neutral zone has no bearing on the style of play at all. I've just always been curious. If you have any insight, I'd love to hear it.

Ice size.

Plus, no one has answered my question: Are there lots of arenas like this? I'm not bringing it up to rip on the arena, I am wondering.

But the style of play doesn't change if the fences are 400' to center compared to 425'. The mound is still 60'6" from the plate and the bases are still 90' apart. Having a short rink like this totally changes the style of play with a tiny neutral zone.

I have a question related to the game and the rink size at the DECC. Are there lots of rinks that are smaller like this one? I've wondered this for years, but never thought to ask here. It just floors me that teams play on different size rinks at the D1 level. Imagine if the rims were higher from one teams gym to the next or a fooball field was 10 yards shorter.

As a basketball player in high school, I knew next to nothing about hockey until I came to UND many moons ago. One of the things that drove me nuts is when guys would pass the puck around and never shoot. I've since learned to appreciate everything about hockey, especially UND hockey, but I've never ever been able to figure out our reluctance to shoot the puck on the power play and I never will. We are the other's teams best penalty killers 85% of the time. We could be skating 5 on 0 and it would still take us at least 30 seconds to get a shot off.

Just because the season isn't over, doesn't mean we, as fans, can't be disappointed in this team thus far. We returned more talent than we have in past years, when those slow starts were understandable and somewhat expected. The never ending splits are getting a little sickening, but the constant splits at home are downright disgusting, especially Saturday nights. Next time UND wants to run a promotional weekend, they should have a "Take a Giant Dump on the Ice Saturday Night" so at least fans won't get their hopes up. It's also getting a little old being told what terrible fans we are for wondering why this team can't sweep a series at home anymore. With every inevitable split, no matter how terrible we played, anyone who says anything negative is always told to relax, we'll sweep (insert next opponent) and be fine. I'm still waiting for that to happen. I'm sure people are getting sick of hearing this from me, but I'll continue to say it again until we do put it together. It's fine if we as fans just automatically assume that the team will turn on the jets late in the season, but just because it's happened the past several years, doesn't mean it will happen this year. If players on the team are starting to think that, then I really believe we are in trouble, and to be honest with you, I'm starting to wonder if that isn't the attitude this team has. How else do you explain the fact we can play like gangbusters when absolutely pressed to do so, yet we seem to sleepwalk through 96 out of 120 minutes in our first home series in 2 years against our fiercest rival? What happened last year has no bearing on what will happen this year. Besides, if some people's logic holds ture, and we're supposed to use recent history and automatically apply it to this year's Sioux team, then we will indeed rebound and go on a run that will lead to yet another Frozen Four, where we'll lose! For all the fawning over Sioux teams the past couple years, you'd think we'd have hung some banners from the rafters. I have confidence in Hak. If anything, I think it's a testament to him and his coaching that past teams have rebounded and found a way to gel and get comfortable. As far as players are concerned, I'm starting to wonder how many truly understand what it takes to play Fighting Sioux hockey.

I only saw the first two periods as I was traveling home after a holiday weekend, but if I can say one positive thing about the game, it would be the play of Marto. He puts the puck right on guys stick and he had a beautiful one-timer tonight. It didn't result in anything, but if he keeps getting looks like that, eventually, they're going to find net. I have to agree with people who are getting a little sick of these starts. I'm a new poster, but I've read the boards for awhile now. The last two years we've turned it around, and I don't doubt that we can't do it again this year. One of my first posts on here was about how it's fine for us fans to just assume that the lights will turn on at some point and we'll play lights out, but if the players start to believe that's become the new definition of Fighting Sioux hockey, then we've got a problem. One difference between this year and the past two years was the talent we brought back this year. We're always talented and we did lose some pretty impressive players off last year's squad, but we brought back more than we have in awhile. That's why this year's start is disappointing. I guess I am an old-timer who's still hanging on to the idea that our hockey program can compete with the best teams in the WCHA for a whole season, not just the last month. Big weekend coming up, where hopefully our team can decide whether they want to be great or just good, because a young fan looking up at the rafters at REA 25 years from now isn't going care whether or not a team played awesome for one month and almost won a title. They're going to see the WCHA and NCAA championship banners and remember the great Sioux teams of old. We've had very good teams the past several years, but it's been awhile since we've been great. It's not too late for this season, but they do need to find themselves soon.

I think this will be a good test for us to see where we really are at. Are we a dominant team that can protect our home ice and contend for the Cup? People on here who know much, much more about hockey than I always say sweep at home, split on the road in the WCHA. We've got the second part down pat thus far, can we handle the first part.

FightingSioux4, who is that in your avatar? Just curious as a fellow Packers fan.

With all the talk about rankings and playing with pressure due to our #1 preseason ranking, whatever happened to putting pressure on yourself as a player to perform to the best of your abilities every night? Does anyone honestly believe that Fighting Sioux hockey has sunk to the point that players can only do good when little is expected of them? If that's the case, then go play at Mankato or Bemidji or some other school where a win is considered a pleasant surprise. We didn't hang 7 national championship banners from the rafters because we couldn't play when expectations were high. It's time to look in the mirror and decide whether we want to be a great team and deal with those expectations, or continue to wallow in the muck. And maybe next year, we can make that decision BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS! God, I feel like a Bears fan right now. With all the fuss about a new nickname, I think we should start calling ourselves the University of North Dakota Grossmans!

I agree, Hak does not deserve to be fired, as MafiaMan sarcastically pointed out. People that are seriously questioning Hak for not winning a national title yet are going too far, but the slow start thing does need to be addressed. We're not going to win the title every year, but it would be nice to at least have a WCHA title to hang our hats on after a Frozen Four defeat one of these years. Or at least make it to December still in contention. This year isn't at that point yet, but it's getting damned close. If we're just going to use recent history as a guide, like some are automatically assuming, the rest of the regular season doesn't matter because we're going to continue to suck, then play lights out and lose to BC in the Frozen Four. If we're going to use what we've seen from this year's team as a guide, we're going to either get shut out or shut the other team out, no one knows which will happen any given night. To be honest with you, I'm not sure which is more reassuring.

I'm pissed about these slow starts as well, but I don't know how much blame we can lay on Hak's shoulders. After all, he has righted the ship the last 3 years, so if you're going to blame him for the starts you have to credit him for the finishes. If we come back and win the title this year, we'll all forget about the slow start. No one is stupid enough to think we should be winning the national title every year, and we have been to the Frozen Four each year under Hak. That said, we don't hang banners in the Ralph for anything other than WCHA or NCAA championships. As I said, no one should expect to win the national title every year, but it would be nice to actually complete for the WCHA crown! Remember, SOS is no longer a factor in determining NCAA tourney births. We're going to have to start competing for league titles one of these years and not just relying on our reputation as a second half team.

I said it earlier, but I'll say it again, since it's relevant for this game: It's fine if we as fans get caught up in feeling that everything is fine, we'll just turn in on in the second half, as long as the team doesn't start to take on that mentality. In past years it was understandable when we struggled early, but this year should be different. I don't know if the team got caught up in the hype or not, but for whatever, reason, we're not playing well. I think everyone just assumed our top line would be as dominant and other lines would step up, but neither has happened. I haven't seen every game this year, but in the 3 I've seen Duncan has simply not been the same player as last year. 3 is a very small sample size compared to last year, but I just don't see him making his teammates better. That's never been his strength, but for our top line to be successful, he needs to do more than just sit in his office. I hate to admit this after arguing with people who didn't think he deserved the Hobey, but so far this year, he appears to be playing like his critics predicted he would without the T to complete the DOT. Either the players on the other lines are going to have to step up to take pressure off the top line to score every shift or else our top line is gonna have to score in droves, just like last year or in the Parise-Bochenski days. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I agree about Finley. He brings some things to this team that were plainly evident tonight, but scoring isn't one of them. If our D want to light the lamp, then get those guys out there on the PP, not Finley.

Because they're actually back playing defense! Hak is a good coach and he will make sure this kind of play is a one weekend thing, not a season long Achilles heal. Our offense and JPL bailed out our D when they made similiar plays last night, but tonight we didn't have it. Again, I think we'll fix it, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch tonight.

That's all well and good, but I think his role is going to have to expand a little bit being option no. 2 this year rather than no. 3, which he was last year, despite the fact he won the Hobey. Look, I'm not saying the guy is horrible all of a sudden, but there seemed like a lot of time tonight where Oshie and VV kept plays alive but when the puck got to Duncan the play just died because if he isn't in his "office", he didn't do a great job of getting the puck to someone else in their "office." Maybe I've set the bar too high after last year and watching him against Michigan St. and last night. He certainly wasn't the reason we lost, that's for sure. So much for split at home and sweep at home. I guess we'll have to make it up next time we hit the road.

For sure. I never thought I'd be saying this, but thank god Finley stayed or else we might not have have a defenseman on the roster more interested than sticking their body into somebody than jumping up into the play and getting their name in the stat sheet.

I agree he's a workhouse. He just doesn't have that aura that makes me get excited and stand up and say, "Look out Duncan's got the puck, somethings gonna happen" like an Oshie or even an Vande has shown this year.

Is anyone else a little disappointed in Duncan tonight? He played well yesterday, but he has been a complete non-factor tonight. Hasn't really made any plays to set either himself or a teammate up for a scoring opportunity. He's just been getting buried in the corners.

Agreed. We just need to watch this game tape to see what we need to look like. CC has always got 2 guys back on the blue line, while still generating pressure from their forwards. Even when we break out, we're getting taken right to the boards. When they break out, they have nothing but ice in front of them.

I think our forwards have to be concerned about getting back to break up odd man rushes too much, so that's why we look so disjointed. Kozek's play last night was a great one, but it's not something we should have to see on every shift. It's one thing if Bachmann is turning shots away, but we just flat out aren't getting any chances.

What happened to Sweeney's partner from last year? I can't remember his name, but I just now noticed that there's a different guy this year.

We look like a JV team out there against CC. A whole lot has got to change is we're gonna make up 2 goals in 20 minutes after getting manhandled like that for the last 20.