siouxforce19

I think it's still too early to say that there is. Everyone said in 10-11 we had a slow start because we got swept at Maine, and that group was as veteran as you could get. That team only lost 9 games all year. I think at Christmas break is when we can really determine where we are at. For all we know we could lose no more games until Christmas. (Not likely, but you get the idea). So put me in the camp that thinks it's too early to determine if this is, in fact, another year where we need a big old surge. I'll wait until Christmas. That said, need to put together a full weekend. No time like the present.

I consider "Peak" to be the high point of the season. So it depends on each season when you were playing the best.

I am making my first trip to the Ralph in over a year for the game on Saturday. I'm bringing my two sisters. The Sioux are undefeated at games my sisters attend. I'm feeling good about this weekend!

There's a lot of negativity here...

Doubtful on Tambellini. He attended one of Portland's camps and from there determined college was a better fit. That said, he could change his mind. But IMO he needs the time in the weight room. He's like Brock Nelson-build. 6-3, but kind of skinny.

Mike Lee didn't come here because Eidsness already committed by that time, and he wanted to play right away as a true freshman, so he took SCSU's offer. If Lee would have deferred two years, I'm guessing Dell wouldn't have came here.

I realized that last night and that's the main reason for a lot of my anger last night about the game. It was all very ironic.

I thought they were worse than Minnesota.

I'm sure they promised him top 6 minutes.

Unnecessary.

Don't tell that to the Twitter handle @HockeyPhotos. Melissa Wade ‏@HockeyPhotos @Billy_Pederson @INCH @TSNBobMcKenzie @BRosen8 Maybe you should #thinkbeforeyouspeak; BU's playing 2 games at North Dakota which means 4 pts WOW. I didn't know we could now get points in Non-Conference games! Mind blown.

Technically, most guys on the team are on partials. I'd say most are at a 90% scholarship or somewhere in that range. Poolman's dad works for UND - don't staff kids get a discount on tuition? Or maybe I'm wrong. I thought I heard that somewhere. Could have been a different school.

I guess we will agree to disagree on this. Though maybe they are different in person as opposed to when they are hiding behind a handle on a message board... I think we all probably are.

Not arguing your point on that, but Wisconsin has the same policy and they still made the scheduling agreement with us. So I think it's clear someone dropped the ball here. The nickname was going. I think everyone knew that. They could have made an agreement contingent upon... but didn't. Lots of things could have happened, but didn't. I think it comes down to the fact that the rivalry with UND wasn't high up on the U's list of things worth preserving at the moment. Which is a shame. Just my two cents.

gfhockey, That's inaccurate. When Lucia got sick a few years back and had to miss the trip, he said it was one of his favorite trips and was bummed to miss it. Alex Kangas, on the other hand, was quoted on FSN as saying how much he hated coming to GF. But that makes sense. We were so mean to him. Poor guy... lol

I don't like to mention names because I don't like when people call me out by handle on a message board without saying something to me directly... but there are some Gopher fans who have been talking for months about how they don't care if we stop playing each other and would rather maintain the in-state rivalries. What's your take on that? You seem informed enough...

Hey now, this year they're going to Vermont to play!

I wonder what the chances are of ticket prices going down at various schools because of realignment. I can take a glass half-full approach... LOL. Yeah, I'm probably reaching there...

Having Grimaldi on the third line would also IMO make it a complete mismatch for a lot of teams to defend. He's first-line talent playing on the third line.

No, I didn't say "afraid". That is just the natural conclusion a lot of people will reach here when you kill a rivalry to schedule non-conference game after non-conference game with everyone under the sun. The U could have scheduled UND if they wanted to. They just chose differently. I just don't buy all of the reasoning you provided. I'm sure it's part of it, but there's a lot of other stuff out there too. Personally, I don't know why a big rivalry isn't a scheduling priority, but that's fine, it's not my decision. And I've been aware this was going to be the case for a very long time. So this news wasn't a shock to me.

I heard otherwise. I'm sure that's how it went down from the U's standpoint.

Sorry, but that's not how this went down. That might be what UM is spewing, and that's fine if you want to buy into that, but there is two sides here. And the fact is that UM could have scheduled UND if they wanted to. But they don't. They did EVERYTHING they could to avoid it. I'm sorry, but one can only come to certain conclusions. In-state rivalries should be a priority. But to suggest preserving one of the better rivalries in college hockey is not a priority is a bit off base. And if it's not, well that must be that infamous U of M education I've heard so much about. It's disappointing for the fans, and it's disappointing for the players. I bet every kid that committed to one of these programs is disappointed they won't get the chance to play in a rivalry game like that.

DUmbver.

Yup. I heard first that it was because of the nickname thing, but I didn't buy that. I stand by my comment about it being an avoidance tactic.

I did see that BU has a very young team. So we'll see if we can take advantage of that inexperience. They graduated both their goalies from last year, so I think we definitely need to try to rattle their new ones a little bit. Does it seem to anyone else that a lot of teams (more than usual) graduated goalies last year? There seems to be a lot of teams with some inexperience at that position.