stoneySIOUX

Had we lost, we'd be at 23.

Oh, for sure. That was absolutely my first instinct when I saw him go down. Having Thome gives me more hope than Bob or Feeney, though.

I did a quick look at the PWR predictor in the Pairwise thread and with no other results counted, a split with Duluth and two sweeps against CC and UNO has us at 13. Sweeping the next six games, we're 11. Losing to UMD we can do, but it's certainly not ideal. Losing to UNO or CC will end our at-large bid, I'd think. We got a shot, but we got a lot of work left to do. Or, win out and win the Frozen Faceoff, of course.

Yup. Low energy.

Panda Buffet with the Mongolian grill!

Ha, that's a good one!

Fair point. Personally, I'm in next year mode simply because I'm excited to see what these forwards do for our team. I'm hoping for a fun run here in the next few weeks, though. We'll see!

No, no. Not going anywhere. Stepping back to take a look at what's I've been saying. Just going to do my best to not belittle anyone's opinion, if I have been. Winning cures all ills. I'm very optimistic about next season, in general.

I'll step back, in this situation and take what you've said poignantly. Never intended to stomp on anyone's opinions, if I have done so. All good?

100% agree. I do certainly apologize to anyone if I come off poorly. I just feel the need to defend the program, for whatever reason and I happen to be one who doesn't see it collapsing into the abyss that some do, so I bring that opinion here. Been a slow couple days at work, too haha.

I've done nothing but share my opinion and converse with other people about it. Isn't that what this place is about? I've said many times I'm frustrated with where the program is at. Never claimed to be authority, either. Sorry I've wronged you, sir.

Completely fair to have that opinion. I brought Wilkie up, in this particular situation, arbitrarily. Could have inserted any name that was a recruit or player who under performed during their time here.

I was definitely disappointed when he left. Definitely feels like he would have helped this year. But, it sounds like there was more to it.

Sorry, I was just clarifying if you meant you were upset he left or were implying TheFlop was.

Wow... you're really cool, buddy. Feel free to direct message me if you need to get something off your chest. Haven't been able to blog in a while, unfortunately. Enjoy being sad about the state of the program.

You are?

You spelled my name wrong. Bubbs says hi and hopes you guys have a better day since you seem very sad today.

I used his name in reference to Donovan and what he could or could not potentially be (a player who left early and under performed while at UND).

C'mon, man. What are you trying to prove with this?? Jost has said nothing but good things since he left. Has also said he wanted to help his single mother who raised him his entire life. Cripes, can we stop this?

Ok. This has nothing to do with the overall point of why I brought up Wilkie.

I'll do no such spinning. Aka, he'd be a player who'd leave after two years because he couldn't score. Good try, though.

I appreciate that! I think they will. I'm completely fine being called a homer and I'll admit when I am wrong. However, the toxicity around here has been awful. This team isn't where we want it to be, no doubt. The coaches know that and the players know this, too. But, we are absolutely close, IMO. There are some pretty incredible pieces on this team and more coming.

Haha I'm assuming that one was sarcasm.

I'd definitely gonna do this some time.

Not singling you out, Irish! It's all good, man. I think it's fair to be concerned. Coach speak is hockey. Hockey is the sport of cliches. I don't think it's constructive or helps to improve our program or overall standing for a coach to rip his players in the media. I think part of the lack of questions from the press is perspective. Two down years with loads of success previous to that and a loaded pipeline... I feel the fans are doing what fans do and overreacting. The media is keeping perspective, correctly, I believe. Boeser and Schmaltz were heavily recruited by UND before they landed. We lost one good player and he's a recruit. And I don't think we should be comparing Donovan to either of those or Jost. He's not that kind of a player. What if he's the next Chris Wilkie?