SJHovey

Maybe more than we know. http://www.mavpuck.com/mpboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7816

Would your headline be any more peculiar than this? http://www.mavpuck.com/mpboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7816

While I was listening to the radio broadcast of UND's game Friday, I had the chance to watch, simultaneously, the SCSU-Miami, UNO-MN and later BC-DU games. These comments. First, SCSU is not ready for prime time. They will likely get a lot better, but they looked terrible, and slow, on Friday. They're going to miss Raboin. Watching UNO in that first period Friday I could not help but think back to about 1996-97 when Dean Blais took a bunch of small, speedy forwards and big defensemen, along with a goaltender no one ever heard of, and turned them into a magical team. If you ignored the color of the jerseys, you'd have sworn that you were watching a late '90's version of the Sioux. The same skating, relentless forecheck, one forward after another heading to the net. MN has a lot of problems, but UNO was a very fun team to watch this weekend and could turn into a formidible team. Then there is BC. The team I saw on Friday is the best college team I've seen since the '97 Michigan team. Let's hope it turns out the same way. On USCHO I slightly mocked a comment by Northeastern's coach that BC could win 40 games, when they're only likely to play 43. The weird thing is, they could win 40 games.

The departure of Birkholz has to be a disappointment because that's just bad decisionmaking on the part of the athlete. But that can happen anywhere, as we've seen here. I really don't understand all the anger over Leddy's departure, especially directed at Lucia. I've never understood the argument that it reflects badly on a coach or program when a kid departs early for professional hockey, even if it's not the NHL. Most of these kids would kill to earn a paycheck playing hockey. I know we hated to lose Toews, Oshie, Chorney, etc..., early, but I don't think anyone ever suggested it was a black mark against the coaches or program. Even a kid like Brian Lee, someone the fans felt had disappointed, didn't cause the type of angst we're reading about with Leddy. I would guess it's just the cumulative effect of all the rest of the items that have occurred that may be causing their fans to respond this way, and upon some later reflection they'll see it's actually a postitive for the program to help a kid achieve his dream of reaching the NHL.

True. But as Baggot reported, Schmaltz apparently wants to stay in the WCHA. As reported in Mikejm's link, Schmaltz' family holds season tickets in Wisconsin, and I think North Dakota was the only other WCHA school he visited. Let's hope for the best.

Don't know if this has been posted, but Andy Baggot out of Wisconsin is reporting it's "expected" Wisconsin decommit Jordan Schmaltz will wind up playing for North Dakota. Also, a poster at USCHO reported that Baggot indicated during a radio show that Schmaltz' family had stated North Dakota was the "best fit" for him. http://host.madison.com/sports/college/hoc...1cc4c002e0.html