redwing77

Jones playing stupid hockey. Sioux back on the PK. Hey, I hope we can kill this one off too!

Good choice. We're right back on the PK. Wow. We need to make better choices.

OH well. 1-1 tie. There goes our momentum. Phil didn't see it I guess. Man he's easy to screen.

Sounds like a bad choice by JOnes. Hope we can hold them off.

Way to Go Fabian! Good things happen when you throw it on net!

I think it is interesting reading, even if a bit...umm...biased. The table and the last paragraph (under the table) are the most interesting parts to me. It's why I've been saying Mason sucks all along.

There are some good points mixed in with the drivel, though I wouldn't recommend going back the last few pages of this thread to try to find them. Most of the reading is rather harsh and short sighted. Like Shawn-O, I'll call it a lost season when I know for sure it is: after the season is over. Forgive me RWD, but if you want to see a bad team, go to Duluth. Are we far from what UMD has done on the ice this year and last? Yup. I can say that with absolute positivity. We're not doing well this year thus far, but we're nowhere near to being as bad as UMD has been. Will we bounce back? I don't know. Will I stop rooting for the team even if we don't come back? Nope. Will I call for anyone's head? Nope. Will I pray for players to sign? Nope. I look at next year's recruiting class and 2008's as well and I notice that we are getting quality recruits. We COULD get Riley Nash as well. Anthony Grieco has shown us glimpses of what he could develop into and I like what I see. Lamoureux has been solid for three straight games, maybe more. Our D is showing signs of life. Our PK can actually prevent teams from scoring (which, trust me, is a welcome sight. For a while I could score on UND's PK). People have already forgotten that many of the defensive recruits brought in under Blais were recruited mainly by Dave Hakstol. I think that this year is proof as to how important a cohesive coaching staff is to the team. Berry left (abruptly or not, I don't know) and that threw a wrench into things. Dane Jackson is a good pick, maybe not my first choice, but a good pick nonetheless. However, I can't help but wonder if the change in styles between even Berry and Eades/Jackson (depending upon which duties were picked up by whom after Berry's departure) hasn't been a factor. No, I'm not going to say that this is the reason why we aren't getting the results. As we all know, there are a bunch of things that have gone wrong. Lately, however, it comes to offense. Really, with the season we've had thus far, with all the problems we've seen, we've "righted the ship" in every way save offense. If we can figure out how to score, we can right the ship fully. Now, whether it is too late or not is hard to tell. Even if it is too late, I'll take the improvement any day of the week.

mygarske- Thanks. I would add one more thing to your list: 5. Our Penalty Kill actually looked to be existant. Ok, a little reading in between the lines here: TH talked about how wide the ice is (Olympic sized?) and I've noticed how we rely heavily on lateral passing to produce scoring opportunities. Well, the wider the ice surface, the longer it is going to take to get the puck cross ice to where the shot attempt is to be made. That means two things: 1. The goaltender has more time to get into position and 2. The defense has more time to cover. That being said, we had over 17 shots from between the faceoff circles and closer to the net in the first two periods alone. Zaba made some spectacular saves. The solution? It's hard to say this when you look at the shot totals, but we have to continuously throw the puck at the net and expect to try to get the rebound. That means crashing the net. We did do that some times, but not enough. That's how CC scored their lone goal last night. Shot--miss (off boards) - CC collects rebound and shoots again right away (Phil makes the save) - McCulloch gathers the rebound and scores. Nothing special about the goal. No finesse, no real skill, no fanciness whatsoever. Just shooting the puck at the net. Hakstol said he was impressed with the third period. I thought we weren't as good as he though offensively. With less than 3 minutes left in the game, I thought the Sioux could have made more than 2 shot attempts. When they didn't get a single shot attempt in the last minute, it was just sad. Nevertheless, hopefully we play better tonight. Regarding the two or three forwards speculation: I'm guessing one of the forwards he's not happy with is Matt Watkins. When you are shot on players like the Sioux are, you don't commit that kind of penalty (and whether 7>4 thinks it was weak or not, we'll take his word for it. TH said it was a CFB, but may not have been worthy of a major as apparently it happened away from the boards). Lastly, Hunt let the boys play, and a great game occurred. Interesting, no?

From what I understand, he didn't opt for major juniors, he actualy signed with LA. Since he signed a contract with a professional organization, he lost his NCAA eligibility, and thus, ended up in the Major Juniors. Goon- I agree.

I'm sure some feel that this team has high expectations. But, though I could name off all (or close thereto) the well worn and well used pontifications as to why this team is underperforming, this team isn't doing as well as we'd all like. There are a ton of teams in different sports that were supposed to do super good that didn't. Sometimes, we just have to take the good with the bad and, when the season's all done and over with, we can look back and wonder "What went wrong?" and start talking about a bad season. Let's face it, there isn't a single coach out there that has won all the games he was "supposed to win." No coach has won it all consistently. I wonder if these "high expectations" are not only high, but unrealistically so. Good night dallassiouxfan. At least I'm consistent. PCM- I agree. Tommorrow is a must win, UAA is a must sweep. I'd love to take at least one game from Minnesota. We need to sweep BSU (we know they are good, but not infallible. They lost to Wayne State tonight). This season hasn't gone well, but it is far from over.

I agree! Let's Fire Hakstol! I mean, he's taken the team to two Frozen Fours while during Blais' tenure, we went every year for his entire tenure! This team can't have a down year because if we had Blais, we'd shoot the puck, score more goals, Finley wouldn't suck, Phil wouldn't give up so many rebounds, and we'd at least have outsho..I mean we would have at least dominated play for most of the....oh wait. God, that has got to be the most retarded thing I've heard. This team lost the game because they couldn't beat the goaltender and they didn't get any finishing. Defensively we played well. Apart from Watkins boneheaded move in the 2nd, we played responsibly. We won a good deal of the faceoffs and spent a lot of time in the CC zone. Please, losing sucks, having a losing season sucks, but again, pointing fingers at a coach is much easier than accepting that this was a tough loss, a bad loss point wise, but not a poorly played game. Don't have to be happy about it, but you don't have to call for the executioner every time. And please, don't give me that BS about expectations and tradition and all that. Teams work in cycles. They have good years and bad years and, quite frankly, let's wait until the year is over before we call it either way. But hey, if you want to jump off the cliff, I won't stop you. Just throw yourself off and leave individuals on the team out of it.

Congrats to the US boys! What a comeback! I thought it was just going to be visions of last time opening up with a soft loss to Germany. Chorney captains yet another team that earns accolades! If he's around next year, do you think Chorney will wear the C for the Sioux?

Seems rather unlikely. Was Jack Johnson traded to LA in time for the Prospect Camp (or whatever it is that drafted players go to where they practice with the team but don't have to sign a contract with)? Other than Prospect Camp and this year's WJC, has JJ and Lewis played together ever? I don't see a connection outside of that otherwise. As for this rumor, I wouldn't believe it until I see it officially. As for the room cleaned out, whats to say that JJ doesn't have other rooming assignments? Such as a different cute girl every week?

I agree. I really like O'Marra (sp?). I think he's really fun to watch when not watching Toews.

If the US does win the bronze I think it will be an amazing run for Team USA. To go from as bad as they were in the Germany and first Canada game to winning a medal is a truly amazing feat, in my opinion. Thanks sagard.

I hope he does. He was bent over the desk while a member of the Wild and it's good to see that he's getting a fair shake by a team, even if the Coyotes aren't that great of a team. Now, if they'd only give Matt Jones a fair shake...

Sex sells, but I think they'd want it to sell the product, not your loyalty Anyways, I'm impressed with Team USA, or what I've read about it. Unfortunately I had to work while the game was on. I heard about Toews' three shootout goals. Were they anything special or were they just quality scores? Would someone be willing to describe his goals either on this thread or via PM to me? I'd REALLY appreciate it.

Great! I think Canada will win but it will be a closer game than the first time. I don't think Canada is that dominant despite not losing any games. However, I think they are flat out better than the US. The US will make it close though. Canada takes Gold

SHould we just cut corners and blame the Gophers for everything? PC has run amok thanks to Lucia, Kessel, Vanek, and the rest of the Gopher filth!

In my opinion I don't think the Michigan D should be blamed for the loss. I think it comes down to the Offensive Line, Henne, and the Offensive Coordinator (and other coaches such as the OLine Coach and QB Coach if there is one). THe O Line couldn't block, which made the running game ineffective. PLUS, the coaches were unable to notice that Henne's drop back was so long that it gave the USC pass rush a great amount of time to either get their hands up into the passing lanes or to get to the QB. Obviously, the solution would be to go to a 3 step drop. When I left the game (3rd Quarter, USC up by 13 after missing the PAT), they hadn't figured that out yet. However, USC's QB did and simply carved up the defense. I believe if Henne wasn't trying to consistantly go 15+ yards downfield and went to a short passing game with a 3 step drop they MIGHT have had better results and kept the Michigan D off the field longer. Instead, Henne played like an idiot whose best career option is whatever the hell he's studying at Michigan, Hart has a sore ribcage and backside from being hit all the time, and the Michigan O-Line has whiplash from watching USC's DLine fly by them.

Maybe, but he's on a roll... straight into the ravine. Let him go, dagies. Let him go.

TRIOUXPER, Sioux7>5, GBPackrzz misread Sioux-Cia's post (she did indeed say to stop being an a-hole, not that the person was an a-hole) but is too committed to back off. I admire GB's strict adherence to that committment. It may be way over the line and disrespectful to call anyone names such as that, but GB hasn't gotten to the point where he understands that people can act like an a-hole without actually being considered one on a somewhat labelled basis. For example, if someone is acting like a jerk, does that person simply become a jerk regardless? Apparently so. That means that because Sioux-cia was called a "Mother Theresa" she must always be a Mother Theresa... which makes GBPackrzz accusation all the more silly.

I did it so I could get full court pressed, if ya know what I mean.

I wonder if they could recover some of that money by calling up alumni and say "Tired of the same old mediocre football? Donate now and help us bring quality back to the program!" And they used whatever that got them to offset the Mason contract. Still, I agree, Mason should have been fired last year (2005) and not this year.

Busted resolution sooner or later. We all know you and sagard are closet Sioux fans! It's only a matter of time. Happy New Year to everyone (even those posters I don't like! ) My New Year's Resolution is: I'm going to improve myself in some way this year that I haven't attempted before in years' past. Vague I know, but all I want out of life is to improve myself in some way big or small.