redwing77

I wish I could have been there for that. I really like Russia's, Swiss, Sweden's, and Czech's jerseys. Heck, Germany and Slovakia's jerseys are cool too.

Wow. All this negativity on Matt Smaby. That's ok. I honestly love being behind the guy because that puts me eventually on the better side to be on. I'm not going to say he stinks until Hakstol and the rest of the team makes that decision. In fact, I like Matt. He's young, but he's definitely got talent. I think he'll be ok. Don't know much about Foyt's defensive abilities, most of the time I've watched him, he's been playing forward. As for Bina, he got burned once this year so far, but otherwise has played fairly well. Yes, I do believe that next year will be no different than this year, with lots of shots reaching our goaltenders but we will not have the worst defense by a LONG LONG shot. Slam away at Smaby. I still have faith in the guy.

Don't worry about American Airlines. Thanks to their unions and such, I doubt they'll be around for very much longer. In 2005 I predict either the decommisioning or buying out of American and USAirways. In 2006 you will not see any airplanes painted in that livery.

Hey, with MSUM's PP on the ice, maybe we can forget about our PP? Something tells me that this contest isn't going to be decided by PP Goals.

Maybe this is my disgust for the Wild organization speaking but listen to this: Travis Roche's 7G 16A 23P is only good for 5th on Chicago in points... The neat thing is that it would only be good enough on Houston TO LEAD THE TEAM IN POINTS! HA! I'm sure the Wild front office isn't losing any sleep over this, but it sure makes me feel good. Oh yeah, Houston is good enough for 4th place right now... Chicago is only first place. :sigh: That being said... GO TRAVIS! In other news, Karl's W-L record isn't so hot (6-8-2) but he has played in 2 more games than LeClaire. Not a ringing endorsement, but at least he's doing alright. Wish I could say the same for Panzer. Not nearly having the offensive year this year at 3-2-5 in 21 games. Is/Has he been injured or has he just not been seeing too much of the ice? Zach is doing good as usual and Bo isn't doing too shabby either. Meanwhile Lee Goren's 16-14-30 in 31 games is good enough for third best on Manitoba. Jeff Ulmer is 5th in points on Hershey. Nick Naumenko hasn't seen a lot of action. 10 games where he is 1-4-5. Ryan Bayda is a very distant 6th place on Lowell in points scored. In fact, he'd better watch out, because Mike Commodore is only 4 points behind him! Tony Hrkac is doing alright at 7th on Milwaukee in points scored. Honorable Metion: Jason Ulmer has a goal and an assist for Portland through 28 games. Bryan Lundbohm has only played 6 games for Grand Rapids/Milwaukee and hasn't scored a point yet. That's all for now. I'll work on the ECHL tommorrow. All of this comes from ESPN.com

Maybe so, but if we play "back to the basics/K.I.S.S." style hockey, I still think we'll prevail. I truly believe that ice condition only makes a major impact on cross ice passes and fancy stick work. We don't need fancy goals. We just need to score, period.

Actually, I think Vanek did have a huge change of heart. Why? Because the Rochester coach had the cohones to do something even Lucia didn't have the guts to do: Benching Vanek. Vanek was benched and, since then, he has scored 14 goals apparently. I still dislike Vanek, but I never really had a problem with him while on offense.

There was only one post that was truly cruel. And that guy was a total idiot anyways. The majority of them are lamenting about Jonathon not telling the truth regarding his true motives in regards to where he wants to go after graduating high school. They do have a point in some ways, but they are forgetting that people's minds can change and there is more to life than their team. For example, when Sydney Crosby went MJ instead of NCAA it stunk, but I didn't spend hours bashing Canadians and the Major Junior system. Nor did I bash Rimouski or their coach. I shrugged and went on with my life.

Well put again, sagard. 5 hole- Then you should put your bias aside and place credence in the fact that the experts that mattered were behind the bench. Whether your experts were right or not doesn't matter because Sandelin and crew selected Lee. No amount of Hammy's ranting or experts theoritizing is going to change that decision. Next year the US will return Hagemo, Lee, Schneider, and Kessel at least. They will add, I'm sure, Johnson. I'm not sure who else on the current team is young enough to play next year, but I think we'll do ok next year. Especially because Bergeron, Ovechkin, and Malkin will be too old for the tourney

That's just amazing! It's really interesting to see that the WJC's leading scorer isn't even the 2nd greatest cashcow in the auctions!

What do you expect to accomplish by this post? Everyone starting a Praised be Hegemo/Goligoski Thread? Do we really need your approval if a bunch of us Sioux fans are excited and honored to have our defensive recruit named to the team over some other players who may have deserved it just the same but didn't have as great of a camp as Lee did? THe answer to the approval question is NO. Besides, the tourney is all but done now. Brian did the best he could and was just a little shocked and awed to be there. He really did ok for what little time he saw against Sweden. Even if he didn't crack the top 5 this year, there is still next year. Yeah, so sad for AJ Thelen but Jack Johnson can still make the team and he probably will. Maybe he'll even share the same defensive pairing as Lee. I'm happy Lee got the opportunity he did. I'm still not convinced that Lee was undeserving. Good work Brian and now that you have experience, best of luck with the rest of the season and good luck next year!

Uh, disagree with NDFlyer. I was hoping Crosby would score vs the Czechs (he did get an assist) but there is a few things worth noting: Crosby makes plays develop. Not just because he is getting set up. A few times during that game it was Crosby vs. 2 or 3 Czechs riding him into the zone while the rest of the Canadians change and he'd still nearly score. He CONSISTENTLY is the first to a puck. It seemed like he could cross the ice from side to side to beat the nearest Czech defender to the puck. He's flashy, but he's not like Dawes or Carter in so much that Carter, IMO, always seemed to try to make it look pretty. He is a MASTER positioner around the net. Gosh I can't believe I'm going to make this comparison, but Crosby is a lot like Vanek in the offensive zone without the need for cherry picking. He was clearly the best on the ice to me even though he didn't get player of the game. No, Kessel isn't as good as Crosby, but he could be. The fact is, Crosby is a great skater with unbelievable hands who usually can finish (He should have scored twice against the Czechs) every time. Lastly, Sidney has had a better tourney OVERALL than Kessel, but Kessel can playmake right alongside Sidney if he wants to.

When I was at the Canada game, understandably, I was the only person wearing a USA jersey amongst a sea of Canada jerseys and other clothing (or lack thereof.. some people just painted it on themselves). The two guys I sat next to were really nice to me. Some good natured ribbing, but reminding them about Helsinki and Marc-Andre Fleury seemed to quiet them down a bit. I loved the part of the game where forecheck was put on the jumbotron and everyone started booing, not because forecheck was getting booed mind you, but I FINALLY had an excuse to stand up and make some noise. After a few seconds of booing forecheck, they were booing me between laughs. I had a blast! I wish I had a few more USA fans with me so I could start a "You're still bitter" or perhaps Helsinki chant. They all laughed when I did a small "We're #3" chant Anyways, the guy sitting two seats over used to play hockey against Lee Goren, so it was an interesting time comparing him from when he played against Lee (AAA), his college days, and his pro career so far. We also talked about Andy Kollar. Yeah, there were some classless Canadians there, but the majority of them were quite a blast... at least the majority of the fans sitting in 308.

What else would Ray do with all his money? Rent a van down by the Red River?

I watched the Canada/Czech game today and they were really sharp offensively. Defensively, I suppose they were pretty good, or maybe the Czechs flat out sucked. Either way Glass (Canada's goaltender) wasn't really tested. The only Czech goal came on the penalty kill when Olesz beat him 5 hole on a rather weak shot from just outside the faceoff dot in Canada's zone. Marek Schwarz is a quality goaltender and Olesz can score goals. Czech's penalty kill is very good. Other than that, this team stinks. I haven't seen such poor passing since UND played Minnesota in the Saturday routing of the Sioux. DUring the first period they had 3 shots on goal. I don't think they even attempted more than 6 shots all period total, including the shots on goal. Terrible. I think Russia CAN beat Canada if they pepper the net with shots, force Canada to play defense. Next up for the US- Try to correct the ship and win against a Czech team that should have been relatively easy to beat in the first place for Bronze.

Well, let's try to get the Bronze! I know the game isn't over but I think all that needs to happen now is the buzzer to sound. Here's my thoughts: 1. SHOOT THE G**DAMN PUCK! There were some great chances that weren't capitolized upon, but that being said, it looked like the Russians were the only team on the ice for a while. 2. DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE! Ok, this has been a problem the entire WJC tourney so no need to elaborate further. 3. PLAY THE GAME!! Too many stupid penalties in this game. Yes, the AR helped Russia out on the O'Sullivan penalty (at MOST it should have been 2 minutes) and the Ref made some ticky tacky calls, but we shouldn't be allowing the ref to have that opportunity! Smart hockey, defense, and scoring wins championships! Ok, to the US's credit, they weren't the team diving every time they got hit. Players like Callahan, Kessel, Porter, Stafford, and Montoya were playing really really hard. US was also the underdog, but they COULD HAVE WON. GOD I'm so pissed right now.

The same unanimous source that had me saying that Toews was going to come to UND said that Okposo is leaning towards Minny, but hasn't closed the doors to someplace like UND. The "out east" thing wasn't mentioned. With the way the WCHA is going these days, I think heading out east is not going to happen. If he wants a fast track to the NHL, you'll have to choose the WCHA. It has become truly the elite of DI hockey leagues (whereas before we were just the best).

WOW! It's nice to get Toews to come to UND! Kessel is, from what I've heard, heading to Minny or UW. Michigan is now a distant third. I guess if you want to put words in his mouth, you can say UND ranks fourth Yeah he did have a good game yesterday. I was really impressed with his second goal as far as placement of the shot was concerned. Yeah, it was a good move too.

Ok, just curious: Since Bourque went down, who is going to take his place? Is he the only banged up US Player?

Do not pose a question like that if you wish to avoid a discussion of possible answers to said question

I didn't get to see many of the games due to the fact that I was on vacation (Key West) where hockey is some foreign game not worth covering. I did get to see the 3rd period of the Swiss game vs USA and part of the Belarus game vs USA. One thing I notice is that no one is buying into team defense on the US. It looked to me like the player was charged with covering a player and that's it, no real help. Especially among the defending forwards. The difference between this year and last year is obvious when you look at the defensive game. Canada is playing real team defense AND scoring lots of goals. I really don't think offense is a problem for the US as much as defense is. Montoya is a good goaltender, but a goaltender can only do so much without a defense in front of him. It's odd to say that about a team of unbelievable talent, but I really don't see a lot of talent among team USA's defensemen (no, I'm not slamming Lee individually) in regards to defensive play. My limited opinion.

Oh my Parise... that's me!