redwing77

No. What I forget is that McLoser ends up throwing enough bones to the coaches to smooth anything they may have problems with over. Things are going to have to genuinely get worse before McLoser and Daddy Doofus gets the heave ho. I think what we should do is flood McLeod and Shepherd's retirement funds with money. Give them no reason to remain in the working world. With their retirement, we can move on and up.

First off, McLoser always states that they are subject to the coaches' opinions during the offseason meetings. Year in and year out they exit the meetings without much change, if any at all. McLoser calls that a vote of confidence. I call it simply stacking the agenda with so many other items that they don't get a chance to truly hash out the officiating problem. That and the fact that I think that enough coaches genuinely think of Greg Shepherd as their friend. It's hard to boot a friend's ass out onto the curb even if he deserves it (unless of course it is extremely serious, like doinking your girl). Toughest rule? Not anymore it isn't. The NCAA charges into the picture on every rule that is continuously and sometimes dangerously misinterpretted and makes a ruling that sets the punishment in a fixed manner. This is called a crackdown. What's tough about this rule is the fact that there is no consistent enforcement of it anymore in the WCHA.

He has an article up about it today. And, for what it is worth, he seems right on in my opinion. It's only coincidental that a player, Bruess, who should not have even been in the game that night gave an incidental contact to LaPoint. Unfortunate, yes, but I think the officials did the right thing even if it did result in a horrific injury. Dislike Bruess. He's done enough out on the ice to warrant it, but his part in LaPoint's tragedy is only more of a cameo than the cause.

Tell me about it. I didn't even have MSU anywhere near the top teams in the tourney that year... But that's not new for me. I didn't think the Cardinals would make the Super Bowl, the Rays make the World Series... the list goes on.

Neither have I, but their rep on USCHO's fan boards makes them look like the Charlestown Chiefs without any semblence of real hockey players. They've been described as "waiting for the game to fall away from them before they start injuring people." Hard to truly take seriously, but if that's their rep...

Verballed to Kitchener? I know Morin was drafted by Kitchener and Kitchener (and many many bloggers) expect Morin to be in Kitchener by the beginning of next season. I'm still a bit confused as to why he didn't go this year. As for Morrison.... I'm not sure we need another winger for next year. In fact, I'm not sure what openings we have left for 2009.

I just dont see the need for cheap shots period. If a team, Mankato or UMN or anyone else, throws a cheap shot, they're a cheap team. But what does that make the retaliator? Justified? Was Schack justified because of the CFB that the Mav player performed on a Minnesota player? The CFB was called! Minny at least had the officials watching the game! Bruess deserved a CFB or at least a double minor for kneeing in the Friday game and the refs turned the other way. Then he's involved (cleanly, but still) in the LaPoint injury and we took it like men. Bruess is a cheap shot artist, if you ask me, but we didn't return the favor. Call it a "halo" moment, but I think that's what defines us in this series. We didn't send out a player, even one as marginally talented as Schack, out to exact revenge. And, that's assuming that what Schack did was what Lucia wanted (that being a retaliation, not necessarily what resulted). A cheap shot in return for a cheap shot cheapens both sides equally, as far as I'm concerned.

I think Hak does what he does in the first half just to piss off the fan base and have them all calling for his head. Then, after the season, he looks back at the hypocrits.

Going by reputation alone, wait until Merrimack plays UND. I can't believe that everything I've read about them are true.

Desperation doesn't make a winner out of teams. It may provide some motivation but also may cause mistakes. We just don't know.

The development was as much a part of the system and the officiating (and game speed) as much as anything.

I thought UAA wouldn't get a point this weekend against UMN and they did. Maybe it is because they sold UAA short for a game. Sounds like you're selling CC short. I hope UMN doesn't do the same.

No, I didn't watch the games. I don't think they were televised were they? Oh well. In any case, I thought UAA played the Gophers pretty good on Friday, did they not? Weak goals or not, it's what happened. CC played DU pretty well as well and DU is a better team than UMN (even though DU has twice the hacks UMN does). I really don't think UMN will sweep.

He was drafted 9th overall. It's understandable that we expected him to be the best dman since Patrick. No...wait.... You're right. That's why I don't let it rest. It reminds a lot of people how hype and unrealistic expectations can turn even a fan board that doesn't have the player as a reader into an ugly place. Goon- Perhaps, but mostly that's used to describe goaltenders. Case in point: Nicklas Backstrom (MIN) wasn't drafted. How that guy, as good as he is, went undrafted is simply beyond me. I wonder what he was like when he was drafting age.

gopherz- Your predictions are ok, but I'm not going to buy into the UMN/CC tilt. It will NOT be a sweep. CC will take at least one of the games. They did play pretty well against DU and UMN's defense barely escaped UAA. CC has to be the biggest underachiever this year and, thus, one of the top disappointments in college hockey. However, UMN's slide is astounding. It's to the point where, if things don't improve and Kangas has the "right" temperment, Kangas might bolt out of frustration more than anything. In any case, UMN will eke out 2 points next weekend. I'm willing to bet that it goes similar to this weekend. CC takes Friday and UMN takes Saturday... but this time UMN wins in OT. For a wild hare, I'll say the GWG in OT comes after some CC player makes an absolutely idiotic play on a Gopher and gets called for a penalty. The Gophers bury the PP chance and that's it.

That wouldn't have been classy, imo. Players can be hacks, jerks, idiots, etc. but leave their parents out of it. What goes on during the game needs to be handled in kind. Rubbing it in his parents' faces wouldn't have done anyone any good. Goon said: Sicatoka is right. If anything, Irwin will get a talking to. Maximum punishment would be a 1 game suspension. Chances are equally good that nothing comes out of it. It's rather unfortunate because it illustrates to SHepherd that we indeed aren't the cause of every little skirmish or illicit rough stuff. WHo knows. We'll know by Wednesday, though. If Irwin were Sioux, in this case (LaPoint being out and no real response), you can bet Irwin's fate would have been widely known. As for him crying after the game, several players, coaches, and commentators mentioned it was an emotional contest. From Irwin's standpoint, what else could you have asked of him? The guy scored most of their goals that weekend! If I put everything on the line for two straight games and the rest of the team basically spent the time playing with themselves, I'd be pretty frustrated too. I don't understand what Zajac said to set Irwin off. I don't understand a lot of things. But it was not a good weekend to be a Mav.

I agree. Gopher D is atrocious this year. Patterson wasn't perfect against the Sioux. He gave up at least a goal a night in his 2 periods or so of play.

I love Hextall, but I think the most vital player we need back right now is Jones. Fienhage and Blood are fine players and will do well, but with each game meaning so much and one of our top D (yeah, he's been a go to guy on the PK too) in LaPoint out for the season, we need Jones' bad. If not, who replaces LaPoint on the PK unit?

Let's beat UAA first.

Pretty much. But then again, I do that quite often. Are you willing to sing in the Finley Choir too?

Thanks for posting! You're right. We're reliant upon what little scouting information we can find and the rest stats. Any information is greatly appreciated, especially when it comes to D-men like MacWilliams and goaltenders like Dell.

CC? Well, if we play against UW and CC like we did against Mankato, I'd be happy with a split in each series. We cannot get as many PP chances as we did tonight and play as lackluster as we did at times tonight and expect to win. UW is red hot. CC, however, is a VERY beatable team right now. If we can get back into our stride, we could very well sweep UAA and CC and the inevitable split vs. UW (their style just doesn't work for us) will be acceptable. That's my ideal. I just don't see us sweeping UW regardless of how the CC and UAA series go.

I think it is funny, personally. Ok, let's say BDB, that Finley grows a sack as you say. He throws down with Bruess. As you are well aware, Finley stands 6'7" and is somewhere around 250. Bruess, is 6' even and about 200 according to USCHO. Now... what do you suppose would happen? Forget the results of the fight itself. What do you think would happen with Finley and the fans? Applaud him? Slap him on the back? WRONG! They'll berate him because he had the audacity, like he usually does, to pick on players smaller than he is. He's got 7" and around 50 pounds on Bruess. Kaip was right around Bruess' size. Finley can't be a tough guy unless the guy he's to be tough against is 6'5" or taller. So, you tell me... how is Finley going to "grow a sack?" I think that's what he means.

Preaching to choir.

Besides, we weren't playing DU or UMN. We can't fight unless we're playing them.