redwing77

Who is officiating? I can't remember it being this lopsided.

I wonder if Lucia isn't a part of all this. A coach is a central figure to a team. Many of these Gopher players were recruited by Lucia. Now he's ill and the doctors don't even know why. I'm positive people walk up to them in the Twin Cities and ask about Lucia. It's big news. All that stuff going on... it has to be a distraction.

Not to be snippy or a thread cop, but... I don't think we need to take pot shots at Stoa anymore. He's not playing. Bush league or not, Stoa doesn't apply to this game.

I hate making blind analysis, but can someone prove or disprove this theory: This weekend's gopher woes are not on the shoulders of Kangas. UMN's team D is just nonexistant. My premise for this is that, really, I can't remember the last time Minnesota had outstanding stay at home defense. All of their defensemen have been strong puck movers and solid in the offensive zone.

The website itself won't load. I can't log in if the website won't load. Oh well. Keep the updates coming.

I'm missing the game. Fightingsioux.com might be down. I can't log on.

I don't know about this. Lately, maybe. Historically, not really. The Cubs lately have built teams that, on paper, were pretty solid with only performance-based question marks to point the way towards mediocrity or worse, choking. The Vikings have had glaring shortcomings on paper or otherwise since basically Grant stopped coaching and maybe before that. The Cubs have won it all a few times (well, at least once anyways). The Vikings have been to the Super Bowl 4 times and lost all of them. I don't understand what makes the Cubs so lovable and I'm a Cubs fan. A very cynical Cubs fan, but a Cubs fan nonetheless. The Vikings at least are more straight forward with the fans. They don't dominate for an entire season and then fold in the opening round of the playoffs like the Cubs did. I'd say the Vikings gave the Eagles at least some trouble. The Cubs gave the Dodgers not a single iota of stress. No different. But then again, I don't watch the news. Bias is a way of life for all National News stations, not just MSNBC or even CNN. FoxNews is biased too. They all are. News on the national scale can no longer be trusted. Favre has a resume. Tebow, we don't know yet. Eric Crouch and Ryan Leaf had resumes too and what did it do for them?

I'm going to be somewhat negative here and say this: The Sioux won't score more than 4 goals tonight. I'd be surprised if the Gophers scored 4 or more either. I don't know who is going to win, but I wouldn't be surprised if the score was something like 3-2, 4-2, or 3-1 (I hope not, because this more than likely means we lost).

No, I dislike Tebow not as a person, but as an entity if you will. ESPN drooled over Tebow (much like they drool over Favre) and yet Bradford, despite his lack luster game, is overall a better NFL QB Prospect that Tebow is. In fact, theres a lot of doubt of Tebow being drafted as a QB at all. More than likely, he'll play in the NFL at TE. He's a bible-thumper. Nothing wrong with that. Good for him. He's a good person. I'm sure he is. But he's also SEC, which means that ESPN has a perpectual hardon for him. That means that his hype is always going to be higher without the accolades than his non-SEC opponent because ESPN enjoys cheerleading the SEC and big schools like Florida and USC. I don't enjoy players who run their mouths. I hope Adam Pacman Jones has a solid WWE career. I hope TO cries his way into oblivion. And I don't like Favre because he takes pleasure in jerking everyone around and ESPN not only gives him a free pass for it, but they apologize for him whenever he sucks it up on the field. Is he a great QB? Yes. Is he hall of fame material? First ballot induction, I'd say. But is he as worship-worthy as ESPN makes him out to be? ABSOLUTELY NOT. So, no, I don't dislike Tebow for who he is as a person. I dislike Tebow because of what ESPN has made him out to represent. I don't like Favre because he jerks people around. And I despise ESPN because they provide whatever we don't need: Bias.

He almost had a second (which would have been his first of the game) when he got a great pass from Boyes (I Think) and broke away down low. A good save by LaBarbera on that one.

He's a freshman goaltender who really did well in the USHL. IIRC, he's even drafted. With Kangas a surefire early departure, it's nice to have a good backup. In my predictions, I think the Sioux will smoke the Gophers on Friday and knock out Fischer. They'll also make Stoa a doubtful addition to Saturday's game. Predictions are ALWAYS easier the following day.

touche However, on here, I've heard a Sioux penalty being a legit call more than I've heard TH say it was.

If gopherz is a clown, then you haven't been around long. Gopherz is a gopher fan and I expected that stuff he posted. The interesting thing is, this year we had a lot less smack talk than what we usually have. And it was in good nature. If Gopherz came on here and touted the Sioux were going to win 26-1 each game, then I'd start wondering. Fetch (IIRC), that's our problem with offense right now. We're either reluctant to shoot the puck and wait too long, closing the shot corridor or we rush it too much and miss the net entirely. There were a few times this season where a Sioux player had an open look at the net down low (faceoff circles or closer) and missed the net by 10 feet or more. I don't know exactly what can be done with this, but in my own irrational way, I feel that Id rather have 20 easy saves for Kangas than 100 misses of the net.

Regardless of Stoa and Fischer, I HIGHLY doubt the same outcome tonight. This Gopher team is very good. WORLDS better than last year's team. And I've only rarely seen the Gophers (against any opponent, not just the Sioux) come out bad in two straight games. The Sioux haven't put together two straight games with the same urgency displayed last night yet. They've swept two teams (SCSU and BSU) but I argue that both times the opponents either made it very close (BSU) or for some reason failed to capitalize on our mistakes (SCSU). The Saturday SCSU game was ugly for us, yet we still won. If we play like that tonight, we'll lose. We need to play just as well as we did last night and assume that the Gophers will score at minimum 2 goals within the first two periods. In fact, I'd like to see them coming out of the gate playing like they are already down 2 goals right off opening faceoff. Looks like Finley is playing well. Looks like Kozek showed some flashes too. I'm happy about last night. Let's complete the deal. The Sioux have already done far better than I thought they'd do. I didn't think we'd score 6 on Minnesota unless you count both games and even then...

I'm not. I didn't get to watch the game and i don't trust the radio guys for objectivity. I just want to understand it all better.

Not to start a flamefest, but what? I know about Radke's embarrassing actions, but that was against DU.

Comon! You didn't submit to the ESPN-led Tebow love fest?

Comon! Since Charley got the Golden LubeJob Award and has his own High School game show, who needs you guys? :rolleyes:

You also do not mention that this isn't the first semester he's run into academic issues...

In Goon's defense I'll say this: If Pohlad was in charge of the Vikings, there's NO F-ING WAY the Vikes would have signed Berrian nor would they have ever been able to land Allen. They aren't used up has beens. If anything, the Pohlads would have had all of the 36+ year old WRs and DEs come line up and give their lowest salary offers. Signed the best of the two cheapest and there ya go.

"and is deemed intentional" Oy. We all know what happens when we allow WCHA refs to use their judgment.... Here comes another crackdown...or another injury.

Commie got another goal. This time against Budaj. Not the hardest goaltender to beat. Only slightly harder to beat than Turco, Osgood, Huet, and whoever's in net for Atlanta.

I will partially side with "Budlight" on the anthem thing. The words thing is ridiculous. Everyone in my section sang along all my years at UND. We just don't sing at the top of our lungs like Canadians do. Where I side with her is that, words or not, Canadian anthem singers know how to sign the anthem right. I've NEVER heard a singer use O Canada as an American or Canadian Idol audition like I've heard the National Anthem. I like O Canada, but mainly because the respect the singers give it rather than the words necessarily. Our anthem singers, many times, are a joke. Case in point: Go back to Thanksgiving and listen to the singers who sang to open the Lions game and the other early game. Awful.

I thought the Team USA one was in bad taste. Wow....

Team Canada was good, but they played cheap. Heck, Sweden played cheap too. In fact, I'm not sure I can remember both sides having cheap players so prominent in a gold medal or clinching game. Della whatever his name is was a liability for Team Canada yet he still got game time. The Swedish goaltender was a flopper and gets too emotional. I'm not impressed with the sportsmanship displayed in this game at all. However, there were a few players that impressed me. Canada's goaltender was amazing. I wonder if he's drafted? Swedish defenseman named Torp (#6 IIRC). I thought he reminded me of a slightly less talented Lidstrom. I didn't think much positive or negative of the Swedish Dman who won best Dman of the tourney. Hodgson was good. Team Canada can forecheck and had great special teams. Sweden's special teams were almost Sioux-esque with their atrociousness. However, Sweden put their country's best on the team... that speaks a lot. Sweden's goaltender would be a TON better if he'd stop flopping around and embellishing. I loved Hasek too except he made flopping famous. I can not stand Canadian fans. Yeah, they are really into the game. No casual fans at all. However, they aren't very sportsmanlike and they certainly are disrespectful. They were lucky Hedman didn't win an award. they would have looked foolish booing. The announcers were Canada homers. I have seen much better gold medal games.