redwing77

Sorry. I feel Brown wouldn't beat Minnesota. They have like...one good player and I hear he's pretty good at diving.

Huh. I guess there are more than a few of those. I like Eidsness. I hope he doesn't bolt because, if he does, I fear that he'll spend even more time than he will already will in the minors. Better for him to finish the 4 years here before embarking on his AHL/ECHL development phase.

Never would fly. If DL won't allow their high school to remain the Satans, then we won't be the Green Devils. And if someone suggests the Green Hornet or any other comic book "hero," I'll shoot them.

I like Clutterbuck and Backstrom. Koivu is good too.

I thought Michigan always had the #1 recruiting class?

Stats like this are great for the record books and the stat people. I care about wins and losses. If that's the case do you know what the difference between winning 1-0 in OT and winning 8-0? The answer is simple: Nothing. Both are wins. A pretty win, to me, is great, but an ugly win is just as good. I just want UND to win. Period.

I wonder if this is the same argument that I could use to get TCU in the BCS National Championship Bowl?

I think it will be Camper from Miami... You have to expect a certain amount of slowing down after the torrid start he had, but if he can just keep getting points and average about 1 point per game from here on out, he'll be a lock.

That was awful. Thanks for making me want to gouge out my eyes. Anyways, a big key to this next weekend's games will be officiating. I know, I know, "oh goodie, a Sioux fan whining about the officiating, this time before the games are even played!" But that's not it. The Sioux play a physical game. The Gophers play a finesse game. The Gophers have one of the best divers in DI Hockey in Jacob Cepis. Cepis wants to score and his style of play, like his teammates, won't work if he's always getting banged around. So, expect him to flop like a fish. So, there's the officiating angle. Will they be consistent with the past and reinforce positively Cepis' tendency to dive (in other words, call a penalty on UND when Cepis dives) or will they take the less common road by making a noncall or, even more rare, calling a diving penalty on Cepis. Face it folks, the diving penalty this year on Zucker was a fluke. Zucker is a rank amateur in diving compared to Cepis and Roe. So, UND needs to practice creating offense and dominating the puck while on the PK, they need to find ways to make the hit on divers like Cepis but ensure that the player doing the hitting isn't a player like LaPoint, Blood, Davidson, etc. (in other words, no taller than 6'1" or the "elbowing" penalties start showing up), they need to start finding ways to agitate but not retaliate (officials don't care about that punch Player A makes to Player B but they think it is very low brow for Player B to respond in kind. Player B gets the 2 minutes and Player A skates away). I can expect a lot of offsetting penalties this weekend, some good and bad noncalls, at least 1 major penalty, and a game getting away from us. Yup. I'm predicting a split.

I was going to say that nickname is for the birds but... yeah.

I thought Rowney had a great first period at least (I'm DVR'ing the game and haven't watched the 2nd and 3rd yet).

I agree but.... In this argument we're talking individual awards. The Calder isn't given out to (theoretically speaking) the best rookie on the best team based upon the team's accomplishments. Same thing goes for the Pearson and the Hart trophies. It certainly doesn't hurt, but it isn't the major factor. I'm still with Jim on this one. Crosby is the best player in the game at the moment but he's hardly dominant and he's not overwhelming in any category except when used in relation to media favorites and attention. You can't argue with the fact that Crosby is overwhelmingly more covetted and covered by the media compared to Ovie. In fact, I'm pretty sure that, if you could quantify media attention, Crosby would be the overwhelming favorite even when adding Ovie's coverage with the next 3 greatest players in the league. He is the face of the "new" NHL. So, he's at least Gretzky like in that capacity, as Gretzky is arguably the face of the "old" NHL. PR aside, Crosby is becoming the best player in the NHL and certainly one, if not the best, of his generation. But will he end up the best the NHL has seen? I don't know. He'll have to be unbelievably dominant to catch up with Gretzky. Possibly moreso than what is realistically possible thanks to how the new NHL has been structured with regards to making the game better offensively (in theory).

What I wish I could see is an HBO 24/7 of Crosby before he was drafted. While he was with Shattuck or even Rimouski of the QMJHL. Why? Because I have to think that the league and the media has had some hand in this kind of behavior. Everywhere you turn with regards to the NHL on TV, Radio, or in ads, there's Crosby. All the commentators talk about is Crosby. Crosby this and Crosby that. He's become the face of the NHL because that's exactly what Bettman is trying to do. And Crosby complied and played along. With that perhaps comes his attitude towards the officials and the league. I just believe that Crosby has this attitude because the league condones it and the media is so apt towards taking his side. What I'll say is this: I'd love having Crosby's skill set on my team. However, he won't be the face of my team. If I could manage it, I'd love to ensure that the media didn't even get to take a still picture of him once he entered the locker room. Forget about interviews. I'd much rather have Toews, Parise, Lidstrom, or whoever taking the microphone and being the face of my team. I would not put a letter on Crosby's jersey either (I guess that goes without saying). I hate divers and Crosby has had tendencies to dive/embellish. I hate whiners and he's done that, even when he's in the right. To be fair, though, if I had Ovechkin, I wouldn't make him the face of my team nor have him wear a letter either. And I'd not treat him any different than Crosby.

I agree... except the Bears won't make the Super Bowl. The Vikings prediction is somewhat true. I have the Vikings winning 4 games next year.

Nice.

Sorry, but I think Eidsness will play as many games as he earns the right to play as decided by Hakstol and his performance with the team in practice (and other criteria). And I'm not sure "most of us" can really qualify here. I do think there were a significant percentage of posters here that do rather find it gratifying in a way when Eidsness fails though. You know... haters love hating. I'm not sure you are a hater, but I can't imagine anyone other than LaPoint on this team that more posters here have turned on more definitely than Eidsness. Dell has had a monster season so far and I'm glad for him. I think he's earned the #1 role hands down. But I doubt Eidsness has seen the last of the #1 role. I think Eidsness is only hampered by confidence issues. He gets confident again and it won't matter who is in nets for the Sioux to win. And yeah, I think Eidsness is a good goaltender. Flame away.

I kindof see this series as being a test of focus. Miami look past SCSU and their goaltender went on Winter Break too long and SCSU won. UND could do the same if they're not careful. We need to play RMU like we play Minnesota or UMD. It doesn't matter what their record is or which conference they play in. We need to beat them. Plain and simple.

No. I read the story preseason about how Nick was originally slated to come this year but he decided to stay one more year in the USHL because Genoway came back. He'll be in Grand Forks next year and will jump right in. He seemed (from what you can get from an article) to be a good kid with a great head on his shoulders.

Vaht?

I think this was a smart move on Mattson. He hasn't had the best junior career when it hadn't been derailed by injury. I don't know what shoe dropped first and I always have a sour taste in my mouth when a player decommits from UND even if the reasons are just. Mike Fink and Danny Mattson will be fine collegiate players. It's also apparent that they'd've not garnered much playing time at UND unless they outplayed starters in practice and it didn't seem like that was going to be very likely. I think Mattson will do great with BSU. And I hope his decision turns out for the best. No hard feelings Danny. Best of luck at BSU.

Doubtless this has been discussed at length, so forgive the redundancy but: Has the split between Fargo South and Fargo Davies basically killed South Fargo High School hockey strength? Of am I just delusional in thinking that Fargo South, at one time, had a decent hockey program?

I'd grant you that if he can carry it over multiple seasons. One season doesn't make the generation, as it may.

I dunno. There are times when I wonder why any top player would want to play in the WCHA with the quality of the front office and the officiating being as poor as it is.

In an odd twist, Jordan Schroeder's younger bro, Zach, committed to RPI according to Heisenberg. That is assuming that Zach Schroeder of St. Thomas, MN is Jordan's brother.... If not, I'll delete this post.

He shoots... HE SCORRRRRREEEESSS!!!!!!!!!! Precisely. He may END UP the best player of his generation, but that's something that can be awarded him upon his retirement. As was already pointed out, he was good his first five seasons but it is only this year that, imo, he's truly become dominant. Gretzky was basically dominant well.. he started his dominance about 15 seconds into his first shift. At the rate Gretzky went, Crosby would have to score an insane amount of points to get even close. Crosby is by far one of the top 3 players in the NHL. He may even be #1. But the stupid comparisons and the absolutely ridiculous amount of media fawning is making him absolutely unbearable. It's kind of like going over to a friend's house to see their new kid and, though the kid is cute as all getout, does really cute things, and is absolutely adorable in every respect, you spend the entire time there being reminded of it. Wouldn't you get tired of it? In fact, I think it is a very good comparison because if you brought this up to the kid's parents, what would they say? "Oh, you'd just love to have a kid who is as cute and as well behaved as him!" It's funny how people think I'm anti-Crosby. I'm not. I'm against everything the NHL and the media has done to him. I truly believe that it does little to promote the league as a whole. It just, predictably, made Pittsburgh the most popular team in the NHL.