redwing77

Parise leads the Devils in scoring right now. In Lemaire's offense, his scoring would drop DRASTICALLY. I don't think Blake would be happy in Minny either. I do agree a TON with the sentiment about top scoring talent not wanting to play in Minnesota. They just don't play a wide open offense-first style. For good or bad, that's what top scorers want in a team. Gaborik is oft-injured, true. But I wonder if he were on a team like Washington or Pittsburgh or even Detroit, what would happen? Marion is forced to look defensive first and then jump into the play offensively whenever possible. That forces him to play more physical, something not really his style. I see him as a finesse player. Lemaire is a type of coach that prefers the type of play that Montreal made famous when he was still a player mixed with the trap/left wing lock. snoozer city. I doubt even Maurice Richard would score a ton of goals in Lemaire's system. Gaborik goes to an offensively oriented team and his point totals will AT MINIMUM double. My opinion would be that Minny goes after young, top notch 2 way forwards like Bolland on Chicago or Getzlaf in Anaheim (I think...). OH! Speaking of wastes, Barry Melrose lost his job today or yesterday. Seriously... Is TB the Oakland Raiders of the NHL? How can a head coach turn a team around with one great new player and a new system in less than a season? Unless Melrose resigned, he got royally hosed.

Not if it works. In any case, I wonder about Hextall. Coming into this year, I thought he'd be a Kaip or Prpich type player. He's played well offensively, but he doesn't play as gritty as I thought he would. Who is going to be the instigator on the team? I don't see a Kaip in next year's recruits either.... maybe McWilliam

No doubt about it. UND played very aggressive. A lot of defensive mistakes. I also think Genoway needs to step back and relax. He's definitely trying to do too much. He was last night, anyways. Can't really tell too much when all you have to go by is the radio.

Please. Why don't we start the fire hakstol thread now? In fact, why don't we just shut this message board down and start rooting for the Gophers...or NDSU football...or perhaps BSU hockey, yeah! I think you all need to cool down a little bit. It will come eventually. Hakstol is a great coach and he will turn it around eventually. But for now, I think we'll put the "blame" on a poor team effort and not by the coach. Just in case, though, I have no problem putting BDB and Irish on ignore.

well, for the last minute anyways, we actually played hockey. problem is: UAA played 59 minutes. We don't win many of these types of games. that's probably why Hak is pissed.

duncan breaks the shutout!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! Now, just play solid the rest of the game and try better tomorrow. This game is still lost, but who cares now.

another sioux penalty. good news is that our pk is playing better than any other facet of the game.. though eidsness doesn't necessarily look bad... how many shots has he had to face? can't be that much

I'm rooting for breaking up the shutout.

uh.... nope. we've played awful.,

uaa pp. Malone for holding. I bet UAA gets 2-4 sog on this pp alone.

how pathetic what... 2 sog on that 5 minute pp? took us what... 3.5 minutes to get our first?

Miller, imo, looks good only when he keeps it simple. He tries to dangle or get cute, he sucks it up and down the ice. Not to mention, I am not sure putting him at D was a wise decision. I'd put someone who is a solid defensive forward there instead... maybe Zajac or Watkins? I don't know if I'd bench Miller even so... he's done ok, like I said, when he simply tries to keep it simple.

I suspect that we have a few players (Genoway and perhaps Duncan) who are trying to do too much, and the rest of the team aren't communicating as well as they should. That's my wild, armchair hypothesis. And, yeah, I did have hopes for Walski. Not high hopes, but hopes. It's always cool to see a person like Walski work his way to the top. I don't know if this is the last time we'll see him, but we won't see him tomorrow night for sure. We probably won't see him against anyone in the top of the WCHA either.

You want to see the bottom of the barrel? Look no further than tonight. We are in complete disarray. We're down by three, no one is talking to each other, no one knows the ice so a ton of pucks bounce over sticks, and we're so concerned with dipsy doodles and dangling and cutsy crap that we forget that it doesn't matter how it goes in, IT JUST NEEDS TO GO IN!!!! Seriously, Walski didn't look good (just shoot glove side and high and it's a goal... when's the last time we've seen that? Siembida? Brandt, JPar, and JPL had great glove hands didn't they?) but, I'm giving Walski a pass on this one. 10 shots on goal. I don't know any team that can dominate with 2 periods in the books and only 10 shots on goal... unless they are facing the world's worst goaltender. It is time for my coaching strategy: shoot and crash. We can't take the time any more to set anything up. We simply have to shoot the puck at the first open lane to the net and crash the net looking for rebounds... and we have to do it A LOT. We won't have time for tic-tac-toe attempts until it's tied. Besides, they can't even get to tac tonight.

for all the gopher fans lurking, I'm going to say that, thus far, I can't believe how well Wheeler is doing at the NHL level. He was ok at juniors and in college, but not #5 overall good. I don't know if those expectations will truly be met, but at this pace, he'll make the Young Stars game I'm sure.

meh. I hope Toews lights up everyone, Backstrom and Thomas included. That goes double for Fernandez (Wild connection aside, I LOVE it when an athlete goes to a different team because he doesn't want to share time with a young upandcomer and then ends up still being the backup. Despite the fact that it wouldn't matter, Backstrom would still be the #1 goaltender for the Wild, I believe truly that Fernandez would get far more game time with the Wild than he will with the Bruins, assuming that the Bruins don't fall on their faces.)

Ummm... if this far fetched idea were to take place, it would be best to pursue Concordia College in Moorhead to do the move. They already have an established DII team, are cross town rival potentials, and are natural travel partners. I also think ConCollege would be competitive sooner than UMary

I think the way he's looking down at the wood, how he's handling the wood, and the position of the wood relative to his body and the photographer brings other things to mind.

I sentence them to the next season of America's Next Designer (or whatever the eff that pathetic show is called).

A birdy tells me that Blake's tenure in Toronto is clicking down towards zero. He's falling in the depth chart and isn't really much of a scoring threat anymore. With the new coach's system, I am not sure whether or not this will improve. I have no inside information nor am I basing this on anything bona fide, but from watching analysis on NHL Network and the few tv broadcasts of Maple Leaf hockey, I just don't see Blake being much of a factor for much longer with the Leafs. What's your thoughts?

agreed, but the qwest center is a great facility and i'd take UNO many times over UAH, Wayne State (no problem now but before they folded...).. Really, the culprit behind this is Findlay. We should blame them for this whole thing.

You can't fool me, RWtD! Half the comment section is UW fans complaining on how Dirty doesn't even talk about hockey! Forget the hockey stuff, but who wants to listen to UW fans whine on a blog?

I'm not sure where the Seawolves are getting the results they are getting. However, calling them an automatic sweep might contribute to their success. Bryce Christianson was a goaltender I knew would be good. It surprised me that he turned down UMN a few years back. That aside, he's not a game stealing goaltender. It is hard for me to say what is going to happen. I really haven't seen the Sioux play two solid 60 minute games in a row yet this season. When they play solid, they're very good. The other situation is the injury situation. Jones won't be able to play all season with a broken hand...at least I don't believe so. The status of Genoway and Blood also leave question marks at D. I truly think that, at 100%, we'd be able to eke out a sweep next weekend, but we're not 100%. Also take into account that Finley will more than likely be a bit rusty after missing time due to injury. The haters will love this because it gives them yet another excuse to call for his benching/signing/cutting from the team. However, the rest of us will have to grimace when he makes a rusty mistake. The good news here is that it is at least against UAA and not CC, UMN, or DU. I think UND wins on Friday. Saturday...I can't predict what will happen other than UND will have a lead at one point during the game.

Don Adam: He's horrible and there's nothing that can be done with the buddy buddy system Papa Smurf has in place. So, when he's on the ice and the Sioux win or when he's on the ice and the game can be said to be a "well called game" I consider it something of beauty and perseverance, if not luck. Let's face it. The WCHA can say whatever they want, but until officiating reform happens, they'll always be a truly second rate league with first rate teams.

the only one I have heard of is Hartzell. However, getting a top notch goaltender might be tricky due to the fact that Eidsness is heir apparent (if not already the #1). I'm very interested in who they target or whether or not Graeme Harrington is another Walski (quality backup/more than just a practice goaltender). If Harrington gets the nod as the #2 next year, I hope the coaches go after a quality walk on or an over-ager like Chris Rawlings from the BCHL. His stock as nose-dived since UND was originally interested in him and he wasn't all that good after interest waned (statistically anyways). However, he's a big guy (6'5) and it would be good to be able to practice against a big body like that. But what the hey, it's just me in my armchair talkin'.