redwing77

I don't know. Can you imagine telling your team to get psyched up for a conference matchup with UAH if you are a team like Michigan? I think it would be tough. It's like telling UND that we have to take a team like Manitoba seriously.

scary, for sure. what is scarier is that we're not getting injured much on our forwards. we're losing d-men left and right. the last thing we need in front of a freshman goaltender is to lose all depth at d

DAR has a few points, but this one is the most correct IMO. DAR is right in that Miller is knocked off the puck very easily. However, I've noticed that it isn't as bad as it was early on at UND for Miller in that regard. When he was a freshman and sophomore, the opposing player merely had to blow on Miller and he'd lose the puck. Now, it takes more to get him off the puck, but he is still not as good as he could be in this category. Expecting Miller to be great in the corners is laughable. It's like Wild fans expecting Bouchard to step off the perimeter. Not going to happen. Chay has made a boatload of mistakes going all the way back to the Frozen Four last year. However, rarely was he called out on it. Why? The nature of the fan. Fan Favorites tend to get let off easy. Oh well. And McLeod is a loser that is disconnected with reality. And Don Adam already let a player nearly get injured enough. He only got a month's suspension. Don Adam must watch a player die in order to get canned. Near Paralysis means one month's suspension. That means that paralysis is probably a 2-3 month suspension. Death will bring about his termination...pending conviction in a court for wrongful death.

Is it too late to predict a win for the Sioux on Friday night?

Everyone beats the old "Whenever there is a fight, the Sioux are involved" gaff to death, well, I have a new one: How come whenever an injury occurs due to a questionable hit or on-ice act, Don Adam is involved? It is no coincidence. D Shepherd, Anderson, etc. may not be competent officials at times, but usually they aren't overtly dangerous. That's why Don Adam is still the most dangerous official in college hockey and certainly among the most dangerous in the entire organize sport itself.

I don't know who comes in, but my guess is that Fink will stay in juniors another year if we can find someone more ready. Fink's a good prospect, but he's been injury plagued and hasn't played very much. However, if they need another guy like Martens (a guy who is happy with intermittent playing time), Fink might come in. At least, that's my two cents. Who knows. I'm more interested in who comes in to replace Walski. Also, expecting any freshman to come in and be an immediate scorer only makes hype that could disappoint. Not everyone is a Toews, Stafford, ZPar, or TZajac. I'd expect Mattson and Kristo to come into Grand Forks and have similar starts to what we're seeing of Gregoire right now. Well, I'd expect that from Kristo anyways. Mattson, if he comes directly from high school, will have a slower start than Kristo (imo). Oh, and our defense will be rough. Losing Jones and Finley is going to hurt and MacWilliams looks like he'll take some time in the box.

I'd like to be optimistic and say that CC doesn't sweep the Sioux, but who knows really. Depends upon which team shows up. There is no way MSUM gets swept or even splits with UAA. Yeah, UAA is good, but MSUM is far better. MSUM will sweep. DU, SCSU, and UW will sweep. UNH will steal one of the two games.

I'm not expecting much. Right now, our offense isn't finishing even when we're given many many opportunities. I know we all hate the "hot goaltender" excuse, but I can't think of a hotter goaltender than Bachman. The dude is just solid. CC is just as fast as we are. Not sure about the transition game, who that favors. I'd be happy with a split. Eidsness is very young and he plays like a freshman. I think he'll develop into a fine goaltender. I want to steal 4 points from CC, absolutely, but I don't expect anything.

I heard the word "owie" associated with the injury.

I find it hard to believe that Morin will be a collegian. There were a ton of rumors floating around with this kid. A ton of talent, sure, but questionable academically. Who owns his MJ rights?

we also need to be patient while this team works the kinks out. tonight, it was apparent that we need to start playing to win during all parts of the game. If we had scored 5 goals and were up by 5, Id still push my players to play like they are down by 5. No sense of that tonight. A TON of whiffs. Was the ice bad or was it like I assumed: looking where the puck was to go before you get the puck. I hope the ice was bad or that it was a bad pass because that eliminates the need for an absolute inexcuseable mistake such as failing to get the puck before moving the puck either to another player or shooting it at the net. Genoway and Blood both whiffed at key times.

We aren't going to win many games only playing 2 of 3 periods. It is like we just packed up and headed home after the 2nd intermission! Very embarrassing. Sure, we split, but this isn't a good sign going into a team that could very well sweep us.

$$$$ talks.

I'm not sure how that works. Maybe there is a financial incentive for msum? I'm sure that the uni's don't matter because it certainly isn't a home game for msum. I hope MSUM is paid generously for it. It can't help you to have a home game that is more favorable for the road team.

I'm watching the chicago minnesota tilt and seriously... how is Huet a #1 goaltender? he sucks. I like Khabibulin's chances better. Huet also uses stand up... worked well on Minnesota's second goal. Chicago is down two and they're already showing signs of folding.

I'm not concerned about any bandwagon. Goon knows I'm pretty diehard. However, I was indeed going by my observations. I suck at predictions so there is no way I'm predicting who is frozen four bound. Right now, I'm going to say.... NE, Air Force, BU, and Notre Dame.

hmmm... in the NHL perhaps. It's still situational in the WCHA

A few random comments: First off, I'm surprised UMD dropped game one to UAA. I'm not so sure that UAA is as weak as we'd thought. SCSU splitting with BSU. Sure, BSU is a well coached team, but SCSU is far and away more highly skilled and I think Motzko can coach with the best of em. Surprised at the UW fight. Not surprised by the Gopher reaction. They like to instigate but they're often not the kind to stand behind the results of the instigation. It's like Boogaard going out, picking a fight, and turtling. No, I'm not calling UMN cheap, but it's not the most ethical type of thing. That being said, I think the idiot of the night was Grotting for biting. Is it me but I think Air Force is the only competitive team in the AHA and CHA combined. The rest are so unbelievably weak... CCHA is wide open. MSU splits with NMU. BU drops 7 goals on Michigan. tOSU splitting DU! Wow. I thought tOSU was basically a goaltender and nothing else. CC only getting 2 points?!?! Seriously, the CCHA is wide open, the WCHA looks shaky, and HEA and ECACHL look strong! What an amazing start to a season.

Isn't the producer on the Barriero show a youth hockey guy? Or am I thinking of someone else?

I'm sure KFAN will cancel this in favor of some sort of expanded fantasy football program.

Minnesota is back to their usual capabilities. I only watched something like the last 5 minutes of OT, but the Gophers looked to be in better conditioning and were FAR superior in team speed and passing skills than UW. UW couldn't complete more than two passes at any one time, whether UMN was pressuring or not. However, what I saw in OT was really UW sitting back and playing for the tie and UMN allowing a tie to be the likely outcome. Neither team really played to win in OT. Something like one or two scoring chances in those 5 minutes for the Gophers and one for the Badgers. UMN is going to be a team to deal with, but if UND can pass like UMN, out physical UW, and use speed to their advantage, UND will definitely make UW miserable.

NHL Network's show "NHL On the Fly" did a segment on the Maple Leafs and Ron Wilson. The reason why Jason Blake wasn't due to injury. He's a healthy scratch. They made a big deal over his benching, labelling it as an accountability move. Apparently the NHL Network analysts feel that Ron Wilson thought Jason wasn't holding his end of the bargain well enough and Ron Wilson decided to send Blake a message. They used last year as an example. Blake shot the puck over 300 times last season and only scored 15 goals. I didn't really understand how last year could really make a difference as to why he'd be benched this year, but that's what they were talking about.

Though I get your point, I must say that I-29 is desolate in MOST areas. Certainly from Winnipeg to Omaha, NE it's desolate... Though I'm still debating if it is more desolate than Highway 2 between Minot and Grand Forks...

i found it intriguing that, though limited in his shootout experience, Drew Stafford is actually converting on 60% of his shootout attempts (ok, so it is 6 out of 10, but hey, that's still good).

Shot was made by Kariya. So Kariya continues his point streak. 10 points in 10 games or something like that. For a UNH guy, Conklin really played well tonight. I still think Brodeur is far and away tops in net right now.