SIOUXpucks

I was out to pick up some take-out Happy Joes on Sat evening and noticed a sign on the door that said that inside dining was stopping at 3pm due to lack of staff. Tough times for so many places and I hope the locally owned places that have been around so long can pull through. As a consumer it's tough though, as supporting these places is tougher and tougher with increasing costs elsewhere that chews into the entertainment disposable income.

They also maybe didn't suggest anything to him but rather if he asked they may have been honest and said nothing is guaranteed in terms of top 6 or PP time, and perhaps in reconsidering things, he realized it might be better to be a top dog at Tech instead of potentially getting a bit buried at UND.

He was just being silly. There was no ill intent and I'm confident it would have been taken in a light-hearted and un-insulting way.

Darn, it looks like they just came up a little bit short.

The tendies too. Each of the past several years it sure felt like the incoming transfers had been promised the net to mostly be theirs, perhaps barring a huge difference in performance. i readily admit that TJ caught fire down the stretch and served the team quite well during that time. However, earlier in the season Hobie’s save percentage was appreciably better and to my (admittedly untrained) eye, he looked better playing the position. Can anyone say they were comfortable watching TJ flopping all over the place, sliding way out of position all the time? I think part of his statistical improvement during the year was the rest of the team adapting to his floppy style and helping to bail him out a bunch. Never have I seen so many pucks pulled off the goal line by D and Fs. I would have felt better going with TJ down the stretch if they had platooned more 50/50 early in the season and he truly set himself apart. That being said, yes, maybe there was something showing in practice too, but I still think as a grad transfer he was promised the net unless he completely blew it or Hobie turned into an absolute dominator.

Indeed. Was concerned that he still needed to fill out a bit more and could have used one more season at UND to do that and work on reliability, but seemingly he was able to do that over last summer and has had one heck of a rookie year. Not hard to imagine the UND season going a fair bit better had he been around, but perhaps it ends up a win-win in the long run. He found success and the team has gotten a reset in staff. Success there is to be determined but there have been some promising signs so far.

I had heard speculation that he might indeed just call it quits. Not saying that's the mostly likely outcome but it sounded like something that was definitely being considered.

Feel bad for the Hobie, as I think he was really given a raw deal this past season and should have had a more fair chance to compete. Wonder also what this ends up meaning for Heil. Is he going to be interested in coming in only a year behind this guy?

If that happens would Herter step in as HC at Western, short circuiting any thought of him coming here as Associate, if that’s even something of a possibility anyway?

If that's true (Herter was top choice but passed on because of wanting to decide quickly), then that'd be an awfully awkward dynamic between him and Dane to start things off if he came in as Associate. Seems like he'd be a great Associate, but geez, the last thing we need are coaches that again can't get along and work together.

Well if they actually did keep the puck instead of turning it over as often as they did, perhaps we would also have been better off. We will see if blind, behind the back drop passes directly to the opposing team will work better elsewhere. Agree 100% though that trying to turn smaller, high skill guys into forecheckers is a recipe for failure.

I won’t hate on Penn State for wanting to expand D1 college hockey. I’ll reserve frustration for the Big Ten for having the policy in place to automatically force them to band together exclusively.

Maybe they didn't envision the dumpster fire that's currently ongoing. Boisvert also apparently made a statement to teammates/friends prior to Berry's release, that if Berry was let go, he was going to transfer out. If he had a strong relationship with Brad and felt he got screwed over (right or wrong), it's hard to blame him. I just figured with likely only one more year of college hockey expected, he'd ride it out here, but if the speculation about wanting to be closer to family so they can see some games is true, well, I get that too. I don't so much understand any participation in a frat donnybrook.

Unless Hobie enters the portal today. Sure hope that doesn't happen.

We might need two goalies from the portal