jloos

I think Okposo could step right into the NHL. I agree he will probably spend time in the AHL first, but they will not keep him in the AHL all year if he dominates like he has at every level he has played in. After Crosby, I think he is the best SSM player I have seen in the last 10 years.

I don't understand why there is no show this week. The Sioux are poised to have one of their best weekends of the year. They will not be getting swept by Alaska Anchorage or Michigan Tech. Things are already turning around.

He's too small to play in the NHL.

The MN policy is not new. All they are saying is that they will actually enforce it against UND. Of course they would never enforce it against Florida State because is would cause them to lose $$. WI is the same way, they enforce it when they want to, which means when it will not lose them money. I think this country is getting sick of the PC nuts. I think UND should stand its ground out of principle. From my perspective the vast majority of the country supports UND's stance.

I think Blais was pretty happy in Grand Forks/Northern MN. He may want to take the womens job to try and build up the program. I would think this is pretty unlikely, but a possibility.

The Fargo Patriots were formed in the late 80's and was started for kids who could not afford to play for the Raiders or Flyers. The Patriots attracted many kids that would not have otherwise played organized hockey. They did not "break away" from anybody. Towards the end, the Patriots ended up imploding because of overzealous parents who wanted to start an 'A' team. They ended up starting the Outlaws - a B-1 bantam team. I spent five years coaching the Patriots and a large number of kids went to Oak Grove or Shanley, many of these families switched to the Angels when they started up. The Patriots were a great thing for youth hockey in the area, in that they gave kids a chance to play. I agree that they did not "develop" talent to play at the next level, but that was not the point of the program. It was simply to let the kids have fun. Although a number of talented players played Patriots, including Tanner Bombeger from North and Alex Hooey from South. The Angels appear to have watered down the Flyers a bit. Most of the Angels players are southsiders. It will be interesting to see how many of the top players go to Shanley.

Moorhead easily has more talent than South this year. However, South is very deep and has great goaltending. This should be a close game. The South-Moorhead games have gone back and forth between South winning by a goal or Moorhead winning by about eight. The trend in youth hockey indicates that South will have some very good hockey teams for the next several years. It will be interesting to see what happens when the new HS opens.

Didn't Fylling do the same thing? I don't think the NCAA splits hockey up into 1/2 years, he will have three years when he comes back. Hopefully things work out and he is back next season. Personally I think he would be better off developing in GF, even if he is not playing in games. It seems to have worked out pretty well for Brad Miller.

That and pro athletes are constantly monitored by doctors. This is a very treatable cancer, so long as they caught it early. I hope to see Mr. Kessel on the ice soon.

Letter to the editor in the Forum yesterday. Anyone care to respond?

Most people appear to be trying to point fingers at one or two players (usally defensemen or goalie). This entire team has not been performing well. IMO Towes should be at the top of the league in scoring. Is he still hurting from the injury? Oshie is in the same boat. UND's "go to guys" have four and three goals. It is difficult to win games when your first line is not contributing. Many people were looking for Watkins and Kozek to have breakthrough years. Neither has done much so far. With the exception of Chorney and Bina, the defense has not looked very good. Lee is supposed to be an offensive player, but is not given much of a chance to rush the puck. The Sioux play to get the puck in deap and forecheck hard. The D are rarely given the chance to join the rush. Obviously goaltending has not been that great, but I do not think it has lost the Sioux many games. One of the biggest problems has been the stupid penalties and the terrible PK. It is very hard to win when you are allowing goals in 25% of your PKs. Frankly with a few exceptions, the entire team has underperformed. Ryan Duncan and Chorney have both played as most expected. Miller and Genoway have played better than most expected. Everyone else is having a subpar season. However, this is the third year in a row these same discussions have been going on in December. Hakstol has been able to right the ship the last two years. I have every confidence he will be able to do the same this year.

Lee is easily the most skilled offensive d-man on the Sioux. He makes the best outlet passes and is solid on his feet. I am sure the coaches have tried to get him to bring the puck up more, which is going to cause more turnovers and cause him to be out of position at times. Lee and Chorney stand out as the best two defensemen on the team. Both will likely play in the NHL.

Shanley has some freshman playing that should mature into good varsity players. They will be bad this year, but they should improve dramatically throughout the season. In the next 3-4 years Shanley should be one of the better teams in the State. I think they will have some close games with North and West Fargo, along with W/B.

I find it hard to believe Chicago is keeping Bochenski in the AHL with the numbers he puts up. His defensive game must be pretty ugly.

We keep bringing in players that only stay a year or two, it doesn't matter if they are first round NHL picks, they hurt the team. DaveK has a mullet and likes crappy hair bands, which somehow affects the Sioux. Hakstol is taking advice from Redwing77. All of the Fargo North players are on drugs, Walski is clearly pushing his poisons on the rest of the team. The Gophers are now ranked #1, which clearly shows some sort of anti-Sioux conspiracy.

That is because it was in Mankato. It looks like anyone can watch the games in Alaska.

How are soldiers using derogatory terms about their enemy related to the University of North Dakota using the name "Sioux"? I would agree with this analogy if UND used the name "savages", or "whops". The majority of those opposing the Sioux name are not Native. I do not understand why discussions about Native students are relevant. Native people getting money from the government for being Native is 100% false. Native students do not get automatic tuition waivers, nor do they get any money from the government. Some tribes do give their enrolled members a monthly payment. However, these are the vast minority of tribes (only those with very profitable casinos or land holdings). None of the tribes in ND are in this minority. I will agree there are many opportunities for minority students to receive scholorships, waivers ect... than there are available to white students. I also understand the reasoning for this. Is it right? In some cases it probably is - i.e. Native medicine program. In other cases it is probably not. Generalizing an entire race is never a good thing.

Tribal government is more volatile than anything you can imagine. Standing Rock is one of the worse examples. UND could reach an agreement with the tribe and two weeks later a new leader will emerge at Standing Rock and do a 180 on whatever was agreed. Spirit Lake is a little more stable and has many ties to UND. However, UND has previously reached an agreement with Spirit Lake and they still came out against the name, then came out for it, then against it, now they are kind of for it again, maybe. UND has done more for Native students than nearly any university in the country. I think they should continue to do so, regardless of the name issue. Helping Native students and helping the tribe are not the same. UND needs to be very careful when dealing with tribal government. Unfortunately some tribal leaders do not see how helping Native students help them.

His wife passed away from ALS during the lockout. His daughter had cancer while he was coaching the Sioux. Neither of these had anything to do with him not being on the bench this year.

Ask the pollwriter: Be careful not to disagree with him, you may find a handful of feces flying your way. AA appears to be pretty up and down this year. It is always hard to play in AA, three time zones and a five hour plane ride make it difficult to get adjusted.

The ruling solely applies to UND. Another school could try and use collateral estopple to prevail, but this would be unlikely because this ruling was under ND law. If you sue someone and win, it does not automatically give the same relief to every other potential claimant. However, the other claimants can use "collateral estopple" and argue that they should not have to litigate the matter as it has already been decided. In this case that probably would not happen unless it was upheld by an appellate court and was based on uniform law.

HERALD I guess three people standing around with signs is "BREAKING NEWS!" This is sensationalism at its worse. I am sure the NCAA will use it in their future arguments. I spoke to someone who works at the courthouse and they said they have not seen more than a couple of people protesting at a time. She goes outside every couple of hours to move her car and stated she never saw more than five or six people.

In ND they typically only use scheduling conferences for trials, not motion hearings. They likely made an exception in this case, given the complex issues. I think Jahnke will give his ruling quick, but I still don't see him ruling from the bench. ND Courts are closed tomorrow for Veterans Day, so I would guess the earliest we see anything is next week. His law clerk? This is North Dakota, the Judge's don't have their own law clerks. In GF I believe they have one paid law clerk for all of the judges. I am curious of the appeal process if the Jahnke does order the injunction. ND must have some sort of expedited appeal process for such a situation.

You can tell Tag Anderson wrote at least the beginning of the brief. They are going straight for the NCAA's throat. It looks like the AG's office brought in some pretty heavy litigators. I am sure the NCAA will do the same. None of the Salt Lake City guys are licensed in ND. I am not sure what ND's pro hac vice requirements are, but I am assuming it will not cover them for the entire litigation. I highly doubt Janke will rule from the bench on this one. Typically when you request interim relief the Judge rules fairly quickly. However, given the issues, I doubt we will see a ruling until late next week at the earliest.

When Moreland played during the meet the Sioux scrimmage two years ago he looked very out of place. The Sioux asked him to play a year in the USHL. My understanding is that he did not want to live that far from home, so he decided to play for the Jets instead. Regardless, the Sioux coaches obviously do not think he has progressed enough to compete on the roster. J. Lamoureux is a very good player but he is not cracking the lineup in Northern Michigan. Exactly how do you think he would fit in on the Sioux roster?