yzerman19

Nice to see some of you at the game last night. I'm not in GF often, but it was nice to see a win. I've typed and deleated several examples of why I am not a fan of Lapoint, but after reading them, I am going to leave it at that. I am not a fan of Lapoint, and this team is lacking defensively due to his play. The absence of big Joe makes the inadequecies of others all that more apparent. Genoway does get caught up sometimes, but he is also leading the team in scoring. Genoway's game is that of an offensive defenseman; you can't blame him for getting caught up, it's how he plays and how he needs to play. The freshmen are playing like freshmen and will be fine. On a very positive note, Matt Frattin is starting to look like the player many thought he could be. He has good speed and some good moves. His shot accuracy and nack around the net is starting to show too. Kozek didn't hit the scoresheet, but he hit everything else last night. The guy was a man possessed finishing every check with authority. Props to Andrew. One anti ref statement: The interference call on Miller was horrible. Since when can't you play the body?? If you didn't want to get hit, you should've joined the band.

I'd say that if you were out hustled, you were out coached. I am not ready to fire Hak yet, but I agree with some of the statements about his teams having a lack of fire in big games. I also agree with AZ on the conditioning. These guys are coming to camp in shape. What I did see on Saturday night is the toll of getting out hit on Friday night. I think the boys looked like they were nursing some bruises. It used to seem like our opponenets had that problem on Saturday nights. Sioux hockey is about transition, positional play, aggressively forechecking, and making every opposing forward pay for each step they take into our defensive zone. THE biggest issue that I continue to see is defensive breakdowns starting with giving attacking forwards the blue line. Our dmen need to hold that line. Power play is god awful. Time for the gut check. I'd come to practice with the following: Playing Friday: Duncan, VV, Hextall, Toews, Frattin, Gregoire, Jones, Genoway, Eidsness Everybody else must fight for a spot. I'd be leaning towards Davidson and Lammy getting ice too.

Usually its like 15. I'm in south minny

Andrew and Evan are needed to be leaders on this team. Love or hate Hak, it is up to him to get 20 goals out of Andrew and 30 points put of Evan. They are both more than talented enough to pull it off. Both needed to get their heads right, and maybe a benching will do it. We have no chance at a frozen four without them playing well. IMO the biggest problem remains with the d corps. We have a huge void without Joe, miller Is playing better than could be expected. Jones continues to be solid in our end, but we are simply unable to beat most forechecks one on one. We need Lapoint and Marto to step up. Transition hockey which is the hallmark of good Sioux teams is sorely lacking. Dmen need to beat the forechecks one on one and put breakout passes on the tape. We spend too much time trying homeruns and not enough time attacking the offensive blue line with all three forwards.

I can't believe that I'm compelled to defend my comments about the Sioux hockey team, but for some reason I am. If I ever said they were without talent, I was probably drunk and disappointed. I don't believe they have the eye popping talent of some of our other teams in recent history. I'll stand by that. Regardless, TNT, I find your desire to call me out on a positive post amusing. Do you have something constructive to add or are you going to continue to pull out various older posts? I had a few off the deep end ones two years ago after the Wheeler goal in the F 5.

its not the W or L that determines my take, but the product I see on the ice. The team I saw at CC on Friday looked nothing like the team I saw play in Boston. I bet most of the team would say they were terrible in Boston.

I saw Friday but not Saturday. I was very impressed with the boys. I just watched the replay of the Hextall check from behind...what a garbage penalty. Hextall is driving to the net and wearing the CC player. I call that text book forward play. Very disappointing call, and from the posters it sounds like it was a momentum killer. Anyway. a big time road performance at CC should do wonders for the confidence. The boys now have to realize that they can beat anyone in the country on any given night. The team I saw on friday night is not the same team I had seen previously. A telling stat (i know...stats) is the fact that other than Genoway and Miller (the forward) the rest of the defensemen in entirety have 1 point (Finley with 1 assist). No points for Jones (expected), Marto, Lapoint, Blood, Fienhage; this despite tons of pp opportunities. THis must change for us to be successful.

Nice win tonight. Very solid performance. Not perfect, but a very good team output for 60 minutes. The officials did all that they could to get CC back into the game in the third. The hit on Genoway was junk. Totally taking liberties on a guy. SOunds like he's marked for tomorrow. Like the depth in the forward lines tonight. Props to Hextall and Davidson on the ir first career goals. I was surprised with how well Miller played back on D. Maybe that's where he belongs on this team. Our defense is so banged up, but I thought everyone stepped up. What do you do when you get Finley back? I have to say that not having Frattin or Malone in the lineup didn't hurt us at all. Best performance of the year, proud of the boys tonight

What's the old saying about glass houses? I'm by no means a fan of Mankato,but I seem to remember a game in the Ralph last winter where many bottles were also thrown on the ice... I'm very pleased that the boys were able to gut out a big win. The big guns scored, and that's what we need. We still have a lot of work to do in building up a cohesive unit, but last night was a start. Hopefully they can build this win into a great two weeks of practice and come out flying against sconny!

I am also optimistic based on who scored the goals: Kozek, Duncan, VV...these guys are supposed to be scoring. Throw in a goal for the hardest working man onthe ice and there you go. Were Watkins and Toews scratches tonight? I didn't see Watkins out there, maybe he's banged up?

Found it. Thanks! How are the boys looking tonight?

What Channel on Comcast? I'm in Mpls and have Comcast, but I can'[t find the game

Time for a big time line shakeup. Without Finley along, and without having seen last night's game, it would be tought for me to say who deserves a seat on the bench and who deserves a seat in the press box. having Finley out makes it difficult for us to do a major shakeup. I might consider putting Genoway on a forward line just to try and generate some decent offense if we had ANY d-men to spare.

I was unable to watch tonight's game, but I watched both games last weeekend, and it sounds like more of the same. This year's Sioux team is flat out terrible. We've scored 4 goals: Miller, Martens, Watkins and Genoway. Where are Vande and Duncs and Kozek and trupp and Grgoire and Toews and Frattin??? Where are they? We have a non-existent powerplay, pilons for defensemen, a terrible breakout, and weak goaltending. Not to mention our forward lines are not firing at all. It is time for a big time change. I make a statement tomorrow night. I bench some players. For the first time since the mid 90's, I'm embarrassed to fly a Sioux hockey banner. Lapoint: cut Malone: cut Fienhage: USHL VV: benched I am being ridiculous, but seriously guys, GET IT TOGETHER. I am starting to believe what everyone said about Duncan being entirely a product of Oshie and Toews. Here's what is scary, I watched part of the Gopher SCSU game, and both of those teams look like they'd outskate us and then take our sisters out for a lobster dinner. Shots ar e ajoke stat, we outshot UMass too, but I saw the quality of shots we were taking. We look like a bunch of ice mites. Hak=Woog We had the teams with the talent. This is not one of them.

St Cloud got jobbed. The replay shows the puck going in off the Gopher Defenseman's leg. Bruce McGophioneer

Interesting to see that Walski's getting the start. I actually like the forward line combos. I am a bit worried about Lapoint and Fienhage as a pairing. Especially with Jutting having the last line change. I predict a big weekend out of that second line. Those three guys simply pack a lunch and go to work. They also have more skill than most of us give them credit for. It will be interesting how the boys come out. With Chorns in the A, I wonder if he wishes he had stayed in GF. We could certainly use him. Really looking forward to hearing what little Toews brings.

PK defense is much different than 5 on 5. Maybe its the whole system, and our d aside from Jones tends to be out of defensive position all the time. It could also be a result of Duncan being out against other teams' top lines a lot, and our d just can't hold their own with top forwards.

There are a bunch of programs that are licking their chops at the prospect of beating us. We better cone out more prepared to play. Mankato, SCSU, Tech, AA, they are going to think of it as giant killing and will love to take it to us

There are a bunch of programs that are licking their chops at the prospect of beating us. We better cone out more prepared to play. Mankato, SCSU, Tech, AA, they are going to think of it as giant killing and will love to take it to us

the most disconcerting thing to me was the fact we got beat to the puck and lost the one on one battles. I can't remember the last time we did that. We don't have Parise and Bochenski or Stafford and Zajac or Toews and Oshie. We are going to have to want it more. I think we've won on talent alone the past few years, this year we'll see about coaching, heart, and desire. As for Miller, his goal was garbage, so don't give him too much credit. He and Duncan on the wings are a complete defensive liability. This isn't a knock, as they both can score, they just can't play D.

I actually agree with a lot of what yababy was saying, however, as I posted before, all of these guys can play hockey. I am in accord on the fact that no one seemed to know what to do with the puck. This I blame on coaching. I am not calling for anyone's head just yet, but in all seriousness to go out and get swept at the icebreaker is unacceptable. The series is non-conference, sure, but these games are huge for the PWR at year end. You don't think seeding is a big deal? I sure think last line change is pretty important in a one and done. I could do the exercise, but I am not so inclined, and determine what seed we would've been last year had we lost to MSU and BC to start the year. This is academic and would only rile up the cheerleaders on this board. In all seriousness, this is not the end of the world, but it puts us in much worse shape than anyone could've predicted. I was looking forward to 2-0, could've rationalized 1-1, but 0-2 including a loss to UMass? Best Sioux on the ice today...Ryan Martens in my opinion.

How do you blame Duncs for this weekend? He actually looked ok. I blame Hak for poor preparation. These guys can all play hockey; you have to play as a unit, as a team in order to win.

stat watchers will talk about the SOG, but anyone who watched this game live or on TV knows that hte sioux did not dominate play the way that shot number looks. The Sioux rarely had decent shots with any legitimate chance at scoring. I'm not jumping, but I'm not a cheerleader either. I call it like I see it, and this was a poor showing.

I hope the boys and Hak are humiliated by this weekend. I'd make them take a bus back instead of flying. There are a few guys who wouldn't get tickets on that bus.

Shots are very misleading in this game. Most of our shots were not of the quality variety until this period.