yzerman19

Lots of optimism on this thread, giving Duncs a letter. I agree that DUncs will wear an 'A'...at the end of PEORIA

Watkins, Genoway and Jones (2 defensemen with letters).

From that mentality, players just factor into COGS. Sad...I wish all owners were fans first, but alas, this is America and it is a for-profit enterprise. The perfect model from that perspective is the Twins, with great farm systems and trading off all superstars once they become costly in exchange for three or four prospects. If you can make it one round in the playoffs, that extra revenue is just gravy.

He can be "a dynamo" just not "THE Dynamo" Kozek was a #2 NHL draft pick for a reason. Organizations don't invest a second pick in someone that they don't feel has legitimate potential. Is he raw? Sure, but he has the right pieces. I don't want him to sign, but IMO he probably will. As for numbers, He led the team in even strength goals this year with 13. To put that into perspective, The last time that a Sioux forward scored more even strength goals was 2003-2004, when Bucks had 14 and Parise had a jaw-dropping 20 even strength goals. Yes, Duncs in his Hobey Year as well as Stafford, Osh and Toews in 2005-2006 also had 13 even strength goals. Think about that. That is pretty elite company as far as even strength goals are concerned. Why does this matter? Well, ice time on the power play and penalty kill can help production. I feel that being given that "shooter" role on the top pp unit will definitely pad a guy's goal production. Andrew has not been the go to shooter on the top pp unit in his tenure at UND. If you can assume that he would double his pp goal prodution in that role, he would've scored 23 goals, which would've been good enough for 11th in NCAA D1. All I'm saying here is that of goal scorers out there, Kozek's year this year is up with the best Sioux Forwards in recent history when special teams consideration is given. Andrew has an NHL shot, and has clearly improved his skating and release since coming to UND. He was a stud scorer in juniors, and his production this year on even strength is only matched in recent history by All-Americans and NHL players. In a lot of ways, Andrew reminds me of Ryan Bayda, but with a better shot. So, in conclusion, AK, IMO, will score more than 20 goals next year in one of two places, the WCHA or the AHL. I predict its the AHL, and in 2009-2010 he skates third line for the Thrashers.

Are you referring to Jordan Parise's fabulous .400 sv % in the first period of the semifinal vs BC or are you hinting at Mr. Hakstol's shortcomings?

Big A, I understand what you're getting at with that pic at the bottom of your posts, but man, it is hard to see 2 BC champs, 2 DU champs and 2 Gopher champs on there!

Totally agree. Without Trupp, after the first line, we fell off, BIG TIME. Kozek scored 18 goals, most while playing with Osh and Duncs. Vande scored some goals, again most while playing with Osh and Duncs. Problem was after Oshie, we had ZERO play making super stars. Duncs and Kozek are snipers. They are not playmakers, they are goal scorers pure and simple. Trupp can make plays, but it was pretty clear that he was a good freshman playmaker, not a good WCHA playmaker. He wasn't a Toews or Parise (to his credit, no one claimed he would be, and Toews and Parise are clearly one in a decade kinda talent). Accompanying our lack of scoring depth was defensive corps that other than Zach Jones and Joe FInley pre-playoffs, was fairly ineffective in our defensive zone. CHorney and Bina were ok defensively, but they were clearly much more offensive oriented. Genoway was a stud offensively, but not so good in our end. Marto and Lapoint were freshmen who made freshmen mistakes on both sides of the rink. I think both showed some offensive upside and some defensive downside. Although I think Marto improved dramatically towards the end of the season. This was not the team, and it was not the year. No Biggie. As I stated before, the 2005-2006 team with 6 #1 draft picks and 3 #2 draft picks...Stafford, Zajac, Toews, Oshie, Finley, Lee, Chorney, Kozek, Smaby was really the deepest team talent-wise. On top of those 9 huge prospects, we also had a guy who is playing pro in Europe (Spirko) a future hobey winner in Duncan, and great character guys like Porter, Kaip, Fabian and Prpich...How did we lose that year????

While I can understand the direction these thoughts are coming from, even with perfect hindsight, I can not think of who I would've benched, let alone when throughout the season in order to try and get more out of them. Early on? Considering our longest losing streak this year was a whopping 2 games, I don't see where we needed a big time adjustment. Later? We rode an 18 game unbeaten streak!! Are you saying that you'd have benched a regular when you're on that kind of roll? I think that we were just short this year. Maybe we peaked too early, who knows. I do know that we weren't our best this playoffs. I also know that the only team that we faced who had a winning record against us was the national champion at 1-0-1. We had a very good year. I just think that we ran out of gas or something down the stretch. Maybe the game was too easy for some of these guys, and they lost interest. Maybe they needed to get their a$$es kicked in February or March to inspire them.

Will David Toews get drafted in round 1? If not, this will be the first Sioux team in a long while not to feature some big-time NHL prospects The last time the Sioux didn't feature a current or future #1 draft pick in the lineup was the 2001-2002 season 2008: Finley and Oshie 2007: Finley and Oshie and Toews and Lee 2006: Finley and Oshie and Toews and Stafford and Zajac and Lee (should've done it...that's an NHL lineup) 2005: Stafford and Zajac 2004: Parise and Stafford 2003: Parise

Clearly big ommission from me. Genoway and McWilliam Marto and Jones Lapoint and Blood Just a guess. Wow, can't believe I forgot about Chay...wow

Easy fellas, two rivals, two great programs, and as Jerry York puts it "brand names in college hockey". MN and NODAK are about as true traditional powers as can be...any given year. Great traditions, great records, great junior and hs players would love to wear either crest.

They're all gone. Kozek is a number 2 pick, and Atlanta is going to want to see if they can turn that NHL shot into 25-30 goals in the AHL this year. If he does, he will get a legitimate shot at the Thrashers camp for 2009. Duncs will get a decent offer as well, and he will also get his shot in the AHL, with probably similar criteria to getting a legit shot at an NHL roster for 2009. I heard that there were quite a few players frustrated with Hak this year too. If that rumor is true, then those guys will for sure take off. It also wouldn't surprise me if those guys are some of the teams most likely to play at the next level guys.

When did this become a board for AA? :) In all seriousness, I know the statements are meant for the right reasons, but seriously, all my buddies and I drank at least 4 nights a week in college, and none of us have a post college problem. I am quite sure that it is premature to be concerned about boozing it up in college and getting stupid citations.

It is going to be a new look Sioux team next year I think we'll see something like below to start: VV with Watkins and Gregoire Trupp with Toews and Cichy Zajac with Frattin and Hextall Fourth line up for grabs: Martens, Miller, Davidson, Forney, Malone, lamoureaux Marto and Jones Lapoint and MacWilliams Blood and ___________

Maybe the theme for this year's Sioux team should be the UMD Bulldogs Penalty Box motto: Win or Lose, we booze.

SDSioux, you don't need to apologize to anyone. I, for one, and for what its worth, believe that you are entitled to say anything you want. I don't like thread Nazis who intimidate or name call. We all have opinions, and agree or disagree, they're all valid. I enjoy this site, and most disagreements are civil. I think there are just a lot of people who really wanted this year to be the year. I hope you keep coming on to ss.com. I think the more, the better. Take Care, and don't be intimidated by bluster.

Ray ferraro is canadian kid who played in the W. He had 108 goals as a 19 year old playihng in Brandon. He also had a very long NHL career. Based on that resume, I doubt he has clue one about college hockey.

I retract my previous post. I added fuel to the stupid fire.

I sorta have a feeling that those guys partied too (back on topic for this dumb thread). Remember the rumors about the blast on that 87 squad?

It was race horse hockey that won it for us in 1987, 1997 and 2000. We played race horse hockey in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 with Parise, Bucks etc. I think that when we lost to Denver in 2003-2004 something changed (obviously Blaiser left), and a different style was brought forth. We've had success since, mostly due to personnel (Toews, Oshie, Stafford, Zajac, etc), but there was a definitive change in style. Hak probably recognized something. I mean Denver didn't run and gun back then and they won 2 in a row, Wisconsin won one playing the most nauseating hockey imagineable. I'm with you goon. I would way rather lose like we did in the 2003-2004 Final 5 (even to those same Gophs) if the style was the style we played then True Sioux Hockey. That game, in my opinion was one of the best college hockey games ever played.

I've been trying to have a discussion around getting rid of the high break out and ending the cycle offense, but all everyone seems to want to talk about is a college party and the condemnation of a bunch of 18-23 year-olds (and Robbie ) and the lambasting of a coach who took his team to their fourth frozen four in four years. Anyone want to talk HOCKEY. I put my thoughts out on the thread around reloading earlier today.

He missed on his kick after his original kick up towards his stick. He made a clear effort to play the puck with his feet, albeit once again, to then try and play the puck with his stick. Had he not tried to play the puck with his skate, i.e. it just defelected off his skate and in, then I call it a goal. However, it was clear to me that he "played" the puck off his skates and it went in. DO you really believe that they would blow a call after a five to ten minute video review in the national championship game? They made the right call.

ANybody else up on a systems reload as opposed to player reload. The best thread regarding the new guys is the 2007-2008 Sioux Recruits-monitoring their junior league play. The one thing to keep in mind is that the likes of a Jonathan Toews or Zach Parise showing up on our door year in and year out is a ridiculous expectation. Those two guys are absolutely elite NHLers. No team gets those types of recuits each and every year. We got spoiled with them. Intersting side note, this team had zero 20 goal men. When is the last time that a Sioux team didn't have a single guy on the team pump in 20?

I thought the expose on the Goofs at the Blarney was stupid too. Big deal. I hope the producers of that shocking, peabody worthy story feel really great about themselves. Next years expose...statutory rape after the Prom. 16, 17 and 18 year olds engaging in illegal sexual activity. Are these people just worried that some people might be having too much fun? To TJ, Taylor and Chris: Keep living it up...without a doubt this is the best, most care free time of your life. You have your 30's-90's to be responsible. Thanks for working hard on the ice and entertaining us. Enjoy your summer.

The pass hits the ND forward's left skate and ricochets toward his right skate. He kicks it up to his stick, and makes a second, follow-up effort to kick it again and misses. He tries to knock the puck in with his stick, and the BC defender ties up his stick and clears him away from the crease. The puck went in because he kicked at it. Again, he was kicking at it to get it up to his stick to knock in a gimme, but the BC defender cleaned him out of there and it was no goal. If that were a Gopher forward against the Sioux, no way would we want that to stand.