fightingsioux4life

Bitter? We are now in a conference that just finished sending 6 out of 8 teams to the NCAA tournament. The almighty B1G? Just one. Jealous much?

Let me guess, it's all about BTN and everything else doesn't matter? Then I hope the X is ready for half-full at best buildings for these tournaments.

I have one of these from 2013.

Heck, the Target Center isn't even a "premier" facility in the NBA!

Losing to the #15 overall seed in a tournament that you expect to perform in on an annual basis is still way more significant than winning a game on a lucky one-in-a-million shot (this is the ONLY Frozen Four loss I will contribute to an "unlucky" bounce) with .6 seconds left in regulation. Even if it was 9 years ago.

Shouldn't these guys be able to execute basic hockey skills at the college level? Isn't that something they teach in grade school? And if all of the problems you pointed out are accurate (which I believe they are), then that means whatever they did in the week of practice leading up to the Frozen Faceoff didn't work. If they had done what they did last year (rebound after a bad performance) I would feel better about this team right now. But this is the absolute worst time of the year to start tanking it as a team. I guess the proof will be in the pudding this weekend in Fargo.

Shhh, you can't say stuff like that here.

I miss playing Minnesota in the regular season and in the conference playoffs. Morons like this I can do without.

Okay, I have to chime in here. A team that is good enough to win the regular season title of a league that has sent 6 out of 8 teams to the NCAA tournament suddenly isn't good enough to at least show up for the conference tournament? At this time of the year, the differences in talent levels between teams gets narrower, which means you cannot "out-talent" teams. That is where coaching and strategy (or lack thereof) become apparent. If those things aren't the responsibility of the coaching staff, then what is, having Hak give the same tired old sound-bite laced interview he has for years ("work extremely hard, accountability up and down the lineup, blah, blah, blah")? This is the time of year when coaches like Hakstol and his assistants really earn their money. The idea that absolutely nothing is on them would suggest we are paying someone a six-figure salary to put together a line-up card and then sit and watch. And that mentality has to stop around here.

Real cute. Is that all you have?

But the goal is to win every game you can possibly win. I honestly don't think winning the Penrose Cup should result in tanking the playoffs. If anything, it should give us positive momentum.

Kentucky survives, but was anything but unbeatable today.

Well, what do the "everything is just fine" people have to say now? If you have no concerns about this team after getting outscored 8-2 in two games and looking bad in doing it, then you are simply drunk on green Kool-Aid and wearing green-colored glasses. Can this team rebound next week? Yes. Will they? That is far from certain after what I saw this weekend.

They seem to have found their mojo from last year. That is what concerns me.

I think we are headed for a Minnesota NCAA title.

Care to put some serious $$$$$ on it? Because after this weekend, I am not betting on us getting out of Fargo.

I would like to win this game if only to give us some momentum for next weekend, but I don't know if it will help either team with seeding.

You can blame the guy that gave all that money to Penn St. to start men's and women's hockey for this mess. I agree with you that the NCHC tournament sucks compared to the old Final Five, but there are some positives with the realignment. You are seeing programs like MSU-Mankato, Ferris State and even long-dormant Michigan Tech assert themselves nationally. Also, schools like Arizona State either will or are thinking about starting programs of their own. The Target Center just needs to get their crap together. I don't remember the Final Five being this badly run when it was at Target Center in the late 1990's (before the X opened).

If we do that next weekend, it's season over.

What? Didn't you know that it's simply not acceptable to criticize Hakstol for anything on this forum? Isn't that in the official rules someplace? Today was pretty much a train wreck all around. We need to come out and take charge on Saturday and build some momentum for next weekend, when the season will be on the line for all 16 teams.

Yeah, why should the Slummit League have all the fun?

Clear Penrose Cup Hangover today. We were slow, sluggish, disorganized.....in other words, playing like a team that had little to gain this weekend. St. Cloud played like their season was at stake (which it was). I think I will have to support them tomorrow night as it would be cool to have six NCHC teams in the NCAA tournament next weekend. And tomorrow's 3rd place game is not meaningless for us. We need to have a strong performance and a win to get some positive vibes going for next weekend. Next weekend it's win or go home until next season and a good performance tomorrow will help us survive what will be a tough regional in Fargo.

Sorry boys, we will just have to agree to disagree on this topic. There is always some excuse why one of our players shouldn't or didn't win the award. Heck, there were even people back in 1987 who thought Hrkac somehow wasn't worthy of the Hobey Baker award. That just boggles the mind! Good grief, if 116 points in 48 games isn't enough of a statement of dominance, I don't know what is. Also, there have been a lot of examples posted on this forum of college goaltenders with very similar numbers and most of them never even sniffed the award. And I seem to remember Tim Hennessey talking about how several WCHA coaches voted against Panzer as a sort of cheap shot at UND. This was 14 years ago, but I remember him talking about it on a local sports talk call-in program. So if there was a conspiracy, it was from within the league. Anyway, I think it would be better to have an award for each position instead of one award where you have to put players playing different positions side by side and make a judgment on who is better. But in the end, most people remember which TEAM wins the NCAA title, not individual awards. And I think this team has the potential to do just that.

Looks like you can add one more in my name. My girlfriend from Brainerd is with me this weekend and she'll be there as well.

I for one don't think McIntyre is quite up to the level of a Hobey Baker winner. That said, I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the nation right now. He is solid as a rock for us.