fightingsioux4life

Three goals should win you most hockey games. However, last night also proved that giving up five will also lose you a lot of games. Our defensive zone coverage has been a problem all season long and it looks like it still is. Why we are even talking about "hot goalies" at this point is beyond me. I get criticism for my signature on SS.com, but I think the "hot goalie" excuse is overused by our fan base and I simply won't jump on the bandwagon with everyone else. I don't hear other fan bases use that one nearly as much as ours does. The WCHA is one of the best leagues in college hockey year in and year out. The NCHC is looking like a solid league as well. Either we learn how to score on good goaltending or we had better get used to splitting every weekend....or worse. And that only seems to happen in the second half. One of these years, the second-half run won't happen and we'll find ourselves sitting at home in March after a .500 season. Tonight is the next most important game of the year.

It's not November on SS.com if everyone is not in an ornery mood over our slow starts and taking it out on others. Let's wait until February to panic about the team's performance.

Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim sounds off on the conference changes. It's classic Boeheim at his very best: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2012/11/22/jim-boeheim-ncaa-conference-realignment/1721455/ My favorite quote: "Like I said, if these guys (the conference commissioners) were running the United States in colonial times, Brazil and Argentina would be states because they have something we need. It's a great country."

Watch out, you'll have the duckie and bunny brigade on your butt for suggesting that national titles are important. They'll remind you that they are almost impossible to win anymore, despite evidence to the contrary. They'll even suggest that we are at a major recruiting disadvantage because we aren't on the East Coast. All sarcasm aside, I agree with you.

And I suppose they think the moon landing in 1969 was staged too? Forget the Gophers, I think Denver will serve as a nice substitute.

And, in case anyone thinks I am one of those "Fire Hakstol" trolls, Blais had the same fixation with Josh Sievebeida in 2002. He kept putting him in there week after week and he was a sieve week after week. It was enough to drive me to drinking, and I don't drink. And no, I am not comparing the two; Gothberg is much more talented and has much more upside. I believe that Gothberg will be a good goaltender in time; I just don't feel confident with him right now.

Hak has always been obsessed with the goalie rotation system, regardless if one of them is playing better than the other. Thus, the puzzling number of splits for our team year after year in the first half. Gothberg has not shown he is ready for this level, while Saunders is showing that his numbers with Alabama-Huntsville were legitimate. I predict a loss tonight, with one or two soft goals let in by Gothberg. Prove me wrong, kid.

I think we should all lay off the personal attacks and speculation on people's character and watch it play out. If it works, it'll be great for Grand Forks. If not, someone else will take over that building and turn it into something. At least this guy has the guts to put himself on the line to be his own boss. We need more of this in America, not less. Good luck to him.

You are fixated on last season, as if the previous 5-10 years don't matter. The fact is, we have ended their season a lot more than the other way around. And if they really think we'll go to Minneapolis for regular season games and not get home games in return, they are dreaming. We are one of the top programs in Division I with or without the Gophers on the schedule and if we can't play them in the regular season, so be it. We'll just focus on getting them in the NCAA's and go back to ending their season like we did in 2005, 2007 and 2010.

Nice of you to cherry pick one of my examples and ignore the rest. OK, lets take out the 2006 West Regional and replace it with the 2010 WCHA first round playoff series at The Ralph, in which we ended their season. Or is that also "yesterday's news" to you? Obviously, you have never gotten into it with Rodent fans. When things aren't going well, they'll bring up being "big time in every sport" as a reason why they are better than us (why they want to attempt to brag up football and men's basketball is very puzzling). They also bring up how much Grand Forks and North Dakota suck, how mediocre our academics are and on and on and on. There are also those fans that will insist to their dying day that Wisconsin is their "real rival" and we are "just another school". Count those as people that are probably glad we aren't on the conference schedule after this season. I would imagine there are a lot of Gopher FANS that want to keep playing us. But I honestly think some of the higher-ups at the U of M don't like losing to a smaller school on the prairie on a regular basis. Like I have said, if they REALLY wanted to keep it going, they would find some room in their non-conference schedule for us in the future. Being in a six-team league like the Big Ten means they'll have to find more non-conference games; why not make a long-time rival a priority in that?

I wasn't talking about only last season; I was talking about the last 10 years or so. We have been a thorn in their side during most of those seasons, with last season an exception to the rule. Just bring up the 2005 Frozen Four, the UND fan reaction to the Holy Cross upset at The Ralph in the 2006 West Regional, the 2007 West Regional Title Game, the 2009 regular-season beatdown at The Ralph and the 2012 Final Five Semifinal at the Xcel Energy Center and you can shut up any Rodent fans that want to bring up all the Big Ten superiority garbage as an answer to everything. If Lucia really wanted this rivalry to continue, he would twist enough arms and call in enough favors to make it happen. But now that they have their precious Big 10 Hockey Conference, they don't "need" us anymore. Like I said, we will survive just fine without them. It just won't be as much fun.

Rodentia only wants rivals they can beat 75% of the time. We are beating them too much, so Lucia wants to move on as quickly as possible. We will just switch to Denver as the main outlet for our venom and do just fine.

Jack Michaels is no different ("Prince of Perham" anyone?).

That's what Schlossman went with this morning, no big surprise there. I know everyone else on here loves the guy, but I just don't think he's all that great of a writer. His biggest contribution to our program is the online content he provides; it's better than what some big-city newspapers provide. Hak didn't use the "hot goalie" excuse last night and neither should anyone else. We had a 2-1 lead with 5 minutes left at home and we trickled it down our legs. Thankfully it's November and not March and we might learn something from this.

The problem is that I don't think Mussman will make changes on the defensive side; he just doesn't seem to have the guts to fire some of his long-time assistants. If the man at the top doesn't believe changes are needed, they will not happen.

Here we go with this garbage again...."We are not 'in the room', so we are 'clueless' as to the state of the program and shouldn't make comments about it." I hate to break this to you, but it doesn't take an expert in football to realize that the defense is crap, has been crap for several years now (last year was an aberration) and will continue to be crap until we make some changes. If, at the end of this season (and it can't end soon enough), Mussman doesn't make changes to the defense (scheme, coaching staff, ect) and says that everything is fine the way it is, then I think it's time to start talking regime change. Once mediocrity sets in as "the way things are", it is very difficult to change it. We didn't move up to Division I for this and it needs to stop.....now!!!

And who is responsible for the roster being what it is? These are all Mussman's players.......Mussman and his staff are responsible for that. It all starts at the top.

Grand Forks is a lot busier than it used to be, with or without UND football in town.

I was there. As Gopher fans filed out of the stadium, they all had that look on their faces that said they really weren't surprised that they lost to an FCS school. They are really conditioned to losing down there. That must not be allowed to happen here.

Do you really believe that our Twin Cities-based alums won't get excited about this game? Hopefully, by the time it happens, we'll have a better team and we'll have a shot at the upset. The arrogant Gopher fan base who still thinks the Big 10 is one of the top conferences in the nation would never be able to live it down. I know things don't look good right now, but we can't let ourselves think the future will not get better. I believe it will.

The Gophers have decided to spend $800,000 to buy out a home-and-home contract they had signed with North Carolina for 2013 and 2014 so they can find an even weaker opponent: http://fayobserver.com/articles/2012/10/17/1211108?sac=fo.sports This could make it easier for UND to get a game against the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium, since even North Carolina isn't weak enough for them. And since this move will tick off what is left of their fan base, we could take over the stadium like the Bison fans did last year.

In that case, FU had better hope they never draw UND in the playoffs. If they were to lose, there would be people jumping off bridges down there.

Kelling was a disaster as Co-Defensive Coordinator. I don't even know how he got the job in the first place. He was the worst assistant coach we have had since Jeff Menage left as offensive coordinator following the 2000 season. Mussman took his place in 2001 and we all know what happened that year.

I hope you are right; I fear that you are wrong.