fightingsioux4life

Opps, I forgot the team that was screwed out of a chance to hang #9 because of COVID. Good catch. I have revised my original message.

The 2016 team would blow the doors off of every team of the past 20 years or so (minus the 2011 and 2020 COVID teams). But this year's team is the best since 2020. What we look like next season and beyond will depend in part on how many guys sign early.

I agree with your post except the bolded part above. Our recruiting has picked up the last couple of years. We have some nice players in the pipeline for the next couple of years and this year's team is the most talented since 2016. My concern now is that we will gradually fade down the stretch and have our season end in March instead of April.

That is where I am as well.

The last time we had seven home games, we finished 3-8 and Mussman was fired. Will history repeat itself? I think the odds are 50-50.

Are you sure both teams weren't sucked into a time warp into the 1980's? And was the game actually at the Met Center?

The goalposts are the same for me all the time: Win the Penrose, do the best you can at the Frozen Faceoff and win the natty. Obviously no team will do all of those things every year, but we have one NCAA win since 2016 (AIC in 2021) and we struggled the last two periods of that game after building a lead. That is what has people restless and I am one of them. Recruiting has picked up and we have a good pipeline for the next couple of years. But at some point, we have to cash in. If this team pulls a disappearing act like the 2022 team (which had a lot less talent than this team), it will be the most disappointing team in recent memory. The next 6 games will determine which trajectory this team will take.

I think that person was referencing Fox, OAN, Newsmax, InfoWars.

I refuse to believe that the same team that beat quality teams all year (including on the road) is now going to fade away down the stretch. But if we fade down the stretch like 2022 and pull another one and done NCAA tournament disappearing act, it will be the most disappointing team in recent memory. And I will begin to believe in the Brad Berry Late Season Swoon theory that some people are buying into. This is where coaching becomes vital to a team's success. The talent is there, but the coaching staff has to get the most out of them, especially as we move into the NCHC and NCAA playoffs.

Exactly. You and I obviously are not in that camp.

That is a false choice. When Boston College won 3 titles in 5 years (2008-2012), they did not have mediocre regular seasons during their title years. That being said, there were people on here who argued it was better to have our Frozen Four appearances than those 3 titles because BC failed to make the tournament the other two years (2009 and 2011). Which I felt was a preposterous argument and the height of homerism and sugar-coating failure. Bottom line: Successful regular seasons make it easier to win nattys. And nattys are what people remember and are what builds a program's national reputation. Is that a good thing or even a healthy thing? I don't know. But it's an undeniable fact and we can't ignore it and tell ourselves it doesn't matter. We are falling behind in the natty race and we need to take the sport by the neck like we used to.

In order to win the Penrose, I think we need to win all 6 of our remaining games. I do not want a repeat of 2022, where we beat Omaha on the road on Friday to clinch a share of the Penrose, then lost the next night and failed to win the league outright. Then in the first round of the NCHC playoffs, we didn't look impressive in a home sweep. We looked punchless in the Frozen Faceoff vs. Western Michigan and in the NCAA first round against Notre Dame. I want us to have momentum and confidence going into the postseason, two things we do not have right now. Duluth cannot be allowed to "steal" any points this weekend.

This is one of those moments where this team has to decide: Do they want to be elite or merely good? Do they want to be in St. Paul in April or working on their golf games? Tonight will help answer both those questions.

Nothing good. But I think we bounce back tonight.

Cripes, one bad game and everyone is declaring the season over. You guys need to take a pill and lie down. This will motivate the boys to prevent this from ever happening again. I think we'll see a much different team tonight.

Hope he enjoys losing.

I have been saying this for years, especially when Bison fans made fun of our predicament. They would just laugh at me and insist it wasn't the same thing. I for one would enjoy getting to laugh at them for a change.

The Tigers remind me of those Fighting Sioux teams of the mid 1990's when Blais was still rebuilding the program, right before we won #6 in 1997.

Whomever we play, it will be a tough opponent.

260,000? Listening to their mouthpieces, you'd think it was closer to 500,000 or 600,000 by now. In another decade, they'll be making a bid for an NFL team. People are leaving Grand Forks? There must be ghosts living in those homes and apartments being built on the south side. Those companies must be swimming in red ink. The Grand Forks Airport problem mirrors the problems with UND athletics. Instead of thinking outside the box and brainstorming possible solutions, all we do is make excuses and insist that nothing can be done about it. Bochenski gets elected mayor and tries to do things to make Grand Forks grow and he gets backlash from the same old status quo crowd that has held us back for so many years. We need an attitude adjustment around here or none of this will matter.

We do have the depth to withstand injuries. But when you are fighting off some virus, you won't have the usual energy level and jump needed to win games in the NCHC. And despite all that, we lost both games in OT and still got 2 points out of the weekend. I think we get at least 3 points this weekend, maybe more.

I like your thinking.

Let's remember that our team had an illness running through the locker room last time and hadn't had a week off since the season started. We are healthier now and just had a week off. We'll see if those things make a difference this time.

If the 49ers had scored a TD on their OT drive and the Chiefs scored a TD after that, I heard that the Chiefs would have gone for 2 and the win. So I don't think the Niners would have gotten the ball in sudden death anyway.

Thank you @Goon.