UNDBIZ

Check with Essentia in Fargo.

It will take some time for the corporate hacks to push the good doctors and nurses away....

Ah my bad. Well I guess the development of D-men under Eades was even worse than I thought. Now the only one he can claim is Finley.....

I just think it's weird that the Summit is SO much better than the Big Sky in basketball and yet both conferences got just 1 team into the tourney and both of those teams had the same seed.....

Because Lee developed so well here under Eades?? I stated Eades did well with defensive defensemen (Commie and Greene). The ncaa is no longer allowing us to develop defensive defensemen, so UND brought in a coach who is better at developing offensive defensemen. Wisconsin might have an argument to make with your statement about UND being the place to go for NHL defense prospects too.

Would Hakstol have created a new game plan?? Absolutely not. Would we have won the next 2 games?? Absolutely.

If Forbort sticks around I say he gets the C. If Forbort signs then stick it on the General for 2 years.

No news is good news....

There were people who thought Marto would play in the NHL?? I think Kristo will spend the majority of his time in the AHL with a few stints in the NHL. If the same question had been posed last year I would've agreed that he would spend some time in the ECHL, but he improved a lot for his senior year. IMO, he showed for the first time this year that he actually cared enough about winning to try, whereas in previous years I always viewed him as a lazy showboat who couldn't pass the puck.

I felt Forbort's improvement from last year to this year was quite impressive. Although I appreciate most things Coach Eades did at UND, developing defensemen for the NHL wasn't, IMO, one of his strong areas. He was very good with "defensive defensemen," but didn't seem able to do much to improve the more offense-minded players. Personally, I have always preferred to have the lock-down defensive players at UND and didn't care much for the puck-handling, offensive defensemen. However, after watching Big Mac get called for a penalty every time he touched another player this year, I recognize the NCAA isn't going to let us play a bruising defensive style anymore.

IMO, with the top attendance, the best arena, location by Minnesota AND Canada, and an athletic department completely committed to hockey, there is no reason not to expect UND to be a top 3 team.

I'm thinking/hoping it was a sophomore slump and he'll be much improved this fall.

But Hak says the line combinations don't matter....

In my highly regarded professional opinion, I'm thinking Parks on the second line because I'm not sure he has the speed to stay with Rocco. 3rd line also built for speed. Mark Mac - Grimaldi - Caggiula Parks - Tambellini - O'Donnel (the Pot Line?? haha) Mitch Mac - Johnson - Murphy St. Clair - Pattyn - Rodwell Extra: Chyzyk, Senbeil, Sanderson, Gaarder Forbort - Schmaltz Simpson - Ladue Mattson - Stecher Gothberg Saunders

I'd say Grimaldi has the best shot at making the NHL. His speed and quickness are amazing and he's not afraid to use his low center of gravity and mix it up on the boards. Knight's faceoff skills and all-around play will get him a shot in the NHL. He certainly won't be a top-line Zajac-type guy, but he'll have his chance to center the 3rd line. Kristo improved drastically this year compared to last year, but in my opinion he still has Europe written all over him.

We live in the geographical center of the continent. There are no tsunamis here....

Agreed on Hak's prevent defense. The only thing the prevent defense does is prevent the team from winning. I'd prefer we stay cautiously agressive.

Gophers flopping all over the place now

let's see how long Rau milks that one

As much as I love to rip on the Gophers, I can't agree with you and the others who think the big# will be garbage. Although I wish it would fail, the big# will do just fine. Those athletic programs are all too big to completely fail at hockey. You don't think Hockey East has any bottom of the barrel teams?? You don't think some teams will naturally drop to the bottom of the NCHC over time?? No, the big# hockey teams will not be the cornerstones of their respective schools, but due to the sheer size of the schools they will still be well-funded. As much as I wish it was true, saying the big# teams will drift into obscurity is wishful thinking at best.

FYP

Won't there be Summit League basketball games at the same time? Or will those be over before the weekend starts?

Depends on whether we got the Dell from the beginning of last season or the playoff-push Dell. One was terrible and one was decent. Either way, I don't see our record being much (if at all) better than it currently is.

SEC or bust