TNF

^This^ plus encourage officials to actually call penalties in the third period and in overtime(s). One of the biggest reasons these games drag on is the fact there are zero special team situations even when they are more than warranted. And it doesn’t have to be power plays. Two guys get into after the whistle…match them up and go 4x4. And to be clear, I’m okay with continuing to ignore the ticky-tak penalties that don’t directly impact the play. But far too often the whistles get completely swallowed including infractions on scoring opportunities

Croal may add himself to this list before his time is done at UND. The game has changed over the years so he may fall more into the Malone/Gardner category. I believe we will look back at the end of the year and realize his injury had a bigger impact on the start of the season than we thought. He has a motor that doesn’t quit and he’ll lay a hit any time he can. That sort of stuff is contagious and directly leads to other teammates doing the same thing.

Let me rephrase. One of the many reasons people are coming after Berry is the laser focus on winning the Penrose. To do so, you ride older portal goaltenders in games you are favored in instead of getting your younger guys much needed reps. You ride your top d-pair in key situations often logging crazy minutes instead of developing the next pair. Denver is the perfect example. They are okay to drop games along the way if it means developing as a team Even in a high profile road series, it wasn’t exclusively the Devine, Buium, etc show down the stretch. They roll their lines and trust their development throughout the year. And over several years, they have guys up and down the lineup they trust in any situation. And if their start is any indication, they aren’t even sacrificing regular season wins at this point.

The focus needs to be on getting healthy, finding chemistry in line combinations, potting a key goal or two that unlocks a player ready to raise their play to a new level, and getting out of here with two much needed wins. Being hyper-focused on Pairwise at this point is the exact reason people are coming after Berry. We need to spend this first half of the year developing young players and learning to play as a team through adversity. Try different players at center (for Berg) so they get experience for later in the season when injuries come back around or gain key experience for players that will be asked to do it next year. This is how you build success, not only for this year, but use this time to get players ready for future roles.

Rachel Doerrier in her ESPN+ Draft article today has Emery going to the Maple Leafs at #23 and Boisvert going #26 to the Canadiens. First time I’ve seen the order flipped but she seems pretty sure Emery will go to Toronto unless he is already off the board.

^edited to match the three rules of hitting a good golf shot Keep your head down Keep your head down Keep you god d*^m head down

Nope, he will be good to go tomorrow. The only thing that could possibly keep him out is supplemental disciple from the league and that hit doesn’t reach that level.

Assist to stripes for getting in the way on the pass from Persson.

Everything looks just fine on Midco. Do they use separate cameras for the webcast? I would assume just like The Ralph it is the same production just sent different places.

Kunz parked in front taking away the eyes of the goalie is huge too. DU’s goalie didn’t see at least one of the goals each night due to his play on the PP.

A(l/t)titude game - meaning both Altitude & Attitude to capture each of the themes And of course we’ll take the swagger (t - attitude) with us and leave the (l) behind in Denver.

Last few Fridays it took until late in the 2nd or early 3rd for the boys to get going. With a 7:00 pm central start that puts the time around 8:45 pm. Last night it took 10 - 15 minutes for the boys to get into it. With an 8:30 pm central start that puts the time at 8:45 pm. So clearly the key to winning Friday hockey games…8:45 pm central start times!

Where can I sign the petition to stop the non-sweep TCoS? Seems like we are celebrating a participation trophy. Tonight was a great win. But it is supposed to take a great weekend for a stick salute.

Alternate Headline: “NCHC won’t tarnish a potential Hobey campaign for star player”. I really thought the debate would be 1 or 2 games instead of suspension/no suspension.

If only some eastern jackwagons were forced to watch this game waiting for lacrosse to start.

There were rumors of positive test(s) in Fargo yesterday. So at the very least I hope they retested the positives today to validate the initial result. With that said, if they knew of positives yesterday then they could have notified the coaches to be prepared to play the early game today.

I would not be mad if they “found” a positive AIC test as to not give Duluth a competitive advantage against the overall #1 in the tourney.

Don’t disagree on Ford Field however the failed “Frozen Faceoff at the Target Center” experiment also set the bar for terrible indoor ice.

Completely agree. This is why the NCHC has had success in the national tourney. This was as close to an elimination game as you can get. Lots to learn from including how to stick with it. On the flip side, the first half of the game was not our best. But Denver had zero offense and even needed our help on their goal. It is going to be hard to generate offense against a rival, that is selling out to play D, and is seeing you for the 7th time this year.

I vaguely recall Omaha recently losing in their own barn when their opponent was short three of their top six forwards (including two hobey baker finalists).

This sounds promising.

I thought Chrona sold it at first but it did appear he hit his head pretty hard. If you are going to give offensive players 5 on those hits however, you have to get way more serious about cracking down on defensemen launching guys in that direction. With that said, Mishmash could have at least tried to put on the breaks.

So much for obstruction on the back check leading to that goal.

I love the “BIG10 is back” narrative that is playing out right now. Much easier argument to make when your teams don’t start with a .200 winning percentage against non-conference opponents. I do think some of those teams have made a step forward but some in Ann Arbor are already trying to add a trophy to the case. Going to be a weird year in terms of understanding how conferences will stack up against one another. Thankfully there is no doubt the NCHC will be the measuring stick for everyone else.

I would add Brad Berry to list of people expecting Pinto to be around one more year.