scpa0305

Well they are kind of going in the same direction... but this year's forward is slightly deeper.

Logan Brown and Alex DeBrincat cut from the US team. Pretty nuts.

I saw that....he played very very welll considering Sweden is much better than Slovakia this year. 40 saves!. Still would be tough to get that #1 spot considering huska is the man. But either way I'm rooting for him.

He's 16, he'll go through this coming years import draft. He's top three 16 year old on the planet. He gets a lot of press. It was a big deal when he said he'd play in the ushl this year.

I don't disagree. However he was recorded as saying the reason he wasn't in the chl this year was because he felt he was too young. Next year he'll go.

...and he's only 16. I believe he's going the CHL route.

Huh...that has happened. Against BSU and also against teams much worse (MSU).

Agree. In the first part of my post I was addressing the different types (not necessarily the +/- numbers) of defensemen we have on roster. I was responding to a previous post which questioned that we had too many offensive minded dmen.

The surgery was an easy guess as that is a rumor that has been flying around since the goph series.....you also noted the team surgeon was doing it while also noting he was bolting after Christmas. Barring unknown academic issues, he isnt going anywhere.

I'm sure. But had he had surgery in October (prior to MN series) he would already be back now....given the current timeline. So I'm the docs said rest was an option as well. Which many players lean to for obvious reasons. Either way, I heard Jost was hurt last night blocking a shot. He isn't in the game tonight.

Im guessing surgery was an option....but that was have ruled him out of the WJC for sure. Again, he was probably crossing his fingers that it would get better and that he could play in the WJC (which was probably a big reason he didnt sign a pro deal). I mean, he's probably pissed off about this. But to say he doesn't care about UND's schedule is also false, because he probably was hoping (praying) that this injury just went away.

Probably not, Im guessing he had to make a tough decision today as the USA is finalizing rosters. He missed time thinking it would get better...and it obviously didn't. I'm guessing he saw a doctor a few weeks ago and he had two options...have surgery now or wait and see if it gets better (as is usually the case with these types of injuries). Why would he have ruled himself out of the WJC several weeks ago not knowing if he would get better or not?

There is enough F's to still build an elite team....but he would have made a difference. Sounds like he'll be back in January.

Brock having surgery, out for WJC. Dang.

Yeah I get that....I was wondering if there are real odds out there. This year should be a little different I believe.

I haven't see odds but are they the favorite this year? Team USA smoked them this summer and that was with Canada having Marner, Crouse, and Chychrun. USA will be smaller on D but they should be very skilled. Their forward group is deep. Pretty much 4 first lines.

This thread needs to die. On to the World Juniors.

Western is a pretty decent team. We were definitely better, even without Boeser, Shaw, and Jost (from a depth perspective). But Allison and Iccopelli (sp?) shined. Those guys are supposed to shine. Our squad had a lot of passengers Saturday night and our special teams is a joke right now. The positive thing is that we can also beat any team in the country as well. They need to put it all together and make sure they finish in the top 16 in the pairwise....top 12-13 to be safe with conference winners. I've seen folks blame the forwards, D, and goalie at different times this year but the only real problem is our PK and PP scoring. If we had a +90% PK and a +20% PP we're a top 5 team. At this point I'm more frustrated with the PK. This team is built to play 5x5 hockey and grind out wins (important toward the end of the year when the refs start to swallow their whistles).

Luckily their schedule is tough. When they get Boeser, Jost and Shaw back they should get must better. A few wins here and their against higher PW teams should get them in...and that's all that matters.

To be honest....it's more than those guys.

10

Great post. We are missing this concept completely. We are playing like their is way less time than there actually is. Panicking and simply throwing a bad angle shot on net praying for a tip. Those shots are ok in many cases but when there's a back door pass open (creating odd man opportunities), u don't throw it blindly on net.

Very true. Many folks are calling out the talent, and I don't buy that. All these boys were very good junior players.....they are all just used to guys like jost and boeser bailing them out. Yesterday's problem was a lack of effort (both mental and physical). Super tough game to watch. When a team is resorting to throwing the puck to the net blindly from the corners of the ozone (on the power play), they have no confidence.

Western's ok and we were missing some guys obviously. But that was the ugliest loss I've seen in a while. Way worse than those msu games. Roughly 14 minutes of penalties in the 3rd period alone ( against a team with no pk) and they lose the period (and game). To come off a strong second and !@#$ the bed in the third is terrible. They lost every wall battle in the third. Not to mention they were down a dman for most of the third.

Second period looked good....but this start to the third is bad.