Dustin

I have mixed feelings going into football season. I have no doubt UND will have a good season and is poised to make its first true deep run into the FCS playoffs, which is great. But without having the chance to beat NDSU on the way makes anything we do less meaningful to me. Even if we do win it all, which, again, would be great, there will be a little asterisk in my mind that we could only do it once NDSU voluntarily chose not to compete for it. Is this the wrong outlook?

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/5-observations-of-und-football-fall-camp-day-8 3. Kicking adventures UND's field-goal kicking during the live setting wasn't pretty. Kenten Laughman, Sawyer Riffle and Easton Choate combined to start the day 0-for-5, which included Riffle having a long attempt blocked at the line of scrimmage by edge Braden Mohr. Laughman and Riffle each connected on short attempts later in practice. The small sample size was still a discouraging sequence for a team in search of consistency in the kick game. Laughman and Riffle are battling for starting roles, although it's possible the two split duties.

Yeah, I am starting to realize that. My initial gravitation towards them is that they would be in cities that would be more palatable to attract fans, or perhaps their location in major metros would mean even less traveling for local fans. Save the travel part for the Frozen Four. Plus, I think the experience of playing in an NHL rink would make it seem like these games are actually important (which they are, but a sparse crowd in a medium size rust belt town doesn't exactly scream "there's a lot on the line here").

I've probably been the biggest promotor of the super regional and until you had mentioned it earlier had not considered the role the NHL plays in my idea of using the NHL arenas near the college hockey hotbeds (MSP, Detroit, Boston, and maybe Denver). But maybe the tournament concept of a super regional survives, but the location moves to secondary arenas, or a combination of NHL and secondary. I like the idea of having 2 locations (instead of 4), and organizing the pods (not the seeding) as regionally as possible. So, basically, if MSP is one of the super regional sites, and UND is a tournament lock, there should be pretty high confidence that the pod UND is in gets to play in MSP.

For as much razzing as 3x3 gets, I doubt it's going anywhere, because all of the adjacent levels of hockey (USHL, CHL, IIHF, AHL, NHL, Olympics) have embraced it. It's pretty much has become part of the definition of what a hockey game even is at this point.

I won't say Hastings necessarily outcoached Jackson, but something happened, either with coaches or players, or both, that did not translate to making it look like we knew what we were doing on the ice. If you read The Athletic article "Return of an NCAA blue blood: How North Dakota went from offseason crossroads to Frozen Four," you'll find this: "Jackson didn’t waste any time getting down to business. There were several video clips of Wisconsin, showing its relentless forecheck and how it turns turnovers into transition chances. North Dakota knew what was coming. Jackson showed examples of how other teams did well against the Badgers. He also had video of his own team and the keys to its game, from breakouts to net-front battles.....Jackson was right in warning that the Badgers forecheck was formidable, though. The Fighting Hawks couldn’t handle it, coming out uncharacteristically flat." So, it seemed like the game plan was on point, but the players either didn't or couldn't execute it. So, were our players simply inferior in skill/ability, or did they not heed the warning? And then, what did Jackson do about it as things folded out in real time?

Remind who are the likely candidates/targets for these remaining position? One of them is Carels, right?

I meant as a player, but yes, he does as a coach.

As an aside, one thing I like about Chyzyk is that he is a National Champion. He saw firsthand what a national championship team looks like. No one else on staff has that.

In Chyzyk we trust!

Chyzyk is really putting his stamp on the program. C - 5 H - 6 Y - 3 Z - 5 K - 4

Anytime a goalie gives up two or fewer in a playoff game, they did their job. An offense that can't score more than two is usually in trouble.

I'd say two things: 1) experienced D (Grad, Jr., Jr., the rest were younger) 2) true top line / finishers (No UND player was in the top 30 in the nation scoring)

Super regionals in the top 3. Frozen Fours in the bottom 3. That's my dream for the tournament.

I'm surprised some of these details, like the Navy SEALS training, weren't previously published in an article by Schloss.