jk

Of the three recent Lincoln Stars on the ice (only two of whom were stars), I have to say that Little Potulny is the least adjusted to the college game. Irmen and Porter seem strong and fast enough to compete, but Potulny seems a step out of place. He may very well end up being the best of the three in time, but right now I

This is ridiculously long, so I

Just thinking about the lines based on the info from the show. First line: we know it Second: Lundbohm, Stafford, Porter Third: McMahon, Prpich, Hale/Canady Fourth: Genoway, Massen, Fylling It seems silly to label lines 2-4 with numbers, since they seem to be about a push in terms of ability and impact. I'm not sure who should go with McMahon and Prpich. I could see Hale, Canady or Fylling there. Hale needs to be in the lineup somewhere, in case the defense needs help if Schneider can't go. Maybe Marvin will be in the lineup somewhere for this same reason. Anyone have any ideas?

One last thing. In Bochenski's other games for UND, 75 of them, he is 58-42-100.

This is updated through 5 games. This is how UND's and its opponents' scoring breaks down this year (UND's scoring listed first): 5x3 0-0 (When UND has the 5X3 advantage, neither team has scored.) 5x4 0-2 5x5 26-6 4x4 2-0 4x5 0-3 3x5 0-1 Bonus fun: Bochenski's career against the Gophers: 10/05/01 0-0-0 01/05/02 0-1-1 01/06/02 0-0-0 02/08/02 0-0-0 02/09/02 0-0-0 03/08/02 0-0-0 03/09/02 0-0-0 01/10/03 0-1-1 01/11/03 0-1-1 9 games 0-3-3 I respectfully submit that Money is due to score some goals against his home-town team. I also think it's necessary that he score for the team to do well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/sports/hockey/05HOCK.html A NY Times note on the series. Here's Blais's take on the Potulny boys: "It was probably our mistake that we didn't get Grant," Blais said. "It was probably Ryan's mistake that he didn't come here."

I think I'll just be yelling this one at him: Hey Waibel, Foster says "thanks." If you saw Waibel's PK pass Saturday, you know what it means.

Rylan Kaip-RW Notre Dame (SJHL) 6'0 176 1-21-84 NORTH DAKOTA Heisenberg has this player listed as a new commitment for the Sioux. He has apparently flown under the radar, as I haven't seen his name floated about the internet. He will be 20 when he arrives in the fall, which will perhaps add a little physical maturity to the squad, which has gotten steadily younger in the last few years. Any info on Rylan would be appreciated.

I don't speak the smilie language, but I hope you don't mean you wish them ill in the future. That would be sick. If the emoticon means you're joking, or being sarcastic, or whatever, then my apologies.

Actually I don't think he glossed over it so much as he directly disagreed with it. It's just a difference of opinion, and I think I like his version better, what with me being a fan of former Sioux players.

strib says ballard out and harrington doubtful.

A follow-up. The HF interviewer subsequently posted the following on a message board. ------------------------------ Hi everybody... Glad you all liked the interview. Sorry I was in Cowtown and just got back so I could address things for a while. I need to make on note... Matt emailed me after this was posted and wanted to make a point about how important schooling is to him because he's worried that the way the interview reads... it sounds like he's 100% hockey and that school is a necessary evil or something. That's not the case at all. He was making the point that he knows his future is with hockey so that's where his direction lies... but he's still working his butt off scholastically and UND is a very good academic school too. Hoceky wise it's a factory, but it's not all UND does.

To be honest, I paused for a moment before starting this thread, because there were elements of the interview (which have been addressed here and on USCHO) that could be viewed less than positively. I decided to go ahead and post the link because I would have wanted to read it had I not been aware of it. In thinking about the education comments, I decided MG was just stating the truth bluntly. IMO, people who think the elite players are pursuing anything other than their hockey careers are kidding themselves. As for the non-elite guys, I hope they study hard and take advantage of the educational opportunity their hockey talent has provided them. dagies, I agree about the disconnect between one's course of study and eventual profession. Careers, and lives, wind along paths you couldn't have forseen.

I don't believe there is a lower age limit. There is talk of Sidney Crosby playing for Canada as a 16-year old, although he probably won't.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/article.php?s...hreaded&order=0 Interesting read. I'm glad the Sioux don't have to play against him.

Congrats, Notermanns. Also, SI apparently has listed the Top 30 AHL prospects. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/hock.../ahl.prospects/ Number 9 looks like this: ------------------------------ 9. Ryan Bayda, LW, Lowell (Hurricanes) -- After three solid seasons under the tutelage of coach Dean Blais at the University of North Dakota, Bayda had little trouble adapting to the pro game. Leading the Lock Monsters in scoring despite playing in just two thirds of their games last year, the 22-year-old winger finished his first professional season with a combined 15 goals and 42 assists between Lowell and a 25-game stint with the Hurricanes. Despite a good scoring touch, Bayda, who was taken in the third round of the 2000 draft, has a bright future because of his tenacious defensive play. The Saskatchewan native is a strong forechecker, is adept at killing penalties and is not afraid to dig for pucks in the corners and along the boards. Considering this style, Bayda may have to add some muscle to survive a full season in the NHL but likely will likely get another chance this season. ----------------------------- Nice press for Ryan and UND.

I'm pleased to see the number of defensemen that are lined up to join the program in the next few years, because the team will need them. Two years from now, Schneider, Jones and Fuher will definitely be gone (barring a medical redshirt), and Greene and Smaby may be also (NHL teams aren't going to leave big bruising defensemen that were second round picks in college for four years). I would be surprised to see Greene here in two years, but I think Smaby will still probably be here for his third year. If those players left, Marvin, Bina and Foyt would remain as rostered defensemen. So now the team has Beaverson, Radke and Chorney to add to that list. Nice. The story at forward is similar. These guys will all have exhausted their eligiblity: Lundbohm, Hale, Palmiscno, Canady, Bochenski, Massen, McMahon, Fylling and Genoway. Also, Parise, Stafford and Murray have to be considered early departure risks, depending on how the careers of the latter two progress. That would leave Prpich, Porter and Fabian. Do I have that right? Wow. They would need the numbers big-time. Of course, some of the early departures could very well still be around. In fact, I would expect Parise to be gone, and Stafford and Murray to be back (especially Murray because of his size). Fun stuff. I look forward to some commitments up front.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforkshe...rts/7080332.htm Hockey players issued citations Two UND hockey players were issued citations for minor on the premises over the weekend in Grand Forks. Sophomore forward Zach Parise, 19, and freshman defenseman Matt Smaby, 19, were cited by Grand Forks police at The Edge bar in downtown Grand Forks. Two Boston College hockey players, sophomore defenseman Peter Harrold, 20, and junior forward Ryan Murphy, 20, also were cited for minor on the premises. The charges were issued late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, and the four are scheduled to make their first appearance in Grand Forks District Court on Nov. 5. ------------------------------------- Hate to be the one to break the bad news, but Iguess it'll be out anyway. I can't believe college students drink at age 19. Maybe they should be suspended for the Yale series.

If he continues to progress at the rate he has over the last year, I would think the risk of his opting in to the 2004 draft is reasonably high. The NHL loves size. Zach slid on draft day because of size, and they'll be drooling over Stafford for the same reason. Hopefully he has a great year this year and decides that another year to mature physically is in order before taking the big leap. Of course there may not be a 2004 draft.

I wasn't able to see or hear the games this weekend, so my take on the weekend comes from press and internet reports. Obviously the PP is a problem, so I know I'm not breaking a hot story here, but this view of things is pretty stark. This is how UND's and its opponents' scoring breaks down this year (UND's scoring listed first): 5x3 0-0 (When UND has the 5X3 advantage, neither team has scored.) 5x4 0-2 5x5 8-2 4x4 2-0 4x5 0-3 3x5 0-1 Even strength, UND looks great. Outscoring good opponents 10-2 is very impressive. The PK results have been OK, as well, allowing 4 goals in 22 chances (18%). That's not great, but the opponents have been good. Even though UND seems, to me, to perennially struggle on the PP, I think this team just has too much talent to not be at least decent on the PP. When this element of their game comes around, this team will be hard for most teams to handle. They are 0-20 so far, so at least it can't get worse. I love what it means for the team to receive improved play from guys like Fylling and Genoway. When you consider that Parise, Murray, Lundbohm and Massen (four forwards that I considered among the top six on the team heading into the season) have hardly contributed on the scoreboard yet, and then realize that they probably will still have a major impact, depth at forward looks to be shaping up nicely. I've read a few accounts of a BC player taking Schneider's skates out from under him while heading into the boards. Anybody remember what Ian Kidd did when Skeeter Moore did the same thing, endangering Kidd's career? (Answer: He got up, completely ignoring play, and chased after Moore. He tried to take a tee shot at Moore's ankles, missed, then delivered a cross-check from behind that had the stretcher out. It was nasty, but also a kind of frontier justice for about as dangerous a play as you can make out there.) Anybody wondering whether there were some recruits in the stands for the Friday night game? That's the kind of environment you hope for when you bring kids in for a visit.

This one seems pretty simple to me. If the doctor (by "doctor" I mean several really good ones who specialize in hockey-related knee injuries) says he is not risking further injury by playing on it, and he's comfortable playing on it, then let him play. Otherwise take a few weeks off and see how it is for Yale. You can bet he's itching to get out there against his national team and SSM teammates.

No offence to anyone, but who cares where UND's ranked? I can understand UMD fans caring and being excited, because they've been lost in the woods for a long, long time, but I would rather not have the target of a high ranking too soon.

kr, I just posted that on USCHO because Lucia really has proven the first half of the year to be meaningless. Just post a good enough record to be in position in the second half. I got tired last year of all the woofing by siouxiniminny and UNDLAW, and I hope we don't have to put up with so much of that this year if the Sioux do well. Of course, if someone wants to take pleasure from MN's loss last night, who am I to say they can't? It would be practically un-American of me. sprig, did you see that UNO first goal was scored by Murray's buddy, Nikiforuk?

I've been tied up this week, so I'm sure I don't recall all my thoughts on the game, but here are a few. Thanks to Farce, skate.., NDH and others for your detailed thoughts. Despite what Zach thinks, I shouldn't be a coach; these are just a few very unexpert opinions. I thought Fylling was the best Sioux forward - consistently winning races to the puck (which we've seen) and then winning battles for it (which is new). He didn't seem able to fight through the "stuff" last year, but he was very tenacious in this game. I thought his line was the best of the Sioux lines early, before the DQ necessitated the inevitable shuffling. If it were based solely on 5-on-5 play, I would say Lundbohm had a great game as well, as he was his usual crafty self on the forecheck. Unfortunately I thought he had some gaffes on the PP that tempered my enthusiasm a bit. Three times he sent the puck to the point either with too much heat on pass or to a covered point man. Each time the puck left the zone and the PP had to try to set up again. I thought the first PP unit was Schneider and Parise at the points, with Lundbohm, Bochenski and Murray down low. Lundbohm and Parise basically switched spots from last year. If it appeared that Schneider was down low, I think that was just a momentary occurrence when he was pinching. The second PP was Fuher and Jones, with McMahon, Prpich and Stafford (I think). It was really unfortunate for Jones to fan on that shot in the first period of his first game manning the PP point, with the SHG resulting. The first D pairing of Schneider and Greene was very impressive defensively, as you would expect. In the second period, Greene leveled Stapleton in front of the net. He really sent him flying, literally through the air. Stapleton got up and stood next to Greene, staring him straight in the neck. Then they seemed to laugh a bit. Later, when the Prpich fracas was being sorted out, I noticed Greene and Stapleton visiting at the blue line. Then we put the Green Bay connection together, and realized they were former teammates. Unlike many here, I thought Murray had an uneven game. He looked quite a lot like a freshman to me, the most of any of the frosh. He tried to deflect a puck out of the zone to clear it, and sent an opponent right in for a good chance. Later, he tried the old drop pass at the offensive blue line, which sent play the other way in a hurry. Anyway, these weren't "bad player" plays, just frosh mistakes. His talent is obvious, and the little touch to Parise to send him and Bochenski in for the goal was nice. Porter fit in quite a bit better than I expected. Maybe it's the physical attributes (the size and speed), but he seemed to be the best adjusted of the frosh forwards to the college game. Stafford had a few bursts of speed that you don't expect to see from a big guy. They caught me by surprise in the same way similar bursts by Vanek did last year. (I'm not saying he's a Vanek-like player; I was just struck by the similarity of those surprising bursts). Smaby is a crusher. His "mishandling" of the puck wasn't due to his bad puckhandling, the puck just stuck on the ice. I thought he had a good game. I didn't see Foyt play, but I may have missed it. We would think differently of that game if Zach had converted on a few of those rushes where he had great chances. He will score on a lot of those this year, but just missed these. The two Parise's were the last players off the ice after warm-ups. That's all I remember for now. I had fun.

I have ten thousand comments on the game, and on these comments, but no time right now. I can't believe some of the stuff I've read here. Great game by a lot of players; I'm still optimistic about the season, as the ingredients are all there to be very good.