jk

At the risk of appearing obsessed about Minnesota, I think the UM's naming of a new athletic director could have some potential long-term impact on UND. There are positives and negatives. On the positive side, having been at Denver and Miami, he understands the plight of the smaller school in the big conference, and would hopefully resist the Big 10 Conference urge that some people have. On the downside, he arrived at Miami just after they ditched their Native American nickname, and guided them through that trying period. Perhaps he is now of the opinion that a name change can be accomplished, despite the perceived obstacles. (I don't know what his opinion is.) The next time the name/logo issue surfaces, having a name-change advocate in charge of athletics at the UM would not be helpful.

Sedevie was in the Montana league - the AWHL (America West?).

One thought on the projected makeup of future teams: The top programs are often going to be heavy on first and second year players. Because players leave early to the pros, it seems like no one has a big senior class anymore. For example, I think of UND's senior forwards this year. I have thought of this as a big class, with five forwards that started their careers in the exhibition against the Canadian Nat'l Team (?): Bayda, Skarperud, Hale, Spiewak and Notermann. Of the five, only two are senior forwards this year. One went pro, one's eligibility expired, and one slipped to the junior class because of a medical redshirt. Because of this general phenomenon, you can expect to see a steady flow of freshmen into this program, and others.

I would expect Palmiscno, Faul and B. Connelly to play against the weak non-conference foes and not much more. That leaves fourteen good forwards fighting for twelve spots. Considering the inevitable injuries, that sounds about right. As to who returns next year, I agree that waiting for the fall sounds like a good idea.

With Prpich added to the fold, here's another way to look at the forwards: Guys who knock people on their butts: Hale Canady McMahon Prpich Guys who can really skate: Spiewak Notermann Connelly Parise Fylling Genoway The good-hands crew (nice offensive skill, but not the fleetest-a-foot): Lundbohm Fournier Bochenski Massen Of course you could move guys around, but the general point is that there's a lot of diversity there, which is good.

What a great former Sioux. He has a good chance to be a fine player in the NHL, but he's certainly a credit to the program whether he makes it in the bigs or not.

I just ran across an old write-up, dated 9/2/01, on Hockey's Future about Derrick Byflugien (sp?). Since this was written before the season even started, perhaps his leaving was a foregone conclusion. "Derrick may go the college route but the Senators will most likely ask him to play in the CHL instead as a cerebral player can only benefit from the additional 30 games the CHL provides. The poorman's Paul Mara. The good news is that he's still very young." I don't know how he has done since he left.

Sure is quiet around here. When does school get out at UND? I assume a lot of the guys stick around for the summer - skate and workout and work and goof off. I hope they work hard and come back ready to go.

OK, How about this perspective: What line will each forward play on? Example: Spiewak Somewhere between line 1 and 3 Spiewak 1-3 Notermann 2-3 Hale 2-3 Lundbohm 1-3 Fournier 1-3 Bochenski 1-3 Canady 2-4 Connelly 3-4 Massen 1-4 McMahon 1-3 Fylling 2-4 Parise 1-3 Genoway 2-4 Faul 4 Palmiscno 4 B. Connelly 4 Looking back at my list, I'm not sure I completely agree with it, but... oh, well. I guess what this and the many possible line combinations suggest is that the Sioux have a lot of quality forwards, many with the potential to play on the top lines. The $64,000 question is which of them will develop sufficiently to become stars to be feared when they're on the ice - like Blake and Goren and Panzer, and, from the other side, Pohl and Taffe this year. It should be fun to watch.

The fun part about projecting next year's lines is that, with Blais as coach, we all get to be right by about the third game of the year. Although with Genoway sitting for three more games, it will take until the fourth game for all the possible line combos to see the ice. I have lately been pondering: Fournier, Bochenski, Lundbohm Notermann, Hale, McMahon Parise, Spiewak, Genoway Fylling, Massen, Canady, Connelly That is with no sense of who is a righty/lefty or a more natural center, but refer to my first sentence for my response. I could also see a team with lines so balanced that it would be hard to tell which of the first three is the "first" line. I really have no idea, though. It should be fun.

NDHockey, I agree with you about the predictive value of past statistics: with different players, opponents, etc., there really is none.

NDHockey, You are correct, of course, that these scoring feats would seem to be wishful thinking. But consider some other data (Year, 10+ goal scorers, 20+ goal scorers): 1996 6 3 1997 10 1 1998 8 3 1999 9 4 2000 8 2 2001 7 3 2002 3 1 The big question is whether 2002 will eventually be seen as an abberation or the beginning of a new trend. I think we're all hopeful that it will just be a little dip, with future performance returning to past standards. By the way, it's interesting that of the ten 10+ goal scorers in 1997, only three were also in that group in 1996. In other words, seven players in 1997 were new members of the double-digit goal club. This is what I think may happen next year. Guys will step up.

Speez, Thanks again for your input. One general impression I get from your posts is how much work it takes to be a big-time college athlete. These kids must be incredibly dedicated to juggle all their commitments, and their lives after hockey will surely be better for the lessons learned now. I managed to squeeze my schoolwork into a busy schedule of work and goofing off, but I suspect the demands on the athletes' time are a bit more strenuous. As to the point about goaltending affecting the team's play, I think the disappointing end to the 1998 season is the perfect example of the phenomenon. Aaron Schweitzer played in the infamous NCAA quarterfinal against Michigan at Yost, after Karl Goehring, who had taken over the starting job and led the team down the stretch, was hurt in practice that week. Schweitzer was not the goaltender he had been the year before, and the team seemed to play like it was scared to give up a goal. More than the Yost mystique, I think the forced goaltending change was the undoing of the 1998 Sioux, which may have been the best team of the Blais era. Well, I've predicted nine players with 10+ goals, and now you're on record for five players with 20+. I like it. Go Sioux.

Good comparison, dagies. MN loses a lot, but they will be fine. This just means the preseason order at the top should be 1. Denver 2. MN (until Dubie leaves, at which point maybe it flips back). MN has a fine team returning either way. The Sioux need to get good enough to beat them all, anyway, so it doesn't matter too much. It should be noted, though, that Taffe did play great against the Sioux all through his career. After seeing him play against UND as a freshman and sophomore, I couldn't understand why he wasn't putting up more points. So subtract one difference-maker. On that note, Leo single-handedly won the Saturday game in Mariucci with two third-period goals, and Pohl did the same thing on Saturday at REA. So subtract three difference-makers. The question is how well the younger guys will step up. Although the answer won't be known until they do it, I suspect they have the guys set to be able replacements - new guys to hate.

Some miscellaneous predictions for 2002-03: 1. The Sioux will be Top 4 in the WCHA regular season. 2. UND will play in the Final Five. 3. UND will win at least one NCAA tournament game, perhaps at REA. 4. UND will have nine players score 10 goals (1997:10, 98:8, 99:9, 00:8, 01:7, 02:3), but none score more than 25. 5. David Hale, Schneider and Greene will all serve one-game fighting suspensions. 6. Parise will average 1 PPG ... after Christmas, less before that. 7. Genoway will be within 10 points of Parise. 8. Notermann will hit less than 10 goalposts, which is about half of what he hit last year. Probably overly optimistic, but I'm just a fan and that's my job. Feel free to chime in with your own.

KG's Dayton team swept its first-round playoff series in the ECHL- he was 3-0. In the second round's first game, his team won 4-3 in 2OTs, behind Karl's 50 saves. In the next, Dayton won 3-1, with Karl making 40 saves. I was very happy that Andy Kollar closed out his career with a fine game in Mpls., but in case you were wondering what the Sioux really missed this year, look at Mr. Goehring's results in the playoffs.

Thanks for the information, The Sicatoka. I guess it's not the "spring" signing period then.

I believe recruits can sign LOI for next year starting today, April 10. I don't know how long the signing period lasts. I also don't know if recruits for 2003 like Murray and Porter can sign yet, or if they have to wait until November 2002. If Murray and Porter can't sign yet, then I guess we're not expecting any new LOI to be signed. Greene, Sedevie and Parise have already signed, Fylling's not a new recruit and I guess I don't know about Marvin. I am curious, though, whether anything will come up in this period. I assume Blais has some scholarship money available since Bayda left, and, sadly, Blais had some free time the last month to do some looking.

Speez, It's funny, at this point, there's not much reason to be very optimistic about next year, at least on paper. But for some reason I am. I think all of the upperclass forwards (Spiewak, Notermann, Hale and Lundbohm) will have the best years of their careers to-date. I think some of the big sophomore group will really step up, maybe even some guys people don't expect. And none of the new forwards are "new" in the ordinary sense. Hopefully Parise's talent puts him a step ahead of the average freshman, Genoway has already adjusted to school and has practiced for a year, and Fylling also knows the drill. So there will be no struggling freshmen next year up front. Expecting a solid defensive corps next year requires a bit of a leap of faith - faith that the returning guys will all continue to develop. The goaltenders may look a bit better with a better team in front of them. Most of all, though, my hope comes from how good the team looked when they played well. They just need to play well all the time now. Two very good upperclass forwards are gone from last year. Two decent to very good, depending on when you saw them, senior defensemen are gone from last year. One mediocre to very good, depending on the part of the season, senior goaltender is gone from last year. However, also gone from last year are: Adjustment to a brand new rink. Baptism by fire for a bunch of freshmen, especially at defense. I like the Sioux's chances next year.

Yeah, Goon, I think dagies and I are in that age group as well. Must be why we're all so darn reasonable.

Wow. Great game. The Gophers are a great team and are deserving champions, but I thought they got outplayed for a big part of that game (mainly the second and third periods). I was shocked to see that. They won't admit it or care because they won, but to get the PP when everything had been let go was a huge break. Then to not have a penalty called on Hauser on a much more blatant play was another huge break. The Maine fans are probably too classy to complain about it, but it really was a lousy way for a great game to end. Also Taffe only getting two for almost killing the guy along the boards. I'm happy for some fans, and some players (Leo, Pohl, some others), and really not happy for those hacks Hauser and Taffe.

And SSM beat the East Mass. Senators 5-2 in Saturday's morning quarterfinal. They advance to play Wisconsin in Saturday night's semifinal. No stats available yet (to me anyway).

Leo wins the Hobey. Of course I don't necessarily like it when good things happen for the Gophers. However, this is one that I have no complaint about. Actually, that's wrong - I can complain that he was even back with the team this year instead of moving on. But, in terms of seeming like a high-character guy, he reminds me of Jeff Panzer quite a lot. A very deserving winner. Congrats to Mr. Leopold.

Providence also. I thought UNH was supposed to be there, but I must have been mistaken.