jk

Looking at next year's opponents, after my one day of being an SCSU fan, fifth year decisions will have a huge impact on them next year. Of their 14 top scorers, five are graduates and five are seniors. If they all left, it would be time to start over. On the other hand, of their top eight scorers, only one is a graduate and four are seniors, so they could bring almost all their best players back if they choose to stay. I have no idea what the prospects are for their return.

It felt like SC played the same game against UND, Mankato and MN - got outplayed pretty good in the first period and then got better as the game went on. SC was definitely in today's game and could have easily won. Just before it went 3-1, a SC guy somehow missed putting a rebound into an open net. The overwhelming superiority of the big 10 that I expected to witness based on everything I've read here wasn't there. It was two good teams going toe to toe. I don't think the NCHC, including UND, will be down long.

Started watching with five minutes left in the first and it has been pretty even. SC seems like they at least belong on the ice.

I wonder if some of yesterday's big scoring teams will be wishing they had saved a few goals for the next game. We've all been there before. I guess we'll see in the next 28 hours or so.

This seems a little hysterical, and brings forth hypotheticals that a coach is not likely to experience more than a few times in a career. If my team is up by seven in the third against a team that is clearly overmatched, I'm skating out the game. There's still a place for decency.

But they do seem to reload every year with the U18 team.

We've never seen a first round like this before. The closest game was 2-0. This is usually one of the best hockey weekends of the year, with plenty of drama, including a fair share of OT games. Not sure what has happened. Hopefully the next two days have some good ones.

You have to imagine Mich St and Notre Dame at PWR 16 and 17 might have done some damage had they snuck in.

What would you have suggested instead?

For me, that's potentially way too many games for your top two teams to play right before the NCAA tournament. They'd be on fumes when they should be fresh.

Disagree. I'm pretty excited for next year. Some excellent talent coming in and four sophomore-to-be forwards who could take steps and be the heart of this team for the next few years. While DeRidder was not the whole problem and was strong down the stretch, it'll be hard for goaltending overall to be much worse than this year. On D some of the new guys are young and higher end, and some have paid their dues. A nice mix. Again, it may not be pretty, but they can't give the puck away too much more than last year's group did. I am truly anticipating a fun bounceback year.

Schlossman's story on the portal says the D next year will be Moore plus 5 freshmen plus Portal plus Frisch/Portal (twin of the other Portal). I suppose on the slight chance Kleven returned he would take a portal slot.

To paraphrase Lou Nanne talking about UND, playing physical is a talent. I disagree the lineup would be less talented with 13 than with some of the other options.

Not to put you on the spot, but curious, since the numbers are pretty squared away otherwise, would you send Caulfield on to bring in the savage?

Sounds like how Blake was treated.

I mean, look at the tape.

I generally defer to the coaches' judgement on their lineup decisions, as I feel they are more qualified to make them. However, if there was one I could ask them privately about to understand their thinking, it would be sitting DeRidder for a few weeks in early January. I didn't understand it then, and it was costly.

Haven't you just described how they have used the portal? They had issues at G and D and plugged those holes with the portal. There was not one portal forward on the team this year.. Not in reply to you necessarily, but the bulk of the complaints are about forward usage. I'm sorry people's pet forward did not earn the ice time or line placement you desired, because they weren't good enough and didn't earn it. 18 got his shot and for whatever reason did not have it. It's hard for fans to let go of their imagined ceilings for guys, but you have to open your eyes. Likewise, 22 is going to be a great player, but early he struggled defending, and in the O zone the play was dying on his stick. He needed to be moved down. He's a gorgeous skater and I expect him to be great in the next few years. Goaltending is a huge issue and I have no idea how they let it come to this. To me it's the giant question mark hanging over KG. I assume he calls the shots on both recruiting and development there (maybe I'm wrong), but having to go three straight years without a home grown goalie is not acceptable. On defense, since Sanderson and Kleven they've just missed. Either missed on guys they wanted or went after the wrong ones. This next batch has to hit or it will likely be the end of the current regime. I'd say portal usage to fix the D misses has been very good. Jandric and Sidorski were both better than solid, and Farmer was just ok.

11 and 13 didn't exactly see much ice in their games either. 11 had 6 points in 27 games and was +3. 13 had 6 points in 27 games and was +4. 18 had 3 points in 26 games and was -5.

Yes, they would be in danger.

Blaisdell had 4 points in 32 games this year for UNH. Often guys who leave were not playing for a reason.

When they scored the go-ahead goal in the second, they really poured it on right afterward, and I thought they were going to repeat the burst from last Sunday. But they weren't able to build the lead, and paid for that. Didn't the team recently go like 70 games in a row without a loss when leading after two? They did that by being conservative, and I recall it drove us nuts. But this year's team obviously was terrible at it. That streak feels like ancient history.

Obviously not. But are they not supposed to try?

I think that became the case midway through this season, when the goaltenders could have sued the skaters for lack of support. It may have been seen as the only way to save the season.

I don't understand the disaffection for 13 by some. He's an ideal fourth liner. Can skate and is one of the few forwards on the team who actually hits. Because he's not big, a hit is not an automatic penalty. I'd personally like to see him back. 28 is a difficult one for me. He had moments as a junior where he was a force of nature. Then I didn't see much of that this year until last night. Give me that 28 and I'm all in.