jk

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.

The sad part is they were a pretty good team at the end of the year. In this game, they had a series of glorious chances late in the second that didn't go in, then SC pushed back in the third. But you can't have such a tough start to the year, because there's no margin for error for an outcome like tonight's.

That's not on Moore at all. I'm not down on James, big fan, but that was his guy that roared past him. I'm sure he feels terrible about it.

I'm not scared to put the fourth line out.

I think the other team is trying too.

I can see why they called it because his head hit the boards, but it was shoulder to shoulder. I'm sure on review, they thought, yeah, two, max.

Five.

Seems to me that UND's fate may depend on whether Omaha is good or not. UND played them five times over the last two weeks, and if they're good, then UND is up to speed with playing good teams. If they actually kind of stink, then UND is in for a rude awakening playing good teams this weekend.

The major risks to "steal" a spot this year are NMU and either UND or CC. Bubble teams are big fans of Denver, SC and Mankato.

For the same reason, I'm getting Strinden, Costantini and Portz in. Fresh and super motivated to play well. Sorry for whoever comes out, but most of the forwards on the team seem pretty interchangeable.

I do not understand how so many here seem to hope for the worst for the team. There is understanding reality and accepting it, but still hoping for the best, and then there is actively hoping for a negative outcome for the team, coaches, players and program, likely so you can feel vindicated in an opinion.

It's either the coaches or it's the players, but the coaches picked the players, so ultimately a poor season is entirely on the coaches. I pull for all the coaches and all the players, all of whom are giving everything they have and living this adventure 100 times more than the fans in the stands. As to whether coaches can make bad judgement calls, as it relates to the lineup, of course they can. However, we are not in a position to make that judgement, because we don't have all the information they have. In fact, we probably don't have 10% of the information they do. We see a player play for 30 minutes in a weekend. They see them for hours and hours each week. It would be like a blind person arguing about a painting with someone who can see it (apologies to any offended blind people). As to roster construction last summer, we're coming off a period of years where Duluth and Mankato have thrived with older players. UND was returning most of a conference title team, and adding (or retaining) some older players, men, really, to push around some of the boys on the other teams, seemed sensible. If they had not done that and this season had gone similarly sideways, I'm certain the complaints would be that they missed the chance to be older and heavier and if only they would have retained the fifth year guys, it would have worked. I would love to know why they made certain decisions, but rather than think they're just stupid or I know better, I realize that I don't have access to their information. It's ultimately about results, and this is a big year coming up. Considering the likely returning roster and the pipeline, I'm very excited about the forwards, and concerned about the defense and goaltending. I personally prefer a bigger goalie, so I hope they go that way.

For all the questions about the lineup at forward and defense, I'm pretty sure if you could sit down with a coach and ask them, they would have very specific reasons for each one, and when you heard them, they would make sense. But they can't say those things publicly, because they can't be throwing players under the bus. Along the same lines, they probably have pretty strong ideas on why things went sideways this season. I'd love to know them, but, again, there's not much they can say without tearing guys down in public.

They did show a replay, and I looked at it again. The puck is just a blur, but I'm pretty sure it did not go in. I will grant you that it came off at an angle that makes no sense, which is why I took a second look, but it does not advance to the back of the net and come out from there. The path of the rebound is clearly away from the crossbar, not the back of the net.

Nobody's happy about losing, but yes, I would continue to roll Ness, Albrecht and Kunz out for their shifts.

I didn't think they played nearly as badly as the board consensus. Could have won.

I see urgency, just not execution.

Do you consider 6 on 3 here?