jk

Miami, right? Then two losses to Denver, then 5 ot games.

I'm probably rolling two D pairs the rest of the game.

Which mediocre transfer had his spot again?

Like I said.

There've been a lot of nice PPs this year that have not resulted in goals, then there was that horrible thing that got one in.

Moore is having himself a period.

James had such a scoring touch last year I thought he had a good chance to convert that.

The team did score one goal in six periods last weekend. Mixing the lines up seems a reasonable response.

Now can they play 30 minutes of smart hockey?

Savage just plain ran into Strinden.

I'll watch to the end, because of this. A while ago when the team was struggling in the second half, a former player said to a mutual friend that he thought they'd be ok, and his reason was that he knew how good the coaches were. Despite the derision heaped upon them lately, they've demonstrated as recently as last year that they are in fact very good coaches, and perhaps unlike many here, I don't think they've tragically forgotten how to coach. So I'll continue to hope they manage to convince everyone to back check like they did a year ago and go on a little late run. I'm certain no one will give up.

A long time ago, a few forward commits plateaued prematurely, and the Alberta-raised coaches went home for a back-up plan, signing Rodwell and Rowney out of the AJHL. Is this deja vu all over again?

I'd personally add Kleven and Portz to the improved list.

There are only a couple this year, Senden and Hain, and yes I would consider the three of them to be roughly in the same group. How many times has any of them made a boneheaded play this year that left you shaking your head? Hardly ever. Although last night's play was disappointing, I can give Frisch a pass because he touches the puck so many times a game there are bound to be mistakes.

He has been a turnover machine all year long, but the upside of him having the puck is still very high. He makes things happen offensively. Similarly, 22 looks slick as heck, such a nice skater, but the play has been dying on his stick a lot lately. I suspect next year a lot of the things he's trying will work. Reminds me of N. Schmaltz in that way. Not the same upside, but Schmaltz just couldn't get his passes to connect as a freshman, then they did the next year.

Who's happy about this season? Not me. I thought UND returned almost the whole team from last year and added some talent up front. Given how last year's team played, I thought this year's version would at least be tough to play against again. I had super high expectations. There's no doubt that goaltending has had a huge impact, but at this point they're not even playing well beyond that. There may be something to the idea that bad goaltending breaks teams, I don't know. As to your questions, I'd broaden them. Who are any of the goaltenders, or the defensemen? I don't know. I bet the coaches could pencil in about 90% of next season's opening lineup though. Just because we don't know the plan doesn't mean there isn't one. As for the forward group, I'm again pretty optimistic. Lots of returning talent and some strong additions. But the returners need to take steps that not many took this year.

Your opinion. He'd be no higher than five, in mine. And in his fifth year. Wonderful tools, but not able to figure out the defensive zone. It was obvious right away.

I'm not saying they're great players. They're not even here to score. They're here to play late in tight games, like last night. Despite his feeling bad about the GWG last night, Senden's guy did not get his stick on the puck. There's nothing you can do about a hockey bounce. As for how old they are compared to others, you ask that as though suggesting it confers an advantage. Hello?! That's the whole point of bringing them back. It's to your advantage. It hasn't worked out, so we can pick at every little thing, but 19 and 10 being back is far down on the list of reasons for this year's slide.

If we're talking about the forwards here, there's not one forward on the roster from the portal, so not sure that 18, 29 and 26 would be worried about being replaced by the portal. Also, just wondering, do you truly think the coaches aren't always considering the impact on future teams? I'm sure they have a pretty good idea what the roster looks like for each of the next four years, with some question marks. Also, this place has always been about how you play. Skate or sit. Draft position didn't matter. Look at Tychonic. But now that the coaches apply that in a way that limits some of the forum darlings, despite being consistent for decades going back to Blais, it's a problem.

I was responding to: "Same thing happened last year. Instead of getting better in the second half we seem to be getting worse." That is patently untrue. No one is happy with this season, but we don't need to revert to falsehoods.

Didn't UND go on an amazing, and fairly shocking with Sanderson out, second-half run last year to win the league? Unless I dreamed it, I honestly don't know what you're talking about.

I'd say any fifth year guy on any team is solid, not great. If they were anything more, they wouldn't still be playing in college. There're varying approaches in the league. SC has 5 fifth-year players, none great, and they're a beast of a team. Denver has none, and is also very good. Also, not that they've been great, but only two forwards on the team have scored more than 19, 10 or 28.

Jubenvill turns 20 this summer.

It does suck, for sure, but if he hadn't done everything he could to try to win this year, don't you think people would be on here complaining about that? "Could have loaded up and gunned for a title, but played it safe." The Spicer thing has been beat to death, but seeing how good Strinden is, I get it now. As for the D, I don't think it was a master plan to not bring anyone in, I think their pipeline stagnated. That's no one's fault but theirs, but it wasn't like they deferred someone who was ready.

That was like Vikings/ Bears from 1977, three yards and a cloud of dust. Not scintillating. Sandy wins titles that way, but not many others do.