jk

No offense, but does your memory extend back two years? Four of those guys have already played in the NHL. They were also mostly older, which is a huge plus in the college game. I'm optimistic as well, but I haven't even seen the new guys play yet.

Here's all I need to know about young prospects. Two years in a row, the top forward prospect in his age group at the USA hockey festivals, according to USHR, was Colten St. Clair. He turned out to be a good heart-and-soul teammate and player and a credit to the program, but he didn't end up being a difference maker. Perhaps it was the injuries, but more likely it was just that guys plateau where they're destined to, and it's hard to know in advance where that will be. A guy like Kleven, who just had a great camp, may end up a top ten NHL draft pick or he may see other guys on his team zoom past him as their skills blossom. On the flip side, guys like LaDue and Poolman went from near anonymity as youths to the NHL. So I won't get bent out of shape when we "miss" a youngster, or too excited when we land the next bantam superstar.

I couldn't disagree more. What even is a high ranked recruit? Does that mean a lot of NHL draft picks? If so, there was a team stuffed with them at BU that's done, and there have been plenty of very successful teams recently, even national champs, that had few, if any. Or does highly ranked mean they were included on a list on the internet somewhere? Those lists are generally worth the paper they're printed on ...

Congratulations to Gersich. He can skate like the wind, which is not a bad place to start if you want to reach the NHL.

With the dual crippling deficiencies of a stark lack of talent and pathetic effort, it should have been clear they didn't belong on the ice with the league's best teams. But they took DU and SCSU to OT in six of the last seven meetings. They lost most of those games, which is how you miss the NCAAs, but it means they were close. You can't be close if the program is terrible in either its talent or effort, let alone both. Let's review. They headed to the Twin Cities, lost the semifinal game, and won the third place game, finishing 14th in the Pairwise. Then they went on to beat Wisconsin and Ferris State in the NCAA regional, advancing to the Frozen Four. Oh, you thought I meant 2018. That was the Spring of 2014. Seems just about identical, up until the autobid difference.

Disagree about a goal celebration. We say: act like you've been there before, we're proud when Boeser gives the most modest fist pump imaginable after his many goals, we decry the jersey pop. If he wants to low-key it, I have no issue.

Wade through the Friday SC game thread, but wear waders.

Honestly, the people here are out of their fucking minds.

burd, take your well-adjusted grownup-ness somewhere else. You're out of place.

When they've only won four games since December 2, it seems preposterous to think they could go on a little run. But I think it's possible. Since a very poor showing against Duluth, they went 2-4-4 to close the season. The four losses included two in overtime and two trailing by one late in the third, until empty netters put them away. The leads coughed up, and the inability to finish, have been real factors and I understand they can't be ignored. But it's also true that they played very good teams Denver and St. Cloud to regulation draws in four out of four games. They certainly deserved a better fate tonight, as did the aching goalposts. What happens if they continue to play well, and actually catch a break? Maybe a tight game falls the right way for once. Or twice.

The point is that a lack of drafted players need not keep a team from succeeding. It was true in 1997, and it was proven to still be true recently in the revenge of the smart kids. It doesn't make it a preferred approach to team-building perennially, but then that's not the situation UND is in. I suspect UND's coaches try for a balance of older character guys (to keep the hotshots honest and humble and keep them from getting ground into dust by the WMUs of the world) and younger kids with world-class athleticism. The current mix may not suit some of the faithful.

Without checking, I doubt Union and Yale, recent champions, had more than a very few drafted players between them.

A number of years ago now (time flies), a few forward recruits plateaued early and the coaches reached into the AJHL for late recruits in Rodwell and Rowney. Their level of success both at UND and afterward differed, but they were important members of the program. Rowney paraded around with the Stanley Cup about eight months ago. We really won't know what we've got in these recruits until next fall at the earliest, and more likely a few years down the road. For the lamentations about the lack of high-enders and the denigrations of overagers, if I recall correctly the 1997 team was without an NHL draft pick and stuffed full of overagers. Did I love watching Schmaltz and Boeser? Of course, but there's more than one way to compete.

I see 3-1-1 the rest of the way, with the two weekends after that determining which side of the bubble they land on. I think Cam plays well, Mismash and Kawaguchi continue to increase their impact on the game, and reinforcements help the team turn the corner.

I thought they looked good for most of the game and deserved a better fate. Earlier in the year it was discouraging because they'd lose but also look like the worse team. Now they're back to the good old days of outplaying the opponent but taking the tough luck loss. I think their play is rounding into form and they can still make a run, but I'm also realistic about the playoff math and their dwindling chances. LOL at the longing for Hak. I haven't had a bad thing to say about either him or Berry, but you gotta love the SS forum and its loyal, patient fans. Knowledgeable, too, downright all-knowing.

Let's see, I've gotten to see three games on tv this year, all losses, so I'm a touch down on their chances for greatness. I thought the entire squad had a fantastic last couple weeks last year, and it had little to do with the future nhlers, so I went into this year pretty optimistic. The disappointing thing about the losses is none of them seemed like the usual outplay-them-but-lose result I'm used to as a UND fan. The other teams have just seemed better. Hopefully they can find the magic. Cam did not seem to be the problem last night. Some of y'all are jerks about women's hockey.

I also disagree on Rocco. To me he was like an amped up Tom Philion, wondrous athletic gifts, but not an equally great feel for the game and teammates.

Without crunching any numbers, I would say SC is a top 10 program, nationally, in the last decade.

Micheletti seemed to go out of his way to praise UND for much of the night, and not backhanded compliments either. I hated the guy when he was on the ice (he was yippy and could score like crazy) but he seemed very fair tonight.

Nice welcoming committee. We really know nothing about the guy. The main fact I'm aware of is the UND coaches saw him play and liked him enough to offer him a scholarship. Sounds good to me.

I've never subscribed to the und would not have beaten union theory. Play some defense in front of your net and who knows what happens.

This is just me (and sprig, I think), but I don't even see the Smith play as a minor. He's basically standing still, and Plant runs into him. Play on. I can't imagine thinking differently if the jerseys were reversed. It wasn't even a hit; he got ran into.

Did St. Cloud have a game-tying goal questionably disallowed in the third period eight days ago?

Not that I agree with this approach, but it does happen. Last year UMD took out poolman and ran cam, and it won them that game. Then I noticed in the national title game they gave an elbow to the head of borgstrom and he disappeared for the rest of that game. So Casey might face some of that this year.

I'm of two minds on this year's team. On the optimistic side, the team that showed up to play the last three games of last year was simply outstanding, and that evaluation doesn't have much to do with Boeser and Jost. Top to bottom, and from the net out, every player seemed to be playing championship style hockey. When they beat Denver in a beauty of a game to watch, I was pretty sure only Denver stood between UND and another national title. Of course I was wrong, but not by much. The ensuing loss to Duluth was a story of Poolman's injury and the team's adjustment to it. They were rattled, but regained their composure. And I can't complain about any aspect of their play against BU. Sometimes these unjust results happen in hockey. (Both ways. See UND's win over Ferris in the regionals a few years ago.) That's a roundabout way of getting to my point, which is that UND was a very good team at the end of last year, and a lot of that team is back. I personally think they're underrated both in the conference and nationally. On the other hand, stepping back to look at the bigger picture, this team resembles more the teams from the "in between years", those after the Parise/Toews/Oshie talent bubble and before the Caggiula/Schmaltz/Boeser run, than it does any of those loaded teams. When Spring arrived, I thought every one of those in-between-year teams had a chance to win it all, but most of them failed to even make the Frozen Four. These were the Yale, UNH type of exits. Which of me is right? We'll see in due time.