Speed at the blueline

[Boy Named Sioux]

Seems to me a disturbing trend appeared the last two or three series'. Opponents seem to be gaining our zone with enough speed and players to make a play on our net - while the Sioux seem to be having more trouble doing the same. What has changed? Seems like this is usually a key to our game but lately it seems like opponents are doing it better than we are. Am I imagining this? -or have others noticed? I'll take wins any way we can get them - but our offense isn't exactly firing on all cylinders - so I thought I'd ask.

[AZSIOUX]

what has changed?? we havent lost in 9 games. there is no problem.

we arent scoring a lot lately but i dont care right now as our oppenents are scoring on us at all. we have given up 12 goals in the 9 game unbeaten streak so i have no concern regarding other teams at all. none. just score more goals than the other team and you are good right? i understand your point, just saying this is a little different style team. great defense overall especially lately and that may be a key to win #8 as well as phil keeping up his awesome play.

[82SiouxGuy]

None of the offenses in the WCHA are firing on all cylinders. Colorado College currently leads the league in scoring with an average of 3.3 goals per game. UND is second at 3.14. Denver and St. Cloud are next, tied at 2.94. Wisconsin rounds out the top 5 at 2.45 with the rest of the teams somewhere between 2.1 and 2.35. In total goals, UND leads with 69 and CC is next at 66. UND has played 2 more league games than CC. Before this weekend UND and CC were tied in scoring.

The point is that scoring is hard to come by for all teams. There are probably a lot of reasons for this. Among them are good goaltenders, the early loss of so many talented forwards to the pros, the clutching and grabbing that the officials allow in the league, and much better video scouting available to all teams. I'm sure that people can come up with many others.