Sioux vs. UMass - 10/11

[GeauxSioux]

Is this season over already? I'm one of those unique fans that will cheer for the Sioux regardless of what their record may be or how bad they are doing in a game. One of the things I love about college hockey is that is a long season. Right the ship and move forward.

Go Sioux!!!

[Siouxmama]

the Sioux skated fast and hard and had no idea, no plan, no clue of what to do with it.

They had no creativity.

They have no creativilty. They didn't last year either but last year they were a well practiced technically sound squad that played nice defence with the exception of Genoway and LaPoint.

I said it last year and I'll say it again. LaPoint does not have the skating skill to do well in D1 hockey.

Also, before anyone busts me for my Genoway comment, get a copy of last years semifinal game and see how many goals Genoway made the big error to allow a bad play that directly allowed the shot.

Genoway is a superb athlete and a top of the line player, but he does not have the experience to defend against elite forwards in D1 Hockey.

I really like Genoway but ya gotta accept what you see on the ice. He is raw at defensive technique and it shows against highly skilled well coached forward lines.

Oh and a couple more harsh realities:

Kozak doesn't do anything good with the puck except shot it. Any time he is not taking a shot he is a liability on the ice.

Duncan is such a week defender that since the end of the 06-07 season teams have been putting thier top line against ours and maintaining possesion in their offensive zone about 75% of the time Dunk is on the ice.

If we can't maintain the Zone (Hak style) then we sure as heck can't continue to play dump and run hockey. We have to get creative on rushes and I swear the Collective Sioux coaching staff has no clue at all about teaching that.

Holy crap, I'm glad you aren't the coach. You'd have half the team packing their bags...not to mention the coaching staff.

[siouxforce19]

Is this season over already? I'm one of those unique fans that will cheer for the Sioux regardless of what their record may be or how bad they are doing in a game. One of the things I love about college hockey is that is a long season. Right the ship and move forward.

Go Sioux!!!

I like your attitude!

I agree completely! We'll pull through--I have faith!

[siouxprideforever]

-Brewers blew it

-Badgers stink

-Packers stink

-Bucks will stink

-and now the Sioux stink

Yep, my life is coming to an end...

The Sioux do not stink! The North Dakota hockey team might have played in a manner synonomous with stinking - but not the Sioux! To say the same could be interpreted as offensive.

[siouxweet]

-Brewers blew it

-Badgers stink

-Packers stink

-Bucks will stink

-and now the Sioux stink

Yep, my life is coming to an end...

little different take for me:

Cubs choked

notre dame football sucks

bulls will suck

and now the sioux suck.

[siouxweet]

Maybe not right now, but the reality is this team could be 1-7 after the CC series. Not unreasonable to think that they could get swept at Mankato and CC and split with UW at home. I don't think that will happen, but if they don't get at least a split next weekend...

how about the possibility of being 3-15 at the x-mas break, there will come a year when pissing around in the first half will catch up with us and we won't be able to recover-this squad doesn't have the talent or character to do it this year.

[DAR]

Goaltending is the most important position in hockey and the Sioux have major issues there. As much as I admire Walski for sticking with his hockey career he is not a #1 goalie. Eidsness obviously is unproven but hopefully he can run with it ala Bachmann, Kangas and Muse from last season. Mankato will be buzzing for next weekends series and the Sioux had better be ready. I really expected a win today and losing to UMass after being embarrassed by BU is alarming.

[siouxweet]

Goaltending is the most important position in hockey and the Sioux have major issues there. As much as I admire Walski for sticking with his hockey career he is not a #1 goalie. Eidsness obviously is unproven but hopefully he can run with it ala Bachmann, Kangas and Muse from last season. Mankato will be buzzing for next weekends series and the Sioux had better be ready. I really expected a win today and losing to UMass after being embarrassed by BU is alarming.

the Mavs will be buzzing as they believe they are a better team than us-and at this point who's to disagree. any bets that we aren't down by at least two goals at the end of the first period on friday?

[siouxguyinstpaul]

the Mavs will be buzzing as they believe they are a better team than us-and at this point who's to disagree. any bets that we aren't down by at least two goals at the end of the first period on friday?

sure - how much?

[redwing77]

Goaltending is the most important position in hockey and the Sioux have major issues there. As much as I admire Walski for sticking with his hockey career he is not a #1 goalie. Eidsness obviously is unproven but hopefully he can run with it ala Bachmann, Kangas and Muse from last season. Mankato will be buzzing for next weekends series and the Sioux had better be ready. I really expected a win today and losing to UMass after being embarrassed by BU is alarming.

You give three reasons why Eidsness could very well get Greico'd amongst some of the fans. However, I like what you say with a few differences.

First off, I think TEAM anything outweighs the importance of any particular position. If Team Defense struggles, it hurts the offense and the goaltending. Right now, we're playing with halves. We're halfway veteran and halfway rookie. LaPoint, Fienhage, and Blood are all rookies and, though their playing time will invariably differ based on a myriad of factors known only to the coaches and the players themselves, they provide an unproven part of the Team scheme, which means there is weakness. The same thing goes with goaltending. Coming into this weekend, we had 3 goaltenders on our team with a combined total of 1 NCAA regular season game played (not counting any partial game appearances Walski may have had). Our 3 goaltenders consist of two freshmen and one goaltender who, admirable as it truly is, was for the better part of 2 seasons the third string goaltender. What this means is that it will produce strain again on the Team defense and the offense to counter this weakness. Add into the fact that the only truly electric offensive players we have are true freshmen (not to take away from the likes of Genoway, VV, Frattin, and Kozek but they aren't Oshie/Toews/ZPar/TZajac types yet. I do have faith that Frattin will be like TZajac or hopefully Stafford-esque) and what we're going to face is needing time, something that teams in the NHL can afford, but not in the NCAA.

Eidsness may not have fared well last night, but he faced over 30 shots on goal. Walski lost today and gave up 3 goals on only 16 shots! We are facing a rough go, for sure, but we're looking at it like we expect developed veterans to play when we cant expect something like that. Kangas, Muse, Bachman, and perhaps even Manino were all exceptions to the rule. There aren't many freshmen goaltenders who can come into the league and simply dominate right away. And I don't think Kangas was all that special the first half of the season his freshman year.

This season might be rough for the Sioux. Another 2001-2002 or 2002-03 perhaps. But we won't know.

This team has a lot of growing to do and must do so without the calming influences of players like Oshie, Chorney, Bina, etc.

[yzerman19]

I actually agree with a lot of what yababy was saying, however, as I posted before, all of these guys can play hockey. I am in accord on the fact that no one seemed to know what to do with the puck. This I blame on coaching. I am not calling for anyone's head just yet, but in all seriousness to go out and get swept at the icebreaker is unacceptable.

The series is non-conference, sure, but these games are huge for the PWR at year end. You don't think seeding is a big deal? I sure think last line change is pretty important in a one and done. I could do the exercise, but I am not so inclined, and determine what seed we would've been last year had we lost to MSU and BC to start the year. This is academic and would only rile up the cheerleaders on this board.

In all seriousness, this is not the end of the world, but it puts us in much worse shape than anyone could've predicted. I was looking forward to 2-0, could've rationalized 1-1, but 0-2 including a loss to UMass?

Best Sioux on the ice today...Ryan Martens in my opinion.

[AZSIOUX]

You give three reasons why Eidsness could very well get Greico'd amongst some of the fans. However, I like what you say with a few differences.

First off, I think TEAM anything outweighs the importance of any particular position. If Team Defense struggles, it hurts the offense and the goaltending. Right now, we're playing with halves. We're halfway veteran and halfway rookie. LaPoint, Fienhage, and Blood are all rookies and, though their playing time will invariably differ based on a myriad of factors known only to the coaches and the players themselves, they provide an unproven part of the Team scheme, which means there is weakness. The same thing goes with goaltending. Coming into this weekend, we had 3 goaltenders on our team with a combined total of 1 NCAA regular season game played (not counting any partial game appearances Walski may have had). Our 3 goaltenders consist of two freshmen and one goaltender who, admirable as it truly is, was for the better part of 2 seasons the third string goaltender. What this means is that it will produce strain again on the Team defense and the offense to counter this weakness. Add into the fact that the only truly electric offensive players we have are true freshmen (not to take away from the likes of Genoway, VV, Frattin, and Kozek but they aren't Oshie/Toews/ZPar/TZajac types yet. I do have faith that Frattin will be like TZajac or hopefully Stafford-esque) and what we're going to face is needing time, something that teams in the NHL can afford, but not in the NCAA.

Eidsness may not have fared well last night, but he faced over 30 shots on goal. Walski lost today and gave up 3 goals on only 16 shots! We are facing a rough go, for sure, but we're looking at it like we expect developed veterans to play when we cant expect something like that. Kangas, Muse, Bachman, and perhaps even Manino were all exceptions to the rule. There aren't many freshmen goaltenders who can come into the league and simply dominate right away. And I don't think Kangas was all that special the first half of the season his freshman year.

This season might be rough for the Sioux. Another 2001-2002 or 2002-03 perhaps. But we won't know.

This team has a lot of growing to do and must do so without the calming influences of players like Oshie, Chorney, Bina, etc.

grieco had average work ethic and drove himself out of town. eidsness has played 1 game. he will be fine. he was recruited to come in and take over the goalie job and he will. sucks to start off with 2 losses but time to get back to work this week and get rady for some very important early WCHA games with important points on the line!

[MafiaMan]

Oh here we go again...two games into the season and the "ABANDON SHIP" call has been made. Sound the alarm!

[AZSIOUX]

Oh here we go again...two games into the season and the "ABANDON SHIP" call has been made. Sound the alarm!

for sure. it is so early but it was damn disapointing to see them lose today. lets hope for a rebound weekend vs a tough WCHA team!!

but if we won both games it would be when is the last time a team went undeafeated like last year after the mihcigan state win

[Sioux-cia]

Just got back to our room. Game was more fun than yesterday and I didn't even start out with a scorpion bowl. The boys showed a little more zip to their step and played more like a team than they did last night. We lost even though we out shot them around 3 to 1. They leave Boston with lots of film to look at to better their game.

I was stopped by many Boston fans/citizens and asked about my jersey. Everyone loves our logo. After the game we went to a bar near Fenway to watch the Red Sox game on the tube but we had to leave early because the t stops running at 1230. Went to the Hard Rock and the music was too obnoxious to stay. So here we are and the Rays just won the game. Lots of tears in B town tonight. The fans here are awesome!! Watching the fans watch the game, you would come away with the impression that this was the final game of the World Series!!

'nite...

[MafiaMan]

how about the possibility of being 3-15 at the x-mas break, there will come a year when pissing around in the first half will catch up with us and we won't be able to recover-this squad doesn't have the talent or character to do it this year.

Wow. Two games into the season and already these types of predictions and comments are being made? It didn't take long, did it?

[luapsided]

grieco had average work ethic and drove himself out of town. eidsness has played 1 game. he will be fine. he was recruited to come in and take over the goalie job and he will. sucks to start off with 2 losses but time to get back to work this week and get rady for some very important early WCHA games with important points on the line!

he will be fine? I know your not the initial responder of this comment but what is any worries of him being fine? He maybe, at most, let one soft goal in. The issue is defense as far as the UND/BU game goes. Well probably a tad more than that but....Kick some ass Hak!

[brianvf]

how about the possibility of being 3-15 at the x-mas break, there will come a year when pissing around in the first half will catch up with us and we won't be able to recover-this squad doesn't have the talent or character to do it this year.

You just have to laugh at posts like this.

[Oxbow6]

Best Sioux on the ice today...Ryan Martens in my opinion.

Totally agree. Martens is the most underappreciated player on this team. He just makes solid plays at both ends, not flashy. We can talk about player's potential, i.e. Frattin--just to name one, but you got to put players out there that can play consistantly. Martens should be an everyday player period.

[Oxbow6]

And by the way, can someone again tell me how Miller goes from a 1st line guy on Friday to not playing on Sat? He is either one of your top 3-6 forwards or not! Hak has to figure this thing out. As a coaching staff, you either like what Miller brings to the ice or not. But to go from top line to nothing, to me, right there says something about how this coaching staff has no clue at this point on how to fit these lines together early on.

And on a side note, Duncan and Miller on the same line gets you nothing in the corners offensively and gets you nothing defensively in your own end.

[redwing77]

And by the way, can someone again tell me how Miller goes from a 1st line guy on Friday to not playing on Sat? He is either one of your top 3-6 forwards or not! Hak has to figure this thing out. As a coaching staff, you either like what Miller brings to the ice or not. But to go from top line to nothing, to me, right there says something about how this coaching staff has no clue at this point on how to fit these lines together early on.

And on a side note, Duncan and Miller on the same line gets you nothing in the corners offensively and gets you nothing defensively in your own end.

Easy: Hak is trying to find out where everyone fits. Our effort vs. BU was pathetic. You don't put guys who don't produce on the first line. So he mixed up the lines and the players to try to find something that worked. It worked better, but not as well as one would like.

I think Miller is a fine player, but I don't think he's a scorer. I think he'd be better suited to fourth line work with spot duty on the second line.

[siouxweet]

Wow. Two games into the season and already these types of predictions and comments are being made? It didn't take long, did it?

there is nothing I saw this weekend to make me think anything different at this point. for supposedly being one of the elite collegiate hockey programs in the country with a rich history of winning basically what I heard after yesterday's game was it was ACCEPTABLE to lose to a bottom feeding team from hockey east because "we got a lot of positives out of it that we can build on". what a crock of s@#$. if this team wants to be able to do anything in march let alone april that attitude needs to change and change quickly. Teams of the past that had heart and character would not have come out and lost yesterday to a crap team and make their crap goalie look like a frickin All-American. it is one thing to lose to BU, but UMASS, come on. We are not in the same league as CC,Denver,BC,BU andMichigan. in fact we don't even belong on the same ice as them right now. things need to turn around and turn around quickly otherwise this could be a VERY,VERY,VERY long season.

can someone please tell me why it takes the Sioux a half of season to find chemistry and look like they know what their doing on the ice and other teams can do it right off the bat? BU and UMASS sure as hell looked like they knew what they were doing-we looked very lost and not very interested in what was going on. this team does not have the talent to just show up and win a game as in years past.

[Oxbow6]

Easy: Hak is trying to find out where everyone fits. Our effort vs. BU was pathetic. You don't put guys who don't produce on the first line. So he mixed up the lines and the players to try to find something that worked. It worked better, but not as well as one would like.

I think Miller is a fine player, but I don't think he's a scorer. I think he'd be better suited to fourth line work with spot duty on the second line.

Last time I checked, He SCORED our lone goal on Friday. So he is on the first line and scores our only goal on Fri. and then doesn't play Sat.? Again, He is either an every night guy or he isn't. Hak did the same thing last year with Miller--on the first line one week and then nowhere to be found for 2-3 weeks. Just doesn't make a lot of sense.

[siouxweet]

Last time I checked, He SCORED our lone goal on Friday. So he is on the first line and scores our only goal on Fri. and then doesn't play Sat.? Again, He is either an every night guy or he isn't. Hak did the same thing last year with Miller--on the first line one week and then nowhere to be found for 2-3 weeks. Just doesn't make a lot of sense.

how about putting Miller and Martens on the same line. as I remember they had some good chemistry last year.

[yzerman19]

the most disconcerting thing to me was the fact we got beat to the puck and lost the one on one battles. I can't remember the last time we did that.

We don't have Parise and Bochenski or Stafford and Zajac or Toews and Oshie. We are going to have to want it more. I think we've won on talent alone the past few years, this year we'll see about coaching, heart, and desire.

As for Miller, his goal was garbage, so don't give him too much credit. He and Duncan on the wings are a complete defensive liability. This isn't a knock, as they both can score, they just can't play D.