SIOUX vs MANITOBA

[AZSIOUX]

My impression:

VV/Gregoire/Kristo line. Kristo has the speed, VV is big and strong and is a beast to knock off the puck, Gregoire never seems out of position and plays both ways very well. Very nice line

Malone/Trupp/Hextall line: Played well but Malone needs to play a little more like VV. Trupp had a lot of moves but nothing to show for it and Hextall played fairly well too.

Lamoureux/Cichy/Toews line: I actually liked this line and thought Toews made a lot of things happen. I was a little surprised to see Toews on wing rather than center but this line is agressive and could be a force

Zajac/Rowney/Davidson: My first thought was "What does Zajac have to do to get on a top three line? He's out there with the physical players again." I didn't see much happen with this line. No real scoring chances and not a big shut down line.

Knight/Bruneteau: These players wre thrown in on various lines. I actually liked both of their play and was more impressed with Bruneteau than I thought I would be.

LaPoint/Marto: Same pairing and played pretty consistent/

Blood/Genoway: I like these two together. Blood looks like a different player who will now carry the puck when needed rather than get flustered and try to pass it to his partner as soon as he gets pressured.

MacWilliam/Fienhage: Both looked out of synch at first but MacWilliam came around. Fienhage looked shaky at best with the puck. It will be an adventure for him until he gets comfortable.

Gleason looked a little like Genoway. Smart with the puck and a good skater. Don't be surprised if they pair him with MacWilliam if Fienhage doesn't progress.

Eidesness looked good. Tough to tell with Dell since he only faced 4 shots.

Overall the team looked out of synch for the first half of the game but came around as the game went along.

We will tell more this weekend once we see who dresses

Questions to be answered:

1. Will Fienhage become a top 6 d man or will Gleason take that spot?

2. Who will earn their way to play on the line with Zajac? Davidson? Rowney? Bruneteau? Knight?

3. Will Eidesness and Dell split the duties this first series?

4. Is Kristo as fast as Doug Smail?

1. i think he plays friday and then go from there. i think gameplay is what he needs and its great to have 2 games before the big series in 2 weeks

2. knight and rowney. maybe knight and davidson.

3. my gut says they split with merrimack to get dell a game but eidsness gets both vs the gophers at home in that enviroment

4. kristo is gona be a force from friday night vs merrimack til april

[Siouxman]

Man, a lot of new names and numbers to learn.

Kristo is fast, but we knew that. He showed a very good ability to skate and puck handle with minimal room. He is going to be a pleasure to watch. Not the second coming of Toews, but a lot of the same skills.

MacWilliam shows great promise and adjusted quickly. He could be solid in a relatively short period of time.

Cichy was around the puck the alot. Clearly not the skill of Kristo at this point, but he may be more in the mold of a grit player along the wall and in front of the net.

Bruneteau shows promise and I like what I saw. A little hint of Prpich bulldog attitude but with much less edge. He pushed the edge a little bit at times, but not quite to the point of starting a scrap. I did think he irritated the opponent at times.

Blood looked big and solid, much improved.

Fienhage - Oh my! That was panic city and not a pretty sight. I hope that it was first game jitters and he adjusts. If not, he won't see much ice time.

Gleason - others have commented how good he looked. I didn't notice him that much, so maybe he just slid in between how much I noticed MacWilliam (positive) and Fienhage (negative).

I didn't see as much improvement in Malone as I had hoped, but again it is early.

The first time Corban Knight was on the ice I thought his foot speed was slow motion, but he seemed to pick it up and it wasn't apparent at all later.

It was great to see LaPoint back on the ice. He had a couple of oops, but it could just be in the injury layoff. Genoway looked like he decided to play more at home defense. Most of the guys from last year seemed to take a step forward by the end of the game, although I did see a lot of reaching for pucks instead of skating for pucks.

My impression going into the game was that I have been fairly optimistic about this year. After the first two periods I was concerned. But the passing started to click in the third and things improved dramatically. I am back to optimistic about this year. I am hoping for solid improvement against Merrimack this weekend, and I am hoping that we don't get a major psychological setback from a typical fast starting Gopher team. If we play well against Merrimack and at least get a split against the Gophers, we could be positive by Christmas and avoid some of the late season rush.

Yes, hockey is finally here.

[siouxweet]

after seeing what they did in the third period I'm convinced the first two periods were just conditioning drills . I think Gleason gets the start on Friday night and Eids and Dell split this weekend.

[mikejm]

My player of the game is Evan Trupp.

Dude was hustling all night long, getting the be-jeepers beaten out of him, but driving to the net constantly.

I'd hoped for this player to emerge before this, but I'll be happy to see Trupp show his promise with a bunch of points this season.

[siouxweet]

My player of the game is Evan Trupp.

Dude was hustling all night long, getting the be-jeepers beaten out of him, but driving to the net constantly.

I'd hoped for this player to emerge before this, but I'll be happy to see Trupp show his promise with a bunch of points this season.

his problem is staying healthy. if he stays health I foresee a monster year, same goes for Mr. Toews.

[AZSIOUX]

his problem is staying healthy. if he stays health I foresee a monster year, same goes for Mr. Toews.

correct, he has gotten hurt in his first 2 seasons. if he can stay healthy he can do big things with his overall skills!!

[dallassiouxfan]

green helmets and breezers would have been sweet!

That is the first thing I thought of when I saw the new uni's!

I think the new uniforms look sharp.

[Bob in Wisconsin]

Thanks Bob the videos look great do you have any of the scrums?

I do, but the audio was a bit screwed up, and I guess they were on the lower end of the scrum scale, with the exception of some blood trickling from MacWilliiam's mouth as he skated to the tunnel. I'll see what I can do in the next couple days.

[siouxforce19]

My impression:

Lamoureux/Cichy/Toews line: I actually liked this line and thought Toews made a lot of things happen. I was a little surprised to see Toews on wing rather than center but this line is agressive and could be a force

Zajac/Rowney/Davidson: My first thought was "What does Zajac have to do to get on a top three line? He's out there with the physical players again." I didn't see much happen with this line. No real scoring chances and not a big shut down line.

Knight/Bruneteau: These players wre thrown in on various lines. I actually liked both of their play and was more impressed with Bruneteau than I thought I would be.

Questions to be answered:

1. Will Fienhage become a top 6 d man or will Gleason take that spot?

2. Who will earn their way to play on the line with Zajac? Davidson? Rowney? Bruneteau? Knight?

3. Will Eidesness and Dell split the duties this first series?

4. Is Kristo as fast as Doug Smail?

My initial thoughts on these two lines were to move Lamoureux up to Zajac's line and move Toews to center with Cichy and either Knight or Bruneteau. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel like Lamoureux and Zajac should be linemates. Guess we will see how the lines look this weekend. Sounded like the top 2 lines were going to stay together for now.

[Siouxman]

I forgot to add the most embarrassing item of the night. During the introductions, David Toews name was spelled Towes on the big screen.

[redwing77]

I forgot to add the most embarrassing item of the night. During the introductions, David Toews name was spelled Towes on the big screen.

Sweeney called him Jonathan at one point too.

In other news: On Schlossman's blog, Fienhage's already being edged closer to being the new Finley by the haters.

Hasn't hit here yet.

[keikla]

Yes, Fienhage looked questionable at times. But the kid barely saw playing time last year, so it's kind of to be expected that he plays similarly to an incoming freshman. We should probably give him some time to adjust before throwing him under the bus.

[BringDeanBack]

Sweeney called him Jonathan at one point too.

In other news: On Schlossman's blog, Fienhage's already being edged closer to being the new Finley by the haters.

Hasn't hit here yet.

You keep throwing it out there, and it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. I guess it wouldn't be a Sioux hockey season without Redwing getting hypersensitive about criticism of one of the players. Fienhage is in a much different situation from Finley. 1) Finley played a lot right away, where Fien has not been given much of a chance as of yet 2) Finley was highly drafted (hence whether fair or not, more is expected of him) 3) Finley didn't seem any better as a senior than he did early on. Guys like Greene, Smaby, etc all improved noticeably as they went, Finley did not. Fienhage still has alot of time to prove himself.

[AZSIOUX]

fienhage is gona be a big time d man for the sioux at some point. he has to play games to get the experience he needs. he has the talent and with time will put it all together.

[Big A HG]

You keep throwing it out there, and it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. I guess it wouldn't be a Sioux hockey season without Redwing getting hypersensitive about criticism of one of the players. Fienhage is in a much different situation from Finley. 1) Finley played a lot right away, where Fien has not been given much of a chance as of yet 2) Finley was highly drafted (hence whether fair or not, more is expected of him) 3) Finley didn't seem any better as a senior than he did early on. Guys like Greene, Smaby, etc all improved noticeably as they went, Finley did not. Fienhage still has alot of time to prove himself.

Yes, Finely did struggle at times, but here's my take (leaving Genoway out of the conversation). Finley did struggle his first two years, but he was recruited by us and drafted by Washington as a good, not great kid, with huge size and huge upside, despite being very raw. He needed time to develop, and having him take a year or two to do it was probably needed. However, by the start of his junior year, he was a bit underdeveloped by our standards. But, sometime during his junior season, Joe started playing very good. He ultimately finished the year with an awesome +/-, leading the team (maybe the WCHA?...can't remember off-hand). Then, his senior year, he was unfairly criticized after missing much of the season after his serious concussion the first weekend of the year.

So, Joe was taking steps, albeit baby steps, but by his junior year he was playing pretty darn good (it was too late by then, for any mistake no matter how minute, would be unfairly critiqued in the worst way). Then the unfortunate injury knocked him back a couple steps and couldn't gain the trust of any Sioux fans that senior year.

Fienhage, like others have said, played very little last year, but even worse, he hardly played the whole second half of the season, so he REALLY will be rusty when it comes to game shape. Even the incoming freshman have played [many more] games than Fienhage going back to the beginning of 2009.

So, essentially, Fienhage may be a step or two behind even the freshmen despite having a year to practice with the team every day.

[andrea6977]

I do, but the audio was a bit screwed up, and I guess they were on the lower end of the scrum scale, with the exception of some blood trickling from MacWilliiam's mouth as he skated to the tunnel. I'll see what I can do in the next couple days.

no biggie i just have a friend that didnt see the game, dont bother if you have more important things to do. Thank you though

[SiouxFanatic]

The fact is, is that it makes it look like a sub-par production. It's a common thing in all hockey broadcasts. Why they can't/don't/won't put it up, I have no idea.

I've always wondered about this to. So I took the liberty to contacting someone who would know the answer. So I sent an e-mail to Pat Sweeney who I must say has always responded to my inquiries regarding the FSSN broadcast. Great guy! Anyways here is his response as to why there is no penalty clock:

The simple answer is, the cost of the equipment needed to post the penalty time on-screen is prohibitive for a small-market station, especially in these difficult economic times. I realize fans think it's an easy thing to do, but they need to understand we do not have the economic advantages that major networks do. I wish we DID have the penalty time on the screen. We are aware that people want it, but I cannot say when it will happen.

Pat Sweeney

WDAZ Sports

[tnt]

I've always wondered about this to. So I took the liberty to contacting someone who would know the answer. So I sent an e-mail to Pat Sweeney who I must say has always responded to my inquiries regarding the FSSN broadcast. Great guy! Anyways here is his response as to why there is no penalty clock:

I would say that the University needs to get involved in this if this is the product they are advertising across the country and trying to sell the University of North Dakota. To sell UND as the most technically advanced, then put out a production that isn't as good as it could be, might reflect on the University itself. Pat and WDAZ should ask for help in this endeavor, and if they have and there is no response, perhaps a benefactor could help out.

[mikejm]

I would say that the University needs to get involved in this if this is the product they are advertising across the country and trying to sell the University of North Dakota. To sell UND as the most technically advanced, then put out a production that isn't as good as it could be, might reflect on the University itself. Pat and WDAZ should ask for help in this endeavor, and if they have and there is no response, perhaps a benefactor could help out.

Did you forget a smiley here?

Or are you serious?