brianvf Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Short term: Genoway back and healthyVandeVelde back to 100%Speedy recovery for ZajacKeep the stellar OOC record up by doing well @ the ND Tourney and CornellConsistent goaltending Long term: Finish top 3 in WCHA (possible?)Make the Final FiveWin the BroadmoorWin the RegionalWin the National Title There, was that so hard? Anything to add? If the old line is that it is best to finish top 3 in the league in order to have the best shot to not only make the Final Five, but to avoid the play-in game...who that is currently in the top 5 ahead of us will have to falter? DU and UW appear to be for real. UMD has probably some of the best offensive talent in the league. I haven't seen CC, so nothing to comment on. SCSU has good offensive depth, but probably lacks the talent level overall when compared to DU/UW/UMD/UND. There are only 6 points separating us from 1st place DU right now, so anything is possible. It all starts in Jan with home series against MSUM and DU, and a road series against UMN. The team can't be giving points away any longer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Finish top 3 in WCHA (possible?)Make the Final FiveWin the BroadmoorWin the RegionalWin the National Title I like that list... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxhockeygirl14 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Short term: Genoway back and healthyVandeVelde back to 100%Speedy recovery for ZajacKeep the stellar OOC record up by doing well @ the ND Tourney and CornellConsistent goaltending Long term:Finish top 3 in WCHA (possible?)Make the Final FiveWin the BroadmoorWin the RegionalWin the National Title There, was that so hard? Anything to add? If the old line is that it is best to finish top 3 in the league in order to have the best shot to not only make the Final Five, but to avoid the play-in game...who that is currently in the top 5 ahead of us will have to falter? DU and UW appear to be for real. UMD has probably some of the best offensive talent in the league. I haven't seen CC, so nothing to comment on. SCSU has good offensive depth, but probably lacks the talent level overall when compared to DU/UW/UMD/UND. There are only 6 points separating us from 1st place DU right now, so anything is possible. It all starts in Jan with home series against MSUM and DU, and a road series against UMN. The team can't be giving points away any longer... Looks good to me!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Let me add a goalie that can have a 1.80 - 1.90 GAA and a save percentage of .930... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsowe Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 How about scoring goals and better goal-tending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwing77 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I like the list but we should take one step at a time. Maybe this is a slight tangent but... Step 1: Put together 120 minutes of hockey. We've already put together 60 minutes of solid hockey this season at times, but we have yet to put forward 120 minutes of the same. Step 2: Fix the Powerplay. We started out very very well and we've gradually gotten worse. The only consistent feature (discounting injury) has been Genoway and Kristo. Blood has made strides on the powerplay, but really... BEN BLOOD? This guy was billed as a Matt Smaby type, not a Genoway type. Sure, I'll take it, but what it comes down to is leadership. Vandevelde is the guy I'm turning to step it up in the Powerplay and he's really been largely quiet. Step 3: Find underclassmen leadership. This is tough. Two of our upperclassmen leaders are out with injury. Hextall is too emotional. Malone is too. Funny... I'm coming back to Ben Blood here. He's been the only guy on D who has noticeably stepped up since Genoway got injured. Sure, he takes a few untimely penalties, but so did Smaby and Greene and Commodore... The kind of player on D we need right now is a guy like David Hale or Matt Jones... and Marto has done some of that as has Blood. I look to those two to step up on the back end. Gregoire is leading the team in goals, but he's having trouble finishing. He really needs to step up. As an aside, Knight and Cichy have indeed looked like freshmen. It's interesting because I see the same thing in them that I saw with previous players for the Sioux in their first half season in DI. It's almost like the game is moving too fast for them. I've read the scouting reports I had access to on Cichy and they said that speed would be a flaw in his game and thus far that seems to hold true. I really think he'll step it up but how soon, I don't know. They have been disappointing thus far, but I think they'll turn it around. Unfortunately, it might not be this season... I hope I'm wrong. Step 4: Play smarter. We play a physical game but we also play with emotion at times. This is normally a GOOD thing, but our emotion has been misplaced. We get frustrated,, get in penalty trouble, and then start chasing the puck. We eventually abandon the game plan entirely. We haven't simply shut down like the Gophers have done at times this year, but we haven't really been resilient either. This also might explain why we squander so many leads. I see the Red Wings in this team when the Sioux have the lead. They seem to play like they aren't going to lose the lead and then, when they do, seem unconcerned. I like to advise every team (not that I can) to play the game like you are down a goal or two with this game making or breaking the season whether you are actually down goals, tied, or up by 12. We did not play well, but again, we only lost the game because we got into penalty trouble. It was Saturday vs DU all over again. This team has the talent. This team has the coaching (yeah, stuff it haters, I'm standing by that statement). We just need to execute and finish and do it smart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxweet Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Short term: Genoway back and healthyVandeVelde back to 100%Speedy recovery for ZajacKeep the stellar OOC record up by doing well @ the ND Tourney and CornellConsistent goaltending Long term:Finish top 3 in WCHA (possible?)Make the Final FiveWin the BroadmoorWin the RegionalWin the National Title There, was that so hard? Anything to add? If the old line is that it is best to finish top 3 in the league in order to have the best shot to not only make the Final Five, but to avoid the play-in game...who that is currently in the top 5 ahead of us will have to falter? DU and UW appear to be for real. UMD has probably some of the best offensive talent in the league. I haven't seen CC, so nothing to comment on. SCSU has good offensive depth, but probably lacks the talent level overall when compared to DU/UW/UMD/UND. There are only 6 points separating us from 1st place DU right now, so anything is possible. It all starts in Jan with home series against MSUM and DU, and a road series against UMN. The team can't be giving points away any longer... I'm not sure a top 3 finish is possible, this team has yet to put together 120 minutes of hockey in a weekend and by just magically turning the calendar to january isn't going to do it. du and uw are legit and in all liklihood have lost tie breakers to both (UW for sure and unless we sweep DU that one is lost) so therefore third is about as high as we can get and we ned to start sweeping some wcha series and not giving points away like you said. however that being said we possibly may have given away to many to make a top 3. I see alot of potential splits in the second half with msum and tech being only the possible series for sweeps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jk Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I'm not sure a top 3 finish is possible, this team has yet to put together 120 minutes of hockey in a weekend and by just magically turning the calendar to january isn't going to do it. du and uw are legit and in all liklihood have lost tie breakers to both (UW for sure and unless we sweep DU that one is lost) so therefore third is about as high as we can get and we ned to start sweeping some wcha series and not giving points away like you said. however that being said we possibly may have given away to many to make a top 3. I see alot of potential splits in the second half with msum and tech being only the possible series for sweeps. I agree with a lot of this but I'm planning on UND sweeping Denver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxweet Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I agree with a lot of this but I'm planning on UND sweeping Denver. not unless some things change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soohockey15 Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I wish Hak would start reading SiouxSports.com. There are a ton of posters who have just as much hockey knowledge as he does, and the team could really benefit from their expertise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianvf Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 I wish Hak would start reading SiouxSports.com. There are a ton of posters who have just as much hockey knowledge as he does, and the team could really benefit from their expertise. Ummm, no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farce poobah Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I wish Hak would start reading SiouxSports.com. There are a ton of posters who have just as much hockey knowledge as he does, and the team could really benefit from their expertise. Oh, hi there Mr. Lucia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxweet Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I wish Hak would start reading SiouxSports.com. There are a ton of posters who have just as much hockey knowledge as he does, and the team could really benefit from their expertise. so no one is allowed to express thier opinions unless they are of a positive note? I don't claim to have a wealth of hockey x's and o's knowledge but what I can see is on a routine basis and some of the biggest games a sioux team that come sout flat. this weekend it cost us a potential point on friday. this has been an issue with teams under hak since the first day he got here. how in the hell can you come out flat in a huge series against one of your top rivals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82SiouxGuy Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 so no one is allowed to express thier opinions unless they are of a positive note? I don't claim to have a wealth of hockey x's and o's knowledge but what I can see is on a routine basis and some of the biggest games a sioux team that come sout flat. this weekend it cost us a potential point on friday. this has been an issue with teams under hak since the first day he got here. how in the hell can you come out flat in a huge series against one of your top rivals? Maybe the fact that as of Monday they only had 17 skaters available because of injury, so several guys playing this weekend were playing hurt. Or the fact that they team only has 3 seniors, and they are all injured. Two of them are among your best players and the third is one of your energy guys. And maybe you had young guys trying to do too much to make up for the older guys who aren't able to play up to usual standards. The team has injury problems and has a lot of maturing to do to eliminate stupid mistakes. The first isn't a coaching problem and the second is because of the large number of youth on the team which goes back several years when we ended up with unbalanced classes. 40% of the team is currently a freshman. The WCHA is an upper classman league. Young teams usually struggle, especially in the first half of the season. UND is having those struggles right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Maybe the fact that as of Monday they only had 17 skaters available because of injury, so several guys playing this weekend were playing hurt. Or the fact that they team only has 3 seniors, and they are all injured. Two of them are among your best players and the third is one of your energy guys. And maybe you had young guys trying to do too much to make up for the older guys who aren't able to play up to usual standards. The team has injury problems and has a lot of maturing to do to eliminate stupid mistakes. The first isn't a coaching problem and the second is because of the large number of youth on the team which goes back several years when we ended up with unbalanced classes. 40% of the team is currently a freshman. The WCHA is an upper classman league. Young teams usually struggle, especially in the first half of the season. UND is having those struggles right now. Kinda adding to what 82SiouxGuy just said, there a lot of things that can be fixed as well. Christmas break is coming at the right time. Get a few healed up and maybe a couple of practices to right the ship, I heard in the coach post game comments that he plans on taking a few days off. Good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwing77 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 It's kind of like... These guys are too young an inexperienced in DI! Hurry up and get older and more experienced! Until then, FIRE HAKSTOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 It's kind of like... These guys are too young an inexperienced in DI! Hurry up and get older and more experienced! Until then, FIRE HAKSTOL! Hey it only took 18 games for the fire Hakstol thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux rube Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 A National Championship that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jodcon Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Besides the obvious one...Genoway back at full strength by the end of January at the latest... And the one that's impossible...all the young guys to gain 50 games worth of experience in the next 10 games... I would just like to see us play a full 3 periods without having lapses where we lose concentration or get frustrated and take bad penalties. I can't explain why, maybe it's just because we're so young, but lately it seems like whenever we get ahead by a couple goals we take a deep breath and fall asleep, then when the other team starts carrying the play we lose our cool and start occupying the penalty box, and the next thing you know...tie game. As stupid as this sounds, we've almost been better off lately being behind early than ahead, it's kept us more focused. I think this is a really good team, and if we can get Genoway back and stay healthy we can make a serious run to the Frozen 4 again, but we've pretty much used up all our mulligans and need to start putting together some 3 and 4 point weekends. As of today we would be playing the first round of the WCHA playoffs on the road, and.... ... the Gophers are only 1 point behind us. Margin for error is getting slimmer by the minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZSIOUX Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 good time for a break in regards to league play and having guys banged up. lets hope chay has a positive turn around as this team obviosuly misses him in many areas of the game. if he doesnt then someone or a group has to pick it up. team usa will be damn good. very good test as they usually beat almost all of their top college oppenents. go sioux, get healthy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Besides the obvious one...Genoway back at full strength by the end of January at the latest... And the one that's impossible...all the young guys to gain 50 games worth of experience in the next 10 games... I would just like to see us play a full 3 periods without having lapses where we lose concentration or get frustrated and take bad penalties. I can't explain why, maybe it's just because we're so young, but lately it seems like whenever we get ahead by a couple goals we take a deep breath and fall asleep, then when the other team starts carrying the play we lose our cool and start occupying the penalty box, and the next thing you know...tie game. As stupid as this sounds, we've almost been better off lately being behind early than ahead, it's kept us more focused. I think this is a really good team, and if we can get Genoway back and stay healthy we can make a serious run to the Frozen 4 again, but we've pretty much used up all our mulligans and need to start putting together some 3 and 4 point weekends. As of today we would be playing the first round of the WCHA playoffs on the road, and.... ... the Gophers are only 1 point behind us. Margin for error is getting slimmer by the minute. I like this years team but I agree they need to play a complete game, they need to keep skating and counter attacking and playing a high pressure game like Miami does. I would like to see them take the Motto Go hard or go home and no excuses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxweet Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 the loss of genoway at the moment is huge, but how much are we missing the likes of frattin right now. we are missing that veteran scorer. malones' game isn't scoring, trupp's is playmaking, zajac's is mr. work your ass off in the corners and vv' s is just a workhorse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwing77 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 the loss of genoway at the moment is huge, but how much are we missing the likes of frattin right now. we are missing that veteran scorer. malones' game isn't scoring, trupp's is playmaking, zajac's is mr. work your ass off in the corners and vv' s is just a workhorse. After watching Malone this year, I think he could be a scorer.... he was just an angle of the stick away from 2 goals this weekend. I'm not sure how you fix that problem, but... You're right though... we're starving for upperclassmen scoring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sicatoka Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I'd like league officials that actually care about the safety of the players on the ice. I'd like league officials who are disinterested in outcomes but interested equal and consistent enforcement of the rule book. Give me that and everything else I'd want would naturally follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjjockers Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I agree with a lot of this but I'm planning on UND sweeping Denver. lol, we're not going to sweep anyone the way we're playing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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