PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 (edited) Disclaimer: This is a summary of the weekly Fighting Sioux Coaches how. It is NOT a verbatim transcript of the show. Comments by the show's hosts and the coaches are paraphrased to the best of the author's ability and are NOT direct quotes. This summary contains selected highlights from the show and is NOT a comprehensive account of all topics covered or discussed. Live from Lola's Northern Italian Restaurant in beautiful downtown Grand Forks. Tim Hennessy and Scott Swygman are the hosts with UND hockey coach Dean Blais. The show opened with talk about national ratings. Blais joked about how UND moved up in the polls by not playing last weekend. He said UNH would have kept its top rating if they hadn't had 8 players suspended. He said they are working to schedule UNH for next season. Next season, the Sioux to go to Canisius and then leave from Buffalo, NY, to play UAA. Blais mentioned the 'Where the hell is Canisius?" T-shirt that Ralph Engelstad gave him before he died. Blais said he didn't think it was fair for Minnesota to drop so far in the polls after being swept by Duluth. The Bulldogs have a good team with a lot of players back from last year. TH brought up the subject of Gopher fans saying that it doesn Edited October 30, 2003 by PCM Quote
sioux fan in phoenix Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 I'm getting sick & tired of saying "Great job!" week after week but it's the least I can do Much appreciated, you covered every issue I was thinking about... Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 I didn't cover it. All I did was take notes. Thank Tim, Swyg, Blais and the callers for covering what was on your mind. Quote
Fedorov Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Thank you PCM. I have a feeling if we play well against the Gophers, there will be at least one crowd penalty. Quote
redwing77 Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 "MInnesota is a corporate crowd" I think that's a no brainer. Perhaps it's because only corporate types can afford tickets Quote
forecheck Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 However, Blais said that this season, throwing anything on the ice but hats after a hat trick will trigger a warning and then cause a penalty if it happens again. Didn't he say something about cups being thrown on the ice? I swear Blais said that there would be no warning if plastic cups were thrown on the ice, and that the home team would automatically get a penalty. I assumed the other things getting thrown on the ice that would receive a warning were certain furry little creatures. Quote
U2Bad1 Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Didn't he say something about cups being thrown on the ice? I swear Blais said that there would be no warning if plastic cups were thrown on the ice, and that the home team would automatically get a penalty. I assumed the other things getting thrown on the ice that would receive a warning were certain furry little creatures. The whole time i was at UND i don't think i saw one furry creature thrown on the ice. Quote
CoteauRinkRat Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Just a couple of years ago, there were at least five gophers thrown on the ice after a goal. Quote
Greyeagle Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Just a couple of years ago, there were at least five gophers thrown on the ice after a goal. That's it, I'm calling PETA! Blais said he didn't think it was fair for Minnesota to drop so far in the polls after being swept by Duluth. The Bulldogs have a good team with a lot of players back from last year. Sandbagger. Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 Didn't he say something about cups being thrown on the ice? I swear Blais said that there would be no warning if plastic cups were thrown on the ice, and that the home team would automatically get a penalty. I assumed the other things getting thrown on the ice that would receive a warning were certain furry little creatures. You could be right. Sometimes I get behind while typing my notes and I don't hear everything exactly as it was said. Quote
The Sicatoka Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 He mentioned former Sioux players Ian Kalay at Houghton and Lee Davis at Duluth now coaching against UND. Would that be Ian Kallay and Lee Davidson? :) Quote
skateshattrick Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Thanks for the update PCM. Did Dean say anything about moving Andy Schneider back on to the power play and/or moving Lundbohm off? Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 Thanks for the update PCM. Did Dean say anything about moving Andy Schneider back on to the power play and/or moving Lundbohm off? Blais didn't say anything specifically about which players would used on the power play. I thought Schnedier and Lundbohm were playing the points on the first team unit with Murray, Parise and Bochenski at the forwards. I know that Blais has been trying many different combinations, so I could be wrong. In fact, if I remember correctly, Schneider took and won a faceoff during a power play against BC after one of the Sioux forwards got chased out of the circle. Quote
jojordan23 Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 That was actually a penalty kill that Schneider took the face off on, I think. It was a 5-3, and the lone forward got thrown out of the circle, so Schneider had to take it. Quote
redwing77 Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 That was actually a penalty kill that Schneider took the face off on, I think. It was a 5-3, and the lone forward got thrown out of the circle, so Schneider had to take it. It was the penalty kill yes. I was very impressed that he won it. Showed that Boyle isn't the only d man who can take the faceoff. Quote
skateshattrick Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Blais didn't say anything specifically about which players would used on the power play. I thought Schnedier and Lundbohm were playing the points on the first team unit with Murray, Parise and Bochenski at the forwards. I know that Blais has been trying many different combinations, so I could be wrong. In fact, if I remember correctly, Schneider took and won a faceoff during a power play against BC after one of the Sioux forwards got chased out of the circle. You may be right, but I recall that Fuher was playing most of the time on the 1st unit against BC. In fact, the shorthanded goal on Saturday happened when Fuher was back alone on D because Lundbohm went off of the ice. I would personally like to see Schneider and either Fuher or Jones. Schneider does the best job of getting the puck off quickly and on net, plus is fast enough to get back. Fuher has a cannon, and Jones is also good about getting the shot off. I really question using Lundbohm when you have some defensemen with pretty good offensive skills. If you have to use a forward on the point, it would seem that Zach would be better on the point because he's faster and can get back. In any event, something has to be changed and I would be curious what the coaches have in mind. Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 You may be right, but I recall that Fuher was playing most of the time on the 1st unit against BC. It'll be interesting to see who is on the power play against Yale and whether the practice this week has improved it. Because Blais said everyone will play this weekend, we'll probably continue to see a lot of shuffling of personnel on special teams. I do agree with Blais that one of the problems is not getting shots off quickly enough. The other big problem was simply moving the puck up the ice and into the opposing zone. I'll bet BC had more shots on goal during UND's power plays than the Sioux did. Quote
dagies Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 It'll be interesting to see who is on the power play against Yale and whether the practice this week has improved it. Because Blais said everyone will play this weekend, we'll probably continue to see a lot of shuffling of personnel on special teams. I do agree with Blais that one of the problems is not getting shots off quickly enough. The other big problem was simply moving the puck up the ice and into the opposing zone. I'll bet BC had more shots on goal during UND's power plays than the Sioux did. I'm concerned about the comments about the transition game and moving the puck from defense to offense effectively. We've dealt with those problems for a few years now and by now I would expect that not to be a weakness. We can talk all we want about MN's "offensive" defenseman and put up numbers all we want to show how our defensive corp contributes offensively as well, but if we can't handle the puck well enough to jumpstart the offense, it's a weakness. Smaby was one that was said to be able to make the pass. Now we hear he's struggling. Let's hope this is an adjustment issue that will iron itself out before too long. Quote
CoteauRinkRat Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Can everyone just stop analyzing every little issue for a little bit. It is early in the season, there is still a lot of hockey to play. The power play will come along. A lot of people on here think they are a better coach than Blais and a better player than Parise. Quote
U2Bad1 Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 Can everyone just stop analyzing every little issue for a little bit. What fun is that??? Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 Can everyone just stop analyzing every little issue for a little bit. That doesn't give us much to do around here. Quote
CoteauRinkRat Posted October 30, 2003 Posted October 30, 2003 I don't mind analyzing things either, but picking apart how Smaby is passing the puck and attributing that to our failed power play is really reaching. Quote
PCM Posted October 30, 2003 Author Posted October 30, 2003 We can talk all we want about MN's "offensive" defenseman and put up numbers all we want to show how our defensive corp contributes offensively as well, but if we can't handle the puck well enough to jumpstart the offense, it's a weakness. True, but you'll notice that Blais also puts some of the responsibility for the transition game on the forwards. They have to work to get open and some of them aren't. They have to handle the outlet passes and some of them don't. They have to quickly make good decisions with the puck and that's not happening enough. Blais mentioned that part of the problem was the young forwards. I'm sure that they'll get better. I also think that between some of the nagging injuries, new line combinations, new defensive pairings, lack of practice time and the disjointed start to the season, the team hasn't jelled as quickly as it normally would. As Andy Schneider said, they haven't really gotten into a rhythm yet. This series against Yale should give us a better idea of how things are coming together. With the exception of the third period in the first game against Boston College, I don't think that we've seen just how good this team can be. Quote
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