kr Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 Tim and Swyg interviewed Coach Blais this morning.... and will talk to him tonight on the coaches show. Generally pleased with the split from the weekend. St Cloud is a tough arena. The crowd is loud, large and rabid. Good to get the team into WCHA play. With the exception of Yale (4000+ fans and loud) the away games were played in an atmosphere of "neutral" ice (including the game at Princeton), and nothing compares to playing in front of a rowdy/hostile WCHA crowd. (Tim commented that St Cloud does do a good job with their player introductions/pre-game and such.) The conversation was fun, because they'll be interviewing him tonight, so they just touched on a bunch of topics and probably will be more in depth tonight. Swyg said he was looking for a big, "large" goalie - they joked that he should be tall too, to fill up the net. He thought maybe Casey Blue had some eligibility left..... A little talk about line combinations (ie Spiewak on the BP line) Coach Blais gave away the secrets to coming up with line combinations: 1) he puts all the names in a hat and then pulls them out and 2) sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with new line combos A bit on UAA - no more Cygan and Zap on the UAA squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sicatoka Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 Coach Blais gave away the secrets to coming up with line combinations: 1) he puts all the names in a hat and then pulls them out and 2) sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with new line combos What? He got rid of the dice cup, Ouiji board, and random number generator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kr Posted November 13, 2002 Author Share Posted November 13, 2002 Actually doesn't he use those 3 things when determining who'll be in goal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottM Posted November 14, 2002 Share Posted November 14, 2002 No. Blais actually uses tarot cards, horoscopes and a 1979 Fifty Cent piece to determine lines. He uses a roulette wheel and dartboard for the goalies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farce poobah Posted November 14, 2002 Share Posted November 14, 2002 OK, OK, as long as we're doing gambling references.... Any word on line combo's? will he "shuffle the deck" again? * seems like lines 2-3-4 will get mixed again. * although the list of "regulars" has gotten a little more settled. With Fuher back, defense seems like a "pat hand". * should help the power play. The "wild card" in all this, is goaltending. While I don't expect us to spin a "double zero" as we did vs. UAA in Feb 1997 (back to back shutouts with barely a scoring chance against), I think "snake eyes" is a possibility. But don't bet the farm on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kr Posted November 19, 2002 Author Share Posted November 19, 2002 Tuesday morning (11/19/02) interview with Tim and Swyg and Coach Blais Good teams out there, Craig Dahl had mentioned to Coach Blais that Ferris State is a good team. CB mentioned that Princeton has had some tough losses/close games and that Yale is playing tough. This came up because they were talking about UND being ranked #3 in a poll. Who knows if UND is an elite team, CB doesn't know if the team is in the elite category as of yet; their record is 9-1, so record wise that is "elite" but as far as competition played..... Some talk about Niagara and Canisus (sp? sorry). The UAA goalie is the WCHA defensive player of the week. On Saturday night UND had 5-6 good chances - UND didn't "make" the goal tender look good, plain and simple, he was/is good. The team worked for a sweep (w/o BB and ZP scoring goals (that counted)). Jake Brandt had a good game on Saturday - he didn't try to do too much, just kept it simple. Wisc. will be a good test for the team. As good as this Wisc team may or may not be right now, after Christmas they will be a "better" team, simply because it takes a team some time to get used to a new "system", and Coach Eaves style (practice/play) is not the same system/style as Coach Sauer. Coach Sauer will be in town this weekend. According to Tim, Sauer likes coming to GF (probably because he won a national title here and the UND crowd got behind/supported Wisc. on their run, once the Sioux were eliminated) - also Sauer likes going to the Italian Moon. Jim Archibald - one of the most feared players - he was like an uncaged lion before a game - he was a pure body checker - JA and Dean Dachyshyn were the best at that - the hit on Tyler Pal. at SCSU was on par with the type of hits those two dished out game after game. JA had like 37 goals his senior year, he was not just a one dimensional player - physical and could score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottM Posted November 20, 2002 Share Posted November 20, 2002 I have few heroes, but Jim Archibald is one. A tough, physical forward who wasn't afraid of the puck. I see glimmers of him in Mike Prpich, and I'd expect that to become more apparent over time. I have $5 that says Archie tries to beat up Wisco's bench again, and maybe their fans too, just for old time, blood on the ice, sake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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