Robert Morris @ UND

[1972]

48 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

Judging by Facebook posts post-game, clearly RMU is Frozen Four bound this season based on how well they played North Dakota this weekend.

The green colored glasses are thick in that group

[siouxkid12]

22 minutes ago, petey23 said:

PWR is barely worth a glance until Mid January.

Nope not true. When you play non conference games early in the season the pairwise means a lot. As someone posted earlier, Schlossman’s article in March will read something like this “#17 North Dakota would be playing in Fargo this weekend had it not been for the Nov 22nd game against RMU”. 

[siouxkid12]

3 minutes ago, 1972 said:

The green colored glasses are thick in that group

That group on Facebook is nothing but a bunch of whiners and moms who try to protect their adult kids from criticism.

[Wilbur]

51 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

Judging by Facebook posts post-game, clearly RMU is Frozen Four bound this season based on how well they played North Dakota this weekend.

RMU was the best kept secret before they played UND.  I've got them penciled into Fargo as a 1 seed.

[SIOUXELEVENS]

They might win back to back NCAA titles. 

[gfhockey]

12 hours ago, 1972 said:

OK, that made me laugh

Yeah but Bama gets nattys we dony

[cberkas]

2 hours ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

Yet we have the best facilities and all these advantages yet we are the same as RMU?

They are getting a new arena on campus. These games should have not been close. Next time same the money and go play an AHA team in their arena.

[hockeytherapy13]

1 hour ago, siouxkid12 said:

Nope not true. When you play non conference games early in the season the pairwise means a lot. As someone posted earlier, Schlossman’s article in March will read something like this “#17 North Dakota would be playing in Fargo this weekend had it not been for the Nov 22nd game against RMU”. 

The games the entire season matter, but looking right now isn’t as important because there still need to be a few more weekends if hockey for relevance 

[siouxweet]

1 hour ago, petey23 said:

PWR is barely worth a glance until Mid January.

Very true.   UND might be 32 at that time.

[brianvf]

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/jake-schmaltzs-faceoff-success-helps-und-to-sweep-over-robert-morris

Schmaltz is crushing it in faceoffs to start the year.

Quote

Schmaltz won the faceoff cleanly, sending the puck back to the corner to seal UND’s 1-0 win at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The draw capped Schmaltz’s 13-2 night in the dot.

UND ended the night 29-10 in faceoffs.

Unfortunately the PK is still horrendous despite going 4 for 4 last night.

Quote

UND’s penalty kill went 4-for-4 in the win.

The Hawks are 51st in the country on penalty kill efficiency at 76.1%.

 

[90siouxfan]

4 hours ago, AJS said:

Can anyone explain why TJ has played a disproportionate amount of games compared to Hobie? Hobie will have to damn near string together multiple shut outs to get Berry’s attention. His infatuation with Portal players is crazy to watch year after year. 

Perhaps B-rad needs to keep the minutes up for the portal rental goalie to help get next year's portal goalie.  Those rental guys won't come here if they have to ride the pine.

[90siouxfan]

3 hours ago, petey23 said:

PWR is barely worth a glance until Mid January.

Sign of the times... people have too much time on thier hands, and don't get punched in the mouth nearly enough. 

[MafiaMan]

3 hours ago, petey23 said:

PWR is barely worth a glance until Mid January.

Until you look back and realize an early-season loss to someplace like Canisius College or RIT cost you a spot in the tournament.  

[hockeytherapy13]

1 hour ago, MafiaMan said:

Until you look back and realize an early-season loss to someplace like Canisius College or RIT cost you a spot in the tournament.  

No one is disputing that these games don’t matter. Every game matters all year long, maybe even more with non conference obviously. What some people are saying is that there haven’t been enough games played throughout the country for the pairwise rankings to be accurate yet. They are too volatile because more games need to be played amongst all teams and conferences. Give it about 3-4 more weeks and then it’ll be a more appropriate prediction. 

[SJHovey]

5 hours ago, siouxkid12 said:

Nope not true. When you play non conference games early in the season the pairwise means a lot. As someone posted earlier, Schlossman’s article in March will read something like this “#17 North Dakota would be playing in Fargo this weekend had it not been for the Nov 22nd game against RMU”. 

Maybe the article will point out that had they lost to RMU in OT, or had it ended in a tie that Friday night in November, the team would have missed the field, but Perron’s goal changed that, and enabled the team to go on a Providence like run to title #9?

[siouxkid12]

2 hours ago, hockeytherapy13 said:

No one is disputing that these games don’t matter. Every game matters all year long, maybe even more with non conference obviously. What some people are saying is that there haven’t been enough games played throughout the country for the pairwise rankings to be accurate yet. They are too volatile because more games need to be played amongst all teams and conferences. Give it about 3-4 more weeks and then it’ll be a more appropriate prediction. 

The thing is the team hasn’t played well enough to make anyone believe that they will go on a run. If they have a hard time winning out of conference games, what is going to make us as fans believe they will win conference games? 
 

[dden3]

They need to get to work. Practice hard and coached hard. Need to start playing to their potential. And get some guys back. 

[sioux rube]

21 hours ago, 1972 said:

According to FB, RMU is a very good hockey team, and played as well as UND.  I swear the some of the people on that group wouldn't say a bad word about UND if ya paid them to

And if you say a bad word you get jumped in no time 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

2 hours ago, siouxkid12 said:

The thing is the team hasn’t played well enough to make anyone believe that they will go on a run. If they have a hard time winning out of conference games
 

They beat providence 5-2 and BU 7-3. They have potential, time will tell if they reach it

[MafiaMan]

1 hour ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

They beat providence 5-2 and BU 7-3. They have potential, time will tell if they reach it

They were at home for those three games too.  Cornell on the road may have been a better indicator of how this season will eventually pan out. 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

19 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

They were at home for those three games too.  Cornell on the road may have been a better indicator of how this season will eventually pan out. 

Why’s that?

[siouxweet]

1 hour ago, MafiaMan said:

They were at home for those three games too.  Cornell on the road may have been a better indicator of how this season will eventually pan out. 

They also should have been swept in Mankato. 

[Blackheart]

11 hours ago, siouxweet said:

They also should have been swept in Mankato. 

Nah…they found a way to win on Friday; give them credit.

[stoneySIOUX]

13 hours ago, MafiaMan said:

They were at home for those three games too.  Cornell on the road may have been a better indicator of how this season will eventually pan out. 

 

13 hours ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Why’s that?

Yeah, how so? Not sure how an early November away game equates in any way to a neutral site March game.  

[SJHovey]

21 hours ago, siouxkid12 said:

The thing is the team hasn’t played well enough to make anyone believe that they will go on a run. If they have a hard time winning out of conference games, what is going to make us as fans believe they will win conference games? 
 

None of us here know how the season will turn out.  That's sort of the fun of watching sports.

Some of my observations:

• I tend to agree with those who argue that a team like this year's team, with a lot of young talent, will likely see more improvement over the course of a year than say a team like last year's, with a bunch of older guys and older transfers.  That, I think, is good come tournament time since you always want a team that feels like it is playing its best hockey of the year, and playing with confidence, once the post-season comes around.
• The team doesn't really have any "bad" losses yet. The teams we've lost to are all pretty much 16 or higher in the PWR.
• It's easy to be critical of the coaching staff, but this would be a very different team with Blake playing his junior year.  Good programs always lose players early, but you don't often count on fourth round picks playing two years and bailing.  I'm not saying that Blake made a bad decision, because obviously he didn't, but that can't have been expected, and you can't just add in a young recruit or transfer guy and get the same production.
• Once Blake was gone, we knew that we were going to have to replace some scoring.  But the loss of Berg for a big chunk of the year hasn't helped.

There is talent on this team, and I think we are going to see a different team come February than we see now, unless we continue to get obliterated by injuries.  You can already see guys like Emery gaining confidence and stepping up into plays.

I personally think it's early to just abandon all hope.