Fedorov Posted April 19, 2005 Author Share Posted April 19, 2005 That he's too valuable as an offensive threat. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That is what I like to hear. I mean what Foyt likes to hear. I am not Foyt. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#1siouxfan22 Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Next year we should be fine but i wouldnt pick them to finish 1 or 2, 3 would be the spot to be. It will be very hard to call next year between UM, DU, CC, UW and UND. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedorov Posted April 19, 2005 Author Share Posted April 19, 2005 I don't think Wisconsin was that good this year. Unless they have good players coming in, I'm not worried about them. The diving team is getting caught more often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fetch Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Hey now !!! - I want more frosting on the cake next yr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 PCM, I agree. I'm no expert, but IMO Marvin has played pretty steady defense when he's had the opportunity to play back there. And frankly, a physical defense REALLY ought to include a guy named Lee Marvin. I mean, COME ON! He could lead the Dirty half-Dozen to the Frozen Four! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceberg Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 I said 3rd....much as it pains me to put UND ahead of UMD Sadly, I think UMD might be fighting for 5th this year. They should be better, as the "bad apples" are gone, and hoppefully Reichmuth & Johnson have a better year this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sioux7 Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 I think UND is either 1st or 2nd. Too much scoring coming back and A TON of talent coming in. We all know freshman coming in aren't freshman anymore. They have a boat load of games under their belts and a ton of experience against top quality competition. Its just a matter of geling (sp?) the team together......and if Hakstol did it this year with all the adversity this should be a walk in the park for him in the upcoming year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPNInsider Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sicatoka Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 I would tell him that he looks exactly like Lew Ford! The side-by-side test: I say the Jerry Springer/Craig Dahl resemblance is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yzerman19 Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 1. CC - Ton of talent, senior team, close but no cigar this year and want to smoke. 2. Denver - Talent, system, three in a row is unprecedented 3. UND - Great young players, pro prospects matched only by UMN 4. UMN - Equally talented young players as UND, 4th due to goaltending 5. WI - Can't get over the hurdle; good, but not good enough 6-10. Who Cares? SCSU, UMD, AA, MSU and Tech all are pretty bad. MSU actually has a couple talented players, so I give them the nod. UMD needed to ride the frozen four last year to a big recruiting class. Sandy failed. Most interesting matchup: UND and UMN. The best rivalry in college hockey just keeps growing. Stafford, Zajac, Toews, Murray, Lee, Greene, Porter and Smaby vs. Wheeler, Kessel, Chucko, Potulny, Irmen, Stoa, Goligoski and Hagemo. That's a lot of drafted talent. Throw in guys like Spirko versus Howe. The teams match up well. Tons of firepower, UNDs defensive core will be young, but if the backbone returns they will be solid, UMN had a couple great freshmen D this last year. UND has better goaltending. Even matchup. Fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 The side-by-side test: I say the Jerry Springer/Craig Dahl resemblance is better. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What about and Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxnami Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Your honor, I have no idea who that is... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NDFAN Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPNInsider Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Who's the first pic? Can't see it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMT Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Who's the first pic? Can't see it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I would assume CC's coach Scott Owens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 It shows up on my computer - you have to find a pic of Owens a few years old to get a real good comparison. Not sure how I can fix it since it works for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPNInsider Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Never mind, now it works. Good stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 I know it's dangerous to do projections at any point in time, especially before knowing what the early defections will mean. But for fun, here are mine. I think the Sioux will finish in the 3-5 range in the WCHA next season. It's hard to say where, but if I had to say, it would be 4th in what I think will be a very, very strong conference. TOP 2 CC will have a strong squad back with solid goaltending in Zaba. They only lose McElhinney in goal, one big D in Petiot and a forward in Polaski. They bring in a solid recruiting class that should more than make up for those losses. MN will be very strong next year, as their adequate but inexperienced D will have a year under their belts. I think some are underestimating MN's goalie situation. Frazee appears to be a VERY good goalie. Sure, it remains to be seen how good he in in D1 play but he's played awfully well against very strong competition to this point. MN replaces Tallackson, Smaagaard, Fleming, Stevens, Reinholz and Johnson with Kessel, Wheeler, Anderson, Bostrom, Frazee, Stoa. Wow, there's an upgrade in talent. So we'll see, but with a very good goalie, adequate D, and plenty of scoring firepower, I think MN will be one of the top 2 teams. NEXT 3 Denver will be OK with Maniac in goal and decent skill throughout. They lose 2 senior D and return 4 regular D players including their strong goalies. They lose 4 of their top 8 goal scorers but return the top 2 and most of the top end of that group. They bring in some very highly touted D players and solid overall recruits. Bucky will be good. They were good this year, but not as good as their record. They remind me of the Sioux from 2002-03. let's see, Bucky loses Berndt Bruckler and Pete (who?) Talafous and replaces them with another very solid recruiting class led by Jack Skille that Bucky HOPES will have them forget about Kessel. Doubt it. Bucky struggled to score last year and it's dangerous to rely on freshmen to help that out. Goal is a question mark for Bucky. So, since that question is not answered, I will put them in fight with bottom of the home ice group. The Fighting Sioux will have a solid offense, and very solid goal situation. The 2 big questions are how much impact will the freshman forwards have? Will Duncan, Watkins, and Kozek be able to transfer their junior success to the WCHA? Will these more skilled players make us forget the grit and character of guys like McMahon, Genoway, Canady, Massen and Fylling? And how well will the freshmen D play? Can Jones, Chorney and Lee step in as well as Fuher, Jones, and Schneider did 4 years ago? Even if both Big Matt's come back, they're only 30-40% of the D corp on the ice. To keep from being exploited Radke and the trio of new guys need to play solidly. Assuming that they will struggle as so many freshmen D often do, I see UND fighting with the last 3 home ice teams. 2 Home Ice Wannabees Bulldogs will be rebuilding, but solid. Out of a very large senior class they only lose a couple of contributors on the score sheet in Schwabe and Hammond. They remove some attitude issues? in Caig and Brosz (I'm trying to remember who Sandy benched in the last playoff game). They bring back 4 D who played at least 23 games last year. They bring in another huge class lead by high profile players like Mike Gergen of Shattuck and Matt Niskanen of Virginia. They should be solid, but young. The upper 5 teams in the league might be just too strong to give up home ice to the Dogs this next year. If Duluth's goalies struggle I'd suggest they watch out for Mankato, otherwise I think Duluth will be the top of the bottom half. Mankato was a decent team last year. They bring back their top 3 scorers and most of their D. They had little to count on in goal and unless Dan Tormey or Mike Zacharias can shore that up they probably will still struggle to become a dangerous team. Forget Zacharias who will likely be a target in practice, but Tormey is the 2nd best goalie in the USHL in the regular season with decent numbers (.925% and 2.25GA). Not sure of the quality of their incoming recruits but would expect them to be solid. Bottom 3 SCSU will get a boost from having Bobby Goepfert in goal along with some decent underclassmen throughout the lineup. They lose an unspectacular senior class except for Iannazzo who was very solid with 32 points this year. Szabo was decent but replaceable. Woog said SCSU had some decent freshmen but lacked enough speed to be very dangerous this year. I'm not sure if SCSU has too many top names coming in but Dahl has had some success finding needles in a haystack in the past and could again this year. With a promising, young D corp that now has a year of experience they will be tougher to score on with Goepfert backing them up. The key will be if they can score enough goals to dig themselves out of the bottom of the league. Tech. Well, they lose a very important player in Murpy, but most of their team returns. I think if they get anything in goal they'll be able to outduel AA for the league bottom. They bring in Michael Teslak from the BCHL who was second there in svs % with .931 which is very solid for a league that scores a lot of goals. His GA was 2.47. Look out AA. AA will continue their struggle. They are a very young team that struggled to score goals last year. That may continue this year. Very good goaltending (Lawson) returns. They have a very young D with more experience now. So they'll likely be tough to score on, but may find it hard to score enough goals to dig themselves out of the bottom of the league. Sound familiar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Ranger Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Matt Niskanen is from Virginia not Hibbing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejm Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 MN replaces Tallackson, Smaagaard, Fleming, Stevens, Reinholz and Johnson with Kessel, Wheeler, Anderson, Bostrom, Frazee, Stoa. Wow, there's an upgrade in talent. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dagies, I appreciate all your insight in this. My only comment (and thus my quote) is that no team knows the impact their incoming freshmen will have...including the Sioux. Barry Tallackson was spoken of in not-quite-Kessel-like terminology for a long time before he joined the Gophers. Barry is an immensely talented kid who maybe had things come a little too easily for him in youth hockey. He was a star on every team he ever played, although to a slightly diminishing degree each step he took upward. He couldn't consistently hold his game at the high level his natural talent would indicate he should. Barry is a very nice kid, humble and appreciative of everything that's happened to him, so I'm not comparing him to an unquestionably talented but just lazy skater like Tomas Vanek. Don't get me wrong, the Gopher's incoming class is a huge talent pool, as is UND's. The question always remains how well any of these young men will mature as the competition gets better and better. On paper the Sioux freshmen are a top two or three class in the country. If they can score goals the way they have to this point in their collective careers, I'm picking UND at third in the WCHA, in spite of having a very young blueline. If the leap to what has become the biggest, baddest college hockey league anywhere is too much for our frosh, we might be fighting for home ice again...or worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Matt Niskanen is from Virginia not Hibbing. Gee, why would a guy named I Ranger know that? Thanks, it's fixed. mikejm, I think you and I pretty much agree all the way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siouxman Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Gee, why would a guy named I Ranger know that? Thanks, it's fixed. mikejm, I think you and I pretty much agree all the way around. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dagies - I believe that it was T.J. Caig that got benched in his final collegiate game. What a way to go out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Ranger Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 I think Tyler Brosz was the other senior that was benched with Caig in that last game. I talked to a lot of UMD fans that weekend that wished Scotty would have benched those two much earlier than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sioux-per Villain Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Gee, why would a guy named I Ranger know that? Thanks, it's fixed. mikejm, I think you and I pretty much agree all the way around. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> To be precise, he's from Mt. Iron. Thank God for consolidation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duey Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 2. Minnesota - more talent than any two teams in the nation, or so I've read about a thousand times. However, it will be interesting to see how other teams in the league play the Gophers next year, now that the word is out that they don't like physical play. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You ride us for not providing a reason for our predictions but you let sewage like this slide as an explanation? Here's the only explanation you need for predicting the Gophers possible 1 or 2 finsh is..... Chucko Hirsch (leading scorer..don't think he wont be a factor) Kessel Irmen Wheeler Potulny Stoa RJ Anderson Frazee (will take over for Briggs before Christmas) I will steal a Kessel t-shirt idea from GPL in reference to the above line-up....... ".........And you thought you hated us before!!!!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.