Last game reviews...ponder the season

[sprig]

WPoS it is up to you which kind of fan you want to be.

Too late; already convicted.

[TheFlop]

This team is not very good. All of those people talking about the good record being a product of a cupcake schedule were right. Minnesota will improve more from this year to next year then UND will. I agree with the previous poster that the sophmore class of Connelly, Canady, etc, has been a major bust so far. I mean come on, Canady had more game DQ's for spearing than goals this year. Why are these guys playing every game when guys like O'Leary, who I thought was pretty good, get shoved out the back door? This sophmore class must have the talent to play or else Blais would not have recruited them. But some production would be nice.

[flatspin7]

Too late; already convicted.

I don't expeect to change him, maybe just send a message to every one else not to throw fuel on the fire.

[7>4]

WoPS,

Go see the movie Anger Management this Saturday. You shouldn't have anything better to do unless you want to watch Cornell - Michigan.

[Goon]

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Flatspin is right...the personal comments are starting to get out of control. Everybody step back and take a deep breath. There are many of you who need to heed 7>4's advice and go see the movie Anger Management...Gopher AND Sioux fans alike

Now as much as I don't want to admit it, the Gophers DO have a shot at repeating as National Champs. They played outstanding against Mercyhurst and Ferris State. To me it didn't look like the same Ferris State team that showed up the day before that beat the Sioux, but the way the Gophers played I think they would have won anyway. I am a Sioux fan...but first and foremost I am a HOCKEY fan, I've grown up around the game my entire life in the State of Hockey, and I consider myself to be extremely knowlageable (sp) about the game itself. skateshattrick is right we need a defenseman that can handle the puck and consistant goaltending before we can talk about a tittle. Schneider has the potential to be that defensman, and hopefully Layne Sedevie, Jake Brandt, or Nate Ziegelman can provide the goaltending we need to be a tittle contender. But, don't forget, the Gophers have Ryan Potulny coming, who is said to be even more dangerous than Grant was...I think both teams will be a force to be reckoned with next year, and will be among the top two teams vying for not only the WCHA title, but the National Championship as well. I am certainly looking forward to seeing the Gopher series up here in Grand Forks.

[Greyeagle]

I never understood congratulating fans on their teams win. None of us are dressing for the game.

Maybe I should congratulate some of the fans on the amount of beer they drank at the game. That would be more appropriate. I saw many power drinkers at the Final Five...

There was ample evidence of this in the concourse Friday night after the MN-MSU game. It was amatuer night in St. Paul.

[ScottM]

After some thought, I tend to agree with Skateshattrick with a few exceptions.

Parise frankly was better in many aspects than I expected him to be. However, he still has alot of work to do, especially when it comes to working through somebody hanging on him. Anybody who thinks he's ready for the NHL now is seriously deluding themself. I think if he puts on 10-15 lbs of muscle over the summer he should be more formidible. That said, the rest of the forwards really didn't step it up when other teams leaned on them, and some were nowhere to be seen. This team needs to be as physical as necessary to get and keep the puck in the other end. And when they have the puck, shoot the f'ing thing. Good god, the games I saw, heard and got recaps on in the second part of the season were replete with guys dinking around with the puck. Cycling is nice, but shooting the puck scores points. Then you have to pursue it to pick up the rebounds and garbage shots. I agree that for the most part the sophomore class was MIA, especially down the stretch. I would not be surprised to see a few of them gone next season.

Defense ... they were strong initially. However, nobody stepped up when David Hale got sick. They're young, but with the draft choices on D, I would have expected somebody like Jones or Schneider to pick it up. We need to find somebody on D, who can carry the puck more effectively. Schneider has potential in that department, but I would hope it would be spread across more of the D. Jones needs to work on his offensive skills at this level, or he won't last in the NHL. He's not big enough to be a goon, so a more polished game would help him down the road. Greene is a good defensive d-man, when he keeps his footing, but he also has alot of work to do. He needs to grow and choose his shots wisely. He has the potential to be better than Commodore, but not if he's DQ'd or sitting in the box. Marvin seemed to be a nice surprise, rather than the "legacy" many of us pegged him as. Fuher also shows promise.

Goaltending is the biggest ? we have right now. Will Brandt actually step into the role? Will Siembida actually revert to the brilliant goalie we saw in the tech-color pads? Will Sedevie or Ziggy come in and send those two down the road? Will we play musical, mediore goalies again next season?

We need to get back to the fast-paced, offensive minded teams we had in the past. I agree that if Hacks or Berry is designing the offense, they need to quit it. Now. In the teams from the late 90s-01 you could almost smell a goal when the team got moving down the ice ... now, you worry about them overshooting the goal, or not shooting at all.

Special teams? No guys, it's not Special Ed Teams. This has been a problem for the past couple of seasons. We really need to make the PP and PK more effective, especially if we're going to take dumb penalties.

I am a big proponent of bringing in more western Canadian players. It's nice to get guys like Parise, Money, Smaby and Murray out of Minnesota schools, but the BCHL teams play a tough, gritty style that used to be a hallmark of successful UND teams. I also disagree with trying to recruit NoDaks "just because they're local boys" or their dad or whomever played in the past, as certain people seem to advocate. Yeah, it would have been nice to get Grant and/or Ryan Potulny, but not just because they're from GF.

Overall, I was pleased with the team's general performance, as I believe they can really rise to the top of the WCHA next season, and I viewed this season as a rebuilding season. The second half of the season was an abysmal disappointment, due to the fact it seemed not many guys were interested in winning and seemed to be coasting into March. Naturally, this is contrary to other fans who viewed the first half of the season as a harbinger to league play down the stretch. However, there are still some holes to fill, and some serious work to do to make to Boston. We have the talent, now it's time to find the stones to take this program back to the top.

One more thing, I really wish coaches, players, fans, etc. would quit bitching about bad reffing, bad ice, bad luck, conspiracies, road schedules, etc. as excuses for losing. This is hockey, not f'ing figure skating, and the team that buries the biscuit the most wins.

[flatspin7]

I also disagree with trying to recruit NoDaks "just because they're local boys" or their dad or whomever played in the past, as certain people seem to advocate. Yeah, it would have been nice to get Grant and/or Ryan Potulny, but not just because they're from GF.

Lets be honest. There are more hockey players in Minnesota than in North Dakota, so logic would say that UND or any school for that matter would find more of their recriut from Minnesota. As it looks right now Shattuck is starting to become a UND feeder, and thats fine with me. You wont be able to build a successful team focusing on ND recruiting when there might be only 6-7 good high school programs that can produce WCHA players.

I do think we are missing that "Travis Roche / Al Macinnis" type player on the blue line, Schnieder has shown glimmers of that (30 assist) so maybe he can get into that more.

[jimdahl]

Nice overall anlaysis of some of the big question marks, ScottM. Comments on a couple points:

I am a big proponent of bringing in more western Canadian players.  It's nice to get guys like Parise, Money, Smaby and Murray out of Minnesota schools, but the BCHL teams play a tough, gritty style that used to be a hallmark of successful UND teams.  I also disagree with trying to recruit NoDaks "just because they're local boys" or their dad or whomever played in the past, as certain people seem to advocate.  Yeah, it would have been nice to get Grant and/or Ryan Potulny, but not just because they're from GF. 

I have never understood the appeal of trying to emphasize local players. I don't care where any of my favorite pro players went to college, I don't care where my favorite college football team's players went to high school, etc... I think it would be a big mistake to let the "pride on ice" mentality seep in and trick us into favoring a local player over the best available talent. I don't see us doing that much, though, so am not too worried.

One more thing, I really wish coaches, players, fans, etc. would quit bitching about bad reffing, bad ice, bad luck, conspiracies, road schedules, etc. as excuses for losing.  This is hockey, not f'ing figure skating, and the team that buries the biscuit the most wins.

No kidding. Was there a loss this spring after which coaches didn't complain about bad bounces, fans didn't point out bad calls, message boards didn't fill with talk of hitting pipes and shot counts, etc...? The arguments that the Sioux outplayed their opponents but got unlucky start to look pretty silly when you lose 10 of 17 games.

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

I think we should just sign Al MacInnes...

On a more serious note...ScottM is right. During my Freshman year (00-01), I just KNEW when the Sioux were about to score, especially at the Final Five against St. Cloud St., I had a feeling before each goal when we cameback that it was going in...We need that style of play back, along with another Panzer-Bayda-Lundbohm line. While I don't know this for sure yet, this line could possibly be Bochenski-Parise-Murray?

[UND95]

One more thing, I really wish coaches, players, fans, etc. would quit bitching about bad reffing, bad ice, bad luck, conspiracies, road schedules, etc. as excuses for losing. This is hockey, not f'ing figure skating, and the team that buries the biscuit the most wins.

This did get amazingly annoying down the stretch. The fact of the matter was, some members of the team really didn't show up to play most nights. Many people also pointed out the fact that we were outshooting and outplaying a lot of teams, but not winning. This was true to a certain extent, but a lot of the shots we took were nothing serious or deadly. We didn't jump on rebounds either. We also didn't do a good job of taking advantage of mistakes made by the opponent, and unfortunatley, they did a great job of this. Ferris basically beat us this way, they capitalized while we didn't take advantage of our chances.

I was also frustrated with our shot selection a lot of the time. I remember during the first round of the playoffs against Denver, I was getting upset at the fact that our D men would just shoot blindly into the DU defender and it would get blocked. All they had to do was make one shot fake, get the guy down, and walk around him for a clean shot. Some of this may have been the lack of experience on the D line, but I also think the D men got tired at the end of the season, we were not very deep at this position after David Hale went down.

All this being said, I was extremely happy with the season. That may sound dumb because of how the last half went, but I really had zero expectations for this year. I thought we would be better than the year before, but nothing special. The fact that the Sioux had the hot start and made it somewhat interesting at the end, was cool. I was also pleased that Jake Brandt stepped up at the end of the season. I think he has tremendous character to come out after being criticized week after week, and continue to work and get better. Hats off to Jake, the late loses were not his fault.

I am also happy with the play of Lee Marvin down the stretch. I think he got stronger and stronger on D as the year went on and he got more time on the ice. That is one good thing I saw come out of Hale's absence. I think Marvin will contribute next year and only strengthen our D core.

I am excited for next year, as I think the Sioux will be a contender, and the experience they had with the NCAA's, although short, will be helpful. If Sedevie comes in and plays like I saw him play when he was with Billings, we should have a consistent goaltender to lean on, but I am not writing off Brandt yet as I think he can come in next year and compete for that starting job. Go Sioux!!!

[WPoS]

flatspin7 is right...if I continue to post here I will try my darndest to keep the personal attacks out. I thought I was, but I guess I had better just wirte up a apost and think about it for an hour before posting it so I don't fly off the handle. Some people will never like me here and I am ok with that. I will just not respond to them as they have convicted me already. So I turn the page and open a fresh one.

Development of the UND program:

Where do you as UND fans feel your goaltending is headed. I read that a lot of you were concerned about Brandt. Will he be your boy next year or ar you going to go shopping. The few times I did see him play he made some really good plays (thurday game of the Final Five). Can he mature or will the summer hours of work help him?

Parise: not ripping on him here BTW, but what happend in the playoffs, have teams figured out how to shut him down, or is there something else going on? I was suprised to see he didn't do better, I really expected to see him put up some points this last weekend.

On a positive note, Greene looks tobe a large guy who has some potential, if he stays out of he box. I would bet if Greene chose his actions a little more carefully he will become a force most teams would not like to go up against.

WPoS

[jk]

I always have trouble with formatting data in these posts, so apologies for what follows (I ended up truncating long names to try to make the numbers line up; ugly I know). It's important to remember the effect on an individual's statistics of playing more games, so I've looked at points per game in addition to total numbers. The following lists the players in order of improvement in points per game from the prior year (example: Fylling .73 in 2002-03, .17 prior year, +.56 improvement (Fylling's "prior year" is 2000-01; for everyone else, it's 2001-02)).

Fylling .73, .17, +.56

Boche 1.44, .89. +.55

Schnei .95, .40, +.55

Fuher .63, .12, +.51

Lundb 1.21, .74, +.47

Massen .83, .38, +.45

Noterm .86, .59, +.27

Spiewa .69, .46, +.23

McMaho .49, .28, +.21

Leinwe .12, .06, +.06

D. Hale .31, .29, +.02

Jones .18, .19, -.01

Conne .14, .18, -.04

Palmis .14, .19, -.05

Canad .12, .22, -.10

R. Hale .17, .41, -.24

This is where the newcomers finished in points per game:

Parise 1.56

Prpich .43

Marvin .23

Greene .10

Genow .10

[jk]

Improvement in total points (example: Bochenski 62 points in 2002-03, 32 points in 2001-02, +30 improvement):

Boche 62, 32, +30

Lundb 52, 23, +29

Schnei 41, 14, +27

Fylling 30, 7, +23

Masse 35, 13, +22

Fuher 25, 4, +21

Notes 37, 22, +15

Spiew 29, 17, +12

McMah 20, 10, +10

Leinwe 4, 1, +3

Connel 5, 4, +1

D. Hale 8, 10, -2

Palmis 2, 4, -2

Canad 3, 8, -5

R. Hale 7, 15, -8

Statistics don't tell the whole story, but they have some value, anyway.

[jk]

It's interesting that a look at the statistics tempers my view on some players. As an example, I tend to get down on Massen more than Canady or Connelly because I expect more from him, but it would be unfair to be too disappointed with Massen when he obviously stepped up this year. Of course, he still needs to take it to another level next year.

Bochenski 43 games, 35-27-62: Sometimes I get disappointed with his play, but that is so silly considering the guy scored 35 goals this year. The thing that I saw early in the year that was missing later was his ability to control the puck under heavy pressure. I remember him coming out of the corner with the puck glued to his stick, while being checked and hacked the whole way. Later it seemed like the hacks successfully removed the puck from his control. Maybe the hackers just took stronger swings later in the year.

Parise 39 games, 26-35-61: How's this? Hrkac 1984-85 36 games, 18-36-54. Preseason comparisons to Hrkac bothered me, but they are fair enough to make now. Zach far exceeded my expectations with his play this year. I'm not sure why the production faded later in the year, but he had an amazing year for a true freshman. IMO, the reason he seemed less dominant later is that his game is to move the puck. Many times, Parise's puck possession on the forecheck consisted of a one-touch pass to a teammate with more space. He usually makes the right play in those circumstances; if the right play is to keep the puck because there's no room to pass, then he keeps the puck. A pretty good comparison to me would be Kevin Garnett's complete game (sorry for polluting the board with bounceyball). Zach obviously has a super head for the game, nice vision, great hands and plenty of grit. He's not fast enough right now, which is interesting because Hrkac had the same issue. He needs to be stronger as well, which I'm sure he'll work on over the summer.

Lundbohm, 43 games, 15-37-52. Had a fine year, with a lot more consistency than in the past. His occasional stunning moves left me expecting to see them more often. Picked up a lot of points by being on the point on the PP. Does fine there, but is a defensive liability on SH rushes the other way (Fylling has the same problem). He must be the most sluggish-looking skater I've ever seen, but he gets there. (This is funny because Whitey was fast and looked it.) Still, he was a big question mark for me before the year and really stepped forward.

Schneider, 43 games, 11-30-41. To me, to take the view that UND needs an offensive defenseman, you have to crane your neck to see around one that's standing right in front of you. Sure, he's not as slick on the move as Murphy was, but then who is? He doesn't possess the unearthly calm with the puck that Roche has, but who does? But he just had a stunning offensive season:

Preissing 42 games, 52 points

Ballard 43, 41

Schneider 43, 41

P. Martin 43, 39

MacKenzie 41, 32

Plus he did that while being better defensively than Murphy or Williamson. I have no problems with Schneider being on the PP point for the next two years.

More on other players later.

[flatspin7]

I read that a lot of you were concerned about Brandt. Will he be your boy next year or ar you going to go shopping. The few times I did see him play he made some really good plays (thurday game of the Final Five). Can he mature or will the summer hours of work help him?

Parise: not ripping on him here BTW, but what happend in the playoffs, have teams figured out how to shut him down, or is there something else going on? I was suprised to see he didn't do better, I really expected to see him put up some points this last weekend.

On a positive note, Greene looks tobe a large guy who has some potential, if he stays out of he box. I would bet if Greene chose his actions a little more carefully he will become a force most teams would not like to go up against.

WPoS

As for the goaltending I think right now the starting Job next year is Brandt's to loose, but if one of the new guys comes in with his hair on fire (sorry bad expression) Brandt will be on the bench before he realizes that he sitting.

About Parise. Give the guy a break. Hes a 18 year old true freshman that put up 61 points in 39 games! Yeah his production slowed at the end of the season, but it was his first college season. I'd like to see anyone get ridden like Zach did and produce a 60+ point season. Give him a summer to build some muscle and mature a bit and he will be back next year and im sure he will be fun to watch. I know people had high expectations for him but if it was any other player no one would complain about a 61 point freshman season right out of high school.

And now for Greene. Greene likes to throw the body around! At the start of the season he took a lot of penalties for trying to play like was still in the USHL,and this got the refs attention. (Thats all I will say about that) Toward the end of the season he started to learn how not to get in the box. He will keep getting better and better.

[Greyeagle]

An outsiders perspective.

As Parise adds strength he will be just fine. It's unbeleivable what he was asked to do this year and how well he did it. He has an amazing ability to get open for a shot, even when he's being keyed on. In that aspect, he reminds me a lot of Brett Hull. He somehow slips into a small openig and bang - pulls the trigger. It's even more amazing when you consider everyone on the ice is looking for him.

[The Sicatoka]

OK, roll the calendar back about a year.

UND at that time:

16-19-2, 11-15-2

WCHA Regular Season: T6

WCHA Playoff Seed: 8

Season ended: OT loss, WCHA 1st round

UND currently:

26-12-5, 14-9-5

WCHA Regular Season: 4

WCHA Playoff Seed: 4

Season ended: NCAA 1st round

Coming into this season, what were the expectations? A winning record at home? Home ice? Maaaaybe an NCAA bid?

Winning record at home? Check.

Home ice? Check.

NCAA bid? Maybe surprisingly, check.

The fast start (21-2-3) may have deluded many of us. But where is the team right now? About where many of us were predicting (back in August) they'd be.

Do I like the way the second half played out? Not really. But I'm also hopeful that it's not sitting well with some of the guys.

I know a couple guys that I'm expecting to, and if I was in position to I'd be demanding that they, stand up and say "Follow me!" next year. This team seemed to lack the ability to deliver the blow that would put an opponent down for good. They could get the opponent down, but not finish them off (for example, not getting the goal to go up three, or a late one in a one goal game to make it two). I saw one "death blow," a "you're not coming back, you're done" blow, delivered to an opponent, when it was needed, all season. (Hint: Start of a 3rd period at Wisconsin.) You need goals like those. Those come from leaders who plain old refuse to lose, and who can do something about it. I liked that flash.

This season is in the books. These guys now need to go and use the mirrors and decide if they are happy with the outcome and what they are going to do about it.

The time for patience is now officially over.

[streakygopher]

Never flown there, but drove there twice.

I am, admittedly, perhaps too hard on Biggie Fry. I just need to cool down from another frustrating loss. I was really looking forward to the biggest Sioux-Gopher clash since March 24, 1979. You remember. Jimmy Carter was president. It was the l ast Gopher title, ever, won with solely Minnesota kids. Glad to see that the Gophers are finally recruiting "outside" talent. It was sadly needed for the Gophers to step up into North Dakota's class. Potulny. Vanek.

Maybe someday soon the Gophers will again be able to draw the best in-state talent to their squad as well. Parise is not an apparition. He will become the rule, rather than the exception.

There are many fine Gopher fans. You are obviously one of them. Good luck tonight, although I will be cheering for the Bulldogs. I trust that you will cheer for Ferris over Mankato at the Frozen Four?

NorthDakotaHockey--

Don't start that tired old bullcrap about the all-Minnesota teams. You failed to mention that those teams were 100% true-to-class aged kids (in other words, freshmen came straight from highschool). If anything, your slight on the program really proves its worth. Who else in the country might have had any success at all with all in-state kids coming in as true freshmen? NoDak wouldn't even field a D1 team. I don't want to get into a tedious discussion on this topic...it goes round and round. And, don't forget, many of the same Minnesota kids you're so quick to criticize have helped many, many NoDak teams win championships over the years.

For the record, North Dakota has a great hockey tradition. So does Minnesota. They both have great coaching. They both have loyal fans. They both have a handful of obnoxious fans. They both play in the WCHA. If this year's situation were reversed, I'd be cheering for the Sioux.

I saw NoDak lose to Ferris. I saw one Gopher fan around me cheer for a Ferris goal. I wasn't cheering, but I wanted Ferris to win. Why? Because I think North Dakota would get up to play against Minnesota and, therefore, represented a bigger threat.

[mksioux]

Thank you!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I find it rather embarrassing how obsessed some of our fans are with the Gophers. You guys who always have to make comments about them are making UND fans in general look very bad. They're our neighbors, what's wrong with cheering for them when they're playing anybody but us? I hope they represent the WCHA well by becoming the first team in over 30 years to repeat.

Since UND's season is over... Go Gophers!!!

DaveK - Since you are both a Sioux and Gopher fan, I hope your "embarrassment" runs both ways. Most Gopher fans I observed on Friday were either staying on the fence or rooting for Ferris. I know there's talk on this board from Sioux and Gopher fans about cheering for WCHA schools when you're team is done, but from my first-hand (and somewhat biased) perspective, I hardly ever see Gopher fans cheering for the Sioux...especially the last couple weekends. So I don't see what the big deal is if Sioux fans choose to cheer for the Gopher opponents. Personally, I won't cheer for them or against them, but I certainly am not going to be "embarrassed" if Sioux fans cheer for someone other than the Gophers. I would expect nothing different if the roles were reversed.

PCM - Heck, the Gopher fans don't even need their team to be in the tank to bash the Sioux and their fans.

I'm not trying to be a cry-baby just because Gopher fans don't cheer for the Sioux, but I just think it's a bit hypocritical to expect Sioux fans to cheer for the Gophers once we're done.

[Greyeagle]

PCM - Some of us bash individual Sioux fans unintentially.

It always surprises me when fans take it personally if a MN fans don't cheer for UND or UND fans don't cheer for MN. Big flippin' deeal. I don't like it when rain spoils a tee time, but there's not much I can do about it so why worry?

And speaking of tee-times.......

[DAR]

I am sure UND will continue to be very competitive in getting recruits from Minnesota. Parise, Bochenski, and Smaby are all players that Minnesota recruited hard and they chose UND. Just because a player grows up in Minnesota does not mean they "dream" of playing for the U. UND has always done well in recruiting Minnesota kids and I bet will continue to do so.

[flatspin7]

Opinions change.

I have more than a few friends up here at UND that grew up in the cities and were die hard Gopher fans, and swore that they would never ever pull for or go to UND. Well the same thing applys to hockey players too, I bet if you spoke to Bochenski or Parise they grew up Gopher fans yet they ended up here.

On another note I seems wierd that I have never seen a DI hockey player from Fargo. There are players from Grand Forks, Minot and Bismarck around. Unless they leave play for the USHL and don't admit that they're from Fargo (Understandable) You would think that there would be 1 or 2 players a year that could go DI somewhere.

[kr]

Brian Williams 1982-1986 is the last Fargo player for UND that I recall.