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Re: University of North Dakota Hockey: 2011-2012
Some much needed points this past weekend.
I was surprised how poorly CC played defense. They were my pre-season pick to finish atop the WCHA, but I don't see it happening if their goaltending and defense plays the way it did this past weekend. I think UND played much better than they've shown earlier in this season, but I also think some of UND's offensive success was due to some bad defensive lapses by the Tigers.
Some positives that I took away from the weekend:
I thought Danny Kristo played the best defensive hockey of his college career during those two games. He was outstanding. If that continues he will surely be recognized as one of the top 3 players in the country at the end of the year, regardless of any success or lack of success the team has.
It looks like the game might be slowing down a bit for Brock Nelson. His confidence seems much greater and he doesn't appear as rushed with the puck as he did as a freshman, or even the first few games this season. He is also learing to use his long reach to play better defense.
I thought the Sioux did a much better job with short, quick passes to get the puck up the ice and deep in the CC zone. 2nd and 3rd line guys really seemed to be moving their feet all weekend, and it allowed some sustained pressure and kept a dangerous CC team bottled up at times.
I still think we are not doing as good a job taking away opponents time and space on the ice as past Hakstol teams have. With talented offensive players like CC puts out there, I realize there may be a greater tendency to back in a little, but it's one area I think we're going to have to improve if this team wants to make real strides.
Everytime I see Joe Gleason play I like him more. By the time he leaves, he will be a true fan favorite in my opinion.
I stand by my post of 3 weeks ago. I see this team making slow improvement, and starting the climb back to .500 hockey in the league. We need 4 good games against UAA and UNO, certainly no worse than 4 points, and 6 would be great, followed by 3 out of conference wins. It would give this team a nice boost heading into what is always difficult second half of conference play.
On a side note, on Saturday night I sat with some family members in a different section, across from our usual seats. It looked like a young man/recruit was taking in the game with his family. I don't know who it was, but during one of the intermissions I think Grimaldi came up and sat with the recruit, introduced himself, and spent 5-10 minutes chatting him up. Two positives that I noted were that Grimaldi wasn't walking with a limp, at least as far as I could tell, and the young man's father had a bag full of UND clothing, etc..., he had picked up in the Sioux shop.
Some much needed points this past weekend.
I was surprised how poorly CC played defense. They were my pre-season pick to finish atop the WCHA, but I don't see it happening if their goaltending and defense plays the way it did this past weekend. I think UND played much better than they've shown earlier in this season, but I also think some of UND's offensive success was due to some bad defensive lapses by the Tigers.
Some positives that I took away from the weekend:
I thought Danny Kristo played the best defensive hockey of his college career during those two games. He was outstanding. If that continues he will surely be recognized as one of the top 3 players in the country at the end of the year, regardless of any success or lack of success the team has.
It looks like the game might be slowing down a bit for Brock Nelson. His confidence seems much greater and he doesn't appear as rushed with the puck as he did as a freshman, or even the first few games this season. He is also learing to use his long reach to play better defense.
I thought the Sioux did a much better job with short, quick passes to get the puck up the ice and deep in the CC zone. 2nd and 3rd line guys really seemed to be moving their feet all weekend, and it allowed some sustained pressure and kept a dangerous CC team bottled up at times.
I still think we are not doing as good a job taking away opponents time and space on the ice as past Hakstol teams have. With talented offensive players like CC puts out there, I realize there may be a greater tendency to back in a little, but it's one area I think we're going to have to improve if this team wants to make real strides.
Everytime I see Joe Gleason play I like him more. By the time he leaves, he will be a true fan favorite in my opinion.
I stand by my post of 3 weeks ago. I see this team making slow improvement, and starting the climb back to .500 hockey in the league. We need 4 good games against UAA and UNO, certainly no worse than 4 points, and 6 would be great, followed by 3 out of conference wins. It would give this team a nice boost heading into what is always difficult second half of conference play.
On a side note, on Saturday night I sat with some family members in a different section, across from our usual seats. It looked like a young man/recruit was taking in the game with his family. I don't know who it was, but during one of the intermissions I think Grimaldi came up and sat with the recruit, introduced himself, and spent 5-10 minutes chatting him up. Two positives that I noted were that Grimaldi wasn't walking with a limp, at least as far as I could tell, and the young man's father had a bag full of UND clothing, etc..., he had picked up in the Sioux shop.
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