A few ponderings thus far and the DU series (RW77)

Whew...

Life's not been as good to me as of late in terms of being able to catch UND games live. However, I have watched a few games over the webcast and NHL Network re-airings and I have a few comments and wish to bring to the blog the argument Goon and I have over what wins more games: Shut down goaltending and an at least responsible team defense or Shut down Team D and a goaltender that makes all the saves he should.

First off, though, the hit. Brad Malone's hit on Jesse Martin is subject to debate. Yes, I see both sides of the argument. However, if they were going to make a call, Charging was the correct one to make. Unlike other buffoons wearing the stripes, this call actually is somewhat close to what actually occurred. I've seen major penalties called for elbowing or contact to the head-roughing when they weren't even remotely true, but in this case, I can see the case for the call. This hit reminded me a LOT of the hit last year on Toews by Vancouver's Willie Mitchell. However, after watching the replay, Malone only makes a passing attempt to play the puck. I think that is what got him the call. When the hit is made, it is basically Malone hitting Martin half-way between his belly button and his side (sorry my descriptions aren't so good). Malone was in the process of changing directions due to an anticipated change in the direction of the puck or a reaction to it having already occurred. If it is the latter, then it was absolutely a penalty because Martin no longer had the puck.

The biggest problem is that this hit took place so fast. It is a problem being faced in pretty much every popular sport at every level. I'm not sure this hit would be this severe 10-15 years ago. I just don't think the players back then were as fast, big, and hard hitting back then. Usually, players back then were one of those three, or even two of the three. But you rarely, in my opinion, saw a fast, big winger. Nowadays, they're all over the place (so yeah, put Brad Malone at this age in the early 90s and I think he would have been a higher draft pick).

I expect that Malone will get a 1 game suspension because of this hit. Then again, he is a feisty winger that has a history with getting under the officials' skins. Unlike professional officials, they do hold grudges from year to year (see Greene, Matt and Commodore, Mike) so it would not surprise me if Head Idiot Greg Shepherd gives Malone a weekend off.

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Anyways, to the debate. Eidsness has had a rather rough start. I'm not going to make excuses for his poor play. However, I'm not going to throw him under the bus just yet either.

Goon (who can correct this if I misunderstood him) feels that, in order for the Sioux to win #8, we need a shut down goaltender. He maintains that he Sioux doesn't have one of those. Just a sloppy, but drafted goaltender and a backup who turned down fierce and feisty competition from Quinnipiac to join UND (Dell). If I understand him correctly, the debacles vs. Maine and vs. UAA were mostly on Eidsness.

I disagreed with him. I believe that the game is won or lost by the play of the entire team. This means, a good and consistent offense mixed in with a great team defense can cover up and fully compensate for the fact that the goaltender isn't the second coming of Eddie Belfour. Here's my reasoning: Assuming we bury the chances we get most of the time, a solid Team Defense will eliminate most of the high-success-rate scoring chances the opposition gets and eliminate a lot of shots being sent towards the net through back checking, puck possession, and shot blocking. Therefore, the goaltender need only make saves on whatever manages to get through. This would explain why so many goaltenders have won it all or have gotten close. For example, Gudbranson of UW isn't that great of a goaltender yet UW went all the way to the NC game. Fleury was very inconsistent as a goaltender yet Pittsburgh won the Cup a few years back. Osgood isn't that great of a goaltender (I don't give a damn what the stats say) yet he has 3 Stanley Cup rings. What won it all was a consistent offense and a dominating team defense.

Unashamedly, I do like Eidsness, but I'm a solid believer that it is the team that wins or loses games, not an individual player, even if that player contributes to what would undoubtedly be the game winning event for the opposition.

What do you all think?

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In any case, a Split with DU was where I thought we'd be after this weekend was over. Brittain will grow into a thorn in UND (and the rest of the WCHA) hide.

And I do sincerely hope that Jesse Martin is ok.

Pioneers 3 - Sioux 0 - No Dasher Dancing tonight.

I re-watched the game from the Malone hit on and UND out played DU all weekend long and the Pioneers freshman goaltender stole the show for the Pioneers tonight. While UND played good this weekend the Fighting Sioux have a lot of hard work to do to get better and make a run towards the title this season. Say what you want about George Gwozdeky while he might come across to Sioux fans as an arrogant and pompous prick that has the WCHA officials in his back pocket, George is a hell of a coach and he has out coach UND Fighting Sioux head hockey coach Dave Hakstol once again. While the Goaltending was OK tonight, the defense made mistakes a key times that cost the Fighting Sioux.

Good hockey teams and coaches make adjustments and move on and in this case the Sioux made adjustments, however, so did the opposition. Denver reminds me of Cornell University and when they get the lead they clamp it down and play the trap. Denver did the same thing tonight, they lined up on the blue line and made it difficult to get across into the offensive zone.

Buffoon’s in stripes

Edit: Thanks to Whistler for correcting me on the officials for last night's game. None the less, I really had it with the refs in this league, they really are the worst of the worst, a perpetual gong show or a buffoonery in action. Last night Brian Thul, Tom Sterns had a bad night and should sit for their effort this weekend. This crew is almost as bad as the clown Zelkin that was on the ice for the screw job in the mile high city last November. Here is your text book definition of a buffoon.

A clown; a jester: a court buffoon.
2. A person given to clowning and joking.
3. A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.

The refs in this league have to be more accountable and do a better job, the fans and the member schools must demand better before the refs will get better. At the tail end of the game there were many obvious infractions that should have been called penalties that would have given the Sioux the power play. The blatant missed penalty/call on Zucker at the end of the first period was a blatant spear on the Fighting Sioux defenseman Chay Genoway and should have given the Fighting Sioux a 5 minute major power play. Obviously the first two minutes would have been negated by Hextall’s moment of stupidity where he took an ill advised roughing penalty on Pioneer defenseman/hack John Lee.

More on the hit

Here is what resident Sioux hater Denver Post beat writer Mike Chambers had to say about the Malone hit, notice that there is no indication from Chambers that he thought the hit was malicious or dirty, trust me he would have said so if thought the hit was dirty. [click to watch the video]

Denver Post --- DU senior center Jesse Martin has just been wheeled off the ice in a stretcher after being hit by North Dakota senior Brad Malone, an Avalanche draft pick.

Malone crushed Martin parallel to the boards, as Martin was trying to skate the puck up ice, out of the defensive zone. He had his head down. No penalty was immediately called, but while emergency crews prepped Martin for the stretcher, officials gave Malone a 5-major for charging and game misconduct.

UPDATE: Martin was unconscious and did not have use of his extremities while on the ice, but regained feeling in his arms and legs while on the stretcher and en route to Altru Heath Systems in Grand Forks and was admitted for precautionary reasons.

Just for the record I am glad that Martin will be OK and that his is not seriously hurt, no one wants to see the opposition get hurt in a hockey game. The fact remains that just because someone gets hurt on a legal check doesn't mean that officials have to call a penalty. The refs in my opinion made the wrong call.

Sioux 0 - DU 2

This is the latest goal to be waved off by the refs this season. There is no reason this goal should have been waved off. Horrible call by the officials, the sad part is that Shepherd and Hunt are the best of the worst. I was wondering if someone had broke a mirror in the UND locker room. UND took it to DU all night and came out with nothing to show for. Here is how bad it is, 0-28 on the power play, 4 goals in the last four games. Here is the post game comments. [Click to listen]

UND lines for tonight.

UND Fighting Sioux hockey beat writer Brad Schlossman has the lines posted for tonight's games. Aaron Dell in net for the Sioux. Wouldn't you know it we have Derek Shepherd and Marco Hunt as the officials. There is good possibility we won't see a one sided officiated game either way. While the officials in this league are not good Shepherd and Marco are the best of the worst.

UND's lines

17 Jason Gregoire--29 Chris VandeVelde--21 Matt Frattin
19 Evan Trupp--22 Brad Malone--7 Danny Kristo
10 Corban Knight--Darcy Zajac--Carter Rowney
13 Brett Bruneteau--9 Mario Lamoureux--18 David Toews

2 Andrew MacWilliam--24 Ben Blood
3 Derrick LaPoint--25 Jake Marto
4 Corey Fienhage--20 Joe Gleason

32 Aaron Dell
31 Brad Eidsness

Denver's lines

17 Matt Glasser--27 Brandon Vossberg--26 Shawn Ostrow
22 Brian Gifford--23 Drew Shore--11 Chris Knowlton
16 Anthony Maiani--14 Jesse Martin--19 Kyle Ostrow
9 Rhett Rakhshani--15 Tyler Ruegsegger--12 Joe Colborne

4 Matt Donovan--6 Chris Nutini
28 Patrick Wiercioch--5 John Lee
7 Paul Phillips--25 Cody Brookwell

1 Marc Cheverie
33 Adam Murray