Sunday, February 08, 2009

Sunday Potpourri: Suspended Edition

With a personal internet histoy much acclimated to suspension for various fan forum violations and the recently announced suspensions on the UAA team for curfew violations there is little choice but for me ride that synergistic horse here on my Sunday drive. At least for the title and picture anyway.

Before the weekend I mentioned how important 4 points was for the team to have a sniff of a chance at a home ice spot. Did Friday's loss pretty much seal the deal? With 18 points and only 12 more available getting into the 27-30 point range for home ice would take an pretty unusual winning streak for the Seawolves and cooperatively feeble play by everyone else. I'm not saying it couldn't happen; nothing I'd like better than to see UAA put together a run of points that gets them close.

So the suspensions ... what's up with all that? Here's the best I could glean from rumor since little has been said by the Uni: 15 players have each been suspended for one game each for violating a 1am curfew on Saturday night in Denver. There is speculation about earlier infractions that went unpunished ... and so on. The most important thing at this point is that the team pull together. The infringing players should take the opportunity to watch their game from the stands and decide how they'll impact the game positively when they get back on the ice. The infractions are in the past. The punishment is the present. The positive results are the future. Right? Right.

In the last 8 games the Seawolves have a 3-3-2 record. UAA's next opponent has gone 2-6-0 over the same number of games. For this week it's best for Seawolf fans to pretty much ignore anything you read on the internet from 99% of the Gopher faithful. They'll be all about inflating their team's chances against the bottom-dwellers by saying crap like, "UAA is easily beatable" and such. Don't think for a second though that any Gopher player or their coaching staff has those thoughts. They'll be preparing their varmint assess off.

It would be ridiculous to think a team that is 3 points behind you in the standings wasn't a threat to take points on your home rink. Winning at the Mariucci isn't necessarily an every year thing for UAA but it isn't anything new either. Donnie will have his team ready to play. The Seawolves better expect that they'll have to play 120 minutes of hockey like the last 40 from Saturday night. The Gophers have got to be hungry they've lost 7 out of their last 10 league games. Their NCAA hopes are greatly diminished. This is an unacceptable situation in a year when they are hosting an NCAA regional.

I'll have something up Monday evening/night talking about some of the good things that I think I saw this weekend from this and that player.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Friday night really scares me in minnesota and Donald hit it right on the head. Minnesota will be coming out with Blood in there eyes as both Luchia and Hill have personal feelings towards losing to UAA. There is also unbelievable Heat in the press especially on there Goaltending and it has been brought out that they are 3 points out of 9th place. For us to have a chance we have to get at Kangas early. While very highly regarded the other Goalie Patterson has barely played because the jump from the USHL is a big one and he is like the Mich Tech Goalie Robinson is still a freshman and hasnt done anything at the WCHA level coming out of the best Junior League in the Country. Kangas is struggling big time so we might get Patterson so its my Guess we could split and we have to get points down there. Friday night scares the Shit out of me and believe me Minnesota will come out of the Gate so we have to be READY the first 10 minutes or we could have big big Problems.

Donald Dunlop said...

Coming out of the gate fast has definitely been a strength of the Gophers last year and this year. It seems though that the longer a team stays with them that the less the Gophs are able to impose themselves on them.

Wisconsin won the battles within 15ft of the goal mouth. UAA has to get the puck to the net and find the little rebounds and bounces that inevitably come. As as you say ... the Seawolves better be ready the first 10 minutes.

Anonymous said...

I will be there any other uaa fans comming?

Anonymous said...

Hey Streak buster AA coming in next weekend.

Anonymous said...

UAA has a decent chance at a split, though I think this is the absolute worst time to play Minnesota for them. Given the Gophers lack of a scoring touch and the style that has beaten them in recent weeks I see a split coming. Though if the Gophers top dogs get back to their scoring ways it will be a sweep.

Anonymous said...

Kevin Clark's parents always come from winnipeg to watch him in minnestoa, kevin always plays well at minni.
Best of luck to the team.

Seawolfe Fan

Anonymous said...

Gophers Defense hasn't been good and Kangas has not been sharp either. UAA's big forwards will cause the Gophers problems if we decide to get in front of the net and play aggressive along the boards.

Anonymous said...

who actually writes that link? we come out prepared and ready to go friday night we win. we have superior size and in depth, we cycle the puck, get to the puck first, wins face-offs, our goailes continue there hot-streak, our defenseman stick to there man, take shots(quality shots)/d takes shots deep and hope we get juicy rebounds, screen kangas, a little puck luck we sweep.

Anonymous said...

mistake me if im wrong but isnt that BRUSH at the skate with the seawolves pics on the goseawolves.com? whose jersey was it?

Anonymous said...

Donald - How sure are we that Joe Giordano is a Seawolf recruit? I have not seen his name on Chris Heisenberg's list. As we well know, he is only 99.9% accurate.

Anonymous said...

The picture is John Olthuis.

Anonymous said...

Don't you know how to spell his name????? his name is spelled Jon Olthuis.

Anonymous said...

The gophers will come out strong after getting swept 3 of the last 4 weekends, i think they have learned by now never to take any oppenent for granted even some ppl. might think there not as good of a team. The real question is who will between the pipes for mn.

Anonymous said...

Brush was there wearing "his sweater" # 79

Donald Dunlop said...

That's awesome that Brush was there. Good on him for that.

Re Joe Giordano:
My source on that particular recruit was what I'd consider as good as one could get. Chris Heisenberg is waiting for confirmation beyond that source. I'm not waiting. I'm not saying that there is any particular chance that I'm wrong but ... well you know.

I'm sure enough to have him on my list.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Donald for the info. on Joe Giordano. That's good enough for me. I hope he continues to grow as a player! We will look forward to seeing him in a Seawolf sweater in the near future...

Donald Dunlop said...

I would expect I'll have a chance to do a "recruit update" within the next couple of weeks and then another after Junior season is over which means after the RBC Cup since Lee Baldwins's team is hosting.

Anonymous said...

Spencer Bennett from Surrey (BCHL) to the Seawolves in 2010-2011. A BIG 6'3 185 pounder. Nice addition to the team!

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's great to see these early recruits.

Anonymous said...

Talk about building for the future! Great job coaches!
Really looking forward to seeing these guys on the ice.
Go Seawolves.

Anonymous said...

Let's see how stong our team finishes, we will only get top recruits if we support our current team. If we finnish stong and our team improves, recruits will be easy to get.

Seawolfe Fan

Anonymous said...

uaa always play well in minnesota, hopefully the freshman will not be intimated like they were in North Dakota.
Go uaa
Fan

Anonymous said...

If the freshmen were intimidated at UND, they didn't show it. We won down there, and that is not a usual occurrance.

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