Duluth East vs Hermantown or Marshall, Why Not?

[Winter is Coming]

Cloquet folks laugh at the idiocy that runs East. They could have the greatest rivalry weekend in the state and have a sell out at the big rink downtown, but East is afraid to lose to A programs. I know because I talked with the AD. Twice.

Uh-huh. This is the part where we just believe you, right?

Lee

Afraid to play them might be a bit strong. The issue is where do you draw the line at when it comes down to playing A games as an AA team? Sure, in most of the recent years (not this year but the ones before it) a Duluth East V Hermantown game would have been worth paying to see. It would have been good. The problem is that East has to schedule the games ahead of time and once they start to play them they about have to continue to play them. This year East would have destroyed Hermantown. Hermantown lacked depth at D, had problems at goal tending and had one good front line. Good enough to get through the A ranks where you can protect your goalies, play a good D-man for most of the game and get away with it. You can't do that with East. So 3 years ago when they would have played it would have been a good learning experience for both teams. Good hockey. Last year it would have been a pretty good game again. Same issues in some places but more depth and more skill so a game with benefits. This year, a waste of time for East to play. I can't say that I know what Hermantown has coming up so I can't talk abuot next year but I doubt that unless Bruce can expand the crap out of the 55811 zip code or if there just "happens to be" a couple of good move in kids coming in (he already is on record saying his goaltending is going to be an issue since the kid is 5"5" and you just can't play AA with that) that they will be a good enough team to go toe to toe with East. I might be wrong but probably am not. So, Randolph plays Hermantown, does he play Superior too? They did beat Hermantown last year and I think gave them a good game this year. Where does it end? East does not have the luxury of being a AAA team where they play 50 or 60 games a year so they can throw away a few just to throw the locals a bone. Randolph has to sit down and look at his few number of allowed games and map out a plan so that when he gets to sections and to state that he is up to speed. We see how far scheduling a bunch of cupcakes and then walking around bragging about blowing them out goes, not very far when it really matters and you run into sombody who can get down and dirty with you. He has to get ready for both Elk River and Grand Rapids who is going to be good looking at what they have coming back next year and blowing out A level teams is not part of his plan I suspect. I have to confess though that I have not talked to him or the AD so I might be wrong.

[Froggy Richards]

Cloquet folks laugh at the idiocy that runs East. They could have the greatest rivalry weekend in the state and have a sell out at the big rink downtown, but East is afraid to lose to A programs. I know because I talked with the AD. Twice.

Uh-huh. This is the part where we just believe you, right?

Lee

Afraid to play them might be a bit strong. The issue is where do you draw the line at when it comes down to playing A games as an AA team? Sure, in most of the recent years (not this year but the ones before it) a Duluth East V Hermantown game would have been worth paying to see. It would have been good. The problem is that East has to schedule the games ahead of time and once they start to play them they about have to continue to play them. This year East would have destroyed Hermantown. Hermantown lacked depth at D, had problems at goal tending and had one good front line. Good enough to get through the A ranks where you can protect your goalies, play a good D-man for most of the game and get away with it. You can't do that with East. So 3 years ago when they would have played it would have been a good learning experience for both teams. Good hockey. Last year it would have been a pretty good game again. Same issues in some places but more depth and more skill so a game with benefits. This year, a waste of time for East to play. I can't say that I know what Hermantown has coming up so I can't talk abuot next year but I doubt that unless Bruce can expand the crap out of the 55811 zip code or if there just "happens to be" a couple of good move in kids coming in (he already is on record saying his goaltending is going to be an issue since the kid is 5"5" and you just can't play AA with that) that they will be a good enough team to go toe to toe with East. I might be wrong but probably am not. So, Randolph plays Hermantown, does he play Superior too? They did beat Hermantown last year and I think gave them a good game this year. Where does it end? East does not have the luxury of being a AAA team where they play 50 or 60 games a year so they can throw away a few just to throw the locals a bone. Randolph has to sit down and look at his few number of allowed games and map out a plan so that when he gets to sections and to state that he is up to speed. We see how far scheduling a bunch of cupcakes and then walking around bragging about blowing them out goes, not very far when it really matters and you run into sombody who can get down and dirty with you. He has to get ready for both Elk River and Grand Rapids who is going to be good looking at what they have coming back next year and blowing out A level teams is not part of his plan I suspect. I have to confess though that I have not talked to him or the AD so I might be wrong.

Good points Winter, Hermantown was down this year. Looking at their lower levels though and the fact that they will be able to take more open enrollments in a couple of years I think they get to a point soon where they don't have any down years.

Just one correction, East already plays Superior every year. Denfeld also. So they do schedule some A teams.