Saturday Morning Coffee

For those of you who might be interested in following the blog's activity via mainstream social media, TOE now has a Facebook page. Give it a "Like" if you like. Of course, the blog has had a Twitter feed for a little over a year now, so if you are more of the Twitter ilk you can give us a follow over there as well. Anyway, enough of the small talk. Here are a handful of links for your Saturday morning:

• The North Dakota women did not start the regular season the way they would have liked last night. Expect them to bounce back with a strong effort this afternoon.
• The North Dakota men will hit the ice for the first time this season when they take on the University of Manitoba tonight at REA. Being that it is an exhibition game UND can dress as many players as it wants, so expect to see plenty of new faces in the lineup.
• I came across an interesting nugget while perusing some statistics this morning. 40 different collegians reached the 40 point plateau in men's hockey last year, and of those 40, 18 will be returning for the 2012-13 season. 11 of the 18 returnees play in the WCHA, and only two teams in the nation return more than one such player. Minnesota has four (Haula, Rau, Bjugstad, Schmidt) while North Dakota has two (Danny Kristo and Corban Knight).   
• The AHL regular season kicks off next week, and former Sioux Brock Nelson expects to play a bigger game for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
• Former Sioux Cary Eades led his Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL) to a win in their home opener last night, and The Argus Leader published a very nice feature on the Stampede's new head coach.
• Hockey's Future took a look at UND recruit and Grand Forks native Paul LaDue's development into a defenseman with NHL potential.
• North Dakota recruits Luke Johnson and Keaton Thompson both participated in last weekend's CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo, NY. McKeen's Hockey offered up a sampling of individual performance reviews, and both Johnson and Thompson were included. Read about Johnson here, and Thompson here. Russ Bitely also featured Johnson in his look back at the game.