Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

Spells that one out. The tools are all here and in place, this needs to be a big year.

So, if things fall the right way, are we looking at a top 4 finish in the CCHA this season and hopefully a trip to "The Joe"? Pardon my ignorance. I follow our hockey squad, but it's pretty much from a W's and L's perspective. Based on where we finished last year, and where we had a chance to finish, I wouldn't think top 4 is out of the realm of possibilities for this upcoming season. Please drop some knowledge on me. Are my expectations too high?

I certainly hope so. When you look at what MSU and Miami lost to graduation and early departures there is a shot at a trip to the Joe. The team that concerns me is Northern Michigan. They started slow last year but finished strong. In my opinion they were the best team at Joe Louis last year.

Sounds like Paluch realizes what his team needs to be succesfull and is putting some pieces in place. Getting bigger will help us not get so worn down when we are playing the Michigans ,ND's, MSUs in our league over and over again.

This looks like the second year in a row that we've had a really good recruiting class. Hopefully we can make a run at the top 4, and if it's not this year maybe the next year. It's hard to compete with teams like Michigan and Michigan State when it comes to recruiting. It does seem like we're doing decent compared to them given the fact that we don't pull kids out of the NTDP(with the exception of Brennan Vargas) and can't recruit the top kids in Michigan the way that they can.