When a player goes down or is missing from the lineup, the next player on the roster is up. Hence, next man up. On Saturday, UND freshman forward Tyson Jost left Grand Forks to join his teammates on the Canadian World Junior Championship team. The next man up was sophomore forward Mike Gornall. Jost’s absence from the lineup on Saturday was obvious. Coach Berry wasn’t pleased with the performance of the guys that were in the lineup.
“(Hockey Canada) they wanted all their guys (on Saturday),” Berry said. “Tyson (Jost) has been a hard-working ambassador for our program. “When they have their 32-man roster come in, that’s what it is. Again, it’s not about the guys that are not in our lineup. It’s about the guys in our lineup. We have 26 guys that can play at our level and we didn’t get the job done tonight.”
The players weren’t making excuses for their performance either.
“The mentality here at the North Dakota is the next man up,” junior defenseman Tucker Poolman explained. “No excuses and find a way to get it done. It’s not an excuse for us. We should have found a way to get it done.”
The highly skilled Jost won’t return to the Fighting Hawks until Canada is finished with their WJC run. Looking at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship schedule, that’s January 5, 2017. UND was already missing sophomore forward Brock Boeser due to a wrist injury, he’s also set to join team USA’s WJC team. Looking at the WJC schedule and UND’s schedule, there’s a very good possibility that Jost and Boeser won’t be back until the series against Miami.
Rumors, Rumors, Rumors
While fake news sources are a hot topic, I want to mention something. Every once in a while a rumor will surface, that’s the beauty and the danger of the Internet. Here’s my advice, don’t believe everything that you see in print on the Internet. There are a lot of trolls out there yanking chains. Also, here’s my question: who’s putting out said rumor? If the rumor isn’t sourced by someone other than an anonymous source be very skeptical. Moreover, there are times when sources get it wrong, too. My advice, again, be very skeptical.
Finally, Boeser isn’t going anywhere but to the 2017 World Junior Hockey Championship. No, he’s not going to sign with the Vancouver Canucks and have surgery.
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