Kevin G

What I want to see this year: Caulfield and Kunz to use their size and be more aggressive. Lots of scorers. Gaber can't be the only offensive threat, and he's better when he's not pressing. Blue-line missiles from Kleven. Don't care where they go. Freshmen and new guys get up to speed quickly. No no-look passes/passes to no one. Four lines of relentless forecheck. Number NINE. So excited...let's GO!

Agreed, though one could argue that without a key faceoff win in the national semifinal game, that team may not have made it to the title game.

Slightly off topic: what's with Pearson's hair? Real or rug?

Apparently so, yet there must be high-dollar donors in the background supporting Pearson. Otherwise Pearson would be gone by now.

My guess is that (a) the administration wants to fire Pearson, but (b) Pearson has dogged support from one or more big donors. If this is the case, Pearson's continued employment at the University of Michigan without a contract makes some sense. There would likely be powerful parties behind the scenes who have so far successfully prevented the administration from completely terminating Pearson. But the AD, University President, or both can slow play the firing while trying to keep the donor(s) on board. The biggest hole in my theory is this: if the AD/administration wants Pearson out, why would they sit on the results of the investigation so long? Leaking the report is their best bet to bring pressure to bear on the stubborn donors to drop their support of Pearson. Perhaps the AD and University President aren't on the same page, or maybe they wanted to get rid of Pearson more quietly, without the details of the investigation becoming public and thereby giving the University of Michigan (another) black eye. In any case, it appears inevitable that Pearson gets the boot before the season begins. UMich probably already has another coach lined up to step in whenever they can pry Pearson out of his office.

Ok that's hilarious.

Mel didn't want him?

Was wondering the same thing today.

Or maybe they could give back to the fans by lowering the price of NCHC.tv?

And what if Hain scores more goals in his super-senior year than Spicer does in his entire college career?

That would be frickin' awesome.

Regarding Spicer, it seems like there are a bunch of factors that have converged to make his decision to leave UND especially impactful. 1. He's a hometown kid. Of course we want hometown kids to play for the hometown team. And when UND has already secured a commitment from that hometown kid, we expect him to ultimately play for UND. So when that kid decommits, of course it feels like something went wrong. So we conclude that someone messed up, that someone is at fault, and that someone should be blamed--the most likely candidates being either the player, the player's advisors, or the head coach. 2. He was on the USNTDP team. Rightly or wrongly, there is an aura attached to players on this team, so losing a USNTDP recruit is especially bitter. 3. Losing Spicer--a potentially talented forward recruit--hurts especially much because UND's past few teams have lacked forwards with high-end scoring ability. 4. Losing Spicer--again, a potentially talented forward--feeds the narrative that Coach Berry can't recruit highly-skilled forwards, not even guys in his own backyard. 5. UND lost Spicer to a rival who has had more success recently (two national championships over the past five years and who beat us in the 5OT game). 6. Whether true or not, it looks like the coaching staff chose blue-collar players (like Senden and Hain) over a player whose ceiling is potentially higher. 7. We as fans have been very disappointed in the outcome of the past five seasons. 8. Finally, because the extra COVID year has distorted the normal flow of players into and out of the program, it looks like the coaching staff made the more comfortable decision to keep players they knew rather than making hard decisions and asking familiar players to leave in order to make room for younger players. If a few of the above factors were absent, then Spicer's defection wouldn't be nearly the talker that it has been. In other words, maybe Spicer electing to leave is both disappointing and not quite as significant as it seems. Also, it seems like most of the mic-drop style comments ignore the complexity of building a roster--from the point of view of the coaching staff and of the recruit.

So appreciate this kind of info.

Or try fan-controlled coaching? I would pay cash money to watch that. (What's the hockey equivalent to a fake punt anyway?)

The sum total of my goalie knowledge: Goalies are weird.

Good for you G!! Talk about a one-of-a-kind! Thanks for sharing the pics, and please let us know where that beauty ends up.

And.....now I'm craving Red Baron pizza.

"Barring overtimes" It is wise of you to account for lacrosse.

Aside from salary considerations, is Omaha a better coaching job than Mankato? IMO, at this point, Mankato>Omaha.

Let's go ahead and win like four in the next five or six years.

Dangit

I really want Mankato to win.

Good period of good hockey.

Is that ref a Binda?

First "twisted wrister" of the night...