AJS

Spring Roster is out. Here is the list of players who were on the 2022 Fall roster who are not on the Spring 2023 roster. Agyekum (So) - DB Coley (Jr) - DB Lennon (Jr) - DL Keech (Jr) - DL Thorsness (Jr) - DL Morrison (Gr) - DL Ledbetter (Fr) - DL Fenelon (5th) - K White (Sr) - LB MVJ (Sr) - LB Kimball (Jr) - LB Cooper (Gr) - LB Lehman (Fr) - LB Krzanowski (5th) - LB Christian (Sr) - OL Weber (So) - OL Neustel (Jr) - OL Oliphant (Gr) - OL Kelzenberg (Fr) - OL Peterson (5th) - P Mitchell (So) - RB Hoosman (Gr) - RB Moe-Tucker (Fr) - RB Steckler (Sr) - TE Zavalney (Jr) - TE Burian (Sr) - WR Preston (Jr) - WR Maag (5th) - WR Guys that I didn't see anything reported on, potential surprises. Agyekum, Lennon, Weber, Kelzenberg, Mitchell.

The feeling is night and day different from where we were following the SDSU game. I really do feel good about the direction regardless of how they do in the tournament. Good point about keeping players though. On one hand, are there special situations / opportunities? BJ might have that. I would consider, IF he gets a chance to go to the UofM to be something you wouldn't blame him for taking that opportunity. On the other, nobody else that has previously left (Rebraca being the exception) leveled up to the point that would make sense to leave. Three years in a row of losing your best Freshman would absolutely be a trend. I will say, the difference this year would be, I like the rotation they have right now and only Danielson is gone for sure. Let's say you lose one but keep everyone else. That's still a win for me.

Hedquist is having another strong year in net for Aberni Valley. 2.78 GAA (7th in BCHL) // Last year 2.53 GAA .913 SV% (9th in BCHL) // Last year .909 SV% Hedquist has been solid for the past two years. Consistent. Hoping the plan is to bring him in next year. Have him compete for the starting job with a transfer goalie.

This year has been disappointing on so many levels. What I'll say is one of the things that is uniquely disappointing about this year is let's call it development for a handful of young, talented players. There are four underclassman all talented, that at different points in this season have been buried. Either scratched completely for large portions of the season or play so few minutes where the games played is deceiving. I hope they don't, but I wouldn't blame any of the four for transferring out. This has been a year of lost development. My personal opinion, and it's been something that has been frustrating to watch. Let's use #6 as it's the most obvious example. It would be one thing if the other 6 (or 7) defenseman were lights out. This is the same for the Forward group as well. There are a handful of locks in the line-up that I cannot believe are. The inconsistency is crazy to me. Player X makes a mistake and sits for the rest of the game, player Y makes the same mistake and doesn't miss a shift. Then makes it again. Also, the mismanagement of the Goalie situation when there's only one legitimate D1 goalie on the roster was insane. Remember when DeRidder didn't play at all when Western was in town? For me, not just the wins and losses. This has been a really bad season on so many levels.

There isn’t a coach on this planet that loves mediocre 5th year / Seniors more. The more average (or preferably) below average the better. He cannot wait to get 13 back for his 5th year! Culture!

If I'm misremembering this, please correct me. The first year Berry missed the playoffs, the rhetoric from the media was every run has to come to an end. Just won a National Championship, the program had just made 16 straight tournament appearances. What was the spin the second year? Why I use the word spin, is I'm already seeing a lot of, just won three straight regular season titles being used as a crutch to follow this year's disaster. Schlossman is as good as it gets, but we also know he's not going to ask the hard questions. We also know the radio / tv guys will not either. Berry does not have to worry about the media. I've tuned out Berry, because I find his interviews to be a whole lot of nothing and that just adds to the frustration. My question though, is does anyone recall any type of interview that Berry gave after the previous two times his teams missed the playoffs where he gave any sort of "we need to figure out what's not working" type of statement? "We need to get better at this position" type of deal? What I've always liked about Bubba (Football Coach) and his interviews is he's very transparent. It feels to me anyway that he's on the same page as the fan. He doesn't call out anyone individually, but he says what everyone else already knows. "We need to improve in these areas". I've never gotten that feeling from Berry. I would feel better if I felt Berry "got it". I'm not sure he does though.

Completely agree. As much as (rightfully so) the defense / goaltending has gotten much of the blame, too often there have been nights like last night where they’ve struggled to put the puck in the net. It’s one of those years where if it’s not one thing it’s another.

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Don't have a year where you have a positional group where you don't have a single player ready to come in. I don't think the ridiculousness of that truly resonates with everyone. You're the coach of UND, having two high level defensive recruits in a Freshman class shouldn't be hard. What happens now? You have to go back to the portal this upcoming offseason, because you can't have X amount of Freshman on defense.

I don't disagree with anything you said in the first two paragraphs. I do think the important distinction that you do point out is this year has been different than the two previous where they missed the playoffs. Where we might disagree, is I think Berry is an average coach. With UND's advantages, missing the playoffs (regardless of the reasons) 3 times in 7 years is concerning. You won't hear me ever talk negatively about recruiting (outside of the frustration with the head-to-head with Minnesota), because I think that's still been fine. Given UND's advantages, you should be able to recruit well. As to who I think would do better. To me the clear-cut favorite would be Brett Larson. What he's done at St. Cloud, given his resources has been incredible. Staffs in the NCHC that are better in my opinion, but probably wouldn't be interested. Denver clearly. Duluth maybe would be interested. How about Western? To me it really comes down to, I think Berry does less with more (UND advantages) and other programs do more with less. Why I'd be so high on Brett Larson. Call it the Motzko effect. Someone who had so much success at St. Cloud, but just look at what happens when you give him resources.

This times 100. It's frightening how bad he is at his job.

I'll slightly disagree with you here. If you were to rank, I would agree they'd fall into the Top 12 overall. I guess if they are two of the best players, then I can clearly see why this team is under .500. The issue I've had is there have been games where I would argue they've been some of the worst forwards. I do think they should be scratched if their play dictates that. I'm not the only one who feels this way. It's not just those two. One of the many things that Berry does that is frustrating is certain players have a lock on a roster spot, regardless of how they play. Senden and Hain are two of those. Others do not have that luxury.

Completely agree. I hope there's been some lessons learned this year. Unless you're talking high end / Top 6 guys of course, but there's no reason to bring back Player A for a 5th year when you have others that are more than capable to fill that spot.

Definitely. Don't they have arguably the Top 3 recruits in next years class?

Moving this to the correct thread. I see two crucial things that have to happen this off-season and then a handful of other interesting scenarios to follow. Crucial: Two goalies are brought in to challenge for the starting job. They both need to be starting quality goalies. Like @The Sicatoka mentioned, either going to be 3 Goalies on roster (if Hellsten leaves), or 4 if he stays. Hellsten if he stays needs to become more of an emergency goalie. 15 uses his Covid year. Important: 17 Returns for his Senior year 28 Uses his Covid Year* 18 / 29 - Hope they return for Junior years Expected: 25 Signs 6 Enters Portal

Why wouldn't they?

I think so, but I do think it's debatable. Minnesota, Michigan, Boston U, Boston College. Those schools are clearly at a higher level. I would put UND with Denver (Wisconsin?) on the next level.

Agreed, it wasn't fun, but I had hope that year. Whichever one of the years (or it could have been both), they played really hard and just could not score. Any individual game they could pass the eye test. Like I mentioned, I always had hope they would turn it around. Those teams barely missed the playoffs. I've never followed a UND team where you don't believe they can do it. Last Saturday. They weren't doing it. This isn't sandbagging, or downplaying, you know they had no shot of winning that game. Very weird feeling.

Big time. The two most critical off-season moves would be. Hellsten transfers out. Clearly bring in two capable goalies to battle for the starting job. 15 Stays. This is for a multitude of reasons.

This year does feel different than the previous years where Berry's teams missed the playoffs. I would say that was a talent issue. That Poolman class overall was BAD. This year, I'm convinced it's not talent this year. I would pin this one on coaching. The development for some players (ex: Schmaltz, Johnson, Constantini) has been shocking. Clearly the team has tuned them out, because that's the only explanation for the same mistakes happening over and over. Let's endure these next few weeks. The season will thankfully be over soon. Start fresh next year with a new leadership group.

Tough times. Here's the good news. Fortunately, UND has advantages that most teams do not. They are still a Top 5 destination for recruits. The overall recruiting pipeline is solid and although I do not like the transfer portal, it's an advantage for UND. A bounce back is likely. Here's the bad news. The coaching staff. UND has an extremely average coaching staff. When you have average coaching abilities, but you can get talent, you're still going to win for the most part. We're looking based on a pretty good sample size, that they'll make the playoffs slightly over half the time. The other down Berry years have never felt like this. This is just not a fun team to follow. It really is unfair and unfortunate, but a lot of the frustration for me is falling on the 5th year guys. I would rather see 29 or 18 than 10. 11 for 19. 6 for 3. I've never felt like the development of players is really being hindered like I do this year. Very important offseason is ahead. With the advantages they have, a turnaround is likely if they nail it.

Tonight was their shot to win. Cannot picture them winning tomorrow. Regular season now meaningless.

Being realistic he can’t. You cannot have him as your #2 guy. Need two options next year.

Wildly outplayed them all period. One special play by Denver and they get one. Unbelievable.

3! Just trying his best out there!