AJS

Nothing to me is more frustrating then the you need role players argument. There are players that are talented, but are also responsible (see Gardner / Jones). Those should be your role players.

How many role players work for you? The amount they have now that has turned this team into a non playoff contender. Is the Junior class your favorite? 5 for 5 on role player forwards!

After two years of mediocrity (barely making / missing the playoffs), the wheels are off. Not only won’t they make the playoffs again, but this time it won’t be close. UND hockey is embarrassing. Two years in a row of not making the playoffs is just inexcusable at UND. Do I think it’s a talent issue, yes, but that’s the most important part of college sports is recruiting that talent. He may or may not be a bad coach, but he has put this program where it’s at by his recruiting choices (JUNIOR CLASS). Do I want him gone? Yes. Does he deserve to be gone? Yes. Will he be? No. The only positive thing that can come out of this is if he learns you need talent to complete. He needs to ditch whatever philosophy he has and get talent. Judging by next years class it’s starting to sink in.

I would love to know if Berry fully comprehends what’s happening right now. I’m genuinely worried for the state of this program.

This is flat out embarrassing.

Without looking through a list, I'm guessing most are from the East coast and after they de-commit they choose to stay out East. Seems pretty natural.

It was Luke Skokna

We have a pretty good sample size so far, what's everyone's thoughts on the new crop of players? How good can this young nucleus be? Not talking this year, but moving forward. If we look strictly at this years Freshman class. Atelbauers / Moody / Bijek / Coudreau / Rebraca / Hazekamp. This appears to be a very good freshman class, right?

What a shot in the arm for this '19 recruiting class! Recruit rankings are obviously subjective, but Hero had him as the #15 FCS RB recruit in the country. https://herosports.com/fcs/football-2019-recruiting-top-running-backs-ajaj

Players transferring because of playing time seems to happen pretty frequently at the college level and would have no impact on recruiting and probably little impact on the room. I mentioned this before, but you'll notice a common theme with players transferring, it's almost always underclassman. I can't think of any recent examples (Tomek, Wilkie, Murphy, Chartrand, Seinkbell, Bruneteau) of players that transferred after their Junior year. Not saying it can't happen, but that would seem to be a pretty hard sell for someone with only one year of eligibility left and on top of that would almost assuredly would have aged out of the junior ranks. On top of that, what program would want to bring someone in for one year, if they wouldn't be an instant impact type guy? The option of transferring is pretty much off the table for this years Junior class, which is where the clog is for both talent as well as numbers. Berry's only option would be manipulate the scholarships to bring in extra players. Go with 17 Forwards for a year and let the best player play. If he has the right guys, unselfish guys, this could work. I can definitely see how you could lose 3 and bring in 4 (forwards), but only losing 3 and bringing in 5 would be really tough. Just tossing out ideas, but the one option would be if Rieger (Sophomore) transfers and they move Johnson back to defense. That would open up another forward spot and it would be easier to make room for the 5th. Even if the Donovan ship has sailed, I would still like Berry to be aggressive and try to bring another forward (5th for the '19 class).

There's two parts to everyone's season, conference and non-conference. The good news is UND is currently 6-2-1 non-conference with two more against Canisus (must sweep), so the have the opportunity to finish with a respectable non-conference record. More good news is the NCHC which is always good non-conference record I believe is on track for it's best non-conference overall record they have had overall. IF UND can manage a .500 winning percentage in the conference (which would be better than last year), that will be good enough to make the NCAAs. They've dug themselves into a hole in their conference portion, but there's so many conference games left to rectify that.

I found that odd as well, it would surprise me though if there wasn't something to it for Brad to mention it. We've hashed this out a bunch already, so most of this will be a repeat. It's time for Berry to earn that paycheck and make some difficult decisions. It's very clear to everyone for the second year in a row this team struggles to put it lightly to score goals. You look at the lineup tonight and the bottom six are essentially both four line players. This is a two year problem that will turn into a three year problem with the Junior class taking up so many of the Forwards spots. Like others have mentioned, he needs to get very creative with his scholarship money. We know for sure the 3 for 3 trade off that will already happen. Bringing in a fourth with Blaisdell is a must already, so he's already going to have to figure that out. To really turn this roster around, you can't let a guy like Donovan walk. This team needs talent, the good news is they have it in the pipeline, the bad news, scholarship money. The coaching staff needs to figure this out.

This team showed so much heart in the 3rd, they saved their season with that performance in the final frame.

This is going to be the start of my post after this game.

I won't be able to listen to anything he says the rest of the year, it'll only make me mad. This year is one period away from being lost. 20 minutes potentially left for the season, lets see how it goes.

This is outrageous.

There's no doubt about that.

Not going to push the panic button yet on this game, but this team is one more bad bounce (more likely) or great play by UAA to be in a hole they probably can't come back from.

Three non-conference games left, must win tonight. 4-1 UND

I don't know if this has been posted yet. https://www.ushl.com/news_article/show/968797 UND leads the way with 3 players that were selected to take part in the World Junior A Challenge. Pinto, Frisch and Miller.

First of their last four non-conference games all of which they need to win. 4-1 tonight

I'm not sure how that'll work out, I was just commenting that the him sitting out 7 games isn't for next year (where he will be on campus, but can't play), but the year after.

Every single forward they are going to bring in next year is talented, will be a true freshman, will be drafted and will have at least played one full year of juniors (Pinto 1, rest 2). They will either be close to a PPG (Caulfield) or over (rest). Others have laid it out, but the problem right now with trying to "make room" is the talent of each individual class. There's only 3 Seniors and realistically I don't see anyone leaving early. Usually when you have someone look for other opportunities (Non-NHL contract) it's after their Sophomore year. There's 3 Sophomores and we wouldn't want any of those three to look elsewhere. It's this bottleneck with the Junior class that's absolutely killing this team. This isn't hindsight is 20/20, Berry should have picked 2 names out of 5 person now Junior Forward hat and encouraged them to look elsewhere after last year. They need to and I'm sure they will make room for Blaisdell which will bring the freshman class to four. Unfortunately, that'll leave Donovan on the outside looking in. What's so frustrating is this was a problem last year that was so clear. He knew the horses he had in the pipeline. Yes, Pinto has definitely been a pleasant surprise, but if not him Mancinelli (or Randklev) looked like a guy after last year that should be coming in as well in '19. The good news, is the '19 class is going to be amazing. The bad news, obviously, is it could have been that much better if Berry would have made the tough decisions last year. It's ultimately going to hurt this team. I'm sure nobody knows this more than Berry, so hopefully it's not a mistake he makes in the future.

Seven in 2020, he has to sit out the entire year next year.

Forwards that have signed NLI - Rizzo, Pinto, Caulfield. Blaisdell has to be next in line, I would be shocked if he didn’t come. That’d be my guess, those four. They lose 3 Seniors and they’ll make room for Blaisdell.