SKondrashkin

At the very least, the bottom 2 lines should be set in stone as Senden-Jammer-Hain and Albrecht-Ness-Portz. That gives the forwards a solid defensive foundation (if they play to potential) who can play against any line. It's a total waste to bring someone like Senden back and play him in a role he's not suited to play (like with McLaughlin and Gaber saturday). Hell, it wouldve been better to keep Adam Calder instead.

This is a very good take. Perhaps this program has become a victim of its own sense of entitlement. Who else has ‘the Palace on the Prairie’, new uniforms all the time, a Through These Doors media show, etc. Maybe our mentality resembles the Gophers more than we like to admit. Do we still expect teams to show up at the Ralph, be in awe of the place, our culture and history, and roll over and die? Yea maybe. The sky isn’t falling. We’re coming off 3 straight league titles. That said, if this team doesn’t get its act together, we’ll also have missed the playoffs 3 times in the past 6 seasons. We pride ourselves on a lunchpail work mentality, yet Berry teams have been wildly inconsistent in playing as such. i dunno.

Nah, our Freshman (Blake, McLaughlin, James) are really good. They're just not being put in a position to succeed. How are they supposed to do anything when our coaches, vets and team leaders look like the Bantam B team.

Sanderson didn't play after January last year. Ironically Feb. is when they went on that big winning streak to end regular season and win the league title. Sanderson’s spot duty aside, the only significant loss is Connor Ford. Yea it’s still early but this team is underperforming something fierce. Like the only returning players on the entire roster who have upped their game is Jandric, Portz and maybe Hain.

The 2016 team had 1 line who could score on any regular basis; the CSB trio. The remaining key forwards were essentially grinders who could only score 20-25 pts in their best season (Chyzyk, Johnson, Gardner, Poganski, Sanderson). The core of that championship team was the insanely deep D-core. I mean they made Cam Johnson look like Patrick Roy that season.

Yea this team currently sucks, but lets keep things in perspective. How soon we forget we’re coming off a three-peat of league titles. That’s something nobody in our league has achieved since we did it under Blais 23 years ago. Sure a natty would've been nice, but, sweet jesus, the sky isn't falling.

I don't think Hain returning had anything to do with it. Calder is a goalscoring top 2 line player. With Calder we had 5 guys in realistic contention for those 4 wing positions; at least starting out. Gaber, Costantini, Calder, Caulfield and Blake. Maybe Calder realized he was on the outside looking in, and being a 24 y.o. transfer wanted a guaranteed top 2 line role. That said, I'd rather have Calder than, say, Caulfield. Calder was quite good until his arm injury. Caulfield has been the epitome of inconsistency and, to a degree, lackadaisical play his entire career here. Yea I get he's a home-town kid, but still.

Of course it is. But we were so good those years, expectations exceeded the norm. We couldve realistically won 5 national titles in a row from 97-01. Arguably the 2 best teams (top to bottom) of that era were the ones that choked it away in 98 and 99.....led by Blake as an upperclassman. Anyways, it's a completely different situation to compare Blake to Gaber.

You must have not been around back then. With the talent on those Blake-led late 90s teams, 1 title was a disapointment.

Jason Blake? He was involved in 2 of the most infamous playoff collapsing season in our programs history. Those 98 and 99 teams thouroughly steamrolled everybody, yet choked when it mattered.

It sucks losing like this, but this team deserves a lot of credit. They greatly overachieved; especially considering Sanderson was out half the year. Nobody in their wildest dreams expected a league title out of these guys.

Assuming Kleven stays.......... Gaber - Schmaltz - Blake Costantini - McLaughlin - Calder Kunz - Jamernik - Caulfield Portz - Ness - Albrecht Frisch - Johnson Kleven - Jandric Moore - Bast Hellsten Hedquist

The size of GF can be a problem. Berry alludes to this when he talks about the recruiting process. Its at 29:20

3rd string goalie. Same role he had when he won a title with us.