Scratch

All but impossible

Unfortunately the season pretty much certainly is over though. An at large bid is all but out the window and we know how well Berry teams do at the conference tournament. Sucks knowing that half of the time under Berry the season is going to be over in November. This season is a spitting image of the 18-19 seasons with zero offense and zero talent on the team.

Apparently we already have Bemidji on the schedule every year through 2031 (its the only series booked for both the 29/30 and 30/31 seasons so far). On the podcast last week Schloss said UND's top priority is to get MN and Bemidji on the schedule every year. Does anyone know why? Do the decisionmakers all have cabins there? As a fan seeing Bemidji on the schedule does not spark joy.

First time hearing Berry? Said shots on goal total showed improvement the night they were swept by Canisius

@brianvf Why do you think the upcoming recruiting classes look solid? Respectfully, to me they look much like the usual Berry. Some good junior players with talent similar to those that chronically underperform once they arrive and some mediocre players. Zellers looks like the best one and I'd guess he's a second/third rounder. I'm not aware of any bona fide studs like the other blue bloods are bringing in every year other than potentially McKamey.

How people accept this standard instead of competing for championships every year while we've watched BU, Michigan, and Denver get new coaches that go to the frozen four with Hakstol frequency I'll never understand.

It seems to me Berry has developed a Mike Eaves-style rotation of sucking for 2-3 years then being decent to very good for 2-3 years, with the peaks and troughs being less dramatic for Berry. I think we're currently in the beginning of that cycle much like the 17/18 season. UND's stat website appears to only go back to the 18/19 season, showing Kawaguchi was the highest scorer with 26 points. Our highest scorers, Boisvert and Livanavage, are about on that pace right now. Only ways I can think to explain how its possible we don't have a single player on a 30-point pace is either we don't have any scoring talent or that talent is suppressed by our system. Seems Perron, McLaughlin, Strinden, and James's output compared to junior point toward the system. Boisvert might be talented enough to score despite it, too soon to tell. But then every one of our aforementioned best offensive players is only talented enough to be a 3rd or 4th liner on a good (2005-08, 2011, 2016, 2020) Sioux team. Both recruiting and system are so bad its hard for me to tell which is worse. The only bluechip potential gamebreaking offensive talent in the pipeline is 15 years old and I doubt 60 year old Berry is about to change the system. Might be in the trough a while.

I think Schloss often makes good points in response to criticisms of the program, but then on the podcast he said Strinden was "the best player on the ice" on Saturday. Difficult to believe anyone could think that after watching Buium effortlessly cycle the o zone all night.

How could a person watch these games and think that there’s a net gain here. Siouxwhatever is gonna say I’m a Debby downer and he’s right but this team is not a step away from putting it all together they are on home ice getting swept by a denver team that is more talented and works harder. “at the end of the day” being unable to do anything about zeev buium skating laps in your end means you just suck

Denver literally toyed with them. Zeev is almost as good as Sanderson it seems like. this team absolutely sucks. We’re back to 2018. Tournament isn’t happening and our strength is “depth” aka this is just a !@#!$ team. If I’m wrong who is the game breaker

How can anyone here entertain the idea that the NCHC might be harder to win than the WCHA? The NCHC competition is Denver and St Cloud-the WCHA also had that plus the gophs who won the conference all the time. How many NCHCs do the Sioux have if they’re in the same league as the gophers who won like every big ten title at the same time? Undoubtedly fewer

I'm with Big A HG. Let's say we end up a top 2 seed at the tournament. Win the Atlantic/CCHA bye, then lose to the first real team and miss the frozen four in our backyard (for the 7th straight year). Will that be enough for anyone here to denounce Berry yet? The only thing I think Berrys proponents can point to is league championships, in an 8 team league where there are only 3 contenders year to year. WCHA there were 6. Does anyone hold a Penrose akin to a MacNaughton? I have no insight to UND's NIL situation, so I don't know if Berry has any responsibility for its complete absence, can anyone enlighten me why we are doing nothing to compete with Bostons/Michigan/Minnesota? The next two years are the supposed upswing for Berry's recruiting--look at any of those school's recruits for the same time. It's "maybe our guys sneak into the first round" vs their guys "will they be 1st or 3rd overall."

Disappointing as it is we don’t have the horses this year to make a run. Especially with our forwards committed to not playing D for one second. We do not have one single tough defenseman. Frankly, not even one good one. Not one single guy on this team plays like Genoway, or Stecher, or Pattyn, or Spirko, or Parise, or Sanderson. Who’s the heart? No one. Unless I’m blind there is not one single try hard on this team. We need try hards. We do not have, and will not have in the future, ever again, the way recruiting is going, gopher talent that beats try-hard talent. Think about what our D looks like next year. We need talent that simply is not here or coming here (or ever coming here) and that’s assuming the whole back end doesn’t transfer out again. Johannes is our toughest player-what the hell is going on here? Where are the Blood and Finley and tough SOBs that are apparently not recruited, but maybe they don’t exist? I know the NCHC didn’t let Kleven play, but does that mean we can’t ever hit again? (No offense Stoney, and I love ya, your optimism here is something needed and that I love-I mean it) but Brad: 1) has recruited exactly 0 first round forwards in NINE fucking years—imagine that happening with Hak who brought in 1-3 most in years (and when he didn’t, D were at least studs); 2) has brought in exactly one gamebreaker, Jake Sanderson, in nine years, who despite being one of the best college hockey players of all time, had the misfortune of being injured at inopportune times;); and 3) does not have studs, and will almost certainly not ever have studs, to compete with the other blue bloods the way things are going, because he is simply unable to recruit with the top schools like hak was. And more importantly, he is not, and has not, ever gotten the best out of his players. Losing in close playoff games is not some sign of competence like most people here seem to have accepted. UND should not be a second rate school as far as recruiting goes and it is exactly what we are under Brad. If it is NIL-which it is not as far as I am aware-Dinkyown hasn’t really caught onto yet either. We need a coach who can rally the donors to get on board with NIL mongo stud recruits. We do not have the horses to fix this next year, or the year after that. We are getting murdered in recruiting by BC, BU, MN, Michigan, Michigan State, Denver, and frankly second-rate east coast schools. This is indisputable-15 years ago our alma mater was THE spot to go, it is not anymore, and I wish we had a coach who could sell it like hak. Schloss spews his “look how 0 first round players won the last couple years championships” without ever mentioning the talent in 2016. Or that Rand Pecknold is a great x and o coach-which Brad unfortunately is not. I know I am not alone in feeling this way. Brad Berry is a great person and anyway who has ever met him knows that. But that is not enough. Winning the conference of 8 does not matter to most of us. In Bismarck the alumns have had enough of schloss’ obsequiousness to take it seriously. Winning one tournament game in 9 years is simply pathetic and Brad should have been fired after he demonstrated his ability by bringing in 18-19 classes highlighted by Joel Janitunniun and Ludwig Hoff

From the few USHL games I've watched, I'd say Emery is improving the most quickly. He could be our best defensive D his freshman year. Gap control is really good, doesnt hit but with his size and how the nchc treated kleven that might be a good thing. Other than potentially Strathmann, the 03-05 group doesn't appear likely to have any gamebreakers at any position. I was more hopeful Boisvert would be an instant impact player going into this year than after watching a few games. Despite his great hands and wristshot, at his size and without notable speed he might be stymied his freshman year like perron has been. The HS guys seem to have been labeled to have lots of potential, but I don't know enough to be able to tell just how good they are when their competition is so variable.

Hey I hope they’re too 5 by Christmas too! And I don’t think it’s impossible, just unlikely. That we’re talking about making the tournament as a measure of success instead of winning it doesn’t inspire confidence