Irish

Any wonder why we have a crap program while the Bison have unprecedented success? I had a cocktail with a Bison friend who told me this - "I have good news and bad news - Cox entered the transfer portal, however UND gave Bubba a 4 year extension". So tired of this. Thanks a lot Chaves.

Exactly

We need to write Chaves and tell him what our expectations for Sioux Football are and how disappointed we are. He clearly doesn't get it.

It screams "this is our expectations for UND Football for the near future". Not a good move. I thought Chaves was better than that.

You are correct about the big steps - which pretty much solves the development question. Looking at last year it was pretty evident there was a scoring talent deficit. Glad we are back on track. We seemed to be caught short after the flight after our Natty. We need a combination of role players and high end studs. It is our formula for success. Glad we are back on track. The answer when we talk about recruiting NHL talent can't be "but Boston University".

This shows the importance of having some high end studs in our line-up. See Pinto last night. Last year we couldn't score to save our butts. Almost every time this is mentioned the automatic reply is "Boston University". If we are to win #9 we need some NHL talent on the roster. And the Goering for Shaw swap is a winner too.

Could not agree more - the fantastic new screen is used almost exclusively for "commercial" contests like the idiotic races or some kind of crowd/kiss cam. Nothing to promote the game at all.

Nice win - Great effort by Thome. Great character - doesn't get playing time for the first half of the season and works on his game and steps up when called.

Agreed - a big part of this is having high aspirations every year - especially after missing the tournament for two years in a row every bump in the road is analyzed and commented on. Every season could be the year we get #9. At Bemidji - meh.

You've really got to admire a guy who isn't getting much playing time, works hard on his game in practice, and then steps in big time when called. Well done Mr. Thome.

When our defense is tough we are really hard to beat - I think our scoring starts with our D. Looks like we're back.

This shows how important to have a scorer on the roster. Last year I don't know if we would have won this one. We need some high end talents like Pinto to be at the highesty level. Nice win.

A nice character win last night - both for players and coaches. I believe we have the talent and grit to go all the way - we still need to clean a few things up first. The goalie thing is a big mystery to me but we do have the best goalie coach in the country. The one thing I wish we could fix is the habit of giving up a goal within a minute of scoring. This is focus and intensity. People have correctly commented that Friday went south after the shorty, but we would have been in a much better position if we didn't immediately give up a goal after scoring first - we let them back in the game at that point. It seems like this has happened frequently in the last few years. This is fixable. I hope we are on our way to putting things together for a second half run.

Not sure why you have to make this personal but you can kiss mine.

Aren't you a snide smartass.

What's worrysome is that Sheel shows no signs yet of playing out of his slump.

Before the break we had a veteran and salty defense, one of the best goalies in the country with a capable back-up, and the best goalie coach in the country. Now we have a save percentage around .820. What happened to cause us to go off the rails so fast - especially after a break that could be used to heal any nagging injuries.

Sadly, the defining characteristics of Berry's teams seem to be giving up a goal within a minute of scoring (I have never seen anything like this - we do it consistently), not being able to hold a 2 goal lead, and a total second half melt-down. How two big strengths - a studly defensive corp with 5 returners and a goalie that looked like the best in the land can turn around during a Christmas break is totally beyond me. We win a championship and begin wandering in the wilderness while Duluth just keeps coming. Time to get our crap together.

It's nice to win these games - however since Christmas break we have seen some of the same issues as last year - lack of focus. Our extremely talented defense gives up grade A chances early in the game - and our extremely talented goalie(s) don't bail us out. The big difference is that this year we have some guys who can put the puck in the net. This series had early scores from our opponents, inopportune penalties, a hot goalie, us giving up a goal immediately after we score, and a games in which we seriously out shot our opponents yet let them hang around. We must clean up our play and regain total game focus in order to compete with the best. We have the talent. We need to refocus. This is something Berry and Company need to correct. Why Christmas break (which should be a time to get healthy) caused us to regress is a mystery. We have the talent to do big things. Time to play for 60 minutes.

How do you go from the best goalie in the league to the worst over Christmas break?

Now this is the kind of reputation and program we need. Congratulation to the staff.

I'm not sure what you mean - are you implying that Bubba's in-game management is a strength and he has little to learn?

It wouldn't hurt for Bubba to observe how a first year coach handles the game either.

So ... you're saying we need a 3-4 because of our recruiting failures?