Irish

I know, but what the hell - why can't we get guys that can score? What recruiting advantages do they have over us?

Random thoughts after getting back from the game and having several beers. - The boys played hard, but were hampered because we have no finishers - none (side note - how in the hell does St. Cloud who has never made it out of the first round of anything out recruit us and have a bunch of scorers - makes absolutely no sense) - Our power play is an embarrassment to the sport of hockey - 8 draft picks and this is the best we can do? - After our senior captain put us in another 5 on 3 and then took a stupid penalty because he couldn't finish a breakaway my first thought was wow - one more penalty and Bubs will sit JBD again. Can you imagine this crap happening with Blais or Hak in charge? I don't care if I had to skate the walk-on goalie at center, he should be sitting. No excuse. And if I was AD I would take this as a big indication Berry can't handle the team. We are seriously under powered and it looks like Mr. Culture has his hands full with this team. I hope things get better but wow - St. Cloud skating circles around us?

I agree with you that this is the proper place in the line-up for these guys. My point is that next year will be the 4th year they are taking up a roster spot and probably some scholarship money yet we don't seem to have room for young, although unproven, talent. Many other posters have mentioned that this class is a big part of our problems, yet here they are for next year again. I'm not sure how this makes us a better team next year.

My mistake including Peski - however removing him from the list does not change the point I was trying to make. I agree with people who feel that if Donovan doesn't want to be here then H*** with him - I'm just frustrated with some of Berry's roster decisions.

That may very well be - although I'll bet he has a bigger impact than Hoff, Bowen, Johnson, Peski, or Yon. That's my point. At least he is a young player with a potential upside, not a Junior who has shown nothing for 3 years. Remember the good old days when guys decomitted from Wisconsin to come here?

My mistake on the name - my point is that if we didn't have room for him next year then it seems like absolutely none of the dead weight will be held accountable for anything. Not taking a realistic, hard look at the roster may be his downfall.

Not Ryan Donovan

This would be great if Berry was actually making people earn their roster slot for next year - We have seen no evidence of this ever happening with Berry. If he wants to have players prove they deserve a slot on next year's roster it would be the best news we could get. But the optics of JBD sitting while he plays a senior Captain who hasn't scored a goal in about 20 games and runs around willy nilly taking game changing penalties time after time. Seems like there is absolutely no accountability on his team and that is a big problem. We have a ton of dead weight.

This is a perfect description of how Berry handles this - unbelievable. What has Berry done in the second half of the season that shows he is the man for the job?

It's a lot of money - on the other hand can we afford not to? The loss of revenue if we continue to go in the toilet will be great - we are already missing the revenue from home ice this year. This train wreck is getting hard to watch.

Let's sum up the culture and process on display last night - a game in which the Sioux needed to win to keep playoff hopes alive. Another stupid penalty at a crucial time (and one that cost us dearly - and this by a guy who just last week put us in two 5 on 3 situations with the same stupid play) by a Senior Captain who has not scored a goal in the last 19 games. A power play that is an embarrassment to the sport of hockey. Once again a team that is incapable of scoring more than 1 goal. A lack of intensity. And once again absolutely no changes from Coach. If we think some skilled freshmen are going to turn this program around we are delusional. We will be somewhat better next year but will still have a busload of passengers. Berry has shown us he's not the guy to maintain our tradition of excellence. The bigger question is how low must we go before changes are made.

This game is perfectly representative of this season - changes need to be made and right soon - the question is - will the Hockey Program, UND, and the Athleticv Department have the will to do so. This is our flagship program and it has become almost unwatchable.

Not saying Dane should go, but Berry needs to take a hard, serious look at his coaching philosophy as well as the returning roster and coaches. This is one of the hardest but necessary jobs for a head coach. If he want's to be this program's leader he needs to do what is best for the program. After this season, it's crunch time for him.

Mike Eaves 2016-17 - Coaching at St. Olaf in the MIAC

The main things I read here are: 1) They are much less talented than nearly everyone. 2) They are poorly coached. 3) They don't show up. Given that they are playing as well as the best teams in the country, those three things cannot all be true. All of those deficiencies would doom a team, they would be like Canisius (!). In fact, even just one of them probably makes a team uncompetitive against top opponents. Which suggests that actually none of them are accurate. You make interesting points - I know that no one here knows for sure what is really going on. Here are some other ideas about what is happening. First, look at our power play. I have been watching Sioux Hockey for 50 years and can't recall a worse power play. It is also among the worst in the nation statistically. Many times we struggle even getting the puck into the zone. It has cost us dearly. I can only think of two reasons - either we are poorly coached on the PP or we don't have the talent. Can you think of any other possibility? And again as to talent - we don't have a single scorer in the top 100 in the country. Not one. When has this ever been the case? As to not showing up - we are all struggling to explain how we can hang a 5 spot on a good team one night and the next have exactly 3 shots on goal for the entire first half of the game (although stupid penalties by a Captain contributed a lot to this) We seem to struggle stringing two good games together. I think the not showing up idea started after we were rested and mainly healthy after Christmas break and then went to Canesius. Most of the opinions here are pure speculation as is this one - It seems Berry became enamored after the Championship season with "culture". He forgot that the guys who contributed to the great culture during the Championship run for the most part had NHL level talent. We have a lot of dead weight on this team and he doesn't appear to be dealing with it. Like the above poster mentioned - not sure if he has the temperament to make tough decisions and to call out players that need to be called out. We all hope things will get better soon.

You are correct about our talent - that's why this offensive implosion is so difficult to watch. But it's not just the ultra-high end kids we seem to be missing on - other teams seem to be able to find guys who can put pucks in the net - but we don't seem to be able to. Like I said on another thread - out of the top 100 scorers in NCAA Division I hockey we have exactly none. And it's not just the juniors. There are many sophomores on the list, but none of ours. Of the top freshmen scorers in our conference our highest forward is rated number 17 - Denver has 5 - count em - 5 freshman forwards scorfing more than Senden. St. Clown has 3. I'm not trying to bash our younger classes, but his provides a little perspective on why we can't score. I don't believe it is something as simple as missing on the Junior class. There are many very knowledgeable coaches who have huge blind spots. Berry must have one or two for us to fall this far this fast. You don't have to look farther than football Bubba to see a very knowledgeable football mind who has coached the game for many years, yet couldn't recognize a very poor offensive philosophy until it bit him in the butt. Someone needs to take a hard look at what we are doing and make some hard changes. I hope Berry is a guy that can do this.

I agree that we have some frosh and sophs that are developing - however, like I said before we don't have a scorer in the top 100 in the NCAA. There are 23 sophs on that list by my count - none of them ours. As to the freshmen - our highest scoring freshman forward is tied for 17th in freshman scoring in our conference. Denver has 5 - count em - 5 freshmen scoring more than our top frosh forward (Senden). St. Cloud has 3 above Senden. Our highest scoring frosh is a defensman (JBD) who is tied for 7th. Do we have some good youngsters - yes. But this is not the stuff championships are made of. In my opinion we have several things needed to right the ship - 2 or 3 great classes in a row - Having a power play with enough talent to get the puck into the zone - having an offense that can gain zone entry in another way than chipping it along the boards - having the mental toughness not to give up goals within a minute or two of scoring - having enough awareness not to take stupid penalties - giving a consistent effort in two consecutive games (or even two consecutive periods). In my opinion our season results are about half talent, one fourth mental, and one fourth "systems.

I really really hope you are right. I worry that we are looking at next year's class as the saviors of our program when they are a good class, but the kind we should bring in every year. We have a huge amount of dead weight on this team and Berry seems bent on keeping them all instead of bringing in more young talent (culture what ever that means). Remember, we are the team of Toews, Oshie, and Duncan and Schmaltz, Boesser, and Caggiula. We are used to having high end talent. That's why this year is so so frustrating. In just a couple of years we have dug a pretty deep hole. I hope you are correct in your assessment that we are close and next year's class will fill in the gaps. I'm just not so sure that our program doesn't need more than a good class to right the ship.

By my quick count there are 12 Juniors in the top 50 scorers in the nation and 24 in the top 100 - none of them ours. I don't see a Sioux in the top 100 from any class. None. This is unbelievable.

So should we be happy Berry coached them up to overachieve or upset with the total lack of talent he has brought in? I have to say that for us to be very pleased with splits with St. Clown and Duluth because we played over our heads is deeply concerning to me.

Interesting - I haven't read my morning Heraldo yet - I'm assuming they have an even better write up.

Sadly, the operative word here is Izzo - a totally gutless yes man. Expecting a tough interview from him is futile.

I guess at this point we are all speculating. Funny - During Berry's Championship run I thought "at last - a guy who is willing to unleash Hak's talent and let them play". Now, a few years after the Title I am stunned at how far we have fallen - especially when I thought success would lead to more talent wanting to come here. Our team is just tough to watch. I just can't figure out how it happened so fast. Does Berry have a good handle on this and a plan to improve - we don't know and get little to no insight from the program or sportscasters. This leads to much negative speculation. On the positive side we do have a great defense and goalie and a loaded group coming in - on the negative side none of the guys we have brought in to score have been doing much at all. To be honest, I thought with all of the coaching experience we have things would be much better by now. It it talent? system? bad luck? Are we really close or regressing as a program? I guess we need to hope and pray that Berry has the ability to take a long hard look at things and make the needed changes. This program can't afford to slide any more.

If the power play falls on Shaw then why is he still here - and more importantly, will he be here again next year? This has the makings of a Rudy situation all over again. You don't have to look further back than last game to see how much our PP costs us. Also, you can switch lines, but if your offense relies on chipping it in it is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic (no, I don't equate our program with the Titanic, just using because it is an interesting metaphor). The big question is can Berry make the necessary adjustments? At this point no one knows.