Irish

This is the million dollar question - can and will Coach Berry take a hard and honest look at his program and make the necessary changes? I've said it before - many very intelligent and knowledgeable coaches are totally unable or unwilling to change their precious "systems" - Football Bubba cost us at least last season and probably more by refusing to take an honest look at the offense and the OC. I hope Coach Berry is willing to make the hard decisions but am not overly optimistic - so far it's been just more of the same (see power play). Maybe a strong AD can help. Like you mentioned, there are many people in the Sioux family that would help. In addition, he really really needs to up his recruiting - there is absolutely no way St. Clown or Duluth should be out-recruiting us and skating circles around us - this is not just a one year anomaly but now a pattern. We are close, but changes really need to be made.

Hennessy clearly forgot that part of a coaches duties is recruiting.

Does anyone with any connections know if Berry "gets it" at all? It is so hard to judge from the coachspeak and softballs from Schlossman and Hennesy. At some point he needs to concede that big changes are needed. If he can't see that then all may be lost until he leaves.

But in the real world we got swept

My wife hides my things too.

If it's bad luck then we have had an extremely long run of it punctuated by really ill timed and in many cases boneheaded penalties and cringeworthy give-aways in front of our net (and don't forget our very high number of missed open nets)

I'll work on your spare key as soon as I find your stash of cash.

I am not happy to make this prediction and I really hope it is wrong. You must be a financial guy - you know "past performance is not an indicator of future results". I am relying on what he has shown us so far. After inheriting a team that was absolutely loaded and doing well with them it has been steadily downhill (on the road for the playoffs for the first time in many years). We have a power play that was at 15% and listed at 50th in the nation. We play with little discipline - senior captain again put us in a 3 on 5 situation in a game we needed to win. We have huge difficulty holding a lead - especially one of 2 goals. We have the most punchless team I have seen since Rube Bjorkman. We seem to suck the scoring right out of our recruits. We had a freshman class that had some guys we thought would add scoring - looking at NCHC stats for freshman scoring our highest scoring frosh forward is tied for 15th. St. Cloud State has 3 higher scoring freshman, Denver has 4. I'm just not convinced that Berry has the coaching or recruiting chops to bring us back to the top. I hope I am wrong, but looking at the team this year play I am very frustrated that we have fallen so far so fast. We need a serious talent upgrade and a re-evaluation of our "systems". Can Berry take a long hard look at what needs to change? Perhaps, but in my experience Coaches can be the most stubborn of people when it comes to their System - See Bubba in football - he thought our offensive scheme was just fine until it finally bit him in the butt after many years. I really hope Berry can turn this around, but have seen nothing in this season that indicates he is willing to make any changes. I am excited about our next year's class - but name one forward recruit in the past two years who has developed beyond expectations well, (well, ok Sendin) (or even developed up to expectations). When you look at past talent and then look at this team it makes you wonder.

You are correct in that this is the most likely scenario and perhaps the worst in terms of our program. We improve just enough to make the field due to our talent influx (although leave it to Berry to suck some of the offense out of them). This is just enough to keep Berry around but nowhere near a return to being a powerhouse. We stay an ok but never great team for as long as Berry chooses to stay. Welcome to mediocreville, population us.

No problems with our effort last night (other than our Senior Captain and the Coach who enables him). The lack of talent up front is stunning. And it is worse when you actually look at the stats. Of the NCHC overall scoring stats, the highest Sioux is Kawaguchi who is tied for 25th. St. Cloud has 7 (count em - 7) players ahead of him. Omaha has 4. And it's not just our dead weight Junior Class. When looking at only Freshmen, our highest scorer is tied for 12th and he's a defenseman (JBD). Our highest scoring forward is Senden at 19th among all NCHC frosh. St. Cloud again has 3 frosh scoring more than Senden - Denver has 5. The top freshman scorer is Taylor Ward and we can watch him tonight because he's at Omaha. I know that next year's class is looked at to be the saviors of our program, but with our recruiting advantages and being 3 years from a Championship there is absolutely no excuse for this - none. Things need to turn around in a hurry.

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.