Irish

Patience my butt - I am dying for some great news on the recruiting trail.

Are we missing out or getting beaten out for some of these? It's so hard to tell what our strategy is or who we are competitively going after (not a criticism). I just hope Berry isn't changing our focus to rely more on grinders or over-emphasizing "team culture" - we saw how that worked out. Let's sign some talent.

We might just differ over semantics. I think most would agree that we had a lack of firepower and puck skills up front. This was certainly exposed when St. Cloud skated circles around us. I don' care if we have a line of undrafted Caggulas or if we have the Toews, Oshie, Boesser type who are high draft picks. The point is that we need a serious infusion of skill and scoring and right soon. The best way for us on the sidelines to judge talent is to look at draft position. Do all high picks become college stars? Of course not, but it probably is a safer bet they will than a group of undrafteds. We have some recruiting advantages here - tradition, fans, arena, NFL alums. We are also used to getting some studs to play here and not elsewhere - Time to regain some firepower. We are not a program of all 3rd and 4th liners and will never get used to it.

Totally agree - let's hope the coaches are on the trail and sell our program to some studs.

I don't think you can snap your fingers at all - I think it takes a lot of hard work and good player evaluation by the coaching staff who need to sell our program. We do have some things to help us sell however. We have the strongest fan base in the country both at home and on the road. We have the finest arena and live in an area where hockey is king. We have a proven record of developing NHL players and lots of NHL alumni to sing our praises. We have a proven record of championships. We are the team of Parise, Oshie, Toews, Stafford, and Boesser. We should be in as strong a recruiting position as any team in the country. Again, I think it takes much hard work, but that is a large part of our coaching staff's jobs.

Which underlines the need to reload every year.

Agree that it should be a big recruiting tool. Gersich leaving has been speculated on since the beginning of the year. A bigger question is what is our plan to replace his scoring. This didn't happen out of the blue. I'm not sold on counting on player development to take up the slack. We should have some big scorers in the pipeline every year.

I would add puck skills to the list - I can't remember a team that had such a tough time handling and accurately passing the puck. We saw poor puck handling cost us many quick scoring opportunities as we had to take a minute to tee up the puck - especially on the power play. We missed many open nets on misfires. This also lead to the "chip it off the glass" mentality for our breakout. It is hard to believe that this team is just two years away from the 7 pass highlight real goal.

I think as important as who is returning is player development - an area that usually is our strength but turned out to be a huge disappointment this year. Most of the roster played at the same level or less than the previous year. I'm not sure if this has to do with coaching, dedication, or maybe some guys have topped out, but for this program to move forward we need some guys to up their game in a serious way - especially without our usual high end talent. Can we get it done for next year? _ I'm not sure having seen very little from a group of players - especially the sophomore class.

As interesting as this discussion is, to me it highlights our total lack of firepower. I can't believe that we are caught this short of scorers. Denver has 3 in the top 5 of NCHC scorers --Western Michigan has 3 sophomores in the top 25 - hell, Colorado College has 2 in the top 10. We have 1 forward in the top 25. Totally unacceptable. Time to hit the recruiting trail hard. Are our assistants any help at all in recruiting?

It's a lot to lose - however they have half of the selections for the NCHC all rookie team

Because we couldn't hold a 3 goal lead on the worst team in the league with so much on the line.

So what needs to happen to get this program back on track? Some ideas - Much of what needs to take place is in the coaches heads - Can Berry be introspective enough to take a hard, honest look at this season and make some changes? This is an ability not all coaches have - Rudolph has none, Bubba - we'll see but so far not much, Berry ????? Some things to look at: are my assistants doing what is needed? Can they come up with a good power play, assist in player development, and importantly bring contacts and sales ability to recruiting? This year was horrible in all three aspects - player development was nill, our power play was an embarrassment, and we put out the least talented team in decades. Do we need to change recruiting philosophy or at least make some adjustments? Not only are we lacking blue chippers, we seem to have a line-up of almost all grinders. Team chemistry is important, but with all of our emphasis on team culture in recruiting we saw that with 18-22 year old men things can easily go sideways - do we need to rethink team leadership? What can we do in the recruiting arena to get back to a championship level - our evaluation of talent appears to need adjustment - we have many guys who score at a level below but can't put the puck in the net or adjust to the speed of the college game. Our sophomore class has been a big bust - St. Cloud State has 3 on the all rookie team - since when are they kicking our butts in recruiting? Finally, does this season piss the coaches off as much as many of the fans? Do they have a fire in their belly to turn this around? This upcoming year is a crucial year for our program and may indicate whether we can get back to the top or start a long slide. I hope our staff is up to the challenge.

"Chip it off the glass" could describe our offense in 5 words.

Any chance of bringing in a stud or two who is not on the list so far? Heaven knows we could use a couple.

Could not agree more - we had a serious lack of puck skills up front - from the break-out to stick handling and puck possession to shooting accurately. How many times did we bobble the puck on a rush or missed a pass and how many times have we missed open nets. A D man led this team in scoring and although there was some potential it was hard to find a scorer in the bunch. I have been a fan for over 45 years and it is hard to remember a team with less firepower (although perhaps I have mentally erased the Bjorkman years. Many other teams have scorers up front and there are many frosh and sophs in the league who are lighting it up. Hard to think we have missed recruiting for several years now. Time to get serious.

Agree about their experience - Then why do we have a power play that looks like it does? How about motivating the team to play a full 60. Player development? Do any of the assistants up our recruiting game either with their contacts or their ability to sell the program? The coaching staff in my opinion has a lot of room to improve.

Some high end studs have been late additions - see Boesser. And it is not like Berry dropped in from another program - he was head of recruiting under Hak. I guess I am really frustrated in that this team seems light years away from what I believe Sioux hockey is both in talent and effort. No reason a team like St. Cloud should be so much more talented than us that it shows readily on the ice. They skated circles around us. And we have no one on our team who is close to light years better than he was a year or two ago.

What do the "logistics of hockey" have to do with puking up 2 and 3 goal leads constantly or not being able to put away critical games in overtime. This we understand. We get that guys didn't step up. Who is in charge of player development, recruit assessment, and closing on top recruits?

Seriously! - there is absolutely no reason St. Cloud should skate circles around us - none. Get some talent in here and right quick.

I agree that Clown showed a total lack of class - however, instead of complaining on our fan board, our better response would be to pound the p*** out of them in future meetings. That option is contingent on Berry righting the ship and getting better talent that Clown. If we hate the behavior I hope Berry really hates it and will do what is necessary to bring up to the top again. I wish Berry would address things in a more straight forward way about the changes needed and give us less coach-speak.

This is a reflection much more on how bad we wanted a Championship after falling short for so many years than it is on our tolerance for crap seasons.

The actual big question here is can Berry be introspective and identify where we went off the rails and start to correct it or is he another Bubba who will keep everyone and just do more of the same. We had multiple issues this year and Coach Team Culture needs to make some serious changes. Although individuals worked their butts off, as a team we couldn't hold 2 or 3 goal leads, couldn't play over 40 minutes a game, gave up goals almost immediately after scoring, took stupid penalties, had the worst power play ever, and continually made high school mistakes (see no look passes this game). In addition, our player development was nil, leadership was lacking, and we seriously lack high end talent. When St. Cloud can skate circles around us there is something wrong. I don't care if he has to cut half the team and bring in over-agers who come to play. And he better hit the recruiting trail right soon - how can he not sell our program, fans, tradition and facilities to top enders is beyond me. This was not Fighting Sioux Hockey.

They can if you have talent - did you see the talent difference tonight?

I haven't seen much reloading on the horizon for next year.