Irish

At the tune of several million dollars in the red per year?

Another reason Bubba and Company should be on the hot seat. Their offensive philosophy is crap as is their player development. They are making it so no top QB in his right mind would sign here. See this year's recruiting results. Time to get their collective act together and think outside the tiny box they have put themselves in.

What leap of logic did this come from. I want UND to recruit anyone who can score at the college level. Nowhere did I mention Penticton, Jones, or Rizzo. If you think we have a great bunch of front liners then we differ a bit.

It's hard to know what to make of this team - half the time they look like they can play with anyone, half the time they look like they need a bag skate right after the game. A nice win yesterday. There is not much we can do about the total lack of firepower, however, there are some things we really need to clean up if we want to salvage this season. These are things we shouldn't be battling at this point in the year. Special teams are usually pathetic and cost us games - especially with our tendency to take the stupidest penalties at the worst time. Intensity - I have never seen a team give up momentum so quickly - we often give up a goal within a minute of scoring. There is no excuse except lackadaisical play. We don't have much killer instinct. I think the goalie situation will take care of itself - it is exacerbated by our lack of scoring and our defense making poor decisions at times. We need everyone dialed in going forward. Every time I think that is happening, we crap the bed next game. It's gut check time.

FightingSioux4life - you are correct we won in 2000, lost in OT in 2001.

This was coming of a National Championship and the next year's class included Matt Greene and Zach Parise. Brandon Bochenski was a sophomore. I don't see that happening next year.

To give you an idea of our recruiting the past two years - there are 5 sophomores in the top 10 NCHC scoring - none of them ours. Wolanin is our top scorer and he is tied for 20th. Our Europeans have 4 goals between them. We can't afford another year of recruits who can't score.

Agree 100% - This should never happen. We have horrible puck skills. Watch the PP - we fight the puck, tee it up constantly, take forever to pass, and generally give it away before we can get a shot off. Same thing with breakouts. Add in giving up a goal within a minute of scoring time and time again and this makes this team brutal to watch.

Any insight on how we went from National Champions with an NHL ready top line to this in less that two years? I'm more than speechless that our recruiting is less than stellar immediately after winning it all. I get that we lost a lot of early departures but I would think selling our program to top prospects shouldn't be that hard. What's going on with Berry and Company? A lot of the frustration and speculation on this board comes from the fact that we see play like last night but have absolutely no insight into what is going on. Next year looks like a team of 3rd liners again.

If Berry is so big on culture and grit how come we immediately put our thumbs up our butts, stand around, and puke up a goal usually within 2 minutes of scoring a tying or go ahead goal and gain some momentum? Time after time after time. What kind of intensity is that (especially with making the tournament on the line). Berry better start getting some motivated talent in and right soon.

We do need some guys whose role it is to score badly. I would be fascinated to hear the coaches talk honestly about recruiting - have we missed on some studs? Mis-evaluated anyone? Changed philosophy? The old saying with Blais is that we didn't rebuild so much as reload. With our obvious recruiting advantages - including glowing recommendations from NHL players - it is almost inconceivable that we don't have more top end talent.

This is more question than criticism, but what effect do people think seeing our offense in action turns off good QB prospects?

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If you are trying to make sense of Rudolph's philosophy and strategy all you will get is a headache.

That says a lot about the amount of talent on this team. Time to recruit like madmen and get some scorers.

College coaches are by definition students of their game and have a vast knowledge of what they are coaching. However, it is somewhat common to get a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to their methods or schemes. You saw it a bit with Hak and his "system". You see it more with Rudolph (and by extension Bubba) with his offense. The big question here is can and will Berry adjust his recruiting. Watching the middle of the game was just painful - we couldn't get control of the puck in zone let alone generate a quality shot. I know a couple of our top guys are sitting, but they are 9 and 5 goal guys, not Toews and Parise. We need to be able to sell this program. No way St. Clown and Duluth should have more talent than us.

I know we have some injuries, but this team has the least skill with the puck of any Sioux team I can remember. Berry better figure out and right quick that high end talent can have grit and good team culture too. Hell, send Shaw out recruiting right now, the special teams couldn't be any worse if they just spitballed it.

Are you seriously suggesting we would have been better off with 4 year guys or are you just gainsaying anything I post?

And none of them ours. - Hell, we don't have anyone in the top 50. That's what people are saying. It isn't necessary first rounders, its guys who can put the puck in the net. We have a serious deficit in recruiting scorers and next year doesn't appear to be the fix. No way this should happen at the University of North Dakota.

On one side of the ledger you have guys like Parise, Toews, Oshie, Grimaldi, Stafford, Zajac, Forbert, both Schmaltzs, and Brock Nelson. On the other side guys like Tambellini and Jost. Not only is it worth the risk getting high end players, I would submit that we wouldn't have had half the success we have had without them.

However, Boesser was the scoring touch we needed to win #8 - can't see us winning without him. Look around the league - other teams are getting top scorers, why can't we. Of the top 10 WCHC scoring leaders there are 6 sophomores - none are ours. If next year has no scorers either it could be a long season - one we are not used to at UND. I can see absolutely no reason we are not signing some studs.

Based on how we played in the Regional last year against BU I believe this team can be great. Time to find that drive again.

You mean the team that went to the Frozen 4? Please elaborate - not sure what you are getting at.

This is good to know - I was basing my posts on the last two years - Other than one and done Jost not much firepower - I'm not quite seeing the love this year's class got - out of the top 50 NCAA scoring freshmen, we only have Mismash at number 30. As for sophs, among the NCHC top ten scorers are 6 sophomores - none of them ours. Denver has 3 of the top 10 scorers. I hope these classes bring us back to Champions - however I can't remember a Sioux team with less firepower than this one. We have no first round draft picks and no World Junior members. Duluth's talent blew us away. I hope this is just one of those odd years and not a trend.