Irish

I think the Rick Bennett successes bring up a varitey of questions about winning, building a team, and the landscape of college hockey. It only took him 3 years to build Union ( who has been mediocre at best forever) into a championship team that pounded BC (last year and this year) and number one Minnesota. Coupled with Yale's win last year does this mean that a new type of team is needed to be successful? We have seen an evolution from the teams that would pound you (UND in the 80's and 90's) to a team that would buzz you with smaller talent (BC), now to teams that rely on non-drafted college only players. Does UND make some changes? If so, what? For sure this has shown that the turn-around time for teams doesn't have to be very long (as proved by Gino and Dean). Is there a new style of hockey at the college level? What if anything does this mean and what should we adjust to?

I don't disagree with you - not looking to bash Eades or be sensational - just frustrating when those "in the know" constantly refer to the secret reason that only they are privy to.

Why does this have to be a "secret" that only about half the posters know? Believe me - when things are phrased like this the reality can't be worse than what most people who are not in the know think.

We've been loaded before - other teams will be loaded too - doesn't make me confident.

You pointed out the reason for heartburn exactly - pre-Hak Frozen 4 record = 7 out of 14. Hak's record = 0 for 5. The problem with your post is that you blame some invisible "law of averages" for our failures. If the law of averages worked in college athletics, after several seasons, all teams would be .500.

Hmmm - after this year Hak will have 6 Frozen 4 appearances and we would be estatic if we had one title.

Ok - I'll buy for a while the theory that because of the transition we were able to get in some talent, but at a price - guys that weren't particulairly coachable. Here's what I expect from Jones going forward - Signs that we can not only get talent but develop it. We need guys to get better in our program. - a recognizable offense - not just drive, shoot, and hope for a hack. - More mental toughness especially on the road - Much better teamwork - Execute the fundamentals (such as boxing out) I think if we have a program like this we will be just fine - It'll be interesting to see if these things take place without this group of seniors -

Nice showing - they worked hard and didn't back down. Congrats on a great year.

I agree that the CHL is stealing many high end players from the NCAA and that the NCAA is sitting on their hands rather than trying to do something. However, there are plenty of hockey teams with much lesser programs than us that have guys that can find the back of the net.

Have you seen Hak change anything?

I'd feel a whole lot better about this if I felt Hak and company would spend the off season assessing things and making changes where needed. However, I'm sure that regardless of what talent we bring in we will spend the first half of the season sleepwalking and continue to chip the puck along the boards. Endless dump, chase, and cycle. If that doesn't work, we'll do it some more.

Could possibly happen, but remember, this team has had two huge games lately against lesser opponents - one to win the conference and one to get into the tournament and absolutely crapped the bed both times.

I have no problem with the recent NDSU successes except that I can't stand to listen to Bison fans. They are cocksure for a reason - their teams are getting it done. NDSU not negative? - Go check their boards when their football team took a temporary dip with Bohl at the helm. NDSU fans (especially football) are far more demanding of a winner than UND fans. How long would have Muss lasted in Bisonville? Let's face it - recent UND teams have been frustrating (women's basketball the exception). Do UND fans cheer blindly or insist that things get done? Maybe a happy medium. The difference in fan reactions is the difference in getting it done. Imagine UND fans if we won 3 hockey championships in a row. The cure for negativity is winning.

I don't disagree with this assessment of the current student section - no energy at all. I come from an era where (as others have mentioned) we stood outside and froze just to get in to see a team that wasn't that good. Let's face it though. The Ralph has botched the student section going back to the opening where the big emphasis for students was getting them to sit down so corperate could see the games better from their boxes. Rather than trying to enhance the student experience it monitored them into their seats. Let's face it - the Ralph caters to money, corporations, and the rich. Who sits at ice level? Certainly not the most rabid fans, but the ones that can afford the asking price. It drives me nuts to see the parade of people by where I sit who are there socially because someone offered them tickets to enhance their business. Well, now that the games aren't real exciting, things are too quiet. This is a problem on many levels and other than this discussion board I'm not too sure that anyone is concerned as long as the profits from $9 beer still comes in. I wish I had more solutions.

I'm not saying this IS our future, just saying that if it is I think the atmosphere will suck. Hopefully our new class can bring a little firepower and get things on track.

I agree with this assessment - I'm not saying we should be the smash you in the face teams of the past, I'm saying we don't have any other real identity either. We are not a huge offensive threat that keeps flying up and down the ice or buzzes the net relentlessly and we don't have any real stars. Quick - describe this team's style in a sentence or two - what do you come up with. We seem to be a team of worker bees that are forever working the corners on our dump chase and cycle. No particulair puck skills stand out. Add in our power play (I'm not saying we never score, I'm saying it is very frustrating to watch) and you get our team - not bad and we are always hopeful, but not one of our best. Add in the corporate and expensive atmosphere of the Ralph and this is what you get. Three or four more years of this and the Ralph will be truely quiet - especially if we continue to hover around the outer edges of pairwise.

Agreed that the student section is dead and the Ralph is too quiet. I am very concerned about this going forward. I think it is a combination of a lot of things. One of them (and by far not the only one) is that this team has no identity or team personality - it's neither fish nor fowl. Gone are the days when visitors were in for a world of pain and big hits would fire up the crowd. Also not here is a team that relentlesly buzzes the net and keeps coming at you (see Blais's teams). What we have is a team that is inconsistant and seems to lack any star power. You never know what you are going to get. Even after victorys, the things that fans often take away from the game is negative - usually frustration about our power play not gaining the zone or our relentless dump, chase, and cycle. This team has no hard-nosed edge and no signature method of dealing with opponents. Combined with many other factors - some previously mentioned here - and a quiet Ralph is what you get. I hope this doesn't continue or become the norm.

The last time I was on the receiving end of one of your juvenile sarcastic attacks was when I dared to mention that Muss might not be the one to lead the Sioux to football success. If you don't like my opinion make yours with a factual argument - leave the junior high snide remarks at home. I had the gall to point out that Huff wasn't always an asset dispite his huge talent. As to the checking out - some of it refered to the memorable game a season or two ago when he didn't want to play if he wasn't getting the ball. Sorry if I'm not all duckys and bunnys like you, but if you feel compelled to make more personal attacks you can kiss mine.

I've seen him check out several times when he wasn't getting the ball enough including one memorable time a season or two ago (too lazy to look for it). There is no doubt he is one of the most talented players ever to suit up for UND but he isn't always an asset on the floor (passing, defense).

I don't think there would be nearly as much heartburn over our record this year if we were young or if we were working hard but just didn't have the talent. However, we have a very talented group of seniors and Jones has shown zero ability to coach them up at all. Watching this talent not box out, refuse to pass, and just mail it in sometimes drives me nuts. They don't appear to listen to coaching at all because they have been playing the exact same way for 4 years. This is so frustrating to many fans. At times you see more disciplined play in a pick up game.

They worked their butts off for this victory but didn't execute well at all. Seemed to miss a lot of good passes and fight the puck some. Good grind it out win. By the way - our power play is not horrible once we set it up, but I have rarely seen a team that has so much trouble getting set up in the zone. You would think they would have it figured out by now.

Maybe, maybe not this year - but when they were class A it was a different story

Interesting topic - I really believe that there is no great way to divide the classes - put Grafton in class A and they get hammered, put them in class B and year in year out they do the hammering because they have many times more students than some of the smaller schools. All of the old small class A schools are now class B - Rugby, Grafton, Trinity, Bottineau, etc and not just because of population loss - they either are at the bottom of class A or the top of class B. These teams seem to dominate now, and mainly because of numbers. This is not to say smaller schools don't get to the dance because they do, but it is frustrating to watch a team like Trinity who recruits and keeps their numbers under the class A limit take it to the public class B schools. Same thing year in year out with Shilo Christian.

They've had some good recruiting years

I'm glad someone actually took the time to read the posts. Two things I think we need to hang #8 - First - he ability to adjust our game plan - when teams scout us, they seem to be able to bottle up our transition game. We need to be prepared for this. Second - we need to have our goalie steal one instead of it happening to us. A key element in our 1-5 frozen four record under Hak is goalie play.