.357

UND hockey lately reminds me of a Porsche 911 sitting in the garage of an old lady who no longer drives: talent unrealized.

Maybe we're already dead & in purgatory, forced to watch year after year of Berry-led teams as punishment for our earthly transgressions. Each season brings eternal hope, but always ends just short of the final prize; some years more crushing than others. A fitting punishment for a prideful people. Nothing else makes sense with these wildly inconsistent teams of his.

Boisvert quietly with 2 assists tonight.

Anyone have an idea why this team was not engaged for most of this game along with the Augie game? Looking for ideas about what's going on in these guys' heads. The first order of business should be to compete, but something's not clicking with these guys..They're either on or off with no in between. It's concerning because it seems to be a team-wide shutdown & this attitude can cost us valuable PWR points down the road. Or was it because Mankato was frustrating them with a heavy forecheck? How did Jubenvill look in relief of Zmolek?

Good to know. Thanks.

I was browsing the online Sioux Shop. Does anyone know the cut/percentage that a player receives if someone purchases a jersey with his name on it? (NIL)

Interesting take. So MI, if they are to be consistent with the 1 title every 10 years scenario, have until 2038 to win title #10 to stay ahead of the curve (first title for them was in 1948). That would be 40 years between titles (last one was in 1998). Would that still be acceptable for a school of MI's caliber?

When you think about it, Berry could very easily win one or two NCs in the next 5 years, with people remembering him as one of the better UND hockey coaches in program history. Sentiments can change that quickly. During the off-season, it sounds like he put a lot of thought into how he could manage the team differently. He may not be as inherently talented or wizard-like as Carle, but you can tell he really wants to win & is trying different approaches to gain different results. I'm optimistic in that sense. But at the same time, I'm also pragmatic: If his teams continue to flounder in the tournament in the next few years, serious consideration should be given to finding a replacement. There can only be so much playoff failure at a high-profile program like UND before one needs to pull the plug & look elsewhere. In the end, programs are respected & remembered through the lens of how many NCs they have; not with how many conference championships are hanging in their rafters.

Appreciate the feedback. Breakouts were a bugaboo last spring.

That's an unanswerable question for somebody who's not intimately involved with his program. How in the world is someone on ss.com supposed to know the 'why' to his success? Maybe it's how he motivates his players, maybe it's his overall charisma that players resonate with, maybe it's how he gets every player to buy in, maybe it's his problem-solving skills, maybe it's putting his players in lineups & situations where he knows they'll succeed, maybe he's more firm with players who aren't giving 100%, maybe he recruits better, maybe he says the right things at the right time, maybe he's a brilliant strategist..who the F knows, he's better because he gets the job done.

You saying that all coaches are the same & some aren't inherently more talented than others? Tangible things..hmmm, how about his team scoring more goals than the opposition? That's an actual, quantifiable reason why his team went all the way last year. I think you meant what intangibles does Carle possess..who knows what he tells his players behind closed doors or how he prepares them, all I know is that he gets it done.

It goes beyond this season & extends into the last month of the last season. Technically, the poor performances & lapses go back for a good chunk of the previous 8 years; it's not exactly a new development. Gasparini had some stinkers for games, but for his first 8 years compared to Berry's, he almost always had his teams clicking in the playoffs. As does Carle in the modern era, who may be a world apart from Gasparini in terms of changed attitudes, but his teams still "bring it" every March/April. Therein lies the difference. So comparisons are not good? To not compare a previous era to the current one leaves no standard by which to judge your program. Especially when a certain window within that previous era ('79 - '87) was the shining star of the program's history. Comparisons are natural in sports & life, that's how we gain perspective, establish a baseline & improve. It also serves as a model to today's players on how they're expected to perform. Like you mentioned previously, nothing happens in a void. Looking forward to this team playing like they're capable of & going deep in the playoffs this year. Berry certainly deserves #9 based on his endless hours of work & his obvious passion for the program; whether he actually achieves it is another hand-wringing, nail-biting matter.

This is what concerns me. It seems like the team as a whole is unable to be self-motivated & requires an external circumstance to kick it into higher gear .. like the late shot by a Friar player. It baffles me to no end how this can happen, not just by a couple of players but by most of the team. It's as if they're in a trance for long stretches. Clearly what Berry is telling them in the locker room is not translating to the ice. Part of the reason I included that quote on Gasparini earlier was to highlight what should be expected of a coach at UND: to always have your team competing at the highest level, something Gino was a master of & which Berry is still trying to figure out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this team will never go far in the tourney if they can't be self-motivated to play a full 60. The win against Providence felt good, but one swallow does not make a summer. They simply cannot have that lackadaisical approach, because every team they face will be playing at a higher level to try & beat them. Having that ho-hum attitude against PWR-killers like Robert Morris or Bemidji St. will put a serious dent in their playoff hopes. Showing up to play every night for the entire game should be a given. An off night here & there happens, but the repeated pattern of non-urgency for long stretches is a legitimate concern. The team will not be hanging #9 by playing only 40-50 minutes/game.

It's not relevant to the thread, but then again, Gino is synonymous with Sioux hockey, so ... From a Schlossman article in 2013, quoting Dave Hakstol: “The things that stand out to me: He was very prepared but he demanded that his players were very prepared. And he demanded that his players competed at a high level. He was able to motivate people within a program to be able to do that. I think that’s why he was so successful.” Gino had that natural elixir that got the most out of his players, he demanded excellence & his players responded with 3 national championships; it easily could have been a few more. He is the benchmark by which all other coaches at UND are & will continue to be measured.

You had me there for a minute. I'm used to you using smilies every other sentence.

Haha thanks for sharing that. Gino, the man who revived Sioux hockey & elevated it to the top tier. I shudder to think where the program would be today if he never came along.

Hobnobbing with the Sioux aristocracy, I see. Sounds like you had a blast. Who is Hakstol with there?

Talent-wise they can roll with anyone, but like you said, it's a matter of them consistently showing up. It took a late shot on net (on TJ) yesterday to wake the guys up, before that they didn't seem very engaged.

Tonight will be a good test for how well they respond after a bad showing. Plus throw in some pressure for looking good in front of all the alumni in town. We will see how mature, how resilient & how badly this team wants to win; big character check tonight.

Hard to tell. In a previous Through These Doors episode, it showed Berry in the locker room before the Augustana game, talking in an upbeat manner to the guys; telling them that now's the time that we establish our identity & play hard & fast hockey. Sounded like a great speech, only problem was that his players forgot there was a game that night. Makes me wonder sometimes if there's a disconnect between him & his players. The issue with UND lately isn't their talent level, it's getting the players to be fully invested in the game & competing for 60 minutes. A Berry-led team usually runs hot or cold on any given night .. where that roulette wheel lands against Providence is anyone's guess.

Where I live (AZ) is MST, which is currently 2 hours behind Central. MDT (ie, Idaho) is 1 hour behind Central. That's why I specifically said MST. I never mentioned the time for the UM/ASU game.

Not sure what you mean. I put the BC @ MSU game at 3PM MST; you put it at 5PM Central. Same thing.

BC @ Mich. St. televised on Big10 Network today at 3PM MST. MI @ASU also tonight. A couple of humdingers.

DU is in the same boat as UND as far as how many blue chips they get, & look at them. Maybe the blueprint for success in college hockey is to try & get a few first-rounders, while loading your roster with 2nd-7th rounders who will hang around for 3-4 years. Maybe it's harder to win a championship when your first-rounders are leaving every 1-2 years: no continuity. Look at MI this off-season, most of their top talent went pro & they'll probably struggle to finish in the top-15 this year.

It was refreshing to hear Berry say that they wanted the team to hit their stride around playoff time by putting less emphasis on the Penrose this year. That change in perspective could pay dividends later in the year. Then last Saturday happened, which raised some huge red flags. Being critical of a team that was so disjointed is, imo, a healthier & more expected response than sugarcoating it; because the guys showed just how unprepared & unmotivated they were. And since Berry is the CEO of the team, it's only natural that a big portion of that criticism falls on him. Even though it was "just" an exhibition, because it's still an important game that sets the tone for the following weekend. Perhaps it was just a fluke, & hopefully Berry will make the needed corrections ahead of Providence; who will be just as pumped as Augustana to pull off the upset at the Ralph. My biggest concern (of the many that presented themselves) is having the D improve sufficiently enough in 7 days so they aren't exposed like they were against Auggie. A tall order in such a short time. It's hard to imagine that Emery, MacDonald & Strathmann will be playing at the same level this October that Britt, Pearson & Pyke were playing at last October. Big differences in experience. But hey, anything's possible.