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To be sure, this weekend could be a tipping point that we haven’t had to deal with at UND, because if they get swept, Berry could very well lose the team and the repercussions in that scenario could be horrible. Keeping a team together under those circumstances would be admirable, but wouldn’t absolve anyone from the responsibility of getting in that situation to begin with.

I think the second night against Western really took it's toll on optimism, but this is too far gone the other way. If you are willing to bet, I sure would put $1000 down on UND winning more than 1 game the rest of the way.

Just the fact that people are this pessimistic denotes a huge problem. Personally I am thinking 7-5 the rest of the way, but admittedly that hinges on a minimum of a split this weekend.

Does Schlossman usually show the USCHO hockey poll? I would think with it being this late in the year, the pairwise should be the focus. Of course #16 looks a lot better than #26, which is where we are at in the pairwise.

Good PK involves hard work, discipline, and getting the big save when you need it. Could explain why we are near the bottom of college hockey.

I will assume we don't have a home regional next year if we make the tournament, since that seems to be the pattern. When people talk about having to play Michigan last year, one has to say, why was that the case. Because you lost 4 out of 5 to Omaha, and all 4 to Colorado College. Just those two things should call for serious contemplation, but when you are talking close to a decade without tournament success, the next year thing starts to get a little old. Already starting to find acceptable teams to pull for to win the championship this year, as it is getting late fast.

This is what I feel is the biggest issue. I don't think this program aspires to have 2 good years in the conference with no post season success, then 2 not so great years. I do think that is a reflection of roster management, and in my judgement it hasn't been that good, especially considering that you have the portal to draw from should any of your classes be uneven because someone leaves for the NHL. Let's face it, every team can look back at a few games here or there that could have lifted them to a tournament appearance or higher finish in the league. I get that sometimes you lose with great performances, but what we have seen lately are inconsistent performances with inconsistent effort, which is a head scratcher when you are in the predicament UND has been in since November.

This series could very well be a make or break scenario. If they get beat after being off a week and look horrible doing it, they could lose the team, and who knows what the fallout from that would be. I don't want to be hearing "we had to shake off the rust, and we came out a bit slow". After the interaction between Larsen and Berry here, you know there should be a lot of motivation, it's just what coach do you think can capitalize on that motivation.

...and then you would hear from fans that say, how do you sit your 2nd leading goal scorer when you have issues scoring goals.

When this has basically been the sentiment for all 3 of the major sports at UND, I think more than coaching changes should be on the table.

When did Ryan commit to Minnesota, because I believe he was 16 when Grant was already with the gophers.

If they are just kids, then they should be playing for the love of the sport, and NIL money wouldn't be as big as it has become. With pay, and a free education come expectations.

So if Berry did that, and our biggest rival won two National Championships because of it, you would never let him forget that. Probably lost out on 3 great college players because of that, because UND probably would have got Danny Irmen as well.

The thing about players like Parise, Toews and Oshie is that they were super skilled, but they were also the hardest workers, just relentless. Don't know that we have had many of our best players being the hardest workers lately. It is kind of hard for the other less skilled guys to be slacking, when you see the elite players with a dog on bone attitude.

The student section has quite the dilemma then, because the next coach might not be as receptive to the "Sioux Forever" chant!

Having a lame duck coach that will be making recruiting decisions isn’t great though. Even if he gets a few studs, the new coach is going to have to re-recruit them. If a player is torn between a few programs, are they going to commit to a coach that could be gone the next year? Tough position to be in if you don’t expect Berry to be the coach, unless he has a good year, and even then, does 1 good year deserve another extension?

Are we certain they chanted this? I heard some were chanting "We want Hobie"! Did they chant both things, or did people hear "Fire Berry" when it was actually "We want Hobie"?

But it wasn't the points that won Denver the championship, it was the defense. Most of those points came in the regular season, where we actually won the league title. Denver didn't score much in the national tournament, they just held the other team to basically nothing.

Regardless of the coach, another year under the belt of Swanson, Boisvert, Perron and Livanavage, along with the addition of Zellers and Laurila and you have a nice group of skill. Most guys take a bit to figure it out and become real confident, and I think Swanson can really take that big step next year. Boisvert has really met expectation, but he hasn’t got as much support from the upperclassmen as we need to be successful.

Wonder what the incentives are on both contracts.

We’ve become all too good at doing that in the National tournament as well!

We can’t all be as smart as you, who wanted Bubba over DeBoer and were quite happy with the selection of Chaves as AD. When can we fire you?

Yeah, not seeing him or Portz changing the outcome very much, as we always heard that guys like Strinden weren’t being used enough.

Suffice it to say, that when you turn over your whole defensive group from a couple years ago to try and start fresh, then we’re right back in a poor situation a couple years later, when teams like Western have turned over most of their roster during the same period and are thriving, you have a problem. Your leaders like Jamernik and Strinden aren’t exactly leading by example either. I expect those type guys to go through a wall for the program, and you don’t see that extra effort you would expect from them. We’ll see if a few weeks dwelling on this will turn their attention to the next series in St. Cloud, because I know Larsen will have St. Cloud ready. If UND lays an egg, the heat will really be turned up.

Is that why UND has so many turnovers at the blue line going the other way? They are hardly a grind team anymore like they were under Hakstol. Don’t cycle the puck as much either.