tnt

3rd line, 4th line, it doesn’t really matter if they are put out against the top players of the opposition.

I like Kunz’s net front presence with Berg and Perron’s precision shooting.

Tied for fourth? Where are they getting their information, from Colby & Buccigross?

I was never in the fire Hak crowd, as I loved being relevant every year and having North Dakota being in the national spotlight. It certainly helps recruiting when you are in the Frozen Four every year and the media raves about the program. How many times do you hear North Dakota even mentioned during the tourney as a team that was going to be a significant threat? It also keeps the fanbase involved knowing their team is going to be competitive every year. People would make plans for regional tickets early on, and while many still do the same, most are making plans on how to sell their tickets because UND doesn’t make the tournament, or implode so they don’t get to their desired regional. So as long as the above schools don’t win a title, even though most of them have been quite relevant, we should be fine with not making the tournament or first round exits? No wonder people are fine with Denver winning it all, they have relegated themselves that UND will never catch Denver and Michigan to allow them to be considered the premier program in the country. Maybe we should cheer for Denver every year to make sure none of those other schools win it, so we can say 10 years down the road that at least those schools haven’t won it either. I get it, there are a lot of things that need to go right to win 4 games in the tournament very often, but there needs to be some expectation for a program like ours to make a run and win a couple games consistently. I don’t consider Air Force to be a team that we should need to catch for tourney wins over the last 7-8 years.

Of course it helps if you recruit goaltenders like Chrona and Davis that have potential to play lights out for 4 games.

I get that celebrations are part of what to expect now because it has been such a part of the lower levels of hockey, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. Personally when we talk about culture, I think that could be reigned in a bit and not have over the top celebrations on every goal. I much preferred Blake’s overtime winner where he didn’t celebrate at all because he was mad it came to that. Bottom line is act like you’ve been there before and save the huge celebrations for big time games.

Hennessy has always said while they respect Denver, they do not like Denver’s way of going about things, which could simply be on ice behavior or other behind the scenes stuff. To me, how is holding up your sticks skating by the bench after you score a goal any different than the little Chelsea Dagger hand motions UND does, or some of the one off celebrations from guys like Blake or Johannes. Whatever the petty differences, they might need to copy Denver’s recruiting philosophy of getting guys that are used to winning and know what it’s like in big game situations.

Five All-Americans and BC can’t get it done. Those always impressed by the high end talent and the thinking that they were practically unbeatable should learn a bit from history. It is becoming more evident though that the culture that Berry dislikes > the culture that has produced year after year of early tournament losses.

Agree, and we never did get all of the players. I would say our biggest calling card has been we have always been hard to play against and we brought it every night. I would argue that teams like Western, St. Cloud, and Omaha have more consistent work ethics than we have with less talent. In this age when you might get fewer of the super skilled guys, you better have experienced junior guys coming in, and you better have less games where the coach has to repeat “we didn’t come out ready to play”. Not hearing media or coaches talking about how hard North Dakota is to play against, in fact you don’t hear much about the program as a team to be feared at tournament time. It doesn’t help not having any exposure during the Frozen Four, much less the National tournament. That kills recruiting.

If I recall, Blais said that 10 years at one place is about right, as you run the risk of overstaying your welcome. Of course that is when Sandelin started to come into his own at Duluth, so you never know. Gino had his run from approximately 1978-1987 before things started to deteriorate and he was forced out by Wanless. We saw that Gino was loyal to a fault, having two goaltenders as his assistants in Craig Perry and Jim Scanlan. I get the feeling that Berry isn’t going anywhere either unless it comes to the same ugly conclusion. Having said that, we are nowhere near that kind of fall, but we do have more advantages now than we used to. I see Berry being loyal to guys that have been loyal to him, but he needs to look at some things and some players with more of an objective eye. We know who some of those players are/were that seemed to have an extra long leash.

Didn’t watch the game, was it one of those games where the stats were irrelevant, or was BC just more opportunistic? Or did Michigan just start to press when they fell behind?

No, but probably just as angry, if not more!

We don’t want Denver, but are able to have some level of objectivity, you would think that would be required of announcers as well. Again, where are Starman and Alex?

So you’re saying UND is developing players better than Minnesota? Snuggerud seemed like he wasn’t nearly as dynamic without Cooley and Nies (which is expected to some degree), but Blake was the driver of UND’s offense, finishing quite a bit ahead of everyone else.

It may take a bit for him to adapt to the speed and strength at the next level, but he reminds me of Johnny Gaudreau in that he is small but has the hockey sense and shiftiness to be a step ahead of the average player, which should make him successful at some point.

Was there just bad info out on Berg leaving, or has there been some behind the scenes NIL activity?

I'll give you that, but personally I think with all of the recruiting advantages and the portal advantages, I can think of a handful of ex-UND players that could produce the same results we are seeing now.

If the other Bubba got extended, chances are Berry would be too. I think we could go down the same path for the next 6 years and not win a tourney game and there wouldn't be an impetus to change as long as we make the tourney half the time.

That would be a huge indictment on the mental toughness if that was the case. Yes, it was a disappointing goal to give up, but I would argue the response to it was far more disappointing. Good teams react positively to adversity, not fold under a small bit of adversity.

So if another year isn’t going to make a difference in development, why not start getting paid in the AHL or another league before deciding if you would want to go to Europe or something. Even those scenarios pay pretty well compared to what the average guy makes.

Gone are the days of players making a pact to come back to finish the job. Of course, most of the time that happened in situations like Minnesota's where they fell just shy of winning a title. It's not like UND can say "we were so close". Obviously, Blake was being pressed by Carolina, and I can understand their need to sign him so they don't lose him next year. Just sad that Minnesota is holding on to players, where in the past guys would stay around here because they wanted to make another push for a championship. So this obviously is going to give Berry even more grace, because we lost Blake and Berg, so we lost our top scoring threats. You know, if you are going to lose guys anyway, might as well recruit like Michigan and BU. Very disappointing.

Now do tournament winning percentage.

Maybe don’t have an offensive superstar, but we probably will be a bit better defensively, and a little harder to play against. Rather than the power play running through Blake, they’ll need to whip the puck around a little faster to get those cross ice openings for some one timers from Berg and Perron. Hopefully Perron recognizes this as an opportunity for him to be the man on the power play, and to be more of a trigger man period with his shot.

If you look back after the Notre Dame loss, many that are in the we are unlucky crowd were saying that it wasn’t ideal and that Berry would have pressure the following year because they should be better and we’ll see how things go. Well, we missed the NCAA tourney again the next year, and we’re one and done this year. I am sick of trying to defend Berry to people, and once again that graph brought it home for me that it is well beyond time to put up rather than talk about woulda, coulda, shoulda. If it takes playing an AIC or some like team, then take care of business before that so you get to play them, and in an advantageous location no less. They have blown at least 3 chances for those advantages that have nothing to do with luck. I wonder how many more years will go by with people using the unlucky bounces mantra, when indeed it has been shown that UND has been recipient of quite a bit of luck themselves. I think this coaching staff has the ability to get this team over the hump and go back to back and totally refute any negative narratives, but it is far beyond time for a program like North Dakota that they and their players don’t talk about getting revenge or that they have higher goals than league championships and just go out and get it done.

Since his high school season ended, and he rejoined Tri City, Cooper Simpson has really picked up his scoring, with 2 goals and an assist tonight on 8 shots.