Big A HG

Cool. I have no idea who supported firing Hak and have no idea who supports firing Berry. It doesn't matter who supported firing Hak as Hak has been gone for years. You seem like you're still wearing your Holy Cross jersey. I care about winning NCAA tournament games, nothing else. All I know is that almost every aspect of the program as a whole has been worse under Berry than Hak despite the university having more resources than ever with the exception of conference championships. Think Denver or Duluth would trade their real championships for more conference titles?

The onus is on you to provide evidence for your claims. And regardless, Hak hasn't coached UND in almost ten years...what's next, who wanted Rube Bjorkman fired? Right now it's about what Berry has [or hasn't] done...

Complacency kills. We can always be optimistic, but the sample size isn't small anymore. Berry just didn't win the title 2-3 years ago, it will be 9 years ago by the time the next tourney rolls around. There's been plenty of leash and Berry should have reached the end. Instead we watch our rivals win titles while we flounder in the first round over and over...if we even make the tourney.

This gets said a lot but I don't know how true it is.

Whether or not Berry was "in charge" of recruiting, players choose to play for the head coach first and foremost. Berry is doing thy bidding for the head coach. Under Hak we were known as NHL U. No one says that anymore. Recruiting as a whole has declined under Berry. That's not to say we haven't had some good recruits, but as a whole it's been worse. Also, Berry was only under Hak for a few years of Hak's tenure, yet Hak churned out great players and great results for many years prior. You make your statement like Hak couldn't have existed without Berry which is incredibly untrue.

The people wanting to march Berry out of town don't want to because of one exhibition loss....it's years of meaningful losses.

We haven't had an identity in years...we just go out and play and hope we win. Hak rebuilt each year with a new identity which led to some early season shortfalls but late season success.

I judge Berry for the [lack of] results in March, not for one win in October. We'll keep raising conference banners while Denver keeps raising natty banners.

Not sure what you saw in that presser that I'm not seeing. Berry's always been a talker and the more he talks the less he gets questioned. I'm not saying he didn't make any points, but it was like asking ChatGPT to turn a two minute script into an eight minute one. He immediately starts with subtle, but noticeable excuses from the moment he started speaking. "Yeah, um, exhibition game tonight." Yeah, okay? Like, was there someone in the media or a fan that somehow found the Youtube of the postgame presser that didn't know it was an exhibition? He only says it to deflect from the team's performance, the team he controls. "Got everyone in the lineup, everyone got reps tonight". Hey, we sucked, but everyone played, including the crappy guys, so don't hold us too accountable for the final result. I wouldn't scrutinize Berry to this level if this was 2018, but it's 2024 going on 2025 and we haven't done !@#$ in the post-season since the title run in 2016. Cool, we can hang out with our Penrose Cups while watching 14 other schools make a Frozen Four since the last time we did. Air Force has more tournament wins than UND since 2016. Now, we may go destroy Providence on Saturday 8-0, and everything will seem great, but Berry needs to stay on the hot seat for our tournament failures and non-appearances over the stretch of time he's had full control over the program and roster, not with the inheritance he received from Hak.

But he's a nice guy and we win Penrose Cups.

If UND is going to struggle against everyone who's pumped to play in the Ralph, we're in for a long year.

Here you go, in case you need them for later...

All that new, fancy training equipment is going to good use. I can see being a bit sloppy and things not clicking, but holy smokes the feet look heavy.

It won't take the next step we need under Bubba either.

Has anyone ever seen an older looking 62 year old than Bubba?

NDSU won the toss and elected to receive.

HAK IS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS. Bring him home!

I'm pretty sure that was the point of his response.

Outside of the national championship with Hak's team in year one, what's better about the UND hockey program now than it was under Hak? Not a single thing. Everything has regressed.

Need Paul Ralston to ask the tough questions about their "choke job"!

No disagreement there. But, the regular season is there to create seeding for postseason play...whether it be conference tourney or national tourney. Winning a bunch of games in fall every year is fine, it helps us hopefully make the tournament and sometimes assists in winning a supremely overrated regular season conference title, but doesn't do anything for you in March or April. We aren't good at all based on our March results in almost a decade now.

Sadly, we're neither.

It's better to be lucky than good.

Food for thought using the Frozen Four teams this year. David Carle (DU), 34 years old - 3 Frozen Fours in 4 seasons. Brandon Naurato (Mich), 39 years old - 2 Frozen Fours in 2 seasons. Jay Pandolfo (BU), 49 years old - 2 Frozen Fours in 2 seasons. Greg Brown (BC), 56 years old - 1 Frozen Four in 2 seasons. Brad Berry (UND), 59 years old - 1 Frozen Four in 8 seasons. **2020 season omitted in statistics since tournament was cancelled The younger hires of David Carle and Brandon Naurato have both shown to be successful hires so far. Pandolfo is younger now than Berry was when he was hired. Greg is of similar age to Brad, but has shown he is able to provide elite recruiting. There's no agenda to push here, just some interesting tidbits to note. Maybe having a younger head coach wouldn't be such a bad thing. Maybe just having a fresh face can spark new life into the program. Maybe none of it matters and you just need a good coach. But, combined, the four of those coaches have 8 Frozen Four appearances in their 10 collective seasons while UND hasn't been to one in 8 years. Not only that, we've only won one NCAA tournament game since then.