Big A HG

None were on the radio. I don't know if he had to do some other media or opted to not saying anything at all.

I like how you referenced I "participated". I did participate twice in that thread before it was locked. And in neither post did I ever reference Firing Hak. In one I defended the fact that it's still a long season and the other was some thoughtful data about our string of championships against the law of averages. Over the umpteen years I've been on here I can't say with 100% certainty that I didn't mention the good ol' #FireHak once in a fit of Frozen Four rage, but I don't recall ever doing it and have never believed firing Hak was ever the right choice like I truly believe that replacing Berry is.

I would guess Mama Gaber was playing with the crowd on Flakebook if that counts.

Who?

Just because there was a big thread about "Fire Hak" doesn't mean I was a participant...nor does it mean anyone calling for Brad's head was a participant of the Hak one...though I won't argue that some would overlap. I am a big fan of Hak and think that young recruits, players, other programs, and the hockey landscape as a whole thought incredibly highly of UND while he was coach. You don't hear those same things nearly as much anymore and we're not recruiting elite talent like we used to.

Defender of mediocrity.

Season results were not what was being discussed. "The bar" was the level of acceptance that fans have of the program that gets lower every year. At this rate, Berry could go 0-fer on the season and people would still defend him at some point.

The bar has been lowering every year since Hak left....

Shoot, my bad...I thought Berry & company recruited and coached the players. So you're implying the players invited themselves to play for UND?

The puck movement and decision making is so slow. There's so little movement and rotation that keeps the opposing PK moving for any consistent amount of time.

Mike Gornall

You act like that's a dig. Chuck E Cheese failed because there are numerous other better options than a crummy, old, run-down Chuck E Cheese. The kids aren't missing out on anything...they themselves don't ask to go there anymore.

Sharks make sauce.

No, she just started posting a couple of years ago on the page and it's just gotten to unhealthy levels of internet stalking because many are disgustingly desperate to make a fake connection to a player's mother. It literally gives me shivers reading some stuff on there.

I'm neutral on Sandelin and an obvious non-fan of Berry. With that said, Sandelin is disadvantaged at every turn compared to everything UND has to offer from a hockey standpoint. Berry took over a top-performing program and it has declined from where he started, despite the reasonable conference success. Sandelin took over a struggling program and built it up to a three time national title winner. I think the fascination comes from wondering what Sandelin could do with what UND has to offer compared to UMD. I don't think Sandelin is the answer these days, but I'm also not convinced of promoting someone within the program that is currently there either.

I had this pinned from awhile back. Not even remotely close to a full game, but a neat clip of Harvard v Sioux.

The neat thing about conference title is you can still win one after losing games. That's what makes the NCAA tourneys so difficult. Hak was a bit snake-bitten and it surely wasn't because of his coaching the team wasn't able to win one. You don't get to 7 Frozen Fours in 11 years as a bad coach. The thing is, a down year for Hak was still making an NCAA tourney and possibly even winning a game or two and making a Frozen Four. Berry was able to get us over the hurdle in 2016, but also started five NHLers and had more on the bench for that title run...of which all those players committed to UND to play for Hakstol. I find it hard to believe Hak also wouldn't have gotten over that hurdle. Once Berry started recruiting his own players, we seldom see the blue chippers nor as much of the international recognition as when we had Hak. That's why Hakstol was able to get an NHL job from college after 30+ years since Badger Bob. The most common outcome in the Hakstol era was a Frozen Four semi-final loss. The most common outcome of a season under Berry is missing the NCAA tourney. The MacNaughton/Penrose was never the number one goal for Hakstol. He broke his teams down at the start of each year in order to rebuild them over the course of the year with the team peaking towards the playoffs. Berry seems to want to get out of the gates hot and fast and try to keep the team there, but the team seldom seems to change much over the course of the season. Either they're good or they're not. I'm not sure which way is right or wrong, but I find it more fun to have chances at Frozen Fours, even if we ultimately lose them all, than win regular season trophies...but that's just me. The Hakstol era was way more fun in the end.

You also can't lose in regulation if you don't play.

I don't discount that things have slightly improved, but why the sudden drop-off after our title? You'd think that Berry would have pulled in a number of much better recruits in a shorter period of time. And, as talented as this team is, it's really no comparison to the 2016 title team. It only seems better because of how poor some recent rosters have been. That 2016 team would blown the doors off of what this team is capable of IMO. We were loaded on both offense and defense and our starting five in the championship all went on to play in the NHL. How many NHLers are we watching on this year's team? In the past it was never a question of if any of the guys were going to play decent NHL careers, not just get a couple of short-term call-ups...it was a question of how many.

Reminds me of the stat that UND played four NCAA tournament games under Berry in the 2016 title run and has played only four more NCAA tournament games in total since then.

Not all of us. "In combat, complacency kills people. In business, it kills companies." -Mike Ettore UND hockey is combat on ice, or a hockey business. Justifying our stagnation by defending what Berry has done with the program is what will ultimately fail it beyond what it already has. Complacency breeds failure. The New England Patriots have won two Super Bowls since UND last won the national championship. Bill Belichick has four other Patriot Super Bowl victories before that. Yet, only a handful of seasons later, Robert Kraft said enough is enough when the program started underperforming consistently. How can Brad Berry have a longer leash than Bill Belichick?

Regular season is too hard to judge who is good and who is not when looking at first half games, which makes it an overall too difficult of a question to answer. So... What's Berry's record as the favorite and what's his record as the underdog in post-season play in one-and-done games? 2016: 6-1 as favorite (1-1 NCHC, 4-0 NCAA) // no underdog games 2017: no games as favorite // 1-2 as underdog (1-1 NCHC, 0-1 NCAA) 2018: no games as favorite // 0-1 as underdog (0-1 NCHC, missed NCAA) 2019: none (missed both NCHC and NCAA tournaments) 2020: none (covid) 2021: 3-1 as favorite (2-0 NCHC, 1-1 NCAA) // no underdog games 2022: 0-2 as favorite (0-1 NCHC, 0-1 NCAA) // no underdog games 2023: no games as favorite // 0-1 as underdog (0-1 NCHC, missed NCAA) *Third place NCHC games not counted So, Berry is 9-4 as the favorite and 1-4 as the underdog. Keep in mind, the more you win, the more games you get, so naturally there will be more games recorded on the win side if you string some wins together. He's 5-2 as an NCAA tournament favorite, 0-1 as an underdog. But, also keep in mind, four of those five wins were in a single tournament, 2016, when the title was won, which leaves him with a 1-2 record as a favorite since. UND has only played four more total NCAA games under Berry's following 6 seasons (not counting 2020 as a season in that regard).

I've said this before and I'll say it again since it's an easy out but does very little to justify your point. Berry, Dane, Karl, Cary, etc....any of the assistants past or present all go on the recruiting trail. They are often the first point of contact and ultimately the main point of contact until on campus. But, ultimately, the head coach is one of the many key reasons a player will choose a program. They aren't choosing it for a particular assistant coach or because Berry is recruiting them. Do you think Berry is going to the recruits home and saying "boy, I sure want you to be here, but I'm not sure Dave Hakstol does...want to play for UND?" No. Just like a football player would have wanted to go to Alabama to play under Saban, despite Saban not being the one to necessarily recruit that player. The player is still going there to play under Saban and increase his chances to make the next level. The more important the player, the more the head coach will be involved in that recruiting, but it's largely the assistants at any program doing said recruiting. It's still Hak's recruit because he's the head of household in which that player wants to go play for. Did Berry play a part? Sure. But, the players committed to the program to play for Hakstol who was highly-regarded at all levels of hockey for his coaching. You don't hear that about Berry and you certainly don't see the same level of recruits coming in anymore either. If Berry was such a master recruiter, why did Hakstol do so well recruiting before Cary left and he arrived? If Berry is such a master recruiter, why are Berry's commitments not to the level of his own recruiting while Hakstol was coach? Answer: 2015-16 was ultimately Hakstol's recruits whether or not Berry was the one recruiting.

Berry is proud of the team and thinks they were good enough to win and the team skated hard. Come on, talk about the lowest of low standards.