TheFlop

How many of the junior class were actually Berry recruits?

You can't be serious? Since Sandelin got a decent arena in 2010 he has been lights out. 2 National Titles, a Runner Up, and on his way to a possible/likely 3rd title. UND would take him in a heartbeat but he ain't coming

Sandy isn't coming back. Never. Berry is a good coach......but too nice of a guy to do what is necessary.

Gonna need someone to step up and fill JJ's shoes when it comes to missing point blank shots to score. I think Bowen has it in him.

Used to be 80-90% full during Sioux games with about a quarter of those fans being Sioux fans. I'm guessing it will be 2/3 full with a smaller percent of Sioux fans than normal.

A concerning development for the direction of the program. When was the last time that UND lost a high end committed recruit to another college program? Not surprising when recruits that weren't panning out in juniors (like Mitchell Matson) don't make it to campus but this is huge.

If there's still any hope, hopefully he isn't at the Amsoil this weekend to witness the carnage.

Pat O'Leary, Ryan Connelly, Brendan Connelly, and Jeff Yurecko off the top of my head. There were quite a few of them.

JJ couldn't score on the Vegas strip at 2am on a Saturday night with a fist full of Bellagio chips.

Sad.

No puck luck.....hot goaltender.....UND dominates in time of possession......shots off of opposing teams shin pads.....and point blank shots directly into the goalies medsection....still UND guts out a 2-1 and 3-1 win.

Ironic. The UND Jr. class that just keeps on killing this team.....whether it be on the ice or by clogging up the pipeline.

No FBS games but NDSU kindly slides in to provide the automatic loss. After that who really knows. However, make no mistake about it the only real difference between Mussman and Bubba at this point in their tenures is that Bubba is a likable guy that is good at shaking hands and slapping people on the backs. Bubba is benefitting from the theory that you can get by for quite awhile focusing on the sizzle and not on the steak. Problem is even the sizzle eventually turns to fizzle once people realize the underlying product is lacking.

Just a question that since you don't know the answer to that perhaps someone else can help with. Since most recruits play juniors for 1-2 years after committing.....and Berry is starting year 4.....the much maligned JR and SR class (at least as it pertains to offense) would have been recruited under Hakstol. Doesn't let Berry off the hook either but you take a slump at the end of the Hakstol years and couple that with a slow start Berry's first couple years and this is the result.

Honest question, how many of the forwards on this team are still left over Hak recruits? (Yes, I know that Berry won a title with Hak guys......but Hak couldn't win the big one with Hak guys so can't really hold that against Berry). Possible that Hak left the cupboard a little bare?

So with all of this talk about how the gap has narrowed.....parity.....there are no gimme games anymore......not much separates teams anymore.....it seems like it would be tough to keep expecting UND fans to keep paying 3-4 times as much money for the product when their team isn't much better than any other team?

With mostly the same group of forwards that couldn't score last year back this year and people expect different results.

Game 2 against Wisc took the refs handing the game to UND.....game 2 against Miami was a yawn-fest......and this game.....I don't have words for this game. The team flat out can't score.

It's an unwatchable product right now.

It appears that the students are leading the way in poor attendance because they fill the lower bowl and the center of the upper bowl, but all of the empty seats are concentrated on the edges of their upper bowl seats. Still unacceptable. This weekend take a look at the "expensive" seats behind the team benches and the lower bowl in general. Lots of empty seats but they are spread out and not all in 2 sections like the students empties are. It's not a crisis but it's also not trending in the right direction.

Actually, there has been a pretty consistent move up over the years, not drastic, but definitely consistent. It is also important to note that this move up hasn't been from 1950's throwback pricing.....the Ralph started out expensive. The increase has not always been in the ticket price.....but between rises in the ticket price, club donation requirements, parking fees, concession fees, decreasing the size of the beers, etc, it is getting spendy. Also, while student attendance has definitely been soft, it would be insincere to ignore that arena wide the non-student attendance has been just as soft. Concessions aren't a must? True, but sitting still for 2.5-3 hours of a 2-1 game without even a soda? So people are supposed to pay $200+ for a family of 4 to get into the building but then your advice is that they should just be happy sitting with cotton mouth the rest of the night? That is precisely the attitude that is hurting attendance at the Ralph (you work there?). There are about 1/4 of the fans in the Ralph on any given night that actually understand the rules and are hockey diehards. Then about 1/4 students whose interest comes and goes. The rest of the arena are socialites and people that are bringing their family for the total experience (which includes concessions, souveniers, the game, the intermission games, etc). My opinion is it's getting too expensive for the last category (which is a big category) and that is why you are seeing alot of empty seats. Even in Grand Forks, there are only so many true diehard fans.....and they are nowhere near enough to fill up the Ralph.

The Deboer ship has sailed. UND had a chance to hire a young fast riser and instead went with a legacy retread. Perpetual mediocrity has been the result.

Not surprised at the underdog part but that seems a little extreme.

I believe cheap Micholob light bottles all day too

$3.99 footlong hot dogs in back food court of Casino Royale. Add cheese.....saurkaut....chili....etc. One of the last "dive" casinos on the strip that hasn't been tore down and had an expensive new casino put up in its place.