Godsmack

This guy just became available….

Just reporting the news not opining here. But yes, I suppose when you put it that way.

Just wrapped up episode 80 of Alive in Five with Gage Ausmus and Jordan Schmaltz. They are all in on Dane Jackson being the next coach and they say the boys in the locker room feel the same way.

Truth! My now wife came up to the Forks with me when we first started dating during the 2013/2014 season. We were playing Omaha. Wife born and raised in the Springs so it’s not as if she wasn’t used to cold winter weather but man, she was funny-we’re walking out of the Ralph after one of the games and it must’ve been about 20 below before the wind chill, it was so freaking cold and she turns to me as we’re trekking to our ice box of a frozen car and says, “If we ever get married, don’t even think about moving up here!” -We’re still in negotiations on that! It might happen one day!

If Dane Jackson turns out to be the guy, does he retain the other existing assistant coaches?

Was he a junior?

I would love some insight about the merits of a Dane Jackson hire. And I’m not being facetious here either, I genuinely want to know as I suspect there’s a lot to like about him as well. I’m guessing he’s wired into the Canadian recruiting circuit, knows the coaches, etc.

Years ago, I attended the CC hockey team awards dinner after their season had ended. Sitting at a table with a bunch of the players, I asked them for their quick takes on the other WCHA teams and when I asked about Minnesota, they universally said things like, arrogant, prima donnas, chirpers. When I asked for their take on North Dakota, they all said things like, tough, physical, etc and one guy went so far as to say something to the effect of, UND doesn’t talk much, they just go out there and hit you in the mouth. I loved that! It gave me a sense of pride for UND hockey hearing a bunch of players from another program talk about Sioux hockey that way. I hope we can get back to having that kind of identity.

I also heard somewhere that Gwoz and DU were having difficulty reaching an agreement on a new contract so he flirted with the Ohio State opening and that pissed off the DU administration. Any merit to that story?

Excellent list of questions! Another thing that drove me crazy was seemingly easy opportunities to simply get the puck out of the zone even if there weren’t any good passing opportunities; to throw the puck off the glass or boards, reset, and live to fight another day. But instead, we get cute with the puck, turn it over, and then get hemmed in our zone to where we either get scored on or take a penalty. There’s no question in there but rather just something I’d want addressed and acknowledged by Dane.

Just curious anyone’s thoughts on Kris Mayotte? He was name dropped in Schlossman’s article. I’m sure a long shot for a variety of reasons but it definitely caught my eye when I saw that. A dark horse for sure.

I see what you did there

Frank Serratore! For the hilarious hockey stories and the epic post game interviews!

I went to the CC/Augustana games this season at Robson and take this observation in the spirit it’s intended, Auggie didn’t strike me as a bunch of A list world beaters, but they outworked CC. And CC isn’t exactly the premier team in the nation but Augustana simply outworked the Tigers. My bet is, the players took on the personality of the coach.

The Live in Five podcast this week oughta be interesting!

The answer’s always no if you don’t ask, right?! Can’t hurt to at least explore and if it’s a quick thanks but no thanks, cool mark him off the list and move on.

If memory serves, Motzko was out interviewing at Minnesota the week he should’ve been preparing his team for AIC (or was it Air Force?).

Ted Lasso

Talk about strange bed fellows

What about Peter Mannino? Been an assistant/associate head coach for a long time and uber competitive. Imagine the irony if we hired the guy who heat us in the 05 championship.

What makes me a little nervous is the possibility of our AD totally bungling this. I still have fresh memories of the former AD at CC hiring his pal Mike Haviland and turning a bad situation into an absolute calamity. I sure hope Chaves doesn’t do anything remotely similar as Ken Ralph did at CC.

May as well have kept Berry on if that’s the case.

Guessing our AD doesn’t have much if any hockey background? If that’s to be the case, would he lean on anyone knowledgeable in the college hockey world to help in the screening and decision making process?