Brett0909

Huge weekend for Kawaguchi in making up some ground for serious Hobey contention. He cut into Dugan and Thompson’s point totals from Providence and a lot of the less tangibles are in his favor. I think Schlossman drawing attention to these will also help throughout the season. Ie, not just the points but highlight goals, late game/OT/winners, nearly all primary assists and many of those “layups” created for his line mates, almost all 5x5s, impressive +\-. Looking at the stats, he’s a bit behind Thompson in goals, but on far fewer shots and penalty minutes. Adding leading the top ranked team and no “sharing” the credit on that line like Providence’s guys risk, he could definitely make a run, if a forward gets it this year. Will be interesting to see the points race play out!

Not condoning Pinto’s hit and it deserved the game in the stands, but Omaha was clearly targeting him all weekend and largely didn’t get checked by the refs as called out. Not just getting in his head, but I noticed several borderline intent/high potential to injure hits well before he eventually retaliated. Returning from WJC and a leading scorer, you can expect to get extra attention, but I wasn’t at all surprised he eventually gave something back and can’t say there wasn’t more or it wasn’t deserved. It was getting under my skin from the stands. He needs to learn to deal with it because he’ll likely be a focus in most games, but has to be tough to be out there with cheap shots taken at your health and ultimately your livelihood in hockey all weekend without taking a shot back...

Interesting that for various reasons, Berry and crew continue to pick up more elite (by draft standards) players at defense. Top three guys are defenseman in midterms, after Tychonick and JBD topping the group in 18’. I know Halliday had much higher expectations and obviously Pinto is a stud, but he was more of a diamond in the rough who likely developed into more than expected. Not complaining as these are great classes regardless, but thoughts on why Berry seems to have a bit more success at recruiting top talent on backend? Avoiding one and done’s? Slightly better reputation for developing defenseman or more desirable systems? Better eye for recruiting them? Pure coincidence? Good to see Kunz hasn’t completely fallen off the radar despite injury and other struggles and hopefully Halliday can start performing closer to his talent level if he can get his compete level up. Solid class With ability to quickly contribute, regardless!

He came back out and finished the game, but hopefully not a lingering issue. Can’t imagine too likely he’d be out if it wasn’t residual though..?

No doubt. Not loving the possibility of UND continuing to use its side of home and home two year series against the Gophers at destination locations, then UND playing at 3M every other year. If played at Winter Classic, that would make what, one home series against gophers since formation of NCHC (could definitely be wrong on this)? With possibility of not extending this series beyond existing contract, that could be one series at the Ralph in >10 years potentially? And I thought Lucia was the one trying to squash this rivalry. For as long as it works, it makes X’s and O’s business sense, but for season ticket holders paying an extreme premium already, it’s a raw deal for many to take the marquis series out consistently and then bank on them also traveling to support a destination series instead.

Felt bad for Western, both commentators (and I, FWIW) thought their OT goal should’ve counted but the stripes waived it off. Not pushing a conspiracy, but golden domers on nat’l tv and B10 refs no less, I felt like if there was any chance to waive it, they would...and they did. Hope there was something else to it. WMU healthy finally but Allison clearly needing to work his way back, they still dominated most of the game but couldn’t finish - deserved better, too bad they don’t get another chance until Sunday.

As everyone on here already knew, commentators on the CAN-GER WJC game just confirmed Shane Pinto’s viral “profanity” was actually “Hi mom”. What a pathetic excuse of a journalist (and human) trying to fabricate that story out of nothing about a young kid. Get a life and a real job.. Hope Shane takes his tourney success and can just laugh off this idiocy. Also, happy New Year’s Eve...eve.. to all the fine SiouxSports fans!

Sounds right to me. My understanding is there’s another variable too — if DU makes the tourney, we can’t be placed in the same regional if it would mean an intra-conference first round matchup, unless unavoidable. So no UND-DU 1/4 seed or 2/3 seed matchup either. Same thing for other NCHC teams of course. Definitely a bummer we’re not hosting after hosting and not making it previously. Obviously a lot of hockey left but can’t complain when we’re prognosticating what our matchup will be if we maintain a 1 seed or even #1 overall.

Good to know, thx for the tip! If they have the game on, we just might see you there. FWIW I finally called Midco and found out they had a problem with my credentials due to moving a couple times over the years which is why FSN didn’t show up on the channels lineup in the Fox Sports Go app. Got that all sorted and now I’m good to stream the game from my laptop, FireTv or phone. Thx for confirming this should be possible, I was starting to get annoyed.

I’ll have to try that. All of my attempts have automatically signed into xfinity here, I’ll see if I can manually sign into Midco instead. Thx all!

Thx! Ironically I still pay for Midco in ND where my wife is but the services auto-detect my location here when I log in, so even that was a fail. Paying $450 for cable from both locations and can’t see a game. Hoping I’m just not smart enough to figure it out and there’s a solution out there. Think I’m going to try the free Hulu thing and see.

Yeah, I spent far too much time trying to figure that out with surprisingly little google information, as I’m in Seattle where Midwest sports don’t exist. Came to the conclusion you can’t access outside the region through app, etc., just like NFL. Streaming services like YouTube tv and the Hulu option sound like they have the full regional lineup but even that I couldn’t confirm 100%. Anyone with first hand knowledge would be greatly appreciated!

For me, returning players didn’t just suddenly get better from last year, especially after a couple years where we saw very few “jumps”. Sure, some of that and some good talent coming in, but I’m in the camp that there was an underlying issue. I won’t blame Gardner or Shaw because I don’t have enough context to say where it came from, but whether coaching or leadership, there was clearly something wrong with the dynamic of the team. We tend to blame the coaches or the players but most of us have probably experienced a sports team or even at work where theres a problem and that can derail even your stars to not care or perform poorly (losing attitude). I never thought it was a talent issue even if slightly down, but rather an attitude and cultural issue that talent alone wasn’t strong enough to overcome. Case in point, years and years of talented Michigan/UMN/ etc teams who never gelled or played the right team game to find success. I actually thought they should consider a sports psychologist and take a very close look at any detractors in the room, last couple years. Whatever they changed, it seems to have worked to start getting the best out of the players instead of disinterested/going through the motions and playing frustrated. Suspect Karl has a big hand in that given the positivity he’s always brought and Bubbs and Dane even seem reinvigorated this year.

It’s great to be excited about the lineup (and game) again. I’m wondering at what point do the coaches consider introducing Thome selectively to get some game time? I thought they might against Miami and I understand riding the hot hand, but it seems like they’re considering Scheel getting every single minute until there’s an issue with his performance? I’m sure they have a good pulse on the team needs, Adam’s mental and physical readiness, etc. but I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a rest and some quality play from a backup to help prepare for possible injury or other situations. And avoid risk of losing Thome completely as a drafted player not even getting a sniff at game action? First world problems for sure, given Scheel has been lights out, of course.

I want to say he’s mis-charecterizing, but in his defense, I guess by limiting to “select North Dakota” fans he is technically right that only those semi-knowledgeable enough to know who he is, separate him from any other pxp, and have had the misfortune of having listened to him would categorize him as “the worst person” in this context. Funny thing is instead of getting a clue and looking at what he could be doing differently as a “broadcast professional”, he’s probably going to take this as evidence that he was right all along for being beyond ridiculously biased (poor me, those meanie UND fans just keep picking on me for absolutely no reason) - or was it simply the attention he wants. Oh well, I put it on UMD fans much like UMN fans before that they apparently want to drink the crazy kool-aid where every call is an injustice and they’d never lose a game if they weren’t cheated - instead of moving onto a better broadcast option. All the more reason to appreciate Alex and Jake’s knowledge and professionalism I suppose.

Me too... But in fairness, folks around here give Hennessy a lot of respect and according to him, “puck luck” is really the only thing that decides games. To the point of mocking frustrated fans last year who were critical of the poor product on the ice and could easily see “something“ was wrong the last couple years. Thankfully, all it took was for those same players to get “puck luck” this year, and all is good again! I don’t know where you shop for this puck luck, or how much it cost them, but I hope it’s like the REA with their refrigerant and the coaching staff bought up at least several years worth of it.

I personally like the trip to Bemidji, easy to get around, nice fans and area, cool arena. Yes, the games are slow, tight, and not the most entertaining. I don’t disagree with anything here, but I think having to learn how to win this type of game, play frustrated, and find ways to generate offense might be exactly what this team needs and why the admin continues scheduling them. They know what they’re getting every year, especially early, and believe these games are good for the team despite the Pairwise implications. The team does fine in wide open games when things are going well, but when they start struggling offensively the last couple years, they tended to not stick with it and never find a way to break through. I think bemidji is a boring style of hockey, but one they need to know how to play and beat, because there are plenty of other tournament worthy teams that will play a similar style. Avoiding it and playing only “the fun” games could bite them in multiple ways later on.

I was just thinking this. Expected Western to be on the right side of .500 but didn’t realize how automatic it’s been to expect dominant winning percentages from St Cloud and Duluth. I normally wouldn’t be complaining about them crashing back to earth, but stinks that right now they’re effective dragging the rest of the conference with them. Suspect they’ll both right the ship though, and NCHC can hopefully get into similar territory as BIG/Hockey East and send 3-4 into the tourney. I expect UND to be better this year, but if poor conference comparisons hold, all that much harder to change the narrative from last couple years. Here’s hoping.

Similar experience here. I was able to use FireTV app for the first time last night since it wasn’t working last week. The app itself was a bit buggy but the streaming was much better than last year when I used laptop or chromecast. But last week without the app, it was unwatchable on chromecast and I wound up watching on laptop alone which appeared to me to be worse than most games last year. Not sure it’s a trend, but might be worthwhile to check out an app version if you have roku, appletv, or firetv device - or cable or tv allows the NCHC app download but that might be a stretch. You could always pick one of the cheaper ones up to try it and see, then return if it’s not improving things. I know you can get a firetv stick for $40 (or less on sale, warehouse deals on amazon, or refurbished) as an example - and an Ethernet connectable device if it’s your WiFi that can’t keep up.

It is interesting that they called out more NHL discussion around where these kids are going and their development path this year vs. prior, and so many UND recruited players now sliding well below their central projections. Would be interesting to know if UNDs reputation had any impact or if the scouting agencies were just that far off on so many UND recruits. Hopefully get a nice flow of UND recruits in quick succession here!

@AJS UND PP has likely underperformed by most traditional measures since...Blais? I’m not a coach, but my assumption has been the team emphasizes fundamentals like puck possession, face offs and defensive systems over PP. likely part of the culture. Drove me a bit nuts earlier this year when after a couple particularly atrocious power play showings (boo-birds) and later total lack of finishing, coaches were outspoken in interviews about emphasizing those through the week and the team came out with solid performances the next weekend(s). Obviously it’s a balance but appears to also be systems and amount of focus on it by the staff. I can’t say that’s true or even that it’s wrong if it is, to limit focus on PP vs. other areas, but PP is the great equalizer and i have a tough time putting the blame on the players or lack of talent when it’s a statistically significant trend of underperforming on the PP, regardless of “talent” on the ice. I choose to believe the last couple years of rosters have had enough talent and effort to reasonably have top 30% PP results but are instead falling into the bottom half. Those missing PP goals would have almost certainly been enough to get the team in the post season each year. I could be wrong, but it’s something this staff needs to figure out and I hope Shaw’s replacement is a step in the right direction.

Ouch. Averaged 30th in the country in PP, quite a bit lower than PWR finishes, and couldn’t crack the top 20 in a Championship year with clearly the most talented team in the country. Lots of factors, but this reinforces for me that there’s been a serious systems issue, not just talent, on the PP — and likely forwards systems overall, since Berry and/or Shaw took over. Yes, talent has been down a bit since the exodus after the championship, but plenty of other teams are doing more with a lot less. I’d have a hard time buying that half the teams in the country have more talent than UND? I suspect at least 45 teams would trade their rosters for UNDs, even over the last couple years. Hopefully whoever they bring in can change that around, in a hurry. Need a net-gain hire, given our last coaching change saw us swap an NHL HC for Shaw. No denying that was a net-loss and we’ve been feeling it.

Watching two NCHC teams in the Frozen Four that UND was able to hold their own with all season outplay the "best of the best" the rest of the country had to offer, I found tiny bit of optimism growing in me. This was quickly squashed by the scar tissues and pessimism from the last several years, but since we have some folks on here who remain optimistic and we have a lot of talent coming in, I figured I'd crunch some numbers to see what statistically this team would be facing going into next year. By the numbers, I think there's reason to be optimistic, so I thought I'd share for any other number geeks like me. Maybe it'll give some folks something to think about instead of the ongoing unwinnable debate of "It's good that the NCHC won for a 4th consecutive, right?" vs. "But I hate UMD and their fans sooooo much...". Clarifications: 1. Data pulled from CHN team statistics. 2. Senior Loss is pretty straightforward, and potential Loss accounts for seniors departing as well as a completely unfounded look at impacts if Peski, Johnson, Yon and Rieger also departed. 3. For fun, I added Westin Michaud's numbers in with the assumption he performed exactly the same next year as he did this. Of note, Westin replaces all our lost PPG (actually +1 net) and SHG by himself. With senior losses-only factored, he replaces 62% of goals and 63% of total points lost. 4. All totals or averages are adjusted for skaters vs. players (ie, with or without Bob) as appropriate. 5. Replacement cost / skater factors what average contribution per incoming skater would be necessary to replace the seniors, and then recalculating based on those four (again, completely unfounded) potential departures I'm picking on unfairly, respectively. Replacement cost (WM) readjusts these calculations by incorporating Westin's contributions -- again, assuming same as last year's numbers. Obviously, everyone can decide for themselves what key observations are, but objectively, this will be one of the easiest years to replace losses I can recall, in a long time. I guess that's the perk of the whole team underperforming when it comes to point production and a relatively small senior class. Of course, that only returns us to the same performance as last year, so you would have to factor in an improvement from both existing players and incoming over and above these numbers to achieve a better result. With UND being just out of the playoff picture this year, it (statistically) should give some hope for a good year -- with Westin's contributions being a potential game changer, by immediately inserting as one of the top producing players and filling a huge void at center.

I’d love to be optimistic about next year’s forwards suddenly changing the story line and blame this tailspin on a few misses or lack of forward talent but in sports or business, this is very reminiscent of classic signs of mediocre/poor leadership we’ve watched from so many other teams. Mike Eaves, York post-Cavanaugh, Lucia, late era Berenson and Parker, etc. In every case, coaches had success but admins waited until the hole was so deep and obvious that it was too late for anything but a complete overhaul, fan interest and revenue were shot, etc. Sears was once a premier store too but didn’t evolve when things stagnated. And yes, if you look at objective outputs, this team is trending similarly to UW, UMN, etc. of recent years whether we want to believe it or not. UND has been so successful for so long that it feels like it’s just assumed they always will and these major warning signs can be ignored and somehow things will just return to normal. My fear is Berry isn’t making the adjustments necessary to right the ship and possibly not even owning the issues. Like a poor workplace culture, strong performers come in and proceed to actually regress over time instead of improving in attitude, consistency, and performance. This is on the leadership in my opinion and why I don’t think bringing in talent alone is going to solve it as some seem to think. UMN always had plenty of talent but Hakstol knew how to put everything together (O actually think he was a better GM mind than game coach). I certainly hope I’m wrong and am no coach, but I’ve led many teams and have seen these same signs many times in business and the red flags are all there. Now I’ve gotten to the point that I just leave games frustrated most nights instead of enjoying it. I was concerned when they hired internally with Berry instead of a nation wide search but ate crow after the NC year. I just hope they figure it out before it all falls apart and/or can make the hard decisions they need to to get back on top, because plenty of other teams are with far less. Maybe next year, right?? Hope everyone one has a great weekend!

Just me or is it unwatchable for others as well? Constant freezes/buffering...