Is it time to Fire Hak?

[siouxprideforever]

I have said it before and will say it again - our's is a good hockey team. The problem with that is the biggest barrier to being great - is being good! Not to plagerize the famous book (Good to Great), but it has been proven to be correct time and time agiain in whatever setting you pick. We have been good enough to make it to the NCAA - that is impressive no matter who you think you are, but not great enough to win it all. If we are willing to settle for a good hockey team, hey we have that! However, if we want a great one, we will have to make changes - and I think if HAK makes those changes he will be able to create a great team!

[yzerman19]

As I was once called out (then complained and had my reference stricken), I am going to make my position known officially.

Hak should not be fired.

It is important to look at all the factors, not just wins and losses. This loss, while disappointing, can be chalked out to being outhustled and being taken off our game. It can happen. We made a strong comeback in the third.

Yale's goals were the result of:

Goal 1: lucky bounce, tip, and traffic.

Goal 2: defensive breakdown and a nice offensive play.

Goal 3: defensive breakdown and being outskated to a rebound.

In a one and done playoff, anything can happen. We took an extremely immature team, without our only established star, with a hodge podge on defense(due to injury) to the big dance.

Losing to DU under Blaiser with the Parise, Bochenski, Murray, Stafford, Greene, Jones and Smaby team was a loss that hurt more, as we were extremely talented.

Losing to BC with the highest drafted team in Sioux history including the DOT line hurt more, as again, we were more talented.

This was not our year from the moment that Chay went down. Maybe even before, as we had no big time scorers. The coaching staff and team leaders changed the course of a "doomed" season and gave us some great games. I give the likes of Hak and Jackson props for doing all they could with this squad.

I hate to blame the officials for a loss, but the Sioux were up against the wall once it was determined that the heavy physical play, if at all questionable, would be called. Additionally, the TV timeouts and the heavy stickwork, and fear of playing too physical killed the Sioux.

The turning point of the game was when what looked to be a 5 on 3 powerplay became 4 on 4 hockey due to JG taking a little bit of a liberty and the Eli embellishing (read: diving to make scsu or robbie earl proud), and Hexy going to the box for his mouth.

Fienhage and Pointer and Blood just weren't fast enough to match up down low with the speedy midgets in blue.

Game, set, match.

We can rest assured that we will have a legit chance at the NCAAs again next year, Yale? Who knows...I guess they can feel good about having so many US Presidents as distinguished alumni...maybe this loss is George Bush's fault : )

[Irish]

Look - a lot of people who are venting here are not saying fire Hak - that's just the unfortunate and somewhat tounge in cheek title of this thread. What we are saying is that part of the job description of Hockey Coach of the Fighting Sioux is to win some National Championships - of course not every year, but some. So far Hak has fallen short. It is not unreasonable to compare Hak to the two coaches who came immediately before him, both of whom won their SECOND National Championship by the end of their 6th year. The pattern of Hak's seasons - start out playing like crap, put together an amazing run late, and fizzle out in the playoffs causes much frustration to fans who are on a roller coaster of emotions. And let's face it - in some of our playoff losses, the Sioux have looked just clueless for a big part of the game. I think that's on the coaches. I agree with a previous poster - Hak has been good, but not great. We have the best tradition and facilities in college hockey - we need to expect great. Otherwise, we'll look like the Gopers during the Woog years.

[xI Hammer Ix]

I believe your banner is in the mail.

Haha thanks!

[SiouxBomb]

As I was once called out (then complained and had my reference stricken), I am going to make my position known officially.

Hak should not be fired.

It is important to look at all the factors, not just wins and losses. This loss, while disappointing, can be chalked out to being outhustled and being taken off our game. It can happen. We made a strong comeback in the third.

Yale's goals were the result of:

Goal 1: lucky bounce, tip, and traffic.

Goal 2: defensive breakdown and a nice offensive play.

Goal 3: defensive breakdown and being outskated to a rebound.

In a one and done playoff, anything can happen. We took an extremely immature team, without our only established star, with a hodge podge on defense(due to injury) to the big dance.

Losing to DU under Blaiser with the Parise, Bochenski, Murray, Stafford, Greene, Jones and Smaby team was a loss that hurt more, as we were extremely talented.

Losing to BC with the highest drafted team in Sioux history including the DOT line hurt more, as again, we were more talented.

This was not our year from the moment that Chay went down. Maybe even before, as we had no big time scorers. The coaching staff and team leaders changed the course of a "doomed" season and gave us some great games. I give the likes of Hak and Jackson props for doing all they could with this squad.

I hate to blame the officials for a loss, but the Sioux were up against the wall once it was determined that the heavy physical play, if at all questionable, would be called. Additionally, the TV timeouts and the heavy stickwork, and fear of playing too physical killed the Sioux.

The turning point of the game was when what looked to be a 5 on 3 powerplay became 4 on 4 hockey due to JG taking a little bit of a liberty and the Eli embellishing (read: diving to make scsu or robbie earl proud), and Hexy going to the box for his mouth.

Fienhage and Pointer and Blood just weren't fast enough to match up down low with the speedy midgets in blue.

Game, set, match.

We can rest assured that we will have a legit chance at the NCAAs again next year, Yale? Who knows...I guess they can feel good about having so many US Presidents as distinguished alumni...maybe this loss is George Bush's fault : )

I agree 100% with you, Well Said!!!! Thats just the way it played out...... the Sioux looked like thay had cemet in there skates...........the sioux looked tired

thay could not play like there used to playimg (Physical) I guess loseing 3-2 and only playing 20 min of the game is not bad............... because the first 2 periods were BAD, Just Bummed out.......

[USA Hockey]

Look - a lot of people who are venting here are not saying fire Hak - that's just the unfortunate and somewhat tounge in cheek title of this thread. What we are saying is that part of the job description of Hockey Coach of the Fighting Sioux is to win some National Championships - of course not every year, but some. So far Hak has fallen short. It is not unreasonable to compare Hak to the two coaches who came immediately before him, both of whom won their SECOND National Championship by the end of their 6th year. The pattern of Hak's seasons - start out playing like crap, put together an amazing run late, and fizzle out in the playoffs causes much frustration to fans who are on a roller coaster of emotions. And let's face it - in some of our playoff losses, the Sioux have looked just clueless for a big part of the game. I think that's on the coaches. I agree with a previous poster - Hak has been good, but not great. We have the best tradition and facilities in college hockey - we need to expect great. Otherwise, we'll look like the Gopers during the Woog years.

Here's a list of college hockey coaches and the length of time it took them to win a national title,

Jerry York (winniest college hockey coach of all time): 7 years to win a championship at BC

Bob Johnson: 7 years at Wisconsin

George Gwozdecky: 10 years at DU

Red Berenson: 13 years at Michigan

Don Lucia: 9 years if you count his tenure at CC and Minnesota

These are considered some of the best college hockey coaches of all time.

[Goon]

I don't think we can blame the coach on this one, the guys didn't skate yesterday until the last period. The goaltending wasn't good yesterday, defenders let the Yale players skate unmolested in the slot. You can't win a game doing that.

[Sioux17]

Judging from history of when a new head coach is hired. I say keep Hak cause eades would be terrible as a head coach.

[greenwinger_13]

When can we delete this thread... Got some real crappy fans I'd like to see any of the haters here take haks position... get over yourselves..

[808287]

I don't think we can blame the coach on this one, the guys didn't skate yesterday until the last period. The goaltending wasn't good yesterday, defenders let the Yale players skate unmolested in the slot. You can't win a game doing that.

Agreed Goon. The coaching staff's job is to train and condition the student athlete's to succeed at the NCAA level of play. Hak and Co. got this young team through a difficult schedule and put them in a position to succeed in their conference tourney and make the NCAA tournament. Some pretty good teams (Duluth for one) didn't get an invite.

At tourney time it's everyone's back to the wall, and this team didn't play like that until their back was literally to the wall with 20 min. left. Yale came out that way in the first. Eids gave up a goal (second) by not leaving his skate anchored to the post. Zajac rang the pipe instead of scoring a goal. Yale worked hard for sixty minutes, the Sioux for about twenty five (some spots in 1 and 2 where they played hard, but not many).

Coaching can't keep Eidsness's skate on the pipe, and can't will Darcy's shot an inch to the right. Bottom line is that the Sioux D held the top scoring offense in the country to 1 less goal than their average (3 instead of 4). Not bad, all in all, but it wasn't good enough to win when your not working harder than the other team for sixty minutes.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, and that's what we watched yesterday. And this is really just paraphrasing what Mr. Lapoint said in the post-game press conference, and what you've stated above.

Hak, Eades, Jackson...they all did their job this year, and put together a very good team with some very young players. I, for one, like this coaching staff and wish them, and the Fighting Sioux, all the best next season and beyond.

The Quest for #8 begins again in six months and I really hope these coaches are still behind the bench, because I think that gives the Sioux their best opportunity to win it all.

[siouxguyinstpaul]

When can we delete this thread... Got some real crappy fans I'd like to see any of the haters here take haks position... get over yourselves..

agreed

[Irish]

Here's a list of college hockey coaches and the length of time it took them to win a national title,

Jerry York (winniest college hockey coach of all time): 7 years to win a championship at BC

Bob Johnson: 7 years at Wisconsin

George Gwozdecky: 10 years at DU

Red Berenson: 13 years at Michigan

Don Lucia: 9 years if you count his tenure at CC and Minnesota

These are considered some of the best college hockey coaches of all time.

You left off the two most pertinent ones - Dean Blais - 3 years and Gino Gasparini - 2 years

[USA Hockey]

You left off the two most pertinent ones - Dean Blais - 3 years and Gino Gasparini - 2 years

Sure, Sauer also won the national title his first year at Wisconsin, but that's not the point. If you're expectation is to win a national championship every 6 or less years, then this program would have at least 11 national titles by now. The point of the post was to show how hard it is (for some of the greatest college hockey coaches of all time) to win a one game and done tournament, it's not something that comes by every 6 years. Also, we can't blame the coaches on the loss yesterday. The coaches put together a good team that got us into the tournament, and by this time of the year the leadership comes from the players. We simply got outworked those first two periods, that rests on the players and not the coaches. You can't win an NCAA playoff game if you only skate for 20 mins.

[yababy8]

I 100% disagree that the Sioux got out worked in the first two periods. What I am about to say can be EASILY verified by watching the game again and noticing the following:

In the first two periods when advancing the puck into their zone the Sioux forwards would time-after-time attempt a centering feeds through MULTIPLE defenders to a totally covered fellow forward. Each time Yale intercepted or gained the lose puck and transitioned to our zone where they would either get a shot on our net or our defense would re-gain the puck.

The Sioux did one hell of a job re-gaining the puck only to lose it again immediately upon entering the Yale zone with yet another centering feed that was NOT THERE!

In the third period the team (coaches)? FINALLY figured this out and our forwards CEASED trying the centering feed and instead (1)dumped it deep, (2)skated it deep, or (3)shot it on net.

It is very surprising to me that HAK and CO did not solve this problem way way earlier in the game.

Further, the Sioux weren't utilizing a fourth Strategy to solve the Yale defensive scheme, that being drop the puck back to the trailing player.

I have posted about the drop back pass and the Sioux's reluctance to do this in the past.

Sometimes the Sioux relax and start to move the puck in that way and sometimes they don't. From my vantage point when they DO move the puck in the way of dropping it back they are very successful. It yields results!

In either case, whether or not it should have been that they did the drop back or worked it deep to cycle, the bottom line is they were forcing turn overs within seconds of gaining the zone because they were forcing centering passes that were not there. A team can work their ass-off doing that and they will get exactly what the Sioux did- NOTHING but tired legs and down on the scoreboard. That is what cost us our ability to have our usual dominance of the opponent in the first two periods, that is what caused us to not win the game and that is on the coaches.

FYI, I like Coach Hak alot, I think he is a high end coach, but I am very sure that the above stuff is a weakness of his. It is fixable but with all due respect he should have fixed it by now, it is not a new condition, his teams have been infected with this deficit before and it seems to pop-up at very inopportune times..

So I say no to firing him and yes to educating him, after all he is a college coach

Can a fan eductate a coach?? If he is correct he can.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Judging from history of when a new head coach is hired. I say keep Hak cause eades would be terrible as a head coach.

How do you know that Eades would be a terrible head coach? Wouldn't we know that for sure when he has been a head coach for our team? Eades had two years as a head coach in the USHL and had winning records in both of those years, but other than that we don't have much to base our opinion on.

[ringneck28]

Agreed Goon. The coaching staff's job is to train and condition the student athlete's to succeed at the NCAA level of play. Hak and Co. got this young team through a difficult schedule and put them in a position to succeed in their conference tourney and make the NCAA tournament. Some pretty good teams (Duluth for one) didn't get an invite.

At tourney time it's everyone's back to the wall, and this team didn't play like that until their back was literally to the wall with 20 min. left. Yale came out that way in the first. Eids gave up a goal (second) by not leaving his skate anchored to the post. Zajac rang the pipe instead of scoring a goal. Yale worked hard for sixty minutes, the Sioux for about twenty five (some spots in 1 and 2 where they played hard, but not many).

Coaching can't keep Eidsness's skate on the pipe, and can't will Darcy's shot an inch to the right. Bottom line is that the Sioux D held the top scoring offense in the country to 1 less goal than their average (3 instead of 4). Not bad, all in all, but it wasn't good enough to win when your not working harder than the other team for sixty minutes.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, and that's what we watched yesterday. And this is really just paraphrasing what Mr. Lapoint said in the post-game press conference, and what you've stated above.

Hak, Eades, Jackson...they all did their job this year, and put together a very good team with some very young players. I, for one, like this coaching staff and wish them, and the Fighting Sioux, all the best next season and beyond.

The Quest for #8 begins again in six months and I really hope these coaches are still behind the bench, because I think that gives the Sioux their best opportunity to win it all.

One thing to add to this, ITS IN ST PAUL!!! HERE COME THE SIOUX

[Knickball2]

The issue I have with the Hakstol lead Fighting Sioux teams is that they aren't rated number 1 in the country most of the season, so they don't carry the target on their backs when playing every team in the country, yes opposing teams do still get up to play the Sioux, but to try and compare that to the 1998 and 1999 teams getting beat.

No comparison, the Blais teams were No. 1's for most of the year and everybody was gunning for the Jason Blake teams. The current Fighting Sioux team had the unique opportunity of sneaking up on the tourney teams, apparently Yale, wasn't one of them...Much more comfortable to be the sneaking team, than the one everybody is chasing, like that in most sports.

[siouxprideforever]

I 100% disagree that the Sioux got out worked in the first two periods. What I am about to say can be EASILY verified by watching the game again and noticing the following:

In the first two periods when advancing the puck into their zone the Sioux forwards would time-after-time attempt a centering feeds through MULTIPLE defenders to a totally covered fellow forward. Each time Yale intercepted or gained the lose puck and transitioned to our zone where they would either get a shot on our net or our defense would re-gain the puck.

The Sioux did one hell of a job re-gaining the puck only to lose it again immediately upon entering the Yale zone with yet another centering feed that was NOT THERE!

In the third period the team (coaches)? FINALLY figured this out and our forwards CEASED trying the centering feed and instead (1)dumped it deep, (2)skated it deep, or (3)shot it on net.

It is very surprising to me that HAK and CO did not solve this problem way way earlier in the game.

Further, the Sioux weren't utilizing a fourth Strategy to solve the Yale defensive scheme, that being drop the puck back to the trailing player.

I have posted about the drop back pass and the Sioux's reluctance to do this in the past.

Sometimes the Sioux relax and start to move the puck in that way and sometimes they don't. From my vantage point when they DO move the puck in the way of dropping it back they are very successful. It yields results!

In either case, whether or not it should have been that they did the drop back or worked it deep to cycle, the bottom line is they were forcing turn overs within seconds of gaining the zone because they were forcing centering passes that were not there. A team can work their ass-off doing that and they will get exactly what the Sioux did- NOTHING but tired legs and down on the scoreboard. That is what cost us our ability to have our usual dominance of the opponent in the first two periods, that is what caused us to not win the game and that is on the coaches.

FYI, I like Coach Hak alot, I think he is a high end coach, but I am very sure that the above stuff is a weakness of his. It is fixable but with all due respect he should have fixed it by now, it is not a new condition, his teams have been infected with this deficit before and it seems to pop-up at very inopportune times..

So I say no to firing him and yes to educating him, after all he is a college coach

Can a fan eductate a coach?? If he is correct he can.

Are saying that on Saturday afternoon we got out-Coached? That doesn't explain the missed penalty shot or the goals that were scored on us>

[brianvf]

Can a fan eductate a coach??

You should contact Hakstol, I'm sure he'd listen to your thoughts on coaching.

[siouxweet]

didn't it take red berenson like 11 or 12 years to win his first title at michigan and gwoz like 9 years at DU? in a different sport it took coach k like what 9 years? Hak will win some it is just a matter of time.

[Goon]

I just got to thinking about this, so the Sioux have lost two first round NCAA games in a row, Denver has lost 3 first round games in a row. Michigan just finally won a game after what losing three straight games in the NCAA tourney. If IIRC think two of those three years UND knocked them out. This time of year is really a crap shoot. One and done hockey.

[siouxweet]

I just got to thinking about this, so the Sioux have lost two first round NCAA games in a row, Denver has lost 3 first round games in a row. Michigan just finally won a game after what losing three straight games in the NCAA tourney. If IIRC think two of those three years UND knocked them out. This time of year is really a crap shoot. One and done hockey.

gwoz, red and hak should all be fired

[Goon]

gwoz, red and hak should all be fired

I guess if we are using some's standards.

[Brasco]

If you're expectation is to win a national championship every 6 or less years, then this program would have at least 11 national titles by now.

I agree with most of what you are saying...but I do expect to win 1 National title in 4 trips to the Frozen Four! (I know that doesn't have a lot to do with this year)

Great run and I am excited about this young team growing one year wiser and potentially returning the Captain from this team! As always...GO SIOUX!

[Big A HG]

I just got to thinking about this, so the Sioux have lost two first round NCAA games in a row, Denver has lost 3 first round games in a row. Michigan just finally won a game after what losing three straight games in the NCAA tourney. If IIRC think two of those three years UND knocked them out. This time of year is really a crap shoot. One and done hockey.

Michigan was in the 2008 Frozen Four.