One last chance for Hak to do the right thing?

[yababy8]

Posting suggestions to the coach in any league in any sport is most often and correctly perceived by most as anywhere from silly to delusional. Yet while I have an appreciation for this axiom I am feeling quite compelled to do just that right now.

My experience watching most Sioux games is a bit different than most. By the time many Sioux fans have drifted into that dreamy sleep where they either have dreams of lifting a beer with their fellow Sioux fans at some cozy celebration pub not far from the Frozen Four venue where the Sioux just captured #8 or conversely have very unsettling dreams of clocks that say .02 on them as well as a bigger number next to the other team. These dreams, at least for me, are oft dictated by not so much a win or a loss but by how the team plays on a given evening.

I watch most games as I have for about a decade after the kids are in bed, the house is quiet, my buddy arrives and we have a smoke or two in the garage. Only then after a discussion about what we hope to see and expect to see in the game we are about to watch do we finally fire it up. Usually about an hour past my wife’s most yielding concession.

Then as we watch the game we take several breaks to go have a smoke where we get into discussions about what we are seeing. Things like line combination evaluation, player evaluation, and team dynamics are some of the topics as well as attempting to define the disposition of the team. Sometimes these conversations last a bit longer that the normal 20 min period break would if we were to watch it live like most. Many times in the course of the evening we spend a good bit of time rewinding and watching plays over again, sometimes for something as silly as to catch the look on a player’s face. Maybe to try to guess if a goalie is cracking under the pressure or perhaps see if a player has that anger that is often a precursor to a fight.

Like most fans, part of our standard game breakdown is critical in nature and from time to time it becomes focused on coaching. But that is not the usual. We both really like Coach Hakstol. I have a ton of respect for him. I would go as far as to say I look up to him. I genuinely think he is a superior member of our society and a great asset to the Sioux hockey tradition. But having said that I do think he has weaknesses-like we all do. One of his weaknesses is in my opinion stubbornness. It is in reference to this vein that I write this silly and maybe delusional post...

So to get to the point, the issue at hand is in regard to line combinations, Specifically who is on the top line with Night and Kristo and who is Grimaldi with on his line. The issue is the loss of possession and scoring opportunity when other non-qualified players are paired up with these three offensive playmakers. I think I understand what Hakstol is attempting to do by splitting them up. Maybe creating two scoring lines for the one-two punch or perhaps attempting to add some extra(maybe physical) element to both lines? But the bottom line is it is not working and I don’t understand how he is not seeing that?

After the C.C. game last Thursday my friend made a statement regarding having Grimaldi with Rowney and O’Donnell with Kristo and Knight. He said it was wrong “in so many ways on so many levels”.

I thought that was a really appropriate way to put it.

So I ask my fellow Sioux fans who like to break things down and think about the game analytically, I know just about everyone I read posting on here feels the same way regarding the Knight line, What do you think? How strong do you feel about it?

I will throw out what my list is of the “levels” of wrong I see with the current(most recent) lines.

1. Kristo and Knight are both possession players who accomplish this via creating space to either find a shot or locate a good receiver to pass to. If they have a line mate who is not adept at receiving crafty passes and then making similar things happen the play/possession most often breaks down at that point. This not only costs us a scoring opportunity but also puts our top offensive threat in the defensive zone wasting their 90 sec shift.
   
2. Grimaldi with Rowney. Pretty much the same argument as #1. Rowney is a great player and has some mad skills but catching Grimaldi’s passes is not one of them. Grimaldi is being wasted on a line with Rowney.
   
3. I don’t understand why Hakstol switches the lines to have Grimaldi up with the scorers when we are playing poorly and behind, then after we play well and get ahead by a goal he switches them back? Is this some twisted derivation of the prevent defense?
   
4. Mitch Mac is a question mark. I hate to single out a guy but I’m not sure where he fits. Parks and Mark are suffering from the same challenges as #1 above.
   
5. This is a tough one to explain but I’ll try: Let’s say that Hak sees something the rest of us don’t and this is why he has stayed the course and my assertion of stubbornness is way off base. In this case I would say to Hak, “Can you guarantee victory with the lines you have been playing? If not then think of the frustration you will impart on the masses of Sioux fans. Fans who in the eye of defeat are left to wish they had been afforded the opportunity to let the game be played with the line-up we not only felt was best but almost everyone felt could be down-right dominant. I know that seems ridiculously fan-centric but come game time if we are down by a goal or two with 10min to go in the third period and we see Grimaldi feed a sweet pass into the slot where a wide open Rowney misses it or even more probable we see Knight feed a pass to O’Donnell only to have it taken away by some punk Gopher, its going to be very hard to deal with. Conversely if Grimaldi feeds Knight who feeds Kristo and Kristo should happen to miss the shot, then it is just what it is and there are no fans, tens of thousands of them, saying WHY!?!?!.
   
6. I have read several posts over the last two months where fans have questioned the players “showing up or not” on a given night. I disagree with this. I think what we are seeing is a result of players not being put into positions that fit their talents. See #1 above again. Is O’Donnell not “showing up” when he fails to capitalize on a Kristo feed? Is Rowney not “showing up” when he fails to score on a sweet Grimaldi pass? Especially when he killed a penalty moments before in a dominant fasion?
   

That’s my thinking. Common Coach, put um together for us, your beloved fans!

[Oxbow6]

To me this is a softball question....Rocco. This is win or go home time and the game will be mostly a 3 line game. With the emergence of Pattyn's line I think you stack the top 2 lines. RPM line...hope for year end magic like last season.

I have watched all but a handful of games and Rocco clearly give our 2 Hobey finalist a line mate that can compliment them. Knight has seemed to really taken a step back in his play since Rocco left that line. Rocco is such a talent that he allow the other 2 to find more time and space. I go back to the Saturday night Goph's game when those three were matched in the 3rd...they dominated the ice vs. the #2 team in our offensive zone. Rocco is far from a defensive liability. This team is going to need to score 4 a game to advance each round. Time to let the horses run!!!

[jk]

Maybe it was the fact that they generated one even-strength goal in the five games before he split them up. Whatever the reason, I'll let the experts do their job, and trust that they know it far, far better than I do. I'm pretty sure Hak couldn't do my job, and it would be pretty funny if really anyone here thought they could.

[bigskyvikes]

I can..

[jdub27]

Maybe it was the fact that they generated one even-strength goal in the five games before he split them up. Whatever the reason, I'll let the experts do their job, and trust that they know it far, far better than I do. I'm pretty sure Hak couldn't do my job, and it would be pretty funny if really anyone here thought they could.

This was specifically mentioned by Hak as one of the reasons they were split up. They weren't lighting the world on fire like everyone seems to think they were. One goal in five games gets every other line combination crucified around here. He also alluded to the other team being able to match up in a way to neutralize basically the only scoring line. Putting Grimaldi on the second line gives UND a good option on scoring against what should be a weaker line for the other team. If Grimaldi had a some better puck luck and had buried some of the I-don't-know-how-many chances he's had in the last few months, this likely isn't even a conversation as you have 2-3 lines that are clicking and putting points on the board. Hak sees the players practice day in and day out. Critics see the results and then make comments after the fact.

All that being said, if it is crunch time and UND needs a goal, the top scorers will be on the ice regardless of what line they've played on for the beginning of the game. May even be some mixing of lines during the game with the extra timeouts. NCAA tournament hockey is a little bit of a different beast.

[Oxbow6]

Maybe it was the fact that they generated one even-strength goal in the five games before he split them up. Whatever the reason, I'll let the experts do their job, and trust that they know it far, far better than I do. I'm pretty sure Hak couldn't do my job, and it would be pretty funny if really anyone here thought they could.

You opened yourself up for some cheap shots here...but that would be too easy so I'll pass.

You don't have to be a head college hockey coach to have an opinion on this board, but it was interesting that Melrose on the selection show commented on how UND hasn't won a natty in the past number of years despite it's great talent. I'll leave it at that...

[homer]

This was specifically mentioned by Hak as one of the reasons they were split up. They weren't lighting the world on fire like everyone seems to think they were. One goal in five games gets every other line combination crucified around here. He also alluded to the other team being able to match up in a way to neutralize basically the only scoring line. Putting Grimaldi on the second line gives UND a good option on scoring against what should be a weaker line for the other team. If Grimaldi had a some better puck luck and had buried some of the I-don't-know-how-many chances he's had in the last few months, this likely isn't even a conversation as you have 2-3 lines that are clicking and putting points on the board. Hak sees the players practice day in and day out. Critics see the results and then make comments after the fact.

All that being said, if it is crunch time and UND needs a goal, the top scorers will be on the ice regardless of what line they've played on for the beginning of the game. May even be some mixing of lines during the game with the extra timeouts. NCAA tournament hockey is a little bit of a different beast.

Maybe the line of Knight, Kristo and Grimaldi weren't having great "puck luck" either in those 5 games before they were split up. They sure seemed to play well together last Thursday when given the opportunity.

[siouxkid12]

You opened yourself up for some cheap shots here...but that would be too easy so I'll pass.

You don't have to be a head college hockey coach to have an opinion on this board, but it was interesting that Melrose on the selection show commented on how UND hasn't won a natty in the past number of years despite it's great talent. I'll leave it at that...

Yes, UND has had the talent in the past but remember, even talented teams get beat in a ONE game tourney!

[jdub27]

Maybe the line of Knight, Kristo and Grimaldi weren't having great "puck luck" either in those 5 games before they were split up. They sure seemed to play well together last Thursday when given the opportunity.

I don't disagree with you on that one bit. But Rocco on the 2nd line gives the opponent more to think about than him on the 1st line. Again, just commenting that the point made was the exact same thing that Hakstol publicly stated was the reason for the move.

[Wilbur]

In the end I'll go with our coach's choice and live with it. But by garsh, if you watched the Saturday Minnesota game, and that stretch against CC, you saw what could have been.

I agree, sucks to have them neutralized, but at the same time if you have Mark-Rowney-Parks going on line two and that line gets going and dominating, whoever they are playing against will have a decision to make defensively.

Hopefully Drake-General-St. Clair found some chemistry as well. They looked pretty good together.

[Snake]

The way Drake went to the net on Thursday, he could be a nice addition to that top line. Surely he has confidence going right now whereas O'Donnell may not, who knows.

The funny thing about this is, when we had the DOT line, even though Duncan won the Hobey it seemed like he was the afterthought. Well...we may be witnessing what it's like to have a DOT line without the D. Knight and Kristo really need their Duncan!

I always tell myself that Hak is just playing possum and not getting a lot of these guys together on film for a reason!

[Oxbow6]

I don't disagree with you on that one bit. But Rocco on the 2nd line gives the opponent more to think about than him on the 1st line. Again, just commenting that the point made was the exact same thing that Hakstol publicly stated was the reason for the move.

Then at a minimum Easy Mac goes to the top line. If it's not a 4 line type game, which NCAA TV games tend not to be, he is being wasted on that 3rd line.

[siouxweet]

I'd be absolutely shocked if anyone other than OD is on the top line come friday. although I would like to see:

markmac-knight-kristo

rowney-parks-rocco

od-mitchmac-gaarder

pattyn-st. clair-drake.

[Dustin]

The way Drake went to the net on Thursday, he could be a nice addition to that top line. Surely he has confidence going right now whereas O'Donnell may not, who knows.

The funny thing about this is, when we had the DOT line, even though Duncan won the Hobey it seemed like he was the afterthought. Well...we may be witnessing what it's like to have a DOT line without the D. Knight and Kristo really need their Duncan!

I always tell myself that Hak is just playing possum and not getting a lot of these guys together on film for a reason!

That would be awesome if he actually did that!

[scpa0305]

I have been in favor of putting Rocco up top since the pre-season however my thoughts are starting to change. One line can be shut down, plain and simple. Now do I think Niagra could shut that line down....no, but MN could. Over the last few games I have noticed that Caggs is really stepping up and making plays, maybe we through him up top, or Parks. Below are the line combos I think would work but I don't think Hak will make any drastic changes this late in the season (other than switching goalies).

caggs-knight-Kristo

Parks-Rowney-Rocco

OD-Mark Mac-Gaardner (however someone other than Gaardner and MiMac may need to go here...St. Clair?)

Pattyn-St Clair-Rodwell/MiMac

In all, I don't think our offense is struggling. We need to play tight in our own zone and clear open shooting lanes so our goalies see clear shots. Also, our goalies must play better. Tips/defelcetions will go in every blue moon but we can't let in 1-2 softies every game. I think the Sioux will come out flying on Friday.

[Wilbur]

I'd be absolutely shocked if anyone other than OD is on the top line come friday. although I would like to see:

markmac-knight-kristo

rowney-parks-rocco

od-mitchmac-gaarder

pattyn-st. clair-drake.

If it isn't Rocco, Mark has proven he's fine up there as well. When the season is on the line with the bounce of the puck, they have to put their best foot forward. We saw the seasons on the line lineup for about five minutes on Thursday. Hopefully we see it again.