Time to Fire Dave Hakstol....

[MafiaMan]

For everyone saying the Hakstol should be fired, who do you hire?

I say we swap Hakstol for Enrico Blasi for two seasons and re-evaluate the trade after the 2015 season.

[Irish]

I could have added Bob Johnson, Jeff Sauer, Mike Eaves, and Murray Armstrong. Dean Blais, who is a great coach, hasn't won a national title since 2000 that would be 8 years (as a D1 coach). The point is there are some great coaches out there that took time to get a national title. For everyone saying the Hakstol should be fired, who do you hire?

Not saying he should be fired - just saying that the expectations of Sioux Hockey are quite high and we're used to a lot of success and titles - this needs to be factored in when evaluating what kind of job he has done. My greatest fear is that we become a very good but not great team for the next 20 years and adjust to accept this as the new norm.

[sprig]

Based on one and done results it would appear the EZAC is the best conference this year. Better than the WCHA, HE, and CCHA. now lets see if SCSU or Lowell can prove that wrong, at least for the best in HE and WCHA.

[NorthDakotaHockey]

I could have added Bob Johnson, Jeff Sauer, Mike Eaves, and Murray Armstrong. Dean Blais, who is a great coach, hasn't won a national title since 2000 that would be 8 years (as a D1 coach). The point is there are some great coaches out there that took time to get a national title. For everyone saying the Hakstol should be fired, who do you hire?

Ned Harkness??

Come in from off the ledges folks. It will be dark soon. Moreover, hopefully you have a job that you need to be sharp at in the morning.

[Goon]

Based on one and done results it would appear the EZAC is the best conference this year. Better than the WCHA, HE, and CCHA. now lets see if SCSU or Lowell can prove that wrong, at least for the best in HE and WCHA.

One of the things that I noticed is that the ECAC plays a rough brand of hockey as well.

[Goon]

I think Western hockey is stuck in their ways of "Old Time Hockey" and it's biting us when it comes to tournament play. The future is in the Eastern style, whether we like it or not. Adapt or get run over.

And then a team like Yale comes along and beats us the old fashion WCHA hockey way.

[siouxweet]

Correct, it was posted tongue in cheek to give fans a place to blow off steam, so we could talk hockey in the other threads. Anyone that's been around this program probably hurts today, but's it's not like UND is a bunch of talentless hacks. You're not going to win the national title every year. Sure it would be nice to see the boys win it again but some weird crap is happening this year.

ex

actly we could be headed for a yale-qu title game

[2ndGenSiouxFan]

Was this senior squad freshmen when we last lost to Yale in the NCAA's?

Hak is a great coach, I hate to see this thread already, even though we're all disappointed in the loss. The only downside to me is that the loss yesterday really ruined my ability to give my gopher in-laws a hard time (for the upcoming year).

I wonder how we'll be next season, losing so any seniors...

[Goon]

exactly we could be headed for a yale-qu title game

You can only control the stuff that we can control. That's why I am in favor of moving the NCAA tourney back on campus.

[coach daddy]

Fire Haskol, save UND

As an outside observer, UND is the most talented team on the planet. He recruits great players but the team can't get er done? Whose fault is that? Duluth recruiting isnt in the same league on paper but they win when it matters? How would the Duluth coach do with the same players and facilities?

Seriously? We couldn't keep up with Yale yesterday so how are we the most talented team on the planet? We have 2 goalies that no one trusts.............that does not equal talent.

[Wilbur]

I'm not jumping on the UND is the most talented team on the planet bandwagon. Average goaltending all year long, some poor defensive play, and after really the top six forwards didn't get a lot of secondary scoring.

Best goaltending: Niagara

Best defensive core: Minnesota

Best offensive core: Yale, after watching them yesterday....

[JWG]

To the question a few pages back. Yes, of course this same discussion is happening on other team's boards. MN has a, "Fire Lucia hire Guentzel" thread. Though, I would say those calling for Lucia's head are mostly irrational arguments with not recommendations on who to hire. All you have to do is look at the field this year, 2 ECAC teams, only Jan Brady State from the 6 WCHA teams, etc. Odd year in college hockey with no major powerhouse in the Frozen Four. In the one and done format, the best teams don't always win. In a best of 3 I think we'd have seen much different results.

[Telly33]

We have 2 goalies that no one trusts.............that does not equal talent.

Speak for yourself. Our goaltending was more than good enough to get the job done, IMO.

92% for both and 2.29 and 2.45. Very encouraging for both of their Sioux debut seasons.

Goaltending was not the problem. Scoring and team defense was. Stupid comment.

[GFG]

To the question a few pages back. Yes, of course this same discussion is happening on other team's boards. MN has a, "Fire Lucia hire Guentzel" thread. Though, I would say those calling for Lucia's head are mostly irrational arguments with not recommendations on who to hire. All you have to do is look at the field this year, 2 ECAC teams, only Jan Brady State from the 6 WCHA teams, etc. Odd year in college hockey with no major powerhouse in the Frozen Four. In the one and done format, the best teams don't always win. In a best of 3 I think we'd have seen much different results.

That thread is internet gold. All the logical fans just trying to completely derail the thread by any means necessary to shut up the illogical fans.

[siouxweet]

goaltending is not the reason we lost yesterday. we got outplayed by our own game. yale came at us like no one I have seen in a while and beat us at our own game. 2010 regional loss I'll attribute to tired legs and empty gas tanks, 2011 frozen four loss-hunwick stood on his head, 21012 regional final loss to minny-not enough horses in the stable, 2013 regional final loss to yale-flat performance. what bothers me is listening to hak all week was they had a tremendous week of practice since the loss to cc, and then two performances like this against niagara and yale. that is what is frustrating is we never got to see this team's best hockey.

I'll say it right here, this team peaked if you can call it that at omaha in the outdoor game. for the fans to as it seemed there was no other weekend that had as much build up as that weekend.

also can we stop having any more comparisons between hak, gino and blais. those were different times and the college hockey landscape compared to today was night and day. plus correct me if I am wrong in that during gino's tenure the first round wasn't one and done like today they had a total goal series or something like that.

[GFG]

goaltending is not the reason we lost yesterday. we got outplayed by our own game. yale came at us like no one I have seen in a while and beat us at our own game. 2010 regional loss I'll attribute to tired legs and empty gas tanks, 2011 frozen four loss-hunwick stood on his head, 21012 regional final loss to minny-not enough horses in the stable, 2013 regional final loss to yale-flat performance. what bothers me is listening to hak all week was they had a tremendous week of practice since the loss to cc, and then two performances like this against niagara and yale. that is what is frustrating is we never got to see this team's best hockey.

I'll say it right here, this team peaked if you can call it that at omaha in the outdoor game. for the fans to as it seemed there was no other weekend that had as much build up as that weekend.

also can we stop having any more comparisons between hak, gino and blais. those were different times and the college hockey landscape compared to today was night and day. plus correct me if I am wrong in that during gino's tenure the first round wasn't one and done like today they had a total goal series or something like that.

Lucia said the same thing. Fire Lucia. Fire Hakstol. We want Jacques Lemaire!

[Siouxman]

Also The D missed Eades all season. There were 6 NHL draft picks on the blue line and that was the team's achilles heal all season, along with shaky goaltending. It was a matter of time before Yale broke it open. After the first goal you could clearly see both D men holding the red line, while we were in the offensive zone. 3 v 5 in the offensive zone doesn't generate too many quality scoring opportunities. I didn't really see UND's D men in the offensive zone much at all, except on their 2 pps and even that was sketchy.

Really??? I assume you watched the game on TV? Hockey is the one game where you cannot see the big picture on TV. I was there. There were quite a few times when the defenseman went deep along the sideboards to pinch and the wing curled out to the point. I was surprised to see how many times it happened.

[Siouxman]

After watching the regional in person, I was impressed with Yale. They are not a bad team. The most notable thing is that the whole team totally bought into complete sacrifice for the team. There were at least four or five times in the MN game where a Yale player crawled to the bench after blocking a shot. One was thrashing around on the floor in the bench area for about 10 minutes in absolute agony. Yet he finally pushed the trainer away and got back on the bench and then onto the ice. They did absolutely everything they could to prevent shots from getting to the net. Yale is fast, and they play very good positional hockey. Do not underestimate them. MN looked physically huge compared to Yale, but Yale players never backed down. Bjugstad got knocked off the puck several times. A number of Gopher players got rocked by solid checks, and so did some Sioux players.

Sioux players failed to execute. Rowney had a point blank shot in the slot in the third period. It was an opportunity where a goal needed to be scored, but he shot it into the glove. Grimaldi made numerous blind passes to where no Sioux player was present, and Yale took off down the ice. Gleason turned over the puck numerous times against both Niagara and Yale by waiting too long to make the pass and then got it blocked. MacMillan took two not very smart penalties in the third. He put himself into position to take the penalty, which is what happened. The Sioux players simply failed to execute, and made poor decisions with Yale's in your face skating ability. The Sioux controlled the first 10 minutes or so of the game, and then Yale stepped it up. They took control of the game until the last half of the second period. The Sioux mounted serious pressure and created opportunities, but just could not finish late in the second and into the third.

Saunders played a great game in goal.

[SJHovey]

After watching the regional in person, I was impressed with Yale. They are not a bad team. The most notable thing is that the whole team totally bought into complete sacrifice for the team. There were at least four or five times in the MN game where a Yale player crawled to the bench after blocking a shot. One was thrashing around on the floor in the bench area for about 10 minutes in absolute agony. Yet he finally pushed the trainer away and got back on the bench and then onto the ice. They did absolutely everything they could to prevent shots from getting to the net. Yale is fast, and they play very good positional hockey. Do not underestimate them. MN looked physically huge compared to Yale, but Yale players never backed down. Bjugstad got knocked off the puck several times. A number of Gopher players got rocked by solid checks, and so did some Sioux players.

Sioux players failed to execute. Rowney had a point blank shot in the slot in the third period. It was an opportunity where a goal needed to be scored, but he shot it into the glove. Grimaldi made numerous blind passes to where no Sioux player was present, and Yale took off down the ice. Gleason turned over the puck numerous times against both Niagara and Yale by waiting too long to make the pass and then got it blocked. MacMillan took two not very smart penalties in the third. He put himself into position to take the penalty, which is what happened. The Sioux players simply failed to execute, and made poor decisions with Yale's in your face skating ability. The Sioux controlled the first 10 minutes or so of the game, and then Yale stepped it up. They took control of the game until the last half of the second period. The Sioux mounted serious pressure and created opportunities, but just could not finish late in the second and into the third.

Saunders played a great game in goal.

Yale is a very good team. That's what some people seem to be missing.

They went to Denver and won. They went to CC and won. They went to BC and tied. They beat MN the night before. Until their disaster at the ECAC tournament, they were pretty settled in at the 6-10 PWR range, with us.

Our game turned out to be exactly as should have been expected. A close, hard fought affair, that came down to who could make a play (or get a break) at the end. That's precisely what happened.

Yale and SCSU were the last two teams in the tournament, depending upon losses by Michigan and BU to get them in. We all know about SCSU. That should tell you the kind of parity we are dealing with in college hockey now.

[phriq]

Speak for yourself. Our goaltending was more than good enough to get the job done, IMO.

92% for both and 2.29 and 2.45. Very encouraging for both of their Sioux debut seasons.

Goaltending was not the problem. Scoring and team defense was. Stupid comment.

By the numbers they do not look to bad. By the actual goals that occurred, they sometimes do. I for one struggle with trusting both goalies right now. They both could be GREAT. They have times of great saves and have the numbers to back it up, but when you let in squeeker goals from the blue line in on occasion, that overrides what you previously have done, you lose trust. I barely missed a game this year, be it live, tv, or webcast I watched. We had some weekends of great goaltending. The UNO series is a perfect example of that. However, we have had some really horrible goals get in by both goaltenders.

That being said, the Yale game was not Saunders fault at all. He played a heck of a game. I am starting to join the bandwagon of changing our play style from our "old time hockey" to a more finesse based quick speed and skill eastern style. A main reason being that it's not that the "old time hockey" of hard physical play does not work, it does, just not with the NCAA. The rules don't allow for it. You get penalized now for playing to physical. Perfectly clean hits that are "too hard" always get you a 5 and game now days.

We also have to stop our complacency and belief that we can win with 1 goal leads. The way the Sioux need to win are by scoring no less than 3 goals a game. Strike hard, early and often. We cannot be a team that gets outshot, spends the majority of time in our zone and has a one goal lead and expects to win. It is not going to cut it. With 2 hobey finalists on the top line producing 2 goals all weekend, that is unacceptable.

[siouxrunner]

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-locker-room-mvps/09000d5d8264b360/Ray-Lewis-postgame-speech

Substitutes: NCAA for Superbowl, two weeks for one week, and Sioux for Ravens, and this is pretty much how I feel about it. In my mind MacWilliam made this speech after the game.

[jodcon]

Yale is a very good team. That's what some people seem to be missing.

They went to Denver and won. They went to CC and won. They went to BC and tied. They beat MN the night before. Until their disaster at the ECAC tournament, they were pretty settled in at the 6-10 PWR range, with us.

Our game turned out to be exactly as should have been expected. A close, hard fought affair, that came down to who could make a play (or get a break) at the end. That's precisely what happened.

Yale and SCSU were the last two teams in the tournament, depending upon losses by Michigan and BU to get them in. We all know about SCSU. That should tell you the kind of parity we are dealing with in college hockey now.

Exactly right, every game down the stretch except the third Tech game was a close nailbiter, there was no reason to expect anything different in the tournament. And it could have ended differently if one or two of the post-ringers would have went in, but they didn't and we lost, and really deserved to lose because Yale played like they wanted it more. Doesn't feel good typing that, but it's true.

[Siouxtimestwo]

For the first time since I enrolled at UND in the fall of 2000, I came away from a hockey season feeling it was worth my time invested. I only watched 2 games all year: Niagara and Yale. Didn't spend any money attending games, buying concessions or merchandise, or sitting in front of a grainy computer screen. Didn't read any scouting reports or scour box scores on 15 year old boys. Thought UND did an excellent job bearing down in the 3rd period against Niagara. Reminded me of the teams I watched growing up. Conversely, thought that despite the multiple pipes UND hit against Yale, Yale actually outplayed UND for most of the game. Reminded me of the past decade of recent Sioux teams. Whether that is coaching, immature players, overrated players, bad luck, superior opponents, or some combination is in the eye of the beholder.

The fact of the matter is that regular seasons in nearly all sports are irrelevant these days. I'll focus on college hockey since that's what we're talking about. What is it, 8 straight years a 4 seed has beaten a 1? Rooting for a team in the NCAA tourney is no different than buying a Powerball ticket. All you can do is cross your fingers and hope. I look foward to next season. If UND misses the tournament, I will have missed nothing. If UND wins the title, I will have tuned in just in time. If UND loses in the tournament, at least I will not be surprised anymore.

[Siouxman]

For the first time since I enrolled at UND in the fall of 2000, I came away from a hockey season feeling it was worth my time invested. I only watched 2 games all year: Niagara and Yale. Didn't spend any money attending games, buying concessions or merchandise, or sitting in front of a grainy computer screen. Didn't read any scouting reports or scour box scores on 15 year old boys. Thought UND did an excellent job bearing down in the 3rd period against Niagara. Reminded me of the teams I watched growing up. Conversely, thought that despite the multiple pipes UND hit against Yale, Yale actually outplayed UND for most of the game. Reminded me of the past decade of recent Sioux teams. Whether that is coaching, immature players, overrated players, bad luck, superior opponents, or some combination is in the eye of the beholder.

The fact of the matter is that regular seasons in nearly all sports are irrelevant these days. I'll focus on college hockey since that's what we're talking about. What is it, 8 straight years a 4 seed has beaten a 1? Rooting for a team in the NCAA tourney is no different than buying a Powerball ticket. All you can do is cross your fingers and hope. I look foward to next season. If UND misses the tournament, I will have missed nothing. If UND wins the title, I will have tuned in just in time. If UND loses in the tournament, at least I will not be surprised anymore.

Can I assume that you also:

1) Never went to class or did any homework. You just showed up for the final test and accomplished exactly what you invested.

2) You never read a book. You only turn to the last two pages just in time to read the ending.

3) if ever invited on a Canada fishing trip you would show up at the border as the group was coming home, just to claim your share of the catch.

4) You don't date, but plan to show up for your wedding and get introduced to your bride.

5) When it comes to having kids, you won't participate in the conception, but show up at the hospital just in time for labor.

Please take the above as tongue-in-cheek.

I have season hockey tickets and drive two hours each way for every home game. I traveled to St. Cloud, Omaha, Mankato, St. Paul for the entire Final Five, and to Grand Rapids for the regional. Along the way I witnessed a group of young men gaining experience and sharing a dream. I met many new people and gained some friends. I witnessed hundreds of Sioux fans surround the team and cheer them on as the team left the field at TD Ameritrade Park (and had a three day trip turn into five days). I saw beaming little kids walking out of Van Andel arena in Grand Rapids carrying a Fighting Sioux hockey stick handed to them by a player after the loss to Yale. I saw the end of the WCHA Final Five tournament as we know it. I participated in the Hoggsbreath Siouxsports.com brunch as I have every year. I saw Tate Maris get playing time in a non-exhibition game. I got to hear the team introduced as the North Dakota University Fighting Sioux in Grand Rapids over the weekend. And along the way I got to watch my favorite sport, college hockey. And I can hardly wait for next season to start.

I cannot even imagine having gone through the past decade without experiencing the DOT line, Mike Prpich, Ratislav Spirko, Evan Trupp, the 6-3 victory over the Gophers in last year's Final Five, and many other players and events associated with Fighting Sioux hockey.

We all have different expectations on how we do the journey. I like my method as much as you like yours.

[yzerman19]

The last decade, that many have been calling "failures," has given me many hundreds of hours of enjoyment. The shared experience of Sioux hockey with my fellow fanatics (and those whom I've dragged along with me for the ride) has been so worth it. My investment in the team has been so worth it. My investment in game tickets in GF, St Cloud, Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis so worth it. My ridiculously expensive cable TV package just to get FCS so worth it. My old set-up with wires everywhere to run the desktop computer through my TV so worth it.

All those games, all those moments of greatness and pure joy. The moments of heartbreaking losses. All shared with people I know and with a universe of people that I might never know but share a common bond with me.

I'm with the previous poster...I can't imagine the last ten years without Oshie, Parise, Toews, Bochenski, Greene, Smaby, Chorney, Vandevelde, Trupper, Pony, Frattin, Porter, Duncan, Kristo, MacWilliam. I wouldn't trade those ten years of Sioux hockey just for national titles...no way...