Favorite Dave Hakstol Moment

[siouxfan512]

Mine has to be a tie between him throwing up the middle finger at the refs when we played the goofers. OR the timeout that he took when we play the goofs at the Final Five, that completely turned the tide of the game.

[MafiaMan]

Hak stopping in the hotel lobby while on the way to the X in 2010. Not only did he sign my son's jersey, he asked him a question or two about school and hockey, plus made sure the coaches and players had been nice to him while he was busy scrounging around for autographs. The entire team and coaching staff waited two minutes for Hak to finish up an 8:00 am Saturday morning conversation with an 8 year old kid.

Thanks, Coach Hakstol, for your dedication to UND, both as a player and a coach. And thanks for making an impression on my boy. He hasn't forgotten that weekend - and likely never will.

[Vegas_Sioux]

Working at the airport. During the charters he always thanked us personally not just having the captains or the equipment people do it but Dave would thank us for being there even if the flight was 4 or 5 hours late.

[iluvdebbies]

2013 in Duluth....After completing the sweep on Saturday night, Hak picked up the game puck off the ice and gave it to my boy.

[Shawn-O]

Blue Line Club meetings at Jax Cafe.  He always thanked us for coming out and was happy to see a few friendly faces.  

[hky]

At the pre-game party before the game at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.  He had his kids with him, and was walking around the room, thanking fans for being there.  You could just tell - loves his family, loves Sioux hockey.

[SiouxScore]

The timeout at the final 5 against Minnesota, making the NCAA tourney every year, the way he, his staff, and players would always take the time and make the extra effort to reach out to fans.  

[dagies]

Never met the man but appreciated how much he cared about the program as a whole, and that he recruited a team you could be proud to root for.

[siouxforcefans]

The timeout at the final 5 against Minnesota, making the NCAA tourney every year, the way he, his staff, and players would always take the time and make the extra effort to reach out to fans.  

I'll just quote you, as you summed it up pretty well.

 

Wife and I would always go visit with him at Force games when he was scouting - only Blais was as approachable as a scout from the colleges, but Blais has his number retired there, so that's another topic.  Also, at fan fest last fall, when getting a poster autographed, my wife asked Hak to sign it as well.  When Hak joked about why, I told him it was because when they won the title that year, we wanted the coach on there as well.  He just smiled and said, "We'll see what we can do".  No title, but still one heckuva ride!

[Frozen4sioux]

Mine is the time he took to talk with my 2 boys at the state fair, he was awesome, the boys were made to feel awesome and a part of the FIGHTING SIOUX family for LIFE.

What character, what poise he showed for us.

Thanks man!

[dagies]

This isn't a favorite Hakstol moment but I grabbed the first Hak thread I found without digging too far back.    Kind of interesting insight here considering the knock about Hakstol that he didn't change his style to stay current with the game

 

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=775060

 

Aside from a driven nature, Hakstol is flexible in his coaching philosophies. He proved at North Dakota he is willing to adapt his systems.

"He's kind of evolved with the game," Mattson said. "When I first got there, [defensemen] would stay back and play defense first. Over the course of my career, it kind of evolved to where defensemen had to get active. I think the last two seasons we've had the highest-scoring defensive corps in the nation, and he really encourages that. He's always yelling at us to jump up in the play and be active, so I think he's going to bring that to the NHL."

 

[farce poobah]

This hardly qualifies as a moment, but

 

Looking at the standings and Pairwise every December and still thinking we were going to end up #1.

 

He really REALLY built an aura around the second half of season and especially in March.

[gfhockey]

My Gobc fav moments happen in April

[burd]

My Gobc fav moments happen in April

Spoken like a person who has no feel for the game itself whatsoever. 

[Fetch]

I never met Hak but said Hi to him once in Target

One time while at the Final Five we were outside the X & Hak & the team were walking back to their Hotel - We were outside to see some of the Saint Patrick's Parade that was going on - I said to Hak Hey their having a parade for the Sioux today (everyone dressed in Sioux Green) He smiled & gave me a thumbs up

[90siouxfan]

When he came into the locker room at the Ralph and talked to the squirt team.

[burd]

My daughter attended a hockey camp at the Ralph quite a few years ago when she was about 14 and pretty inexperienced. Hak and his boys were around a lot, though he had no official role. She had nothing but good things to say about him; he treated all the kids kindly and expressed interest in them when he was around them. She liked the way he played with his own kids at the rink. Of the men's players, her favorite was Pony Malone. She really did not know a lot about the players, but said Kozek didn't seem very interested in teaching kids hockey.

[Sioux17]

Mine is at least twenty years ago.  I can't remember the date but I believe I was 12.  Summer hockey camp at the old ralph.  Hak was one of the coaches for it and all I remember was him yelling at us to come take a knee at center ice. I skated in and jus before I got there I caught an edge and took hak out from behind.  My favorite memory is the first time I saw "the stare" and the fact that he didn't hit me.  Which I thought for sure he was going to

[burd]

Mine is at least twenty years ago.  I can't remember the date but I believe I was 12.  Summer hockey camp at the old ralph.  Hak was one of the coaches for it and all I remember was him yelling at us to come take a knee at center ice. I skated in and jus before I got there I caught an edge and took hak out from behind.  My favorite memory is the first time I saw "the stare" and the fact that he didn't hit me.  Which I thought for sure he was going to

Great story. I'll bet his players would have loved to hear that one.

[dden3]

A few years back the Lamorieax (spelling) sisters had just returned from the Olympics and did a ceremonial puck drop at a Sioux game at Engelstad.  As they were walking off the ice they stripped off their Olympic jerseys to reveal their Sioux sweaters.  The camera focused in on Hak and even he had to smile wryly about that one.

[snova4]

A few years back the Lamorieax (spelling) sisters had just returned from the Olympics and did a ceremonial puck drop at a Sioux game at Engelstad.  As they were walking off the ice they stripped off their Olympic jerseys to reveal their Sioux sweaters.  The camera focused in on Hak and even he had to smile wryly about that one.

I was at this game, it was pretty sweet. The crowd went absolutely crazy.

[ericpnelson]

A few years back the Lamorieax (spelling) sisters had just returned from the Olympics and did a ceremonial puck drop at a Sioux game at Engelstad.  As they were walking off the ice they stripped off their Olympic jerseys to reveal their Sioux sweaters.  The camera focused in on Hak and even he had to smile wryly about that one.

I was at this game, it was pretty sweet. The crowd went absolutely crazy.

Rumor is, Faison was ballistic about that.

[Blackheart]

I was at this game, it was pretty sweet. The crowd went absolutely crazy.

That's awesome, wish I could have seen it.

[dden3]

Its hard to believe he is actually our athletic director.  I suppose there are a couple of million ($) other reasons Hak left, but I think he would be glad to be away from Faison and Kelley.