University of North Dakota 2018-19 Season

[stoneySIOUX]

30 minutes ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

Wait, THIS team with a lot of skill up front but less at defense? That perfectly describes the opposite of this team, so maybe you typed that backward.

I don't believe Brad Berry has driven (or is) driving this team into the ground, but I do believe it's obvious that he's out of his realm as a head coach at this level. I think his coaching style and personality are PERFECT fits for being a fantastic assistant coach, but he doesn't fit the bill as a Head coach. 3 seasons in and he still seems uncomfortable and hesitant a lot of the time. More importantly he's not making the hard decisions of cutting kids who didn't pan out, and that dead weight is holding this team back from competing at the normal high level you see from UND. Depth is tremendously important at this level due to the long hard season full of injuries and sicknesses. This team really might be 2-3 guys away from being top 5 in the country, but we'll never know with guys like Johnson, Yon, Rieger and Bob Anderson on the team. Great kids I'm sure, but they're dead weight to this team and could've been replaced by others either 1 or 2 years ago but were not. The Jr. class has been a failure to this program, so maybe things will start panning out after they get worked through.

The other big traditional hockey rich schools around the country are all struggling as well, so that gives me some comfort in knowing this isn't an isolated situation at UND, and that some of the blame goes to the changing landscape of college hockey. With that said, I think it's obvious UND has the facilities and campus+community support like no other hockey program in the country and should have an advantage over everyone for recruits, and it just hasn't been happening. I'm glad to see the pipeline coming in looks strong, because it makes me hopeful things are turning around after this long drawn out break-in period. It makes me glad because I know Berry is locked into a 5 year deal so he's probably not going anywhere. 

Pretty much every college team everywhere is going to have off-ice issues, so that's a given, but I feel like it's going to keep getting worse and will have repeating offenders under a soft coach. I would've been scare to piss off Hak or Blais, but I'm not too sure I'd really be too scared of messing up under Berry. 

So again, I don't think Berry is driving this program into the dirt, I just think he's going to do a good job at keeping the team about where they're at right now and the last few season: Middle of the pack, average, just missing the cut type of team with a good mix of a few highly skilled players, a larger amount of lower skill grinding style players, and a handful of good locker room style nice kids that'll hang around all 4 years providing no depth. 

I wholly agree with this, but I would like to know who you think we would have replaced guys like Johnson, Yon and Rieger with? Or anyone, for that matter. Our recruits are the guys we wanted in the program and they fit into specific roles. Those names were not recruited here to be finishers and top end guys. I don't understand the connection to "cutting dead weight" and us being 2-3 players away. 

[stoneySIOUX]

3 minutes ago, Irish said:

As to not showing up - we are all struggling to explain how we can hang a 5 spot on a good team one night and the next have exactly 3 shots on goal for the entire first half of the game (although stupid penalties by a Captain contributed a lot to this)  We seem to struggle stringing two good games together.  I think the not showing up idea started after we were rested and mainly healthy after Christmas break and then went to Canesius.

I think part of the idea of not string together back-to-back wins against good teams is because they are good teams. They make adjustments. Would it be nice to sweep SCSU, WMU and Duluth? Of course. But, you're saying that in a vacuum like if we had played the exact same game from the night before, we'd automatically win. That Duluth came on Saturday was a one-shot game. 

Canisius is, unfortunately, going to likely be what a lot of people remember about this team. It's fair, too. They didn't show up. All the good will from the rest of the season in terms of hard work fell flat on it's face that weekend in Buffalo.

[AJS]

40 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

I wholly agree with this, but I would like to know who you think we would have replaced guys like Johnson, Yon and Rieger with? Or anyone, for that matter. Our recruits are the guys we wanted in the program and they fit into specific roles. Those names were not recruited here to be finishers and top end guys. I don't understand the connection to "cutting dead weight" and us being 2-3 players away. 

Agree and agree.

That's also my #1 issue with this Junior class, it doesn't make any sense and this isn't a hindsight is 20/20 deal either. You say guys like Johnson (I know was brought in as a D-man) and Yon weren't brought into to be finishers and top end guys, agreed, but the same can be said for Bowen and Smith. Peski has turned out ok, but he was unheralded as well.  You had this giant class and there were 3 guys that were brought in (or showed they were anything more) than role players, that's insane.

 

Side note: I can answer my own question, the guys they shouldn't have brought in were all local.

[stoneySIOUX]

15 minutes ago, AJS said:

Agree and agree.

That's also my #1 issue with this Junior class, it doesn't make any sense and this isn't a hindsight is 20/20 deal either. You say guys like Johnson (I know was brought in as a D-man) and Yon weren't brought into to be finishers and top end guys, agreed, but the same can be said for Bowen and Smith. Peski has turned out ok, but he was unheralded as well.  You had this giant class and there were 3 guys that were brought in (or showed they were anything more) than role players, that's insane.

 

Side note: I can answer my own question, the guys they shouldn't have brought in were all local.

I definitely think the local point is a big, big part of it. I think Hoff was, whom I thought, the guy who'd be the jewel of that class. I think it was just a miss. I've been saying it for a long time and I honestly think it's very much that simple. The Sophs and Freshmen are leading this team, in general. 

[siouxforce19]

4 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

I definitely think the local point is a big, big part of it. I think Hoff was, whom I thought, the guy who'd be the jewel of that class. I think it was just a miss. I've been saying it for a long time and I honestly think it's very much that simple. The Sophs and Freshmen are leading this team, in general. 

Hoff is my biggest disappointment of the class, strictly from an expectations standpoint. (I think he was an all-USHL pick?)

I expected a little more than we’ve gotten out of the others, but can’t say I expected any of the others to be at the top of the stat sheet. 

[stoneySIOUX]

3 minutes ago, siouxforce19 said:

Hoff is my biggest disappointment of the class, strictly from an expectations standpoint. (I think he was an all-USHL pick?)

I expected a little more than we’ve gotten out of the others, but can’t say I expected any of the others to be at the top of the stat sheet. 

Ditto.

[OgieOgilthorpe]

2 hours ago, stoneySIOUX said:

I wholly agree with this, but I would like to know who you think we would have replaced guys like Johnson, Yon and Rieger with? Or anyone, for that matter. Our recruits are the guys we wanted in the program and they fit into specific roles. Those names were not recruited here to be finishers and top end guys. I don't understand the connection to "cutting dead weight" and us being 2-3 players away. 

Every year there are recruits that are ready to come in, but are held away from campus for an extra year solely due to roster limits. It's impossible to perfectly time out all of these recruits because of guys leaving early for AHL/NHL, leaving for another team or not leaving as early as expected. That always leaves a few guys on tap, so instead of holding them back an EXTRA year, bring them in and replace Johnson, Rieger and/or Yon depending on what positions are available. Much less likely, but always a decent backup plan is to find an older transfer kid or even a recruit they've been on the fence about offering. Anything would be worth the risk in my opinion since they wouldn't really be losing anything by dumping any of these 3 current guys. 

You've obviously watched 'Miracle' recently, so yes...thank you...it's very well known some players are brought in for reasons other than to score a lot of goals. All 3 of these guys were brought in to be role players, or good defenders...and none of them have really panned out. It happened in the past and it'll happen in the future, but the only difference is that Berry has continued to hold onto them instead of shuffling them out.  UND already has a large number of role player types that do it much better. Additionally, Johnson was brought in to be a dman, but was clearly the odd man out due to lack of skill, but was able to fill an empty forward role to keep a spot on the team. He literally was just a body to fill the spot and should've appreciated the opportunity to get some extra ice time during his last season at UND...but for some reason he's still there and sticks out like a sore thumb when he's on the ice. Same exact thing should've happened with Bob Anderson. The decision to hang onto him has been pretty close to really biting UND. 

The connection between those types of players still being on the team and being 2-3 players away from being a top 5 team is obvious now isn't it? Cutting Bob, Johnson and Yon 2 years ago and Rieger last year would've caused a positive domino effect. Some of the freshman who are taking awhile to adjust would've been fully adjusted sophomores right now and the Rieger cut could've given another guy who's playing USHL somewhere right now a shot at at playing this year, again fast forwarding another player's development. 

NO I'm not saying bring in guys who aren't ready and ruining their development, I'm only talking about the guys who are ready, but just don't have room for yet. Keeping the guys who didn't pan out is really putting kinks in the chain of development and is screwing up the flow of incoming players. It has a much larger impact than most might realize. 

[siouxforce19]

Why is Bob Anderson part of this discussion? Bob is a walk on. He tried out for his spot.  If the coaching staff wanted to bring in a scholarship goalie for our third goalie, Bob isn’t going to prevent that. He’d become our 4th goalie.  We haven’t had a third goalie on scholarship for a long time. 

[OgieOgilthorpe]

19 minutes ago, siouxforce19 said:

Why is Bob Anderson part of this discussion? Bob is a walk on. He tried out for his spot.  If the coaching staff wanted to bring in a scholarship goalie for our third goalie, Bob isn’t going to prevent that. He’d become our 4th goalie.  We haven’t had a third goalie on scholarship for a long time. 

The 3 skaters were the main part of the discussion and Bob was just added in. I thought they decided to give him a scholarship this past off season?

[siouxforce19]

Just now, OgieOgilthorpe said:

I thought they decided to give him a scholarship?

Not to my knowledge. He initially was just filling in as a practice goalie while Tomek was injured and when Tomek returned, let him stay on the team.

I don’t even remember the last third goalie we have had that was on scholarship. 

[stoneySIOUX]

1 hour ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

Every year there are recruits that are ready to come in, but are held away from campus for an extra year solely due to roster limits. It's impossible to perfectly time out all of these recruits because of guys leaving early for AHL/NHL, leaving for another team or not leaving as early as expected. That always leaves a few guys on tap, so instead of holding them back an EXTRA year, bring them in and replace Johnson, Rieger and/or Yon depending on what positions are available. Much less likely, but always a decent backup plan is to find an older transfer kid or even a recruit they've been on the fence about offering. Anything would be worth the risk in my opinion since they wouldn't really be losing anything by dumping any of these 3 current guys. 

You've obviously watched 'Miracle' recently, so yes...thank you...it's very well known some players are brought in for reasons other than to score a lot of goals. All 3 of these guys were brought in to be role players, or good defenders...and none of them have really panned out. It happened in the past and it'll happen in the future, but the only difference is that Berry has continued to hold onto them instead of shuffling them out.  UND already has a large number of role player types that do it much better. Additionally, Johnson was brought in to be a dman, but was clearly the odd man out due to lack of skill, but was able to fill an empty forward role to keep a spot on the team. He literally was just a body to fill the spot and should've appreciated the opportunity to get some extra ice time during his last season at UND...but for some reason he's still there and sticks out like a sore thumb when he's on the ice. Same exact thing should've happened with Bob Anderson. The decision to hang onto him has been pretty close to really biting UND. 

The connection between those types of players still being on the team and being 2-3 players away from being a top 5 team is obvious now isn't it? Cutting Bob, Johnson and Yon 2 years ago and Rieger last year would've caused a positive domino effect. Some of the freshman who are taking awhile to adjust would've been fully adjusted sophomores right now and the Rieger cut could've given another guy who's playing USHL somewhere right now a shot at at playing this year, again fast forwarding another player's development. 

NO I'm not saying bring in guys who aren't ready and ruining their development, I'm only talking about the guys who are ready, but just don't have room for yet. Keeping the guys who didn't pan out is really putting kinks in the chain of development and is screwing up the flow of incoming players. It has a much larger impact than most might realize. 

First part, so, we'd being in a older transfer or recruit on the fence, who is likely not lighting up the world. We have to teach him new systems and play and get him acclimated to his new team and teammates. For what? The idea that he could be better? And if he's not? More criticism.

Yes, I have watched Miracle recently hahaha.

It's not obvious, whatsoever, IMO. You'd take those guys off this roster and they aren't being replaced with high impact players (ala. Boeser, Schmaltz, etc.). They are being replaced by guys of the same ilk. Without names and only speaking in hindsight about who those recruits could have been, this conversation is just one about us not liking how many goals we score. 

[stoneySIOUX]

All-in-all... 

This team is one bad weekend from being a No. 3 seed in the NCAAs. 

In Fargo.

In a "down" year.

Let's have a little perspective, shall we?

[OgieOgilthorpe]

6 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

All-in-all... 

This team is one bad weekend from being a No. 3 seed in the NCAAs. 

In Fargo.

In a "down" year.

Let's have a little perspective, shall we?

Not sure anyone is saying they're absolutely miserable, but the perspective I see is that they're on pace to notch more Ls than they have in the last 19 seasons(only as far as I looked back) and miss the tournament 2 years in a row and nearly 3 in a row. 

[stoneySIOUX]

1 minute ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

Not sure anyone is saying they're absolutely miserable, but the perspective I see is that they're on pace to notch more Ls than they have in the last 19 seasons(only as far as I looked back) and miss the tournament 2 years in a row and nearly 3 in a row. 

All things that completely suck. No doubt. However, it just feels consistently blown out of proportion like the program is completely off the rails. One bad weekend away from this conversation absolutely not happening. That's why I am asking for people to have a little perspective. 

[scpa0305]

13 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

All-in-all... 

This team is one bad weekend from being a No. 3 seed in the NCAAs. 

In Fargo.

In a "down" year.

Let's have a little perspective, shall we?

...bud. Getting swept by Canisius is off the rails.  Especially considering the other losses to (BSU, etc.).  Need to get back on next year.

[SIOUXELEVENS]

Mostvof us are used to the hockey team playing better after Xmas and the last three years they have not, what’s the difference, Berry. Coach Berry was here for that so he should know what got the boys going after Xmas , so does he not know how to motivate or doesn’t want too.

[OgieOgilthorpe]

10 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

First part, so, we'd being in a older transfer or recruit on the fence, who is likely not lighting up the world. We have to teach him new systems and play and get him acclimated to his new team and teammates. For what? The idea that he could be better? And if he's not? More criticism.

Yes, I have watch Miracle recently hahaha.

It's not obvious, whatsoever, IMO. You'd take those guys off this roster and they aren't being replaced with high impact players (ala. Boeser, Schmaltz, etc.). They are being replaced by guys of the same ilk. Without names and only speaking in hindsight, this conversation is just one about us not liking how many goals we score. 

Yes absolutely I would've brought some of those guys in to give them a shot to see if they could produce. I'd much rather have a kid who could possibly produce vs a few guys I KNOW cannot produce and never will. This isn't hindsight, it was pretty clear for Johnson, Yon and Reiger right off the bat. Not cutting the 2 of them after 2 years is a poor decision and not cutting Reiger after this year would also be a poor decision. 

[stoneySIOUX]

33 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

...bud. Getting swept by Canisius is off the rails.  Especially considering the other losses to (BSU, etc.).  Need to get back on next year.

It is absolutely not. It is a terrible weekend. 

If it's a matter of perspective on what you'd consider "off the rails", I guess. Off the rails, to me, would mean that one weekend wouldn't decide whether or not we make the tourney. 

[OgieOgilthorpe]

5 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

All things that completely suck. No doubt. However, it just feels consistently blown out of proportion like the program is completely off the rails. One bad weekend away from this conversation absolutely not happening. That's why I am asking for people to have a little perspective. 

But that weekend happened, and this team let it happen...and some other unprecedented weekends happened on top of it. One or two bad games a year are going to happen to everyone, but these bad weekends have been stock piling over the past 3 years. Dropping a game to lower rated teams happen all the time because hockey is a crazy game, but dropping multiple games in a row and consecutive weekends in a row to bad teams essentially means it's because they're just not that good of a team. 

[stoneySIOUX]

Just now, OgieOgilthorpe said:

But that weekend happened, and this team let it happen...and some other unprecedented weekends happened on top of it. One or two bad games a year are going to happen to everyone, but these bad weekends have been stock piling over the past 3 years. 

Ok... I'll just let it go. It's a difference of opinion. I'm just asking for you all to ask... is it really that bad?

I don't think it is. I think this team has a serious influx of talent that it needs coming in the next two or three seasons. 

[stoneySIOUX]

7 minutes ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

Mostvof us are used to the hockey team playing better after Xmas and the last three years they have not, what’s the difference, Berry. Coach Berry was here for that so he should know what got the boys going after Xmas , so does he not know how to motivate or doesn’t want too.

We lost to Canisius, sure, but we also beat Duluth, SCSU and WMU after Christmas. So, since we're not very talented, that many agree with on here, Bubbs must be a pretty good coach to beat these teams, I'd think.

[The Sicatoka]

20 hours ago, jk said:

3) They don't show up. 

No, I won't say that. 

I will say I have no idea night to night which team will show up: the one that waxed SCSU or the one that got shuffled in Buffalo. 

That's on the players. 

[UNDMOORHEAD]

28 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

We lost to Canisius, sure, but we also beat Duluth, SCSU and WMU after Christmas. So, since we're not very talented, that many agree with on here, Bubbs must be a pretty good coach to beat these teams, I'd think.

The problem is consistency. The last couple years it doesn't seem to matter who's on the schedule or when they're on the schedule our boys can look really good or really bad. I think that's where Berry gets some heat because Hak consistently had the boys playing well the second half of the year. 

[stoneySIOUX]

1 minute ago, UNDMOORHEAD said:

The problem is consistency. The last couple years it doesn't seem to matter who's on the schedule or when they're on the schedule our boys can look really good or really bad. I think that's where Berry gets some heat because Hak consistently had the boys playing well the second half of the year. 

Outside of that one weekend, which I get it, it happened, we've played and beaten some very good/great opponents. I'd say we're playing much better in the second half.

[siouxforce19]

4 minutes ago, UNDMOORHEAD said:

The problem is consistency. The last couple years it doesn't seem to matter who's on the schedule or when they're on the schedule our boys can look really good or really bad. I think that's where Berry gets some heat because Hak consistently had the boys playing well the second half of the year. 

The only real consistency issue I see is the inconsistent offensive production. We just never know when it’s coming...