Another tough question ?

[Fetch]

How much does Coaching have to do with Denver winning the trip to the final four ?

[tboneund]

I would say a lot. Denver was a team no one really expected to be in the final four. Some people complained because Denver played the trap defense, but I thought that was great. I thought Denver and their coach did what was needed to win and it certainly wokred out.

Congrats to Denver, thanks for keeping it in the WCHA!

[sagard]

Gwozdecki (sp) seems like a solid coach. He does not seem like he will ever lose any games for the Pioneers.

The WCHA is absolutely loaded with quality coaching right now.

Here they are in general order.

Blais/Lucia - Both have multiple WCHA League/WCHA Tourney and NCAA titles.

Gwozdecki - Has at least one WCHA League/WCHA Tourney and NCAA title.

Owens/Sandelin - Both have had success and great teams.

Dahl/Jutting/Hill/Eaves - Eaves looks poised to get to the Owens/Sandelin group.

Mich Tech's coach.

I'm guessing Dahl and Jutting will still put out decent teams every now and then, but it is going to be a lot tougher with UM/UND/UW all paying attention. Not to mention UMD/DU/CC. Of course Hill takes UAA to the Final Five for the first time as well.

As good as the players are in the WCHA, the coaching is every bit as good.

[SiouxMeNow]

George did a great job coaching around his goaltender - who was red hot!! That deserves credit in itself. He never gave his opponents a chance to crack his goalies cofidence, and that combo added up the national title!

[redwing77]

Gwozdecki (sp) seems like a solid coach. He does not seem like he will ever lose any games for the Pioneers.

The WCHA is absolutely loaded with quality coaching right now.

Here they are in general order.

Blais/Lucia - Both have multiple WCHA League/WCHA Tourney and NCAA titles.

Gwozdecki - Has at least one WCHA League/WCHA Tourney and NCAA title.

Owens/Sandelin - Both have had success and great teams.

Dahl/Jutting/Hill/Eaves - Eaves looks poised to get to the Owens/Sandelin group.

Mich Tech's coach.

I'm guessing Dahl and Jutting will still put out decent teams every now and then, but it is going to be a lot tougher with UM/UND/UW all paying attention. Not to mention UMD/DU/CC. Of course Hill takes UAA to the Final Five for the first time as well.

As good as the players are in the WCHA, the coaching is every bit as good.

Uh, let's correct that a bit, sagard. Put Michigan Tech's coach and Dahl together in the same tier. That's better. MTU can win games and be productive in a season but still fall faster than Wily Coyote off a cliff. Although the fall is more gradual, Dahl's teams are no better.

People are saying that the WCHA is becoming more and more like the NHL with the way it is being run and expectations on the coaches. Well, if this is true, Dahl would be fired. A parallelism with baseball: Mike Hargrove got the Indians to or to the cusp of the World Series several times but he never won. The result? He got fired. Dahl has gotten SCSU on the map for several straight seasons but has failed to make it past the first round of the NCAAs...ever. End result? Who knows, but it should be his dismissal. For this, he's among the worst coaches in the WCHA.

[izzi6]

People are saying that the WCHA is becoming more and more like the NHL with the way it is being run and expectations on the coaches. Well, if this is true, Dahl would be fired. A parallelism with baseball: Mike Hargrove got the Indians to or to the cusp of the World Series several times but he never won. The result? He got fired. Dahl has gotten SCSU on the map for several straight seasons but has failed to make it past the first round of the NCAAs...ever. End result? Who knows, but it should be his dismissal. For this, he's among the worst coaches in the WCHA.

THANK YOU.

Dahl is a hell of a nice guy, and I think he'd make a wonderful athletic director or even a good assistant coach. But he is just not head coach material. Do you know he never even played the game? I know there have been some decent coaches who never played, but it helps a lot. I've been saying for YEARS that he should get fired, but there are too many people up here that love him. For what reason, I don't know.

There is also the Morris Kurtz factor... he's our athletic director. The guy is dumber than a pile of horse s&!t. He'd probably hire someone worse than Dahl. Still, I wish we'd take the chance. Our program's not going anywhere until we get someone who can coach.

Elizabeth

[redwing77]

THANK YOU.

Dahl is a hell of a nice guy, and I think he'd make a wonderful athletic director or even a good assistant coach. But he is just not head coach material. Do you know he never even played the game? I know there have been some decent coaches who never played, but it helps a lot. I've been saying for YEARS that he should get fired, but there are too many people up here that love him. For what reason, I don't know.

There is also the Morris Kurtz factor... he's our athletic director. The guy is dumber than a pile of horse s&!t. He'd probably hire someone worse than Dahl. Still, I wish we'd take the chance. Our program's not going anywhere until we get someone who can coach.

Elizabeth

Dahl's lucky he has Kurtz.

And as for your claim, there has been great coaches who have never played the game, at least professionally. Case in point: Scotty Bowman, Lou Holtz...