University of North Dakota Hockey 2019-20 Season

[MafiaMan]

@iluvdebbies Starman should be your permanent avatar.  Just my two cents.

[brianvf]

Thank you Colton!

Agreed, defense and goalie should be set...now time for the offense to step up. 

[crb1]

If you read the Poolman article he says all the right things. This is what I would like to hear out of Berry's mouth about the last two years. Berry would reassure a lot of people if he would say the things Colton said.

 

I think we’ve got to start small, because we haven’t performed these last two years,” Poolman said. “We haven’t met a whole lot of goals. It starts with building The Ralph back to what it was. We have to start winning more home games first and foremost, and turning that place into a place that’s feared to play in. That’s goal No. 1.

“Then, we have to try to get into that top half in the regular season of play -- be a better regular-season team. Those are a couple of goals we can wrap our heads around. We need to start there before we can go any farther.”

[90siouxfan]

Is it assumed he will again be captain?

[tnt]

1 hour ago, crb1 said:

If you read the Poolman article he says all the right things. This is what I would like to hear out of Berry's mouth about the last two years. Berry would reassure a lot of people if he would say the things Colton said.

 

I think we’ve got to start small, because we haven’t performed these last two years,” Poolman said. “We haven’t met a whole lot of goals. It starts with building The Ralph back to what it was. We have to start winning more home games first and foremost, and turning that place into a place that’s feared to play in. That’s goal No. 1.

“Then, we have to try to get into that top half in the regular season of play -- be a better regular-season team. Those are a couple of goals we can wrap our heads around. We need to start there before we can go any farther.”

I think the top half isn’t good enough.  They need to finish top 2 in the league.  Other teams are losing guys, so just getting home ice should only be a goal along the way to a high league finish for a program like ours.

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

I think the top half isn’t good enough.  They need to finish top 2 in the league.  Other teams are losing guys, so just getting home ice should only be a goal along the way to a high league finish for a program like ours.

Agreed, the should be a top 5-7 team in the country.  We’re bringing back a lot.  Clearly our seniors will be 100% role players but that’s fine.  Juniors and soph need to take that jump.  I don’t think we’ll be a high scoring team but we should score much better than this year’s team.

[burd]

Off topic.  Wondering if any of you in Nodak are seeing any northern lights tonight.  Supposed to be a good weekend for it, possibly even here in south central WI, though nothing is happening so far.

[MafiaMan]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

I think the top half isn’t good enough.  They need to finish top 2 in the league.  Other teams are losing guys, so just getting home ice should only be a goal along the way to a high league finish for a program like ours.

“...have to try to get into that top half in the regular season of play...”  I thought the goal every year was a conference championship?  Are we circling the home series with Canisius College on the calendar too?  Maybe wearing the black jersey full-time for all away AND home games?

[tnt]

18 minutes ago, MafiaMan said:

“...have to try to get into that top half in the regular season of play...”  I thought the goal every year was a conference championship?  Are we circling the home series with Canisius College on the calendar too?  Maybe wearing the black jersey full-time for all away AND home games?

That was kind of my point, that to me Poolman isn’t saying all the right things like the poster said.  To me the semantics don’t matter much anyway.  Show me, don’t tell me.  We have had way too much talk lately, and not enough action.

[ATL_Sioux]

On 3/21/2019 at 11:47 AM, Irish said:

I totally agree that the game atmosphere is going down and we could use a boost.  Part of the problems are baked in now, but part could be solved by some changes.  The corporate atmosphere was sealed when they decided to make lower bowl tickets contingent on a serious Sioux Club membership level.  Part of the student problem was when they didn't put the students on the end and built without figuring out that standing would block the view of others.  (I can see both sides of the standing issue - We really need the students engaged and cheering - however,  I have been in a suite several times when the students stood in front of us for no particular reason - not play related - just standing, chatting, and texting.  Extremely frustrating.)  Things that could change - the eternal vigilance on the student section - just looking for anyone having too much fun.  If there is a problem fine - deal with it.  But putting them under the microscope really dampens their mood.  Find more ways to involve the students with organized cheers, more band - have a student group search for ways - this is not the same type of student that went to the Old Ralph - more texting than cheering.  Finally, have someone who knows and enjoys hockey run the Ralph game day and PA system.  The crap that comes over the system every time play stops is a real mood and cheer killer.  Many times the crowd is really into it only to be interrupted by some ad over the loudspeaker.  Same with the music.  We need the crowd cheering at the breaks.  Take some of the profit and subsidize whatever payout they get from all of the ads.  This is corporate greed and a mood killer. (also put out a team that is exciting.  Watching them try gain the zone on a power play or chip it off the glass then all rush to the corner is ultra boring.  Few break-aways or odd man rushes.  Also, giving up a goal within about a minute of us scoring really dampers the mood too).  We can have the best atmosphere in college hockey with some planning and tweaks and a scoring upgrade.

I recall watching a Duke basketball game and the students were chanting in unison, "Pass, pass, shot, pass".  I've always thought that would be great for the students to do on a penalty kill.

The entry music for the games could use some work. I haven't been to a game in a few years so this may have changed but the Phil Collins, while not terrible, didn't get my blood pumping.  I am a fan of VT so Enter Sandman is a favorite entry, not to duplicate but something similar.

[Blackheart]

4 hours ago, crb1 said:

If you read the Poolman article he says all the right things. This is what I would like to hear out of Berry's mouth about the last two years. Berry would reassure a lot of people if he would say the things Colton said.

I think we’ve got to start small, because we haven’t performed these last two years,” Poolman said. “We haven’t met scored a whole lot of goals.

Fixed your post...

[CarpeRemote]

On 3/21/2019 at 11:47 AM, Irish said:

Finally, have someone who knows and enjoys hockey run the Ralph game day and PA system.  The crap that comes over the system every time play stops is a real mood and cheer killer.  Many times the crowd is really into it only to be interrupted by some ad over the loudspeaker.  Same with the music.  We need the crowd cheering at the breaks. 

We have to fly in for games so it’s 3 years since we’ve been to the Ralph, but our pro team wonders why the crowd isn’t more involved. Every time play stops they blast insanely loud piped music until play resumes, squelching every attempt the crowd makes to spontaneously get involved.

It’s like the people in charge have no idea what a fun arena looks like and think the fans are too stupid to figure it out on their own. You can’t constantly pipe in fun, it’s exhausting. The band is way more effective. 

I was at UND 78-82 and I’m good at getting a section rocking, but with the electronic wall of sound all you can do is surrender and sit on your hands or cover your ears. 

 

[stoneySIOUX]

2 hours ago, scpa0305 said:

Agreed, the should be a top 5-7 team in the country.  We’re bringing back a lot.  Clearly our seniors will be 100% role players but that’s fine.  Juniors and soph need to take that jump.  I don’t think we’ll be a high scoring team but we should score much better than this year’s team.

Our defense and goaltending are setting us up for a big year. Steps by Guchi, Mismash, Adams and maybe one or two others, coupled with good freshmen scoring, we absolutely have the tools to make a really big jump. 3.5 GPG will make us very, very hard to beat. Very hopeful.

[ringneck28]

20 hours ago, crb1 said:

If you read the Poolman article he says all the right things. This is what I would like to hear out of Berry's mouth about the last two years. Berry would reassure a lot of people if he would say the things Colton said.

 

I think we’ve got to start small, because we haven’t performed these last two years,” Poolman said. “We haven’t met a whole lot of goals. It starts with building The Ralph back to what it was. We have to start winning more home games first and foremost, and turning that place into a place that’s feared to play in. That’s goal No. 1.

“Then, we have to try to get into that top half in the regular season of play -- be a better regular-season team. Those are a couple of goals we can wrap our heads around. We need to start there before we can go any farther.”

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an observation about this post.  As captain of the team, does anyone else realize that Berry talks with him.  I would have to say that these quotes are from a conversation that Berry had with Poolman.  I have heard Berry and other players say these same things in various interviews throughout the year.  Now with Poolman saying them in this interview, he is setting the bar for next years team.  He is sending a message from the coach to the players coming in and returning next year.  

I would argue that the Poolman family is the current family of UND hockey, like the Lamoureaux family used to be.  I would also argue that Colton knows that next years team isn't going to put up with the stupid penalties that this years team was plagues by.  Reason being, the benching of the "A" during the 3rd period of the 2nd to last regular season game.  It is the captain that enforces this behind the scenes.  

I expect there to be a lot of changes next year and those changes start now.  Colton is making sure the bar is higher and is done now.

 

[AJS]

Poolman returning really is big news. The defensive unit was really good last year and will be even better next year. They should be lights out good, like sure fire Top 3 in the country good. They lose Shaw, who I thought was terrific last year, very underrated. When you have that deep of a core of guys and only lose one, that's about as good as you can ask for. Why the excitement for next year?

• Two separate true "Top Pairs" - Mix and match Poolman, Kierstad, JBD, Bast (Tychonick) - There's no real drop off
• Top End Talent: Poolman, JBD, Kierstad have a chance to be All-Conference in some aspect
• Upperclassman: The Top 7 will finally have more upperclassman (4) than underclassman (3)
• Depth: Besides the five I named above, Peski is really solid. A great 6th / 7th defenseman
• Huge Strides: As far as draft status, the two guys who should make huge jumps are JBD / Tychonick. JBD was really solid all year (as you should expect from a 1st rounder), but Tychonick was night and day better the 2nd half half of the season. Both were 18 year old Freshman last year. 

We all know Defense / Goaltending wasn't the problem last year, but what's in place for '19/'20 is really, really exciting. It's national championship type caliber stuff. I also realize that's just half the battle, but it's a great start. 

[tnt]

UMass scored 1 more goal a game in Cale Makar’s second year.  Hopefully UND can  gain some more offense in JBD and Tychonick’s second year.

[tnt]

If UND gets minimal help from the incoming freshmen class next year, you know there are some problems.  You look at the numbers that guys like Taylor Ward and Grant Cruikshank put up this year and it makes you wonder.  These guys didn't have anywhere near as good of numbers as guys who are at UND right now, but seemed to transition well to college hockey.  Cruikshank would have been our leading goal scorer.  I know there was talk about him being recruited, but I'm guessing we didn't offer.  

[SIOUXELEVENS]

I think Ward was a big miss for sure. It seems the Hak and Berry missed on some legacy recruits. What is Berrys plan for next year , how will they finish in the top half of the league, how will they score more? Will we have a different power play? You just can’t say we we do all these things he hopefully has some kind of plan. 

[CarpeRemote]

Do you think we are getting this level of conditioning? Seems we are out of gas late in games and a tad slow overall. 

 

https://www.elitefts.com/education/watch-mark-lambert-strength-coach-for-the-tampa-bay-lightning-of-the-nhl/

[90siouxfan]

1 hour ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

I think Ward was a big miss for sure. It seems the Hak and Berry missed on some legacy recruits. What is Berrys plan for next year , how will they finish in the top half of the league, how will they score more? Will we have a different power play? You just can’t say we we do all these things he hopefully has some kind of plan. 

That issues has been in my mind, Archibald, Morelli...   you would think they would bleed green and want to be here, I assume the program did not want them....

[90siouxfan]

42 minutes ago, CarpeRemote said:

Do you think we are getting this level of conditioning? Seems we are out of gas late in games and a tad slow overall. 

 

https://www.elitefts.com/education/watch-mark-lambert-strength-coach-for-the-tampa-bay-lightning-of-the-nhl/

I hear Ben Newman has ideas....   lol, F no!   

[stoneySIOUX]

1 hour ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

What is Berrys plan for next year , how will they finish in the top half of the league, how will they score more? Will we have a different power play? You just can’t say we we do all these things he hopefully has some kind of plan. 

So, are you hoping for him to come out and tell you/us out of this? That just isn't going to happen.

[stoneySIOUX]

19 minutes ago, 90siouxfan said:

That issues has been in my mind, Archibald, Morelli...   you would think they would bleed green and want to be here, I assume the program did not want them....

I think a big part of it was wanting to play for Blaiser.

[Irish]

I don't think there is much doubt that there have been some recruiting miscues that have happened often enough to become a pattern - not just mis-judging a prospect or two - and it has been going on for several years as evidenced by our top scorer this year from any class having 10 goals.  I sincerely hope there is an honest assessment and plans to correct this situation and not just the "hey, we have a better class coming in next year" philosophy.  There is absolutely no way St. Cloud and Duluth should be out-recruiting us for several years running now.  None.  I believe Stony Sioux is right that he won't just come out and tell us what is happening.  It's hard to read through all of the coach-speak, but hopefully Berry and Chaves will take a hard look at things.  I am cautiously optimistic. but still hope some dead weight will be dropped. 

[fightingsioux4life]

Just now, Irish said:

I don't think there is much doubt that there have been some recruiting miscues that have happened often enough to become a pattern - not just mis-judging a prospect or two - and it has been going on for several years as evidenced by our top scorer this year from any class having 10 goals.  I sincerely hope there is an honest assessment and plans to correct this situation and not just the "hey, we have a better class coming in next year" philosophy.  There is absolutely no way St. Cloud and Duluth should be out-recruiting us for several years running now.  None.  I believe Stony Sioux is right that he won't just come out and tell us what is happening.  It's hard to read through all of the coach-speak, but hopefully Berry and Chaves will take a hard look at things.  I am cautiously optimistic. but still hope some dead weight will be dropped. 

Serious Question: Did this start with Hakstol before he left or is it mainly a Berry problem?