2022-23 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[The Sicatoka]

23 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

[stoneySIOUX]

34 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Anyone wonder if some Major Junior weasel fed him all that "we are the fast track to the pros" baloney and he bought it?

Wouldn't shock me, but Schlossy's article made it sound like he was looking college.

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Anyone wonder if some Major Junior weasel fed him all that "we are the fast track to the pros" baloney and he bought it?

That would be far more shocking than him decommitting 

[SIOUXELEVENS]

What if North Dakota won’t let him out of his LOI ?

[Green Banner]

24 minutes ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

What if North Dakota won’t let him out of his LOI ?

Never heard of a school doing that , but always wondered how that would play out

[siouxforce19]

3 minutes ago, Green Banner said:

Never heard of a school doing that , but always wondered how that would play out

I don’t remember the player’s name but if I recall Northeastern blocked him from going to Denver. He ended up staying at Northeastern before eventually transferring to Minnesota. 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

1 minute ago, siouxforce19 said:

I don’t remember the player’s name but if I recall Northeastern blocked him from going to Denver. He ended up staying at Northeastern before eventually transferring to Minnesota. 

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/97214/mike-szmatula

Consistently less output every season.

[Wilbur]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:52 AM, The Sicatoka said:

UND needs to do nothing.
UND may choose to do something. 

Call it a teachable moment. 

*Would need* 

And if they can prevent him from going to:  Duluth, SCSU, Omaha, and Denver that'd be great.  

I've heard that East Lansing is nice.

[gfhockey]

Just now, Wilbur said:

*Would need* 

And if they can prevent him from going to:  Duluth, SCSU, Omaha, and Denver that'd be great.  

I've heard that East Lansing is nice.

If everyone thinks the kid isn’t good why would we want to prevent him?

 

i have a feeling spicer will show und we missed on another recruit

[ChetSteadman]

On 4/15/2022 at 8:53 AM, stoneySIOUX said:

LOL watch the kid play defense. Start there. Then, we can talk the issues that actually got us to want to push him out.

Typical “We didn’t want him response”.   You’re absolutely nuts if you think he couldn’t/shouldn’t play for the Hawks

[fightingsioux4life]

1 hour ago, ChetSteadman said:

Typical “We didn’t want him response”.   You’re absolutely nuts if you think he couldn’t/shouldn’t play for the Hawks

You can teach skilled players how to play defense and kill penalties. You cannot teach players with average skills (a.k.a. "grindaz") how to score goals and create offense. Recruit the most talented kids you can and coach them up on defense and other fundamentals.

[SIOUXELEVENS]

16 hours ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

What if North Dakota won’t let him out of his LOI ?

What good reason would Berry have to release him , you signed the letter you sit for a year. 

[farce poobah]

4 minutes ago, SIOUXELEVENS said:

What good reason would Berry have to release him , you signed the letter you sit for a year. 

All the future kids who are thinking about signing a LOI for UND.  

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Honestly, let's just hope the staff and Spicer remain on good terms and he can transfer in with ease. Struggles but adapts as a freshman, breaks out So or Jr year, and comes home.

[farce poobah]

4 hours ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Honestly, let's just hope the staff and Spicer remain on good terms and he can transfer in with ease. Struggles but adapts as a freshman, breaks out So or Jr year, and comes home.

I like your optimism.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

1 hour ago, farce poobah said:

I like your optimism.

Berry's gee shucks persona is not my favorite, and I would wager it costs us recruits, but him staying calm as it transpired hopefully keeps that possibility alive.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

31 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Berry's gee shucks persona is not my favorite, and I would wager it costs us recruits, but him staying calm as it transpired hopefully keeps that possibility alive.

Your statement leads me to believe you think it’s an act. Why is that?

One thing that strikes me about Berry is when he’s done with an interview/press conference/etc he takes extra time to thank the person doing the interview or something along those lines.
 

He also takes a lot of extra time to appreciate all the support the program gets, including things that aren’t posted by the UND hockey social media.

From all my experiences with him, he’s just a genuinely good person.  When I lived across the street from him as a kid he’d invite the neighborhood kids over, give us candy bars and answer all our questions about playing in the NHL. Before he moved away he stopped at my house and gave me a hockey stick from his nhl career. IMO These aren’t things people do for notoriety or because they want to appear good. It’s because they are good.

[brianvf]

1 minute ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

From all my experiences with him, he’s just a genuinely good person.

+1

I've only met him once myself, but from that interaction and how he presents himself and represents the university...you can definitely tell that he is a standup, good person.

[stoneySIOUX]

12 hours ago, ChetSteadman said:

Typical “We didn’t want him response”.   You’re absolutely nuts if you think he couldn’t/shouldn’t play for the Hawks

Hey man, I get it. He's an incredible talent. Offensive stud. He's not a responsible defensive player at all and if you watch him play, he's regularly feeding his teammates to the wolves with poor decisions. His former D-partner who's now coming to UND was the recipient of said decisions a lot last season.

There's a reason a kid that talented, All-American as a rookie, didn't go first round. 

Partner that with some pretty rough stories about him off the ice (and some related to his tendency to not play sound defense on the ice), I don't think he was a right for for UND. 

Completely fine with you pegging it as a "typical response", and I'm just one man with an opinion based on what I've heard and seen. Feel free to love the kid. He's super talented. No skin off my back. 

We're all good "Rocket" 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

30 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Your statement leads me to believe you think it’s an act. Why is that?

One thing that strikes me about Berry is when he’s done with an interview/press conference/etc he takes extra time to thank the person doing the interview or something along those lines.
 

He also takes a lot of extra time to appreciate all the support the program gets, including things that aren’t posted by the UND hockey social media.

From all my experiences with him, he’s just a genuinely good person.  When I lived across the street from him as a kid he’d invite the neighborhood kids over, give us candy bars and answer all our questions about playing in the NHL. Before he moved away he stopped at my house and gave me a hockey stick from his nhl career. IMO These aren’t things people do for notoriety or because they want to appear good. It’s because they are good.

I don't think it's an act. I generally like him as a coach, interviewee and face of the program. But I'm also a city dweller, and his pace, tone, etc. don't match mine, shall we say. He seems genuine to me, and if you dig through my posting history this is the closest I've come to criticizing him. Just wish he was a little more intense. Not PJ Fleck intense, just....moreso.

[stoneySIOUX]

13 hours ago, gfhockey said:

If everyone thinks the kid isn’t good why would we want to prevent him?

 

i have a feeling spicer will show und we missed on another recruit

The problem with this premise is that we didn't miss. We just wanted the kid, who would be the first 18 year old forward to come into UND since Jonny Toews, to play one more year in junior. Spicer made his decision. 

I think he's gonna be a solid college player, but he got passed up by other recruits that basically every other poster on here adore. UND felt he wasn't ready. We'll see if he is, unfortunately. 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Just now, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

I don't think it's an act. I generally like him as a coach, interviewee and face of the program. But I'm also a city dweller, and his pace, tone, etc. don't match mine, shall we say. He seems genuine to me, and if you dig through my posting history this is the closest I've come to criticizing him. Just wish he was a little more intense. Not PJ Fleck intense, just....moreso.

I mean if you want a guy that gets all the recruits we could investigate Mel Pearson as an option… there’s a chance he’s searching soon

[stoneySIOUX]

11 hours ago, fightingsioux4life said:

You can teach skilled players how to play defense and kill penalties. You cannot teach players with average skills (a.k.a. "grindaz") how to score goals and create offense. Recruit the most talented kids you can and coach them up on defense and other fundamentals.

I agree with this. But, it's a pattern that he hasn't unlearned whatsoever through his first year in college hockey. We could have taken the good with the bad, but he apparently wasn't worth the "risk". Would we have been so bummed about him had he just been another guy at UMass this year? Nope. We'll see what happens this year and moving forward without his guy that bailed him out all year on his pair. 

[brianvf]

1 minute ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

I mean if you want a guy that gets all the recruits we could investigate Mel Pearson as an option… there’s a chance he’s searching soon

He can't even get to the title game with the most talented college hockey team in the history of the sport!
We don't want him!

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

6 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

I mean if you want a guy that gets all the recruits we could investigate Mel Pearson as an option… there’s a chance he’s searching soon

Motzko is getting them too. The sky isn't falling on UND, but we need to be getting studs from the Canadian prairie to make up for missing on blue chips from the cities.