2024-25 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[siouxkid12]

6 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I think Ryan Day needs to at least make the semifinals to cool his coaching seat off. That program has not been quite the same since Urban Meyer stepped down.

Who knows what would happen to Ryan Day but the fans have every right to be upset with the way the program is.

[siouxkid12]

1 minute ago, Goon said:

I'd rather see a change at AD than the head hockey coach. Honestly, I don't care; the program is better off than when I arrived on campus in 1993. That was a dumpster fire. At the beginning of the season, I predicted this team would be in the Frozen Four when the season ends. If not I will owe @MafiaMan and @Godsmack a dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. I am glad it's not my decision. Berry's Record is 217-111-34, and his teams have won four of the last five NCHC regular season titles. He's not a bad coach. Are we expecting too much? Are we being unreasonable? I don't know. I am not there yet.  

I’d agree with you that the AD needs to be gone and I’d also agree with you that Berry is not a bad coach. 

[fightingsioux4life]

6 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

Who knows what would happen to Ryan Day but the fans have every right to be upset with the way the program is.

John Cooper got canned for not beating Michigan. Postseason success might be Day's salvation.

[tnt]

On 11/19/2024 at 12:58 PM, Goon said:

Hopefully, they will push, and this isn't just talk. Some changes need to be made. I personally, like Bubba, he's a decent human being, but we're stuck in a rut. 

Just wondering when you would consider it a rut for hockey like it was for football. Both seem to get to the playoffs but just can’t make the next level.  

[SiouxFan100]

Seems like folks have high respect for how Goon feels about UND hockey.

[Big A HG]

34 minutes ago, Goon said:

I'd rather see a change at AD than the head hockey coach. Honestly, I don't care; the program is better off than when I arrived on campus in 1993. That was a dumpster fire. At the beginning of the season, I predicted this team would be in the Frozen Four when the season ends. If not I will owe @MafiaMan and @Godsmack a dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. I am glad it's not my decision. Berry's Record is 217-111-34, and his teams have won four of the last five NCHC regular season titles. He's not a bad coach. Are we expecting too much? Are we being unreasonable? I don't know. I am not there yet.  

 

Gino did more for UND with less than Berry has.  The end of Gino's tenure was not good, but with a new coach, things quickly turned around again.  What I want is to get rid of Berry before it starts looking like how it ended for Gino.  He's had plenty of time to improve things, but it's more of the same.  NCHC regular season titles are weak sauce and drastically overstated.  There's a reason only three different teams have won a regular season NCHC title in 11 seasons.  This program is predicated on post-season success, not regular season.  

[scpa0305]

9 hours ago, Big A HG said:

 

Of all the resources UND can control, UND has the best of everything.  UND can't control if they have mountains to look at out the window.  They can't control having 70 degree weather in January.  They can't control if the USNTDP is in their backyard.  But, every last dollar has gone to giving Brad everything he could possibly want to improve the program.  REA and UND have spared virtually no expense.  He has the rich tradition and HAD recent success to piggyback off of.  He has a great fanbase and UND was known as NHL U...a program that was run like an NHL team and developed kids to be pro hockey ready.  No one talks about us in that regard anymore.

Also, your own "reading comprehension is hard" quote is quite the bit of irony with your post.  For me, national titles aren't an expectation.  It should always be the target at a place like UND, though.  What I want is to be in the conversation on a reasonably regular basis for one though.  I don't think it's wrong to think we should make a Frozen Four on a somewhat regular basis, but we can't even get out of the first round unless we play AIC...if we even make the tournament at all.  The title was 9 years ago and it's been pretty rough sailing ever since.  Again, in a one-and-done format, you can't ever expect national championships.  But, I think you can expect to win regional games more than we have.  

Honest question @Goon ...What would it take for you to think Berry is no longer the right coach?

Decent post. I really like our coaching group right now. I also understand how challenges in recruiting have changed a bit. But in saying that…boy have we been pretty avg for a while now. Part of it was that we were spoiled with Hak and Blais won a couple Nattys (he also pulled us out of the gutter). What will it take? No idea…Brad is an awesome guy, but I’d guess a few more years like the one we’re seeing now. Hopefully they’re able to turn things around, our current recruiting class for next year is really avg right now from an optics standpoint. They’ll need to dig into that CHL pool here soon.

[scpa0305]

9 hours ago, Goon said:

I'd rather see a change at AD than the head hockey coach. Honestly, I don't care; the program is better off than when I arrived on campus in 1993. That was a dumpster fire. At the beginning of the season, I predicted this team would be in the Frozen Four when the season ends. If not I will owe @MafiaMan and @Godsmack a dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. I am glad it's not my decision. Berry's Record is 217-111-34, and his teams have won four of the last five NCHC regular season titles. He's not a bad coach. Are we expecting too much? Are we being unreasonable? I don't know. I am not there yet.  

Each year that passes is a longer “data set” I suppose you could say. The regular season track record has been great…our post season track record on the other hand has been dismal to say the least. Really really average for anyone, let alone a program of our caliber. I’m with you, I see the success in winning %, regular season titles, etc. But come playoff time we’re not good. 2016 is starting to become a distant memory (I was there fun times!). A lot has happened since then . Hopefully you don’t owe those meals  

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Moderators, can you please merge all threads into the 'Fire Berry' thread because that's the only discourse anyone's interested in on this site. Also, please remove me as a user so I stop coming back to bang my head against the wall. Thanks

[burd]

4 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Moderators, can you please merge all threads into the 'Fire Berry' thread because that's the only discourse anyone's interested in on this site. Also, please remove me as a user so I stop coming back to bang my head against the wall. Thanks

Look on the bright side;  It's pretty clear that all the damage that could be done has been done.  

[Irish]

13 hours ago, Goon said:

I never said that I think the fanbase is entitled. People are entitled to their opinions; I do not tell someone what to think. Does it matter to you? People from other fanbases read this messageboard. I also had people ask; do you still read that messageboard? Why? There are some interesting conversations on this page. 

Really, you have no idea what you're talking about. Recently, I wrote this. This is my end-of-the-year post. What do you mean by calling a spade a spade? Do people still talk like that? I don't think anyone is throwing softballs at post-game press conferences. 

I am not a negative person by nature. Life is too short to continuously grind on how many NCAA games UND has won in the last nine years. Before long, there will be another banner-hanging ceremony, and I will have a shot of whiskey or two in celebration. Yes, I once told a buddy of mine that it's easier to cover a winning team than a losing team. To say no one in the media doesn't ask difficult questions isn't true. 

We had the same argument in 2015, and people were ready to burn it all to the ground. After I had written this, I went to JD's radio show to talk about it. This was after Hak had taken the team to the Frozen Four and won a conference championship.

I sat down with Brad Berry on Hockey Media Day, and he was very aware of what the fans were saying. There’s a focus in the locker room on hanging a ninth green banner.

“North Dakota is not for everybody, head coach Brad Berry said. “There’s a lot of pressure here, and within that, you have to make sure that you invest in yourself every day and earn the opportunity to bring it. That’s what I like about our group; they’re buying into how we do things here and are humble, respectful, and hardworking.”

On getting that green banner: “We’ve done a good job getting to a certain point,” Berry said. “We got to get past that point. That’s on us as coaches and players, working together and building the physical and mental side that can take you to that level. We’ve done a few things to talk about, discuss, and work on, and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Ok - I re-read your year end post.  To quote it " UND has had one NCAA win since 2016, and the win was against AIC. Bruce Ciskie said it best, hockey is about getting the right bounce and having a little luck. Recently, luck has yet to be on UND's side."  So your take seems to be that we are the unluckiest team in college hockey and Denver is the luckiest.  It must have been just bad luck that UND seemingly didn't come out of the locker room for about 5 minutes in the third against Michigan.  Although it's hard to quantify, good coaches have their team ready to play a full 60 minutes in important games.  If it were one or two years I might buy the luck excuse but this run indicates something else is going on.  And this is unacceptable at UND.  The failure to capitalize on our Natty in recruiting the next couple of years set the trend.  Remember when we would make fun of the Gophers for tournament chokes?  Well, that's us now.

[Frozen4sioux]

5 minutes ago, Irish said:

 The failure to capitalize on our Natty in recruiting the next couple of years set the trend.  Remember when we would make fun of the Gophers for tournament chokes?  Well, that's us now.

Got to get there to choke.

 

I ike Berry, I'm a Beery guy, still but man,

If the tourney is in Fargo again

and UND isn't, again..

I'm not sure all the parts of this relationship can continue to relate.

I think that's a fair POV.

[Benny Baker]

In 2021, UND was lucky to make it 5 OTs considering Duluth’s first game winning goal was waived off. 

In 2022, UND was lucky to make it to OT considering Notre Dame’s last second game winning goal was (again) waived off.

Every team has luck in the playoffs.  Some teams can’t capitalize on it, however.  Some teams don’t.

[fightingsioux4life]

1 hour ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Moderators, can you please merge all threads into the 'Fire Berry' thread because that's the only discourse anyone's interested in on this site. Also, please remove me as a user so I stop coming back to bang my head against the wall. Thanks

You wanna change the conversation? Tell me how this team can salvage this season.

[brianvf]

12 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

You wanna change the conversation? Tell me how this team can salvage this season.

 

[petey23]

17 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

You wanna change the conversation? Tell me how this team can salvage this season.

Sweep at home against UMD and Omaha, split the other 6 series and they are a 3 seed.

[fightingsioux4life]

1 minute ago, petey23 said:

Sweep at home against UMD and Omaha, split the other 6 series and they are a 3 seed.

Doable, especially if most of our injured players are back.

[Brett0909]

1 hour ago, Benny Baker said:

In 2021, UND was lucky to make it 5 OTs considering Duluth’s first game winning goal was waived off. 

In 2022, UND was lucky to make it to OT considering Notre Dame’s last second game winning goal was (again) waived off.

Every team has luck in the playoffs.  Some teams can’t capitalize on it, however.  Some teams don’t.

Exactly. Every fan base thinks their teams got the bad call, bad draw, injury bug, etc. Turns out the same thing goes for UND’s opponents. We just don’t give them credit/grace when it happens to them. 

Add to it that UND is “lucky” to play at a home regional every other year. They’re lucky that even their away games have a healthy UND crowd. They’re lucky to have destination games, HoF games, charters, and every possible resource for recruiting top talent. 

What earns them this “luck”, despite operating in a small market? A loyal and rabid fan base, most of whom are committing capital. Sure those fans are demanding (and sometimes negative and whiney), but you can’t expect to be given everything as a program and then complain that expectations are too high. 

Berry knew what he was signing up for. Here’s hoping he can change the narrative to restore some harmony around here. Winning has a way of doing that. 

[siouxkid12]

2 hours ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Moderators, can you please merge all threads into the 'Fire Berry' thread because that's the only discourse anyone's interested in on this site. Also, please remove me as a user so I stop coming back to bang my head against the wall. Thanks

If putting out facts and actual statistics is calling for Berry’s head, so be it. However, this is what happens when teams underperform, people get curious as to why.

[siouxkid12]

28 minutes ago, Brett0909 said:

Exactly. Every fan base thinks their teams got the bad call, bad draw, injury bug, etc. Turns out the same thing goes for UND’s opponents. We just don’t give them credit/grace when it happens to them. 

Add to it that UND is “lucky” to play at a home regional every other year. They’re lucky that even their away games have a healthy UND crowd. They’re lucky to have destination games, HoF games, charters, and every possible resource for recruiting top talent. 

What earns them this “luck”, despite operating in a small market? A loyal and rabid fan base, most of whom are committing capital. Sure those fans are demanding (and sometimes negative and whiney), but you can’t expect to be given everything as a program and then complain that expectations are too high. 

Berry knew what he was signing up for. Here’s hoping he can change the narrative to restore some harmony around here. Winning has a way of doing that. 

When you mix a passionate fan base with a consistent underperforming team, the fan base is going to get impatient. That’s not being entitled either, contrary to what some believe.

[siouxkid12]

54 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

You wanna change the conversation? Tell me how this team can salvage this season.

Make a good run and have a good showing in the NCAA tournament. That’s all I ask. If he wins a national title, that’s icing on the cake. I just want a seat at the table in late March. 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

7 hours ago, fightingsioux4life said:

You wanna change the conversation? Tell me how this team can salvage this season.

Gladly

1. Continue the momentum they've created in the last 4 games, don't forget what worked after the break. For God's sakes don't go back to blind drop passes to an area of ice that go the other way. 

2. Playing to the identity of a team that's going to win 3-2 or 2-1 games, giving nothing away in the center of the ice and playing on the edge without take stupid retaliatory penalties or away from the puck.  Also avoiding the too many men penalties(that's on the coaching staff)

3. Having TJ(or Hobie) save all the shots he SHOULD save and giving us a steady .910+ save %(this goes hand in hand with not giving away the slot). 

4. 85%+ PK, 20%+ PP

4. Sweep Pairwise anchors Duluth & Omaha(thankfully both home series, no excuse not to take care of business)

5. Win Home Series(4+ points), Split Away

6. Have to find a way to stay healthy - this is a tough one to control but if we have another significant injury to a key cog that could be it

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

9 hours ago, burd said:

Look on the bright side;  It's pretty clear that all the damage that could be done has been done.  

Please elaborate

[fightingsioux4life]

8 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Gladly

1. Continue the momentum they've created in the last 4 games, don't forget what worked after the break. For God's sakes don't go back to blind drop passes to an area of ice that go the other way. 

2. Playing to the identity of a team that's going to win 3-2 or 2-1 games, giving nothing away in the center of the ice and playing on the edge without take stupid retaliatory penalties or away from the puck.  Also avoiding the too many men penalties(that's on the coaching staff)

3. Having TJ(or Hobie) save all the shots he SHOULD save and giving us a steady .910+ save %(this goes hand in hand with not giving away the slot). 

4. 85%+ PK, 20%+ PP

4. Sweep Pairwise anchors Duluth & Omaha(thankfully both home series, no excuse not to take care of business)

5. Win Home Series(4+ points), Split Away

6. Have to find a way to stay healthy - this is a tough one to control but if we have another significant injury to a key cog that could be it

I agree with all of this. I hope Zmolek is the only season ending injury.

[SiouxFan100]

It’s easier to state analytics 

Harder to know “what should be done”