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Providence @ UND


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8 hours ago, .357 said:

This is what concerns me. It seems like the team as a whole is unable to be self-motivated & requires an external circumstance to kick it into higher gear .. like the late shot by a Friar player. It baffles me to no end how this can happen, not just by a couple of players but by most of the team. It's as if they're in a trance for long stretches.

Clearly what Berry is telling them in the locker room is not translating to the ice. Part of the reason I included that quote on Gasparini earlier was to highlight what should be expected of a coach at UND: to always have your team competing at the highest level, something Gino was a master of & which Berry is still trying to figure out.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this team will never go far in the tourney if they can't be self-motivated to play a full 60. The win against Providence felt good, but one swallow does not make a summer. They simply cannot have that lackadaisical approach, because every team they face will be playing at a higher level to try & beat them. Having that ho-hum attitude against PWR-killers like Robert Morris or Bemidji St. will put a serious dent in their playoff hopes. Showing up to play every night for the entire game should be a given.

An off night here & there happens, but the repeated pattern of non-urgency for long stretches is a legitimate concern. The team will not be hanging #9 by playing only 40-50 minutes/game.

 

Providence came out ready to play but I don't think it is fair to say we weren't. We struggled at beginning of game with our breakout and their forecheck and then dropping into a trap in the neutral zone. I was happy to see us make adjustments on the fly rather than waiting until the period ended. The timing coincided with the late shot and skirmish but we had started making the changes a couple shifts earlier. We put a little trust in our defenseman and instead of trying to break out in a 5 man unit we had a couple forwards spread them out by drifting out of the zone between center ice and the far blueline. Emery made a couple beautiful tape to tape passes from the endline to the far blueline which caused them to back off on their forecheck a bit and allowed us to hit the 3rd forward skating horizontally and we were able to bypass the neutral zone mess they had been creating and started being able to enter their zone with speed.

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16 hours ago, farce poobah said:

Gino was an amazing judge of people and talent. Winning conference and national titles in the first two seasons, combines his skill in recruiting players and bringing in excellent assistant coaches.   Rick Wilson wasn’t here long, but he went on to 30 seasons in the NHL. Dean Blais joined for the 1981-82 season.  The coaching tree is long indeed.

As athletic director, Gino hired some great coaches who revived other key sports on campus.  Roger Thomas in 1986, Rich Glas in 1988, Gene Roebuck in 1987.  

While he was leading the USHL, from 1994-2009, (as both Commissioner and later President). the league experienced growth and was set up for future success.

I will stop now, but will say I was excited when we hired him as head coach some 46 years ago, and my admiration has only grown over time. 

Was going to mention Gino made some incredible coaching hires. Looking back I wonder of doing both jobs caused the Hockey program to suffer. They say recruiting catches up with you in a year or two....especially back then. Or maybe he was burnt out, but the last 3 seasons we went 40-69-6 finishing 7th, 8th, and 8th in the WCHA.

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13 minutes ago, petey23 said:

Providence came out ready to play but I don't think it is fair to say we weren't. We struggled at beginning of game with our breakout and their forecheck and then dropping into a trap in the neutral zone. I was happy to see us make adjustments on the fly rather than waiting until the period ended. The timing coincided with the late shot and skirmish but we had started making the changes a couple shifts earlier. We put a little trust in our defenseman and instead of trying to break out in a 5 man unit we had a couple forwards spread them out by drifting out of the zone between center ice and the far blueline. Emery made a couple beautiful tape to tape passes from the endline to the far blueline which caused them to back off on their forecheck a bit and allowed us to hit the 3rd forward skating horizontally and we were able to bypass the neutral zone mess they had been creating and started being able to enter their zone with speed.

Appreciate the feedback. Breakouts were a bugaboo last spring. 

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3 hours ago, petey23 said:

Was going to mention Gino made some incredible coaching hires. Looking back I wonder of doing both jobs caused the Hockey program to suffer. They say recruiting catches up with you in a year or two....especially back then. Or maybe he was burnt out, but the last 3 seasons we went 40-69-6 finishing 7th, 8th, and 8th in the WCHA.

As a fan of UND Football and Basketball, I enjoyed how those 3 hires really set up UND for a nice run of success.  

Hard to say exactly why UND hockey became less competitive ... yes I think doing two jobs was asking too much of anyone, even a hard working dedicated guy like Gino.     

Also, our primary recruiting grounds in Canada, from Thunder Bay west in those days, came under pressure from the Major Juniors including higher stipends for players and post-hockey college tuition payments.  (I note that Denver suffered in those years also, and their Western Canada roots matched up with UND in those years.)   

The game changed very rapidly in the late 80's to early 90's, led by change to lighter and bigger goalie pads, which forced a lot of other strategy changes.  Perhaps we didn't recruit as well for that change either.  (Blais certainly changed it up, and pronto, when he took over in 94-95.)

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19 hours ago, burd said:

Yeah, I can't imagine Harkness would seriously consider UND once he got the Cornell roll started (Dryden).   No one has matched his amazing run there, much less won multiple Natties in two separate sports, one of which UND does not have.   

Harkness had given Miller a “conditional “ yes to the offer. He wanted to review offer and he was not happy when he learned UND had hired Gino. Harkness was Miller’s choice after Armstrong. The story was that UND faculty and ultimately Clifford had an issue with so many of Harness’s players enrolled in school but not attending classes nor passing courses or earning credits. Back then, the NCAA rules required that athletes only needed to be enrolled to be eligible. 

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1 minute ago, iramurphy said:

Harkness had given Miller a “conditional “ yes to the offer. He wanted to review offer and he was not happy when he learned UND had hired Gino. Harkness was Miller’s choice after Armstrong. The story was that UND faculty and ultimately Clifford had an issue with so many of Harness’s players enrolled in school but not attending classes nor passing courses or earning credits. Back then, the NCAA rules required that athletes only needed to be enrolled to be eligible. 

Wow, that is insane.

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7 hours ago, iramurphy said:

Harkness had given Miller a “conditional “ yes to the offer. He wanted to review offer and he was not happy when he learned UND had hired Gino. Harkness was Miller’s choice after Armstrong. The story was that UND faculty and ultimately Clifford had an issue with so many of Harness’s players enrolled in school but not attending classes nor passing courses or earning credits. Back then, the NCAA rules required that athletes only needed to be enrolled to be eligible. 

very interesting

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On 10/13/2024 at 1:09 AM, brianvf said:

Sweetness!

Either way, a new season is upon us.  I'll remain optimistic that the team can hopefully piece it together at the end.
A nice start to the year against a team that will be good this season in HEA.  That'll help come PWR time.
Now hopefully get a couple wins in Mankato next weekend...

 

Complacency kills.  We can always be optimistic, but the sample size isn't small anymore.  Berry just didn't win the title 2-3 years ago, it will be 9 years ago by the time the next tourney rolls around.  There's been plenty of leash and Berry should have reached the end.  Instead we watch our rivals win titles while we flounder in the first round over and over...if we even make the tourney.

 

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On 10/14/2024 at 8:29 PM, petey23 said:

Providence came out ready to play but I don't think it is fair to say we weren't. We struggled at beginning of game with our breakout and their forecheck and then dropping into a trap in the neutral zone. I was happy to see us make adjustments on the fly rather than waiting until the period ended. The timing coincided with the late shot and skirmish but we had started making the changes a couple shifts earlier. We put a little trust in our defenseman and instead of trying to break out in a 5 man unit we had a couple forwards spread them out by drifting out of the zone between center ice and the far blueline. Emery made a couple beautiful tape to tape passes from the endline to the far blueline which caused them to back off on their forecheck a bit and allowed us to hit the 3rd forward skating horizontally and we were able to bypass the neutral zone mess they had been creating and started being able to enter their zone with speed.

Less skilled teams are gonna trap nothing we don't know.  Boys did a nice job breaking trap like you said, especially in the second.  They got a forecheck established and it was all over from there.  I like it when they grind other teams down which I don't think happened enough last year.  Haks teams seemed to do that more than in recent years.  It looks like this team can do both - play north south, stretch out neutral zone while also establishing zone time.  

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2 hours ago, Big A HG said:

 

I said "we can be", but I won't be.  

When you think about it, Berry could very easily win one or two NCs in the next 5 years, with people remembering him as one of the better UND hockey coaches in program history. Sentiments can change that quickly. During the off-season, it sounds like he put a lot of thought into how he could manage the team differently. He may not be as inherently talented or wizard-like as Carle, but you can tell he really wants to win & is trying different approaches to gain different results. I'm optimistic in that sense.

But at the same time, I'm also pragmatic: If his teams continue to flounder in the tournament in the next few years, serious consideration should be given to finding a replacement. There can only be so much playoff failure at a high-profile program like UND before one needs to pull the plug & look elsewhere. In the end, programs are respected & remembered through the lens of how many NCs they have; not with how many conference championships are hanging in their rafters. 

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20 hours ago, .357 said:

When you think about it, Berry could very easily win one or two NCs in the next 5 years, with people remembering him as one of the better UND hockey coaches in program history. Sentiments can change that quickly. During the off-season, it sounds like he put a lot of thought into how he could manage the team differently. He may not be as inherently talented or wizard-like as Carle, but you can tell he really wants to win & is trying different approaches to gain different results. I'm optimistic in that sense.

But at the same time, I'm also pragmatic: If his teams continue to flounder in the tournament in the next few years, serious consideration should be given to finding a replacement. There can only be so much playoff failure at a high-profile program like UND before one needs to pull the plug & look elsewhere. In the end, programs are respected & remembered through the lens of how many NCs they have; not with how many conference championships are hanging in their rafters. 

 

"he really wants to win" ....holy smokes, is that the standard for our head coaches?  Dang, I didn't know there were coaches that didn't really want to win.  

He's had chance after chance after chance to prove that he can run the program by himself and do something more than he has.  He certainly could win multiple championships in the next five years, but so could anyone.  What has he actually done?  I give him credit, he took Hak's team and won the big one, but the problem is he hasn't done anything since in the post-season except beat AIC.  People aren't calling for change two years after the title, it'll be NINE years since the title when the next tournament starts.  How many more chances should he get?  Ed Orgeron won a title at LSU in 2019 and two years later was gone.  I'm not saying that should be our standard either, but when coaches fail to succeed as much as Brad has, even if they have a championship, teams move on if they want change.  Asking Brad to change at age 59 in his tenth year after all the failed years is asking a lot.

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2 hours ago, Sodbuster said:

When Brad is done, whether he quits or is eased out, and whenever that is, should UND continue to hire alums or go for new blood without ties to UND?

HIre the best talent at both coaching and recruiting.  

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9 hours ago, Sodbuster said:

When Brad is done, whether he quits or is eased out, and whenever that is, should UND continue to hire alums or go for new blood without ties to UND?

See Burd’s response. 

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On 10/18/2024 at 9:11 AM, Sodbuster said:

When Brad is done, whether he quits or is eased out, and whenever that is, should UND continue to hire alums or go for new blood without ties to UND?

 

Time to diversify the gene pool.

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