Spencer Penrose Award

[PCM]

As some here predicted, Jeff Jackson of Notre Dame is the winner of this year's Spencer Penrose Award. USCHO article.

[Goon]

Key to Jackson's success...

Play a real crappy schedule and have a good record....wow! He is goooood!

How about looking at a coach who is able to year after year build a team that is desimated by the NHL and find a way back to the Frozen Four....hmmmm.

Hakstol got robbed!

I agree with you there.

[747Guy]

As some here predicted, Jeff Jackson of Notre Dame is the winner of this year's Spencer Penrose Award. USCHO article.

Key to Jackson's success...

Play a real crappy schedule and have a good record....wow! He is goooood!

How about looking at a coach who is able to year after year build a team that is decimated by the NHL and find a way back to the Frozen Four....hmmmm.

Hakstol got robbed!

[dagies]

Reading these last 2 posts, I think I better quit operating heavy machinery.

[747Guy]

Reading these last 2 posts, I think I better quit operating heavy machinery.

I was trying to make a spelling correction and hit delete...then added back after Goon's response.

Sorry for the confusion....

[The Sicatoka]

A Broadmoor.

A Hobey winner.

How many early departures.

Three straight Frozen Fours.

And no Penrose?

[PCM]

I continue to believe that Hakstol's most impressive coaching came during his rookie season when he went through this and still got the Sioux into the national championship game.

[dagies]

Some people have posted that with 3 straight runs to the FF without a championship Hakstol is starting to look like Woog, etc.

Let's check out BC. In the last 10 years, 9 NCAA appearances, 7 FF appearances, and 1 championship.

I think we can give Hak a couple more kicks at the can before we get too impatient.

[farce poobah]

I continue to believe that Hakstol's most impressive coaching came during his rookie season when he went through this and still got the Sioux into the national championship game.

For most of the years I've been a fan, the Sioux have played according to this philosophy: [excerpted from the above]

"There's never a game that doesn't count," McMahon said. "We're coached that way. Every game counts. Every shift counts. ..."

Under Hakstol, I think that ethic has gotten even stronger.

[mikejm]

Some people have posted that with 3 straight runs to the FF without a championship Hakstol is starting to look like Woog, etc.

Let's check out BC. In the last 10 years, 9 NCAA appearances, 7 FF appearances, and 1 championship.

I think we can give Hak a couple more kicks at the can before we get too impatient.

PLUS, the almost certainty that Hak will never be a whiny, pencil-necked little geek like York.

I'd forgotten how much that man bothers me.

[diggin42]

Some people have posted that with 3 straight runs to the FF without a championship Hakstol is starting to look like Woog, etc.

Let's check out BC. In the last 10 years, 9 NCAA appearances, 7 FF appearances, and 1 championship.

I think we can give Hak a couple more kicks at the can before we get too impatient.

Let's not forget the fact that each of Hak's FF teams were all but written off at some point during each season only to have monster second halves and momentum going into the NCAA tournament. It wasn't like so many of Wooger's teams or even some of Lucia's more recent teams which were ranked high all season long and received #1 seeds only to lay an egg in the NCAA tournament. Hak's teams were overachievers just to make it into the FFs. Sure it stunk losing to BC again this year, but you can't consider a team that won 24 of 43 games to have "choked" ala the Golden Chokers of years past. DB had much stronger teams in 1998, 1999 and 2004 and came away with nothing. Hak rules, in my book, and it's just a matter of time before he brings home #8 to the Sioux "faithful."

[redwing77]

Let's not forget the fact that each of Hak's FF teams were all but written off at some point during each season only to have monster second halves and momentum going into the NCAA tournament. It wasn't like so many of Wooger's teams or even some of Lucia's more recent teams which were ranked high all season long and received #1 seeds only to lay an egg in the NCAA tournament. Hak's teams were overachievers just to make it into the FFs. Sure it stunk losing to BC again this year, but you can't consider a team that won 24 of 43 games to have "choked" ala the Golden Chokers of years past. DB had much stronger teams in 1998, 1999 and 2004 and came away with nothing. Hak rules, in my book, and it's just a matter of time before he brings home #8 to the Sioux "faithful."

And I don't recall any coach with the kinds of success Hak has had having been written off himself by some of the Sioux fanbase as much as Hak has.

Coach gets a Fire Hakstol thread every season. Maybe twice a season so far.

[BlackBear]

No question that Hakstol is deserving of the reward. If anything, he's a victim of the expectations game. Since the Sioux have been so successful over the past 10 years, people start to downplay the effort that goes into recruiting and coaching just to remain at the top level of the sport. In this case, Jackson wins because he took a dormant program with a high school rink to prominence - *not* because Notre Dame played the toughest schedule or because they lived up to their potential in the postseason (they didn't).

I don't want to suggest that championships aren't important. But you have to see that there's an element of chance involved. Two weeks ago, who knew that MSU had the right team to win it all? Who knew that DU had the right team at the start of the '04 tournament? Really, all you can do is put your team in the position to have success, and nobody's done it better than Hakstol in his limited time at the helm of UND. For the same reason, I tip my cap to Jerry York for consistently bringing BC to the Frozen Four - even if the results aren't always what he'd like. Same goes for Maine's Whitehead. It's rare when the consensus #1 actually wins the NCAA title. All you can really do is prepare your team and get there. By that measure, Hakstol, York, and Whitehead don't have to apologize to anybody.

[redwing77]

No question that Hakstol is deserving of the reward. If anything, he's a victim of the expectations game. Since the Sioux have been so successful over the past 10 years, people start to downplay the effort that goes into recruiting and coaching just to remain at the top level of the sport. In this case, Jackson wins because he took a dormant program with a high school rink to prominence - *not* because Notre Dame played the toughest schedule or because they lived up to their potential in the postseason (they didn't).

I don't want to suggest that championships aren't important. But you have to see that there's an element of chance involved. Two weeks ago, who knew that MSU had the right team to win it all? Who knew that DU had the right team at the start of the '04 tournament? Really, all you can do is put your team in the position to have success, and nobody's done it better than Hakstol in his limited time at the helm of UND. For the same reason, I tip my cap to Jerry York for consistently bringing BC to the Frozen Four - even if the results aren't always what he'd like. Same goes for Maine's Whitehead. It's rare when the consensus #1 actually wins the NCAA title. All you can really do is prepare your team and get there. By that measure, Hakstol, York, and Whitehead don't have to apologize to anybody.

Whitehead? Speaking of Whitehead:

This is the first Frozen Four that I can remember where 3 of the 4 Head Coaches have had Fire (COach) threads in his honor the past few years.

[dropTHEgloves]

Hakstol is a great coach and very deserving of the award but you cant take away what Jeff Jackson did at ND this year. He took a mid major school into the elite class. He deserves alot of credit. Hakstol should have great expectations with the talent that he can bring in year in and year out. Thats why Dave probably wont win. UND is the big time. All recruits and NHL franchises know this.

[PCM]

Hakstol should have great expectations with the talent that he can bring in year in and year out.

Certainly there's no built-in advantage to coaching athletics at a school named "Notre Dame," is there?

[HockeyMom]

Coach gets a Fire Hakstol thread every season. Maybe twice a season so far.

Maybe they're good luck.

[dropTHEgloves]

Certainly there's no built-in advantage to coaching athletics at a school named "Notre Dame," is there?

There certainly is an advantage of recruiting to a school such as Notre Dame. It would be hard for anyone to turn down a Notre Dame education. But Notre Dame is a football school. It is not known for its hockey. I think you have to give credit to Jackson for showing people that they DO have a hockey team. I think the success of this year will open up the doors for some good recruits in the near future.

[farce poobah]

There certainly is an advantage of recruiting to a school such as Notre Dame. It would be hard for anyone to turn down a Notre Dame education. But Notre Dame is a football school. It is not known for its hockey. I think you have to give credit to Jackson for showing people that they DO have a hockey team. I think the success of this year will open up the doors for some good recruits in the near future.

If Notre Dame ever put their collective minds to it, they could be an elite power in college hockey, think Top 5 regularly. Jeff Jackson might just be the catalyst for getting big-time alumni support ... I expect that over the next decade, Notre Dame moves to elite status.

[redwing77]

If Notre Dame ever put their collective minds to it, they could be an elite power in college hockey, think Top 5 regularly. Jeff Jackson might just be the catalyst for getting big-time alumni support ... I expect that over the next decade, Notre Dame moves to elite status.

Notre Dame has had more success getting bigger recruits as of late. This Ted Ruth guy is supposed to be pretty good.

[MafiaMan]

Certainly there's no built-in advantage to coaching athletics at a school named "Notre Dame," is there?

That's no guarantee of success. While drawing well over 100,000 fans for Ohio State football, the Buckeyes' first-round CCHA hockey games this season against Northern Michigan drew 779, 800, and 800 fans respectively. That's like saying Duke football should be good because of the built-in success of the basketball team there. It's not always that simple.

[PCM]

That's no guarantee of success.

And coaching at North Dakota is?

[PCM]

How good a coach is Dave Hakstol? He's so wise he even gets quoted in Major League Baseball stories.

A wise man once said: "If you use youth as an excuse, then it is."

Interesting. The succinct statement was actually made by University of North Dakota hockey coach Dave Hakstol, at the NCAA Frozen Four tournament, but it is also perfect for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who, at an average age of 24.79, are the youngest team in Major League Baseball, and the youngest since the 1983 Minnesota Twins.

[sagard]

How good a coach is Dave Hakstol? He's so wise he even gets quoted in Major League Baseball stories.

Too bad the author of that is the biggest feline I have ever met. He has seen a lot of college hockey though.

[PCM]

Too bad the author of that is the biggest feline I have ever met. He has seen a lot of college hockey though.

Way to rain on my parade.