TommyG wrote:If you want an at large bid, you can’t schedule any more games against Atlantic Hockey. Go on the road and beat a few quality opponents. Complaing about at large bids is a waste of time. Bergeron is more concerned about racking up soft W’s. Which is fine, but your going to have to win the tournament. Every year is going to be the same frustration if we don’t schedule better non conference opponents.
BG will schedule teams in our region to counteract the travel in the WCHA. They played two games with Ohio State and two with Western Michigan which are both highly rated in the Pairwise (went 3-0-1). I know that we are playing in the Icebreaker Tournament with Ohio State, Western Michigan, and RIT. I do believe we have a home and home with Notre Dame next year as well. They will play anybody in the region on a home and home series. There is NO REASON to schedule any team not willing to do a 1 to 1 series.
The reason to play on the road without a return home game would be to boost our SOS. Ideally we’d get a home and home, but if you need to play better opponents you may end up on the road. Our easy games are throughout our conference schedule. You’re going to have to challenge yourself almost every non-conference game.
If everyone is good with having to win the conference tourney or lose less than 7 games a year to get an at large bid then keep scheduling the way we have.
TommyG wrote:If you want an at large bid, you can’t schedule any more games against Atlantic Hockey. Go on the road and beat a few quality opponents. Complaing about at large bids is a waste of time. Bergeron is more concerned about racking up soft W’s. Which is fine, but your going to have to win the tournament. Every year is going to be the same frustration if we don’t schedule better non conference opponents.
BG will schedule teams in our region to counteract the travel in the WCHA. They played two games with Ohio State and two with Western Michigan which are both highly rated in the Pairwise (went 3-0-1). I know that we are playing in the Icebreaker Tournament with Ohio State, Western Michigan, and RIT. I do believe we have a home and home with Notre Dame next year as well. They will play anybody in the region on a home and home series. There is NO REASON to schedule any team not willing to do a 1 to 1 series.
The reason to play on the road without a return home game would be to boost our SOS. Ideally we’d get a home and home, but if you need to play better opponents you may end up on the road. Our easy games are throughout our conference schedule. You’re going to have to challenge yourself almost every non-conference game.
If everyone is good with having to win the conference tourney or lose less than 7 games a year to get an at large bid then keep scheduling the way we have.
BG's non conference schedule was fine this year to get into the NCAA tournament. What has them at the borderline is loses and ties against the bottom of the WCHA. They also need home non-conference games that are good attendence draws such as Ohio State, That is how you build up the fan base. There are plenty of teams in the region that we can get home and home games with ANY team.
TommyG wrote:If you want an at large bid, you can’t schedule any more games against Atlantic Hockey. Go on the road and beat a few quality opponents. Complaing about at large bids is a waste of time. Bergeron is more concerned about racking up soft W’s. Which is fine, but your going to have to win the tournament. Every year is going to be the same frustration if we don’t schedule better non conference opponents.
BG will schedule teams in our region to counteract the travel in the WCHA. They played two games with Ohio State and two with Western Michigan which are both highly rated in the Pairwise (went 3-0-1). I know that we are playing in the Icebreaker Tournament with Ohio State, Western Michigan, and RIT. I do believe we have a home and home with Notre Dame next year as well. They will play anybody in the region on a home and home series. There is NO REASON to schedule any team not willing to do a 1 to 1 series.
The reason to play on the road without a return home game would be to boost our SOS. Ideally we’d get a home and home, but if you need to play better opponents you may end up on the road. Our easy games are throughout our conference schedule. You’re going to have to challenge yourself almost every non-conference game.
If everyone is good with having to win the conference tourney or lose less than 7 games a year to get an at large bid then keep scheduling the way we have.
BG's non conference schedule was fine this year to get into the NCAA tournament. What has them at the borderline is loses and ties against the bottom of the WCHA. They also need home non-conference games that are good attendence draws such as Ohio State, That is how you build up the fan base. There are plenty of teams in the region that we can get home and home games with ANY team.
Okay if we can get home and homes with ANY team. Then stop scheduling home and homes with Atlantic Hockey teams and add an extra series against Michigan, Michigan State, Miami or Penn State. Those teams even in down years can help your pairwise because they play a quality schedule. If you’re a legit at-large team you’ll get some additional good wins and help your SOS from plummeting. Right now our SOS is 46th and it will likely drop after playing two more against Huntsville.
Once again if Bergeron really wants to compete for an at-large, then he need to schedule his non-conference games to get the SOS at least close to the mid to low 30s.
We aren’t good enough to earn an at large and if we played a decent schedule we’d be closer to .500, but maybe it just makes everyone feel better to rack up 20 wins against a crap schedule?
TommyG wrote:
Okay if we can get home and homes with ANY team. Then stop scheduling home and homes with Atlantic Hockey teams and add an extra series against Michigan, Michigan State, Miami or Penn State. Those teams even in down years can help your pairwise because they play a quality schedule. If you’re a legit at-large team you’ll get some additional good wins and help your SOS from plummeting. Right now our SOS is 46th and it will likely drop after playing two more against Huntsville.
Once again if Bergeron really wants to compete for an at-large, then he need to schedule his non-conference games to get the SOS at least close to the mid to low 30s.
We aren’t good enough to earn an at large and if we played a decent schedule we’d be closer to .500, but maybe it just makes everyone feel better to rack up 20 wins against a crap schedule?
I can remember a time when BG was a team that nobody wanted to schedule for the exact reasons you are complaining about. That wasn't very long ago. Bergeron knows what it's like being in that position, trying to fill a schedule. He's also emphasized that he will only schedule on even terms.
I'm also willing to bet there's more going on than what you see on the surface. There's more conference movement coming. Going to need some friends in the future, and there's only one team you mentioned that might be a friend and we all know how great of a friend they can be.
Well, we now have to sweep Bemidji on the road next weekend to have any real shot of finishing 14 or above in the PairWise. We could have withstood a split at Bemidji if we won the remaining 6 home games( 4 regular season and 2 first round). Now having tied one of those, its not a killer, a loss would have been, but we now have zero margin for error. OSU getting swept by Minny really hurt us this weekend, as they dropped from 2 to 7 in the PairWise. Luckily Western got a split with UND.
However, now any loss in the next 6 does our AL bid hopes in. Good news is, BG tends to play well when they think they have to or they think the other team is good. Why this current staff can't get these guys motivated to play all the other times is beyond me......been going on for years now though.....so its not the players, it falls on the staff. You don't see Minnesota State lose these games. They beat teams they are better than and they have had plenty of player turnover over the last few years.......winning games you should is a culture thing and Bergeron under BG has never had it.
Last night was the classic ....they thought they could just throw their sticks on the ice and Alaska would give in after the Friday night shellacking.......wrong......again.
Some of you will say this team is just not that good, but that's wrong. They are 5-0-1 against 3 teams in the top 8 of the PW. That's doesn't happen by accident or if you have a severe talent gap. BG WON those games too, its not like they had to have a goalie stand on their head. BG outplayed those teams in the majority of those games. Nope this team is certainly talented enough to be in the National Tournament.
This is a staff/program culture issue......losing games you should not. Sad to see they have backed themselves into the same corner they have every year for the last 3-5 years. They have 6 games to fix it or they will have flat wasted the 6 games they played in 2018 and went 5-0-1 in.......pretty sad.
I ask this question here periodically...Is Bergeron a guy who can take the rubble and bring it back to respectability...and that's as far as it goes? Or is he capable of doing more...or maybe is this situation going to allow him to do more?
It's not the fall that hurts...it's when you hit the ground.
Bgsu2016 wrote:Absolutely no discipline by BG tonight. God two game misconducts that were absolutely deserved
Earlier this season I heard Bergeron say there will be consequences for such behavior, namely in ice time. He also said he spoke with the Craggs brothers. I wanted to ask what they said, but I was too chicken. Anyway, I haven't seen any consequences, and I'm disappointed with the coach. Lucas should not make the trip to Bemidji, IMO. He has 93 penalty minutes and leads the country. Sam has 49 (CHN says 51, good for 17th), second on the team.
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I was rather disgusted that the game festivities continued while the Alaska player was face-down on the ice. The announcement--whatever it was--wasn't so bad, but the blaring music was inappropriate.
Bgsu2016 wrote:Absolutely no discipline by BG tonight. God two game misconducts that were absolutely deserved
Earlier this season I heard Bergeron say there will be consequences for such behavior, namely in ice time. He also said he spoke with the Craggs brothers. I wanted to ask what they said, but I was too chicken. Anyway, I haven't seen any consequences, and I'm disappointed with the coach. Lucas should not make the trip to Bemidji, IMO. He has 93 penalty minutes and leads the country. Sam has 49 (CHN says 51, good for 17th), second on the team.
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I was rather disgusted that the game festivities continued while the Alaska player was face-down on the ice. The announcement--whatever it was--wasn't so bad, but the blaring music was inappropriate.
If Craggs was really as undisciplined and "dirty" of a player as his penalty minutes leads one to believe, he would have already faced supplemental discipline from the league. He had 3 game misconducts last season on hits that were borderline penalities (2 minutes). He hits hard (and most times legal) and other coaches only like hard hits when their players are throwing the checks.
Flipper wrote:I ask this question here periodically...Is Bergeron a guy who can take the rubble and bring it back to respectability...and that's as far as it goes? Or is he capable of doing more...or maybe is this situation going to allow him to do more?
I think he’s doing about as much as can be expected minus an occasional regular season or tournament title. As much as some fans want to claim we’re back in the National college hockey picture, we really aren’t and won’t be again. We benefit from our schedule every year and it has helped our program rise up to respectability.
Maybe some sort of league realignment could change the programs potential and status, but as of now we are a nice little team with good goaltending. Capable to win in the WCHA but haven’t gotten over the jump to actually win a championship.
Bgsu2016 wrote:Absolutely no discipline by BG tonight. God two game misconducts that were absolutely deserved
Earlier this season I heard Bergeron say there will be consequences for such behavior, namely in ice time. He also said he spoke with the Craggs brothers. I wanted to ask what they said, but I was too chicken. Anyway, I haven't seen any consequences, and I'm disappointed with the coach. Lucas should not make the trip to Bemidji, IMO. He has 93 penalty minutes and leads the country. Sam has 49 (CHN says 51, good for 17th), second on the team.
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I was rather disgusted that the game festivities continued while the Alaska player was face-down on the ice. The announcement--whatever it was--wasn't so bad, but the blaring music was inappropriate.
If Craggs was really as undisciplined and "dirty" of a player as his penalty minutes leads one to believe, he would have already faced supplemental discipline from the league. He had 3 game misconducts last season on hits that were borderline penalities (2 minutes). He hits hard (and most times legal) and other coaches only like hard hits when their players are throwing the checks.
I think the elder Craggs does not play dirty, and I love his energy, but he takes a lot of penalties. Bergeron has complained about undisciplined penalties, said there will be consequences, said the main consequence is related to ice time, and mentioned Craggs specifically. I haven't seen any consequences. (The consequence I would notice is Craggs's not dressing. I might notice his dressing but getting few shifts.)
Flipper wrote:I ask this question here periodically...Is Bergeron a guy who can take the rubble and bring it back to respectability...and that's as far as it goes? Or is he capable of doing more...or maybe is this situation going to allow him to do more?
BG84 wrote:
I think the elder Craggs does not play dirty, and I love his energy, but he takes a lot of penalties. Bergeron has complained about undisciplined penalties, said there will be consequences, said the main consequence is related to ice time, and mentioned Craggs specifically. I haven't seen any consequences. (The consequence I would notice is Craggs's not dressing. I might notice his dressing but getting few shifts.)
I'm sure Bergeron watches the game on video before determining the discipline involved in penalties. The penalty Kruse took for tripping that lead to the second goal Saturday, as an example. It looks stupid to take a penalty in the offensive some like that. But, watching the replay, you'll see the player that got tripped actually slashed Kruse's stick into his own feet. How can you discipline the player in a situation like that?
Bgsu2016 wrote:Absolutely no discipline by BG tonight. God two game misconducts that were absolutely deserved
Earlier this season I heard Bergeron say there will be consequences for such behavior, namely in ice time. He also said he spoke with the Craggs brothers. I wanted to ask what they said, but I was too chicken. Anyway, I haven't seen any consequences, and I'm disappointed with the coach. Lucas should not make the trip to Bemidji, IMO. He has 93 penalty minutes and leads the country. Sam has 49 (CHN says 51, good for 17th), second on the team.
---
I was rather disgusted that the game festivities continued while the Alaska player was face-down on the ice. The announcement--whatever it was--wasn't so bad, but the blaring music was inappropriate.
If Craggs was really as undisciplined and "dirty" of a player as his penalty minutes leads one to believe, he would have already faced supplemental discipline from the league. He had 3 game misconducts last season on hits that were borderline penalities (2 minutes). He hits hard (and most times legal) and other coaches only like hard hits when their players are throwing the checks.
Did Craggs even intend to hit the Nanook (Leer, I think) at all, let alone to the head? It happened fast, but to me it looked like Craggs never even saw the guy.
Bgsu2016 wrote:Absolutely no discipline by BG tonight. God two game misconducts that were absolutely deserved
Earlier this season I heard Bergeron say there will be consequences for such behavior, namely in ice time. He also said he spoke with the Craggs brothers. I wanted to ask what they said, but I was too chicken. Anyway, I haven't seen any consequences, and I'm disappointed with the coach. Lucas should not make the trip to Bemidji, IMO. He has 93 penalty minutes and leads the country. Sam has 49 (CHN says 51, good for 17th), second on the team.
---
I was rather disgusted that the game festivities continued while the Alaska player was face-down on the ice. The announcement--whatever it was--wasn't so bad, but the blaring music was inappropriate.
If Craggs was really as undisciplined and "dirty" of a player as his penalty minutes leads one to believe, he would have already faced supplemental discipline from the league. He had 3 game misconducts last season on hits that were borderline penalities (2 minutes). He hits hard (and most times legal) and other coaches only like hard hits when their players are throwing the checks.
Did Craggs even intend to hit the Nanook (Leer, I think) at all, let alone to the head? It happened fast, but to me it looked like Craggs never even saw the guy.
It looked like he was going for a hit, but no one can really say if he meant to target the head. It was a bad hit and he deserved the 5 and a game.
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