jbakerifm wrote:... And of the players listed, the only one I'd possibly pin on the coaches was Hawkins, who in alot of ways didn't fit the mold of the program, as far as effort, conditioning etc. Vallaeu had problems with academics and wanted hockey without school and had the chance to go to the AHL. Mingo had effort and attitude problems, couldn't stay in the lineup, and frankly I was never impressed with him on the ice anyways. Ferrari had issues beyond anything you can blame on the coaches (see his quick defection from the OHL after leaving BG). It's easy to complain about not keeping guys that could make contributions but it's alot harder to build a strong effort program of with guys who aren't on the same page.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! Believe me, there is a LOT of truth to this post. If you don't want to do what is required of you to play here, then SEE YA!!!!
And FWIW, in my opinion, as excited as I was about the preseason rankings, (looking back and analyzing issues), I honestly think that was a little pre-mature. I expected to be in the top 3, HOPED to be in first. Again, my opinion only....
GO FALCONS!!
50th Anniversary Weekend is going to be EPIC!!!
"Regarding BGSU, I would think their biggest strength is that they never give up, They never slow down and they battle hard even after the other team scores. We have to be on our game and never, ever take the foot off the gas for a second." ~~USCHO Poster "BG was relentless. It's like they know that a good first pass on the breakout from a defenseman will almost always result in an odd-man rush against them - but they go in anyway and dare you to make that pass. All three of their goals were just grit and effort. That's a team any fan can be proud to support...they give all they've got." ~~USCHO Poster, AFTER Tech beat us #NeverGiveUp
#NeverSurrender
#Relentless
#Resiliant
gmartin wrote:C.B. took over a program on life support. Had no financial backing. Admin was about to pull the plug. Funding started coming in and C.B. was there to steer the ship. Well the ship has sailed. He has done all he can. He has lost his players. The players have lost their fight. It's time to Row The Boat and find a new guy. That may be difficult since CB still has 4 years on his contact.
This is as asinine as it gets. If you truly believe the funding for this program is dramatically different than it was 10 years ago, well, I don't know what to tell you. The only difference is the guy leading the program.
Prior to Bergeron's arrival, Buddy Powers, Scott Paluch and Dennis Williams combined for ZERO 20 win seasons in 14 years (Buddy had 2 20 win seasons with York's boys but quickly fell off). This program, financially, is no different compared to the rest of college hockey than it was under those coaches. Bergeron's had two straight 20 win seasons. Bergeron gets to stay until he decides to go. And anyone in the college hockey world would tell you that we'd be insane to get rid of him.
If we get rid of Bergeron, what are the odds we hire the next Jerry York? We've got a MUCH better chance to go back to where we were with the next guy than to rise up from where we are.
This year sucks. Last year, I'd argue wasn't at the level we hoped (NCAA Tournament appearance). But the fact that we are upset over 22 wins and then a season in the middle of the pack means that Bergeron has raised the level well above where we've been at any point since Jerry York left.
We have ZERO funding 10 years ago. Heck, half the toilets and urinals were broken. No maintenance to the arena. At least with donors like Slater and those who else donated generously at least we got some upgrades. Without those donations I believe we wouldn't have hockey. And with a program on the brink of being cut whom would ever want to come to BG. For that I applaud CB.
I don't have any of the inside scoop a lot of you have so my comments/conclusions are based on a) what I see on the ice and b) what I glean from public sources.
With the contract he currently has Berge isn't going anywhere. I've read that MSU might come sniffing around BG once they pull the plug on Anastos. Heck, they've done it before. If something like that happens maybe Moose calls up Wayne and Hills to see if they wanna come home. Aside from that...?
Three years in a row we don't finish strong. That's on the coaches. Are they working the team too hard in the first half?
I keep hearing about our talent level, but honestly I see way too many dumb things happen on the ice -- things I knew by high school never to do (and I wasn't very talented). Some of the dumb things are on the players. Some of the dumb things result from how they're coached. What do you do about mediocre hockey IQ?
This can't go on much longer without it affecting recruiting unless one of you who is "in the know" is gonna say it already is. These situations tend to feed on themselves.
Roll Along! wrote:
Prior to Bergeron's arrival, Buddy Powers, Scott Paluch and Dennis Williams combined for ZERO 20 win seasons in 14 years (Buddy had 2 20 win seasons with York's boys but quickly fell off).
Going back to Bergeron's post game comments about needing a break from each other. I witnessed, first-hand, Buddy Powers's teams not liking each other. Watched it happen. Everybody saw the results of that. I don't want to watch this team fall back to that point, again. I want to watch championship teams play. If Bergeron isn't willing to change his approach to get the most out of the team, he needs to go.
Well, I have not posted here in 6 years. I'm usually over on the USCHO board or one of the Twitter feeds.
CB isn't going anywhere anytime soon.....nor should he. He has built a solid foundation back under the program after it was basically left for dead. He's at least 2 years from any real job threat.
Donations and funding are up by they way and quite a bit. I know this because my folks are Falcon Club donators and season ticket holders(why anyone would move back to Ohio from AZ is beyond me, but they did in 2012). Are we at North Dakota levels, where my son goes to school, ummm, no. Funding is better though, better than most of the other WCHA programs at least.
Which, brings us to the real issue here and why most, including myself, are so disappointed. The WCHA. We are in a league with 5 of the 10 WORST teams in all of NCAA D1 Hockey. That's HALF of the league! Add in Lake State and 6 of the bottom 15 teams in the country call the WCHA home.
To play the way we have this year, in this league, with the returning starters we had coming back is just a joke. We have not scored a goal in 3 games against two teams in the bottom 10 in the nation. I know we are not the most offensively gifted team around, truthfully we have no pure scorers, not one. However, we have enough talent on the back end, coupled with a few guys up front, that we should be able to at least score 3 goals against these horrible teams.
What's the issue with this years team? From everything I've been told by people back there, some pretty close the program......maturity.
Many of the guys on this team just are not very mature. Why....no idea. Its not like they are bunch of young kids. Is it just a quirky group this year, no idea. I have been told by numerous different people though that they just don't seem to take anything very seriously.....nothing seems to get under their skin too much. Losses don't really seem to stick in their craw, so to speak. The coaches have tried everything to light a fire under these guys and nothing has worked, as you can see. I know on more than one occasion CB has mentioned that the upperclassmen leadership on this team just has not really been there this year.
Can they fix it before its too late this year, maybe. The only WCHA team going to the NCAA's is the one that win's the tournament so we got as good as chance as anyone at this point. I don't know what the big deal is about home ice, we play better on the road anyway. Hard to say the SFIA is going to be a big help at this point, it hasn't been all year.
Going forward our biggest issue is we just need to find a couple of guys with real scoring ability. I know we are at a disadvantage for those guys as they all want to go to better leagues, with newer facilities. However, that's the only way to get out of this 2-3 year middling ground we have been bogged down in. We need a couple of guys that can score on their own. A couple of guys that can take the team on their back and make their own chances......the rest of the foundation is there.
"The key to beating NMU is stopping Steve Bozek...."
LOL......Bozek skates with the Coyotes Alumni team sometimes. I played against him and Dave Ellett in a charity game a few years ago. He lives here in AZ somewhere.
AZIce wrote:
Going forward our biggest issue is we just need to find a couple of guys with real scoring ability. I know we are at a disadvantage for those guys as they all want to go to better leagues, with newer facilities. However, that's the only way to get out of this 2-3 year middling ground we have been bogged down in. We need a couple of guys that can score on their own. A couple of guys that can take the team on their back and make their own chances......the rest of the foundation is there.
Can't argue with this. If you look at the difference between us and Mankato and Tech, this would be it. They've been the most consistent in the league the last few years and have had top flight scorers.
IMO, there is more maturity in the underclassmen than the upperclassmen as well as better effort. We also need to remain aware that this senior class came in at a time when there were still issues with trying to recruit good players to come to BG. We have better players behind them and I believe that when the current underclassmen become the leaders we will see much better results.
