Miami at Denver series

0-4 against Denver this season. Out-scored 22-2. Not sure the SOGs, but I would imagine it’s not pretty. Does every team make the NCHC tournament, or only the top 8 teams a la the MAC?

We just need one good win to get it going. Seems to me we haven’t played enough games to get in a groove as of late. Strange scheduling. Maybe that’s how it always is and I forget?
Ps, my theory is the old regime placed hidden cameras in the ice rink and gives out the feed of our practices to opposing coaches for free.

No comment.

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Both!

Yes! I summoned the Lurker! Lurker, (and I’m still assuming I can call you Lurker since my dues are all paid up) great to see you back. Can we get it turned around here? Would love your thoughts.

It seems like every season we get a couple upset wins over good teams and people get excited, but those wins feel kind of inevitable given the randomness of hockey and the number of good teams we face. The overall trend line is straight.

I realize hockey has a longer rebuilding cycle and covid made things weird, but you still have to show some progress (look at what Colorado College has done this season in their new coach’s second year). I don’t know how a coach can credibly sell recruits after he’s had four straight catastrophic seasons with no improvement. How long do we let this go before making a change?

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I’m very emotional over what just transpired so take what I say with an understanding that tomorrow I may word things differently. Begin diatribe. Apologies; it’ll be a long one.

ANY win in Grand Forks is a good win. I don’t care if UND is up or down, a win in the Ralph is a good win. We kicked butt that weekend. YellowNumber 5, check the “good win box.” Oh…may I call you YellowNumber5?

We have given up 7 goals in 5 separate games this season. 35 goals against in 5 games. Only Lindenwood, Bentley, and Lake Superior have given up more goals than us. We give up 3.7 goals/game. That is terrible. Over the past 4 seasons (the length of Bergeron’s tenure here) we are competitive in some games, get curb stomped in too many games, and have one weekend where after we get curb stomped we’re tied to the back of a '75 Gremlin and dragged through a lava field at 70 mph. St. Cloud last year, Denver this year.

How 'bout goals for? We’ve scored 50 goals over the course of 22 games played so far. That is a whopping 2.3 goals per game. That ranks us #52. I don’t know what to say about that other than some sentence that includes the word “horrible” in it. What about shots taken? Not much better, we’re #49. What that says is we do not spend very much time in time in the offensive zone. And if we eventually make it there, well, not much happens.

What about special teams? Surly there is some good news there, right? On a strictly relative basis, our power play is kicking arse at 19.3% which puts us squarely at an average rank of #33. That’s the bright spot. Our penalty kill? 75.5% which is good enough for 54th best in the nation. For those scoring at home, this is terrible. The good news is that we don’t take a ton of penalties - 5th in the nation. So while we aren’t crazy undisciplined, when we do go to the PK more times than not the puck ends up in our net. OH…WAIT…I read that backwards. We are actually 58th in the nation in penalty min/game. We take over 14 min in penalties each game - that’s 3/4 of a period spent in the box. So it turns out we actually are an undisciplined team that takes a ton of penalties and has a crappy PK. That is the way to play winning hockey, said no one ever.

No point in talking about goaltending. We could put Ken Dryden back there; it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Typing this out is not healthy for me. It’s making me more and more frustrated and it’s late which means I’m going to struggle getting to sleep. Folks, it does not have to be like this. We can do better.

Is next year the year we turn the corner? If so, convince me. And explain what success actually looks like.

Back to lurking.

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Lindenwood, Bentley and Lake State are not playing in the NCHC.

Miami is routinely dressing 6-7 Freshmen.And they’re good.Ready for Prime Time? Not always.

Denver is the Defending National Champion for a reason.

We are who we are. And need to go to the CCHA. WHATEVER IT TAKES.

What is the status (if any) of the discussion about Miami moving the the CCHA? Is this something that Miami is considering seriously or is it just “talk?” Do folks in this forum support such a move or would moving to the CCHA just be more of the same (losing)while saving travel costs?

A couple thoughts: 1. Well written. 2. Yes, Yellow is fine, 3. I’m a Berg fan so I’ll always hope he can flip the switch, so 4. Let’s get some damn wins and make the rest of the year interesting. 5. Our goalie doesn’t stink. Has been off but can get back.

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Awful series. No reason should be that bad. Team may be a bit better this season but can NOT compete in their conference

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I have heard Sayler say he would like hockey to be more regional. He is praying for a miracle that Big 10 hockey will stop but it wont.

I have seen and understand the arguments that our recruiting would suffer if we switch to the CCHA, but still wouldn’t we be more competitive in that conference and enable us to get to a winning record and possibly the NCAA’s quicker? (plus make it more fun for our students and alums to watch games with more wins).

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I am beginning to come around to this idea. This was the one sport where Miami was supposed to compete at the highest level. We got there after an amazing run but seem to have squandered it. Taking a step back is an admission of that but maybe one we should consider at this point:

THIS isn’t fun anymore so maybe it’s time

Changing the league is a Non Starter.

Miami Likely would be blocked by member CCHA team ( would it just take one dissenting vote?), one that won’t play us now.

Plus big $ to exit current league.

Next Post:
I’ll save you the trouble, forget the big ten (8?) too.
We have a team that won’t schedule us there too…Likely would oppose Miami joining.

We need to shop
for recruits, not leagues.

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We can win in this league. Look, things change. Go back to when we were on top and look at the best teams that were playing then. A lot of them aren’t currently ranked (some are). And some ranked teams now didn’t have much going on then. I see huge parallels between what hockey and mens hoops are trying to do. Although oddly enough, hockey has more to draw from given its meteoric success from a decade ago. I really do think we can win some games this year and make things interesting. Let’s see what happens.

I think there’s at least a chance for the CCHA, but I don’t know how bad the blood runs at BG. And let’s not forget that Miami’s hands aren’t clean in that history either. While blocking them from the NCHC might have been the smart move at the time, Miami shouldn’t cry foul now when we might need them. At least in that league, we’d have a real opportunity to rally the rest of the members behind our candidacy.

As for the Big Ten, that has always been a big zero chance. They didn’t sniff our way when they formed the conference and we were on top, and I have a hard time seeing anything we bring to their table currently. Hell, OSU could do the politically shrewd thing and lobby and vote for us knowing full well that every other school would be a no vote. Nor is Saylor’s wet dream of Big Ten hockey folding and those schools going back to regional leagues happening. That conference is competitive nationally while providing blocks of live sports for their network. It’s doing exactly what they wanted it to do, and even if it loses some money, I seem to remember three networks just backed up a Brinks Truck full of billions to their door.

As for recruits, that’s a chicken and egg thing. Recruits don’t want to come to a bottom feeder, and until we at least move the needle a bit in an upward direction, shopping for recruits is easier said than done. Doing that, I think, would be a lot easier in the CCHA.

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The word on the street is that OSU will not schedule Miami.
See any such games in our schedule lately?

I guess beating them 12 out of 14 was bad PR.

It’s about Recruiting.
For example: google Peter Mannino.
He’s known as a tireless and excellent recruiter.
That’s all I’ll say.