2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

[SJHovey]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

Calling all nerds, anyone have a reasonable accurate way to turn total penalties and PIM to Minors, Majors, Misconducts/DQs?

Are you talking about on a per player basis? In other words, you want to know how that players total penalties and PIM translates into minors, majors and misconducts?

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

Are you talking about on a per player basis? In other words, you want to know how that players total penalties and PIM translates into minors, majors and misconducts?

obviously it won't be completely accurate but I was looking at total team numbers...for example:
Michigan had 178 penalties for 422 minutes...so it seems reasonable that they have 166 minors, 6 majors and 6 misconducts/DQs. 166*2+6*5+6*10=422 and 166+6+6=178

 

[davyd83]

UAF's recruiting is maybe a bit down, I think in large part to the postseason ban and associated (temporary) scholarship reductions. It has nothing to do with the coaching staff...as a somewhat qualitative point, many people felt Dallas Ferguson should have won the WCHA COY award last season, and didn't because of the NCAA sanction.

But good grief, we've had the WCHA POY, WCHA preseason POY, and back to back WCHA Defensive POY (and current NHL dark horse Calder trophy candidate) in the last three years. We have a Montreal draft pick on our roster. This sudden idea that we can't get good players to Alaska is kind of comical and I'm not sure where it's coming from. The next year or two will probably be a bit down while we deal with the scholarship limitations but we will bounce back.

Ferg is very well respected and very highly regarded in the game. First class guy all the way, and he has a record of success in what may be one of college hockey's most difficult spots to recruit to.

 

[Squarebanks]

Ferg is very well respected and very highly regarded in the game. First class guy all the way, and he has a record of success in what may be one of college hockey's most difficult spots to recruit to.

He changed the game for recruiting for Fairbanks. 15 years ago guys would say that if nobody else called, sure they'd come on up. Since he's been in the program as an assistant or head coach, we've had the aforementioned players plus Chad Johnson (NHL goalie and CCHA player of the year) and Andy Taranto (CCHA rookie of the year), among other guys who didn't necessarily win awards but have gone on to successful pro careers (Colton Beck, for example).

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

1. Stand-alone divings are almost never called, but that's true of almost any league

Even the NHL officials don't usually call diving, regardless of obvious examples:

 

[davyd83]

Even the NHL officials don't usually call diving, regardless of obvious examples:

When the officials are directed by the league and the NCAA to call embellishment, it's either call it or don't work. I hate seeing guys laying on the ice selling a call like they just got shot by a cannonball only to see the experience the magical healing power of the 5 minute major call. Or guys that barely get their skate or leg touched by a stick and they crumble to the ice. If you fall down that easy, you don't belong playing college hockey.

 

[SCSU BlackandRed]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

Late congrats to Ferris on knocking out my Huskies. They came out and outworked them and it clearly paid off. They took advantage of nearly every mistake our defensemen made and they made some big ones. Will definitely say their style of play forced those mistakes. Almost had enough firepower to get it back but not quite. Denver was/is definitely a good team. Two quality opponents back-to-back and Ferris was right there with them.

Best of luck to all in the offseason. I still follow the fellow Minnesota schools in the WCHA so have kept my eye on what's going on with the conference. Looked like another competitive year. Hoping the rumors about upcoming series between SCSU and Tech are true. Think that would be some fun hockey to watch.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

Just saw the article that Dean Blais at UNO fired BOTH of his assistant coaches as a result of the team's collapse during the second half of the season.
Way to man up and take responsibility as the head coach. What little respect I had for Blais just left the building along with his former assistant coaches.
More and more I'm seeing that the NCHC teams are truly like minded... All our problems are someone else's fault so we'll just get rid of them.
That's a great way to instill loyalty in your program - pin your problems on someone else and let them take the fall.
Ryan J

 

[Superfly100]

Just saw the article that Dean Blais at UNO fired BOTH of his assistant coaches as a result of the team's collapse during the second half of the season.
Way to man up and take responsibility as the head coach. What little respect I had for Blais just left the building along with his former assistant coaches.
More and more I'm seeing that the NCHC teams are truly like minded... All our problems are someone else's fault so we'll just get rid of them.
That's a great way to instill loyalty in your program - pin your problems on someone else and let them take the fall.
Ryan J

Saw that and thought the same thing.

 

[PerkyforPrez]

Just saw the article that Dean Blais at UNO fired BOTH of his assistant coaches as a result of the team's collapse during the second half of the season.
Way to man up and take responsibility as the head coach. What little respect I had for Blais just left the building along with his former assistant coaches.
More and more I'm seeing that the NCHC teams are truly like minded... All our problems are someone else's fault so we'll just get rid of them.
That's a great way to instill loyalty in your program - pin your problems on someone else and let them take the fall.
Ryan J

I agree with this also. Pinning the blame on the assistant didn't help at Wisconsin so it'll be interesting to see how it pan's out here.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

Another thing to consider, if the assistant coaches are the ones on the road "selling" the program to recruits, and now they are all canned, what does that mean for UNO's next few classes when the guy who sold you on the program is no longer there? I'll bet at least 2-3 recruits come/go as a result of this as well. It will be interesting to watch. Maybe they will become the next Colorado College of the NCHC and they can have two doormats.
Ryan J

 

[blackswampboy]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

I think our league has excellent coaching and that is the basis of why I think every year it will get better.

meanwhile, this. meant to give this a bump earlier, but what better time?
much respect to WCHA coaches, every one.

 

[blackswampboy]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

off topic, but

"The North American Hockey League (NAHL) has announced that its Board of Governors has approved the activation of the Northeast Generals membership, who will begin play during the 2016-17 season as a part of the NAHL’s East Division."
"The Generals will play out of the New England Sports Village located in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston."

http://nahl.com/news/story.cfm?id=17749

hope we're not being pranked.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

I have no problem calling a spade a spade, but I do have a problem when the media from elsewhere, who don't cover the league and maybe,... maybe, see one game a year start talking about the league in a disparaging way that's not accurate. It hurts recruiting and the league unfairly. So yeah we can say, well we are not that good, but to tell the truth number 35 is not that far from number 6, and in fact beat number 2.

Let's face it perception is huge...the WCHA has to do a better job of scheduling more games against NC opponents they can beat and do a better job of winnings non-conference games against everyone. The fact that the 10-team league only played the 5 games against HEA (4 vs Connecticut) and 6 games against ECAC makes it difficult for others to have any perspective, especially when they look at the OOC records and see the horrible overall record all because of the dominance by NCHC.

 

[davyd83]

Let's face it perception is huge...the WCHA has to do a better job of scheduling more games against NC opponents they can beat and do a better job of winnings non-conference games against everyone. The fact that the 10-team league only played the 5 games against HEA (4 vs Connecticut) and 6 games against ECAC makes it difficult for others to have any perspective, especially when they look at the OOC records and see the horrible overall record all because of the dominance by NCHC.

Just get someone to pony up $30-40,000 for those trips out east and I'm sure more ECAC, AHA & Hockey East match ups will happen-

 

[davyd83]

Just saw the article that Dean Blais at UNO fired BOTH of his assistant coaches as a result of the team's collapse during the second half of the season.
Way to man up and take responsibility as the head coach. What little respect I had for Blais just left the building along with his former assistant coaches.
More and more I'm seeing that the NCHC teams are truly like minded... All our problems are someone else's fault so we'll just get rid of them.
That's a great way to instill loyalty in your program - pin your problems on someone else and let them take the fall.
Ryan J

Does anyone consider that the Head Coach had no choice but to fire the assistants? That the word come down from above that changes had to be made? Eaves had very little choice in cleaning house at Wisconsin.

 

[pdt1081]

Let's face it perception is huge...the WCHA has to do a better job of scheduling more games against NC opponents they can beat and do a better job of winnings non-conference games against everyone. The fact that the 10-team league only played the 5 games against HEA (4 vs Connecticut) and 6 games against ECAC makes it difficult for others to have any perspective, especially when they look at the OOC records and see the horrible overall record all because of the dominance by NCHC.

The problem is travel. Teams are trying to keep old rivalries alive, and lessen their travel by playing non-conference games as close to home as possible. Bowling Green used to have a series against HEA and one with the EZAC every season. That's been replaced by games with WMU,OSU,and Miami. I pointed out earlier, for BG, 28 league games. 2 against Miami, 2 with OSU, and 2 with Western. That's 34 games. Season's full until you add in whatever trip(s) to Alaska.

 

[Superfly100]

Does anyone consider that the Head Coach had no choice but to fire the assistants? That the word come down from above that changes had to be made? Eaves had very little choice in cleaning house at Wisconsin.

Very unlikely...

An AD (unless an extreme micro manager) is not going to hold the assistants accountable for performance of the program. That falls on the head coach, and performance expectations will be set there. I have no doubt that Blais was given an ultimatum, but how he chose to meet the ultimatum was up to him. So, unless both his assistants were uncoachable and unable to meet Blais' performance expectations, he chose the easy way out.

We'll know soon enough when next year rolls around.

 

[davyd83]

Very unlikely...

An AD (unless an extreme micro manager) is not going to hold the assistants accountable for performance of the program. That falls on the head coach, and performance expectations will be set there. I have no doubt that Blais was given an ultimatum, but how he chose to meet the ultimatum was up to him. So, unless both his assistants were uncoachable and unable to meet Blais' performance expectations, he chose the easy way out.

We'll know soon enough when next year rolls around.

So what sort of ultimatum do you think he could have been given?

 

[blackswampboy]

Re: 2016 WCHA Offseason; It's All Over, Save Ferris

The problem is travel. Teams are trying to keep old rivalries alive, and lessen their travel by playing non-conference games as close to home as possible. Bowling Green used to have a series against HEA and one with the EZAC every season. That's been replaced by games with WMU,OSU,and Miami. I pointed out earlier, for BG, 28 league games. 2 against Miami, 2 with OSU, and 2 with Western. That's 34 games. Season's full until you add in whatever trip(s) to Alaska.

true, but BG's rivalries position differs from the rest of the conference. we've still got 2+ games per year available vs. NY/Penn teams, with RIT coming in for one game next season (which leaves a home game, Canisius?). works for me.
absolutely, WCHA teams should work to pick up more games vs. the ECAC. given that the ECAC played us every season through the dark years, not buying that 'reputation' is an issue now. travel, no doubt.
That trip to Potsdam and Canton isn't easy.