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NCAA Hockey - 2023/24 **Insert Witty Tagline**

state of hockey said:
I haven’t been following closely enough to know all the factors in NMU’s struggles. Is it Potulny? Hard to believe he’d carry none of the responsibility given the position he has.
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Not sure. He inherited a decent group from Walt Kyle and took them to the title game in his first year (17-18). D*mn near wrung double the wins out of the same group. Then the slide started, which COVID covered up. The 19-20 season first round elimination by MTU gets forgotten because the season stopped right after that weekend, and the worst season by Grant (20-21) was forgotten about because the 'Cats found a way to make it to the title game.

Team wise, we lost bigger "names" between the summer of 2022 than we did the summer of 2023, but the drop off was very noticeable this year. The last assistant coach from the Kyle era was let go after the 2021 season and a replacement hired that summer, so maybe some of those coaches recruits aren't meshing with Grant's recruits?

In all likely hood, this was just a speed bump. But Grant has only been mid at best with this team. Yes, he has three league championship trips to his name in seven years, but he has zero hardware for his efforts. The shine is definitely gone from his lustre.
 
Only two Game 3s today.

OSU-UW at 6 and LSSU-St Thomas at 7.

Lots of late game theatrics yesterday. Tech won on a PPG with a minute left, AIC tied it up with 90 seconds left against AF before winning in OT, Minnesota with their one rush in the third against PSU, and Holy Cross won in double OT against Canisius. And then while it was just regular season play, Maine also notched a game winner with a minute left.

And we finally figured out why Stonehill went D1. The women won the NEWHA tournament and got the autobid for the NCAAs.
 
aparch said:
Which is hilarious because there are two years much worse that happened in the last seven years, including the worst season under Potulny in 20-21, which was masked by them backdooring their way into pretending the season was okay by losing in the title game that season.
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The big difference being expectations.

I expected this team to do something. I expected them to build off of last year. That's why this is such a letdown. I want this team to actually do something when they show the promise/talent to do so. Much different than arriving out of nowhere and getting a good result.

There wasn't much progress and we just play sloppy. Dumb retaliation/frustration penalties are abundant. Overall it doesn't appear that there is a super tight ship being run here.

Im willing to let things play out, but the seat may start warming up if these trends continue.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
On a different note, I just about peed myself laughing after popping to the D1 side. Wisconsin fans saying that other teams are finding a way to slow them down by clogging up lanes and clutching/grabbing. If that’s not the most delicious irony about a Mike Hastings team lol
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What I've found most rich is seeing them whine about all the "dirty" teams in the Big10.
Apparently now that they have a coach that demands discipline, the decades of Sauer/Eaves/Granato were nothin' but a fever dream.
 
Stauber1 said:
What I've found most rich is seeing them whine about all the "dirty" teams in the Big10.
Apparently now that they have a coach that demands discipline, the decades of Sauer/Eaves/Granato were nothin' but a fever dream.
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Dirty. Lmao. Minnesota, for example, was or was amongst the least penalized teams in the nation.
 
Stauber1 said:
To be fair it was mostly directed at ND and MSU.

Last I looked MN was dead last for penalty minutes per game.
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Yeah sorry. I was agreeing with you but worded it really poorly. :-/

I didn't realize that ND and MSU had that many. ND is only about one extra penalty per game over WI. MI and MSU a penalty and a half. lol.

edit: those were minutes.

actual number of penalties is even closer.
 
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dxmnkd316 said:
Yeah sorry. I was agreeing with you but worded it really poorly. :-/

I didn't realize that ND and MSU had that many. ND is only about one extra penalty per game over WI. MI and MSU a penalty and a half. lol.

edit: those were minutes.

actual number of penalties is even closer.
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No I got you.
Just clarifying their whinging wasn't about MN.
There's always more room to pile on those silly Badgers ;) :)=P
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Yeah sorry. I was agreeing with you but worded it really poorly. :-/

I didn't realize that ND and MSU had that many. ND is only about one extra penalty per game over WI. MI and MSU a penalty and a half. lol.

edit: those were minutes.

actual number of penalties is even closer.
Click to expand...

MSU certainly hasn’t been disciplined but their averages will be inflated from the first game against Michigan where everyone on the ice got roughing and a misconduct after a scuffle following an MSU goal. So there were 10 penalties and 64 minutes for each team right there.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Not a good weekend for North Dakota or Wisconsin.
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Honestly, North Dakota hasn't played well since they swept Denver in late January. Some have argued that they had nothing to play for this past weekend, but they have definitely been a different team on the road (7-6-1). Schlossman has suggested a lot of that has to do with having last change, but I guess we'll see. They should have last change all the way to the Frozen Four, but I could easily see this team as an upset candidate where they overlook a first round opponent.
 
Michigan has again turned it on when they got to the point of fighting for their lives. If the Gophers play like they did for most of that first round series against Penn State, they’ll get blown out of their own building.

This Gopher team is weird. A lot of offensive firepower, but if they go guns-blazing they give up way too many chances the other way. They’ve gotten better at playing with some structure to cut those chances down to near zero, but I think they lull themselves to sleep and get way too passive at times. The games they’ve lost are usually because they didn’t snap out of that quickly enough.

They’ve really struggled to find the in between where you are defensively sound but also applying sustained pressure in the offensive zone.
 
Are there any NMU fans on this side of the forum? I'm curious what their thoughts are on Grant Potulny's tenure and if it will continue.
 
RaceBoarder and aparch talked about Potulny earlier in this thread. I can't imagine he isn't feeling some heat, but it sounds like he's got 2 years left on his current deal with the Wildcats. Bowling Green just fired Ty Eigner this morning, so if NMU does anything with Potulny, it will likely be this week.

Something else to keep an eye on is Joe Shawhan's deal with Tech, which expires at the end of this season with no extension announced yet. I and a few others haven't exactly been thrilled with Joe's performance this year considering expectations for MTU at the start of the season, but taking his entire body of work into account, odds are he gets reupped and they're just settling on terms. I'm sort of wondering if maybe they started talking last summer, Joe thought he could parlay a big performance this year into a better deal this time around, and so he ended up gambling & losing.
 
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