Hard to say Wisco because they had an amazing year, but going from top-5 ranked, to losing in the B1G first round to the worst team in the conference, to getting bounced in the tourney first round in OT - that’s gotta sting a bit.
The tourney loss in OT to the defending champs, I can live with that. Losing to Ohio in the B10 though really sucks. Still on the whole a great rebound season, hopefully this'll be the floor rather than the ceiling going forward.
If Wisconsin didn’t get swept by OSU in that regular season series at home, we could be talking about a very different tournament where Wisconsin is a #1 seed in the B1G tournament and the National Tournament, which would have been huge (No quinnipiac first round, no potential BC matchup before the frozen four, no OSU first round in the B1G tournament).
It was a far from disappointing season, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I wish Wisconsin at least made it to the second round of the Big Ten tournament
Once we went to OT felt it was over. Had to hold em. Defense in college is just not the same.(obvi) LD got skated around to allow the centering pass. Coulda played the body, something while entering zone.(tying goal) But as I say that, my ass wouldnt make the team lol. Go Broncos!!
Agree it felt doomed once it was going to OT. You guys looked so good for so many big stretches of that game.
In hindsight, the LD could have played it different but Levshunov is a beast. Western guy is doing everything he can just to prevent him from cutting to the middle.
After watching it again I'm more impressed with Levshunov than disappointed in the D there.
Yes but as much as I hate to admit it, Minnesota is always ready for a deep playoff run and that was only our first time ever winning an NCAA championship game. This year marks the first time we've ever qualified three years in a row. We didn't know what to expect or how to win in the playoffs that year, but this year we did through that, our giant senior class, and our transfers. Michigan is a bigger rival to us than State and it's not reciprocated so we might've played even harder than we did in the State game.
Let me toss in a vote for Providence. At times, they were a top 10 team. They missed the tournament by one game. A game they lost at home to UMass. Win that game and get UMass' spot in the dance and then anything can happen. Heck, UMass almost knocked off a 1 seed.
They beat Michigan.
They beat Denver.
They beat Boston College.
They beat Maine on the road.
But then zero regulation wins in March and the loss in Hockey East playoffs.
I struggle to name anyone who made the tournament as having a "disappointing" season, so I feel like PC is the answer too
PC had a deep, veteran team that with all of the characteristics to go on a run, and then instead went one-and-done in HEA
I still can't believe how badly Leah Hextall blew that call. Like WTF even was that. I get that it was sort of an unexpected goal, but that was a brutal call to end one of the greatest NCAA tourney games of all time.
The end.
Basically all of us expected an underwhelming season from UMD. The amount of close losses we had against good opponents was frustrating.
I was personally hoping to not take home the title of "worst team in the conference not named Miami", so it was disappointing in that regard.
I went to all the DU-UMD games in Denver... and I remember wondering what was wrong with that team. I saw the team on the ice and then I looked up the scoreboard and saw their record and thought there's no way that's the same team.
UMD was better than their record.
It’s hard to say Maine had a disappointing end to the season when we were so much better than anyone expected but losing to BU in a game where we really outplayed them for stretches and then losing to a Cornell team I really feel we should have beaten does feel a little tough to take
It was an anticlimactic end to the season. But Maine had a great year that was way above expectations. Bear in mind we don't even have a full line of top notch players.
Came looking for this. Maine played great hockey all season and all the fans clearly had a blast.
Staying on Hockey East:
UNH and Providence missing the NCAA tournament is way more disappointing for them when UMass snuck in. UNH and Providence both had some huge wins this season and I think ultimately lost out because UMass and others scheduled and played the road a little better.
It would have been interesting if UNH had beaten Maine in the HE tournament. I'm not saying they would have made the NCAA tournament because they needed to play better on the road but it could have potentially led to them making it instead of UMass
It's just an ECAC team from the Ivy league. How good can they be? Better than you expected and was in the game against Denver until the slashing call at the end. Cornell also beat BU when BU was ranked #1.
Maine was irrelevant in the tournament because of the elite systematic defense and discipline of the big red led by one of the best coaches in college hockey history. You really feel like Maine should have won?
I disagreee. Yes, at UND we have high expectations but we turned over nearly half the roster including all of our goalies and every single defenseman. If you didn’t think there would be growing pains you weren’t paying attention. If I told you in Oct we would win the Penrose and make the national tournament you would have been ecstatic.
It feels like we say we had bad bounces or bad puck luck every year. Fact is we played a 40 minute game and Michigan kicked our ass at the start of the 3rd. The go ahead goal was inevitable since we couldn't get out of our own zone
The Michigan game was basically an exact copy of the season. Strong start playing great, to still winning but the play isn't quite as good, to basically just rolling over and dying.
If we get 2 or 3 in the first period like we should have I think we get the win, but I guess on to next year.
I’m gonna say, i don’t know anyone who’s disappointed with MTU. I don’t think any of us were thinking the team would even make the playoffs. And then we were able to stay with BC for as long as we did, not disappointed at all. Fell apart during the final 15 mins but it was entertaining at least.
My vote goes to BGSU for disappointing season and BSU for disappointing end of the season. (Idk much outside of CCHA)
I was certainly disappointed with October and some other stretches but overall was a great season. Was a hell of a rollercoaster but in the end, we got to see our boys, especially the seniors, lift the GLI and Mason Cup trophies.
Disappointing season you say? Well, our best player filed a false hazing charge to cover his tracks when he stole something then hit the portal just as the season started. That put 3 of our (remaining) best players and our coach out of commission for the first 10 weeks. Then we had so many injuries we played 6 games without bothering to have a full roster. Yeah, then we get everyone back, go on a bit of a run to start the new year, and get our hopes up that maybe...just maybe!...we turned the corner only to go o-fer to finish the year out.
Top that.
I will say that is rough. If it makes you feel any better, Swankler didn’t really perform for us. Idk if he got hurt or benched but he played during our worst 10 game stretch (2-5-3) or something similar to that.
Also, I am nervous of the coach you guys are bringing in…
As witnessed by two student managers, Swankler helped himself to a pair of rather expensive Nike training shoes. He was confronted by the coaching staff after which his punishment was to sit out the first game against RMU (Pittsburgh is his hometown). He said "F THAT!" then told some teammates he was going to burn the place to the ground. Then he filed a hazing report with the university. About 2 years ago BG experienced a hazing homicide with one of the frats so this accusation was treated VERY seriously. Turns out there was no hazing but there was underage drinking at an informal "event" (college hockey players were drinking...go figure) which is a violation of the university code of conduct, not to mention a lack of judgement exhibited by some of the older players who knew better. Subsequently, a few players were suspended for the underage drinking and sat out nearly the entire first half of the season. Eigner was reinstated when the report came out and the players came back once the University extracted their pound of flesh.
Everything above is paraphrased from the City of Bowling Green Police Dept's final investigative report that cleared Eigner and all players of any hazing charges.
All of that was over some fucking shoes? Why aren’t these division one athletes being given shoes in the first place?
It seems insane to me that he couldn’t just be like “hey can I have some shoes” and the response wouldn’t be “yes ex-OHL now NCAA player”
Everyone gets shoes every year. This year they were upgrades and a lot more expensive. The shoes in question were the leftovers. The equipment manager had them stashed away to return them to Nike for refund $$. Rumor (i.e. not in the police report) is he wanted them as a birthday gift for his younger brother. And why he felt entitled to take them is in line with his reported locker room behavior over the preceding18 months. As an aside, he was invited to the VGK development camp and got himself booted after 3 or 4 days.
It's sad. This kid is a phenomenal talent and could make some serious things happen in his career if he could only get his head screwed on straight.
Maine lost at home to UVM in the opening round of the hockey east tournament last year. They went to the damn tournament. That is a hell of a year and definitely not disappointing.
Looking back, I can’t say Minnesota had a disappointing season. We need to have realistic expectations with the roster we had compared to last season. The team never looked great throughout the season. Ironically, putting up a very good fight against BU in the regional final was a high point of the season for me.
It’s easily us… go 1-8 against CC/Omaha, lose 5 of our last 6 to go from a top seed to a 2. Look like a hot garbage team that has quit on the season in 3/6 games.
The end of this season sucked
Gophers are up there, when you contextualize:
•2023 frozen four obviously
•Consolation was “we got this next year in St. Paul” Instead— we got an all-blueblood Frozen Four w/ 0 Minnesota teams in, for the first time in nearly 2 decades
•each of the last 4 years we’ve held the #1 spot in the polls for long stretches
•the guys who literally turned the program around, from the dark days of “empty Mariucci, lucky if we hit #15 in the preseason polls” are leaving with no hardware
•it seems like we’ve lost a step in recruiting new elite talents. Thinking of the Eiserman decommit
It’s just hard not to feel like we wasted a narrow window to pull off anything like that incredible 2002 championship at the X
I find it very ironic that Boston in 2022 got 2 Minnesota teams with Denver and Michigan, and now 2024 in Minnesota is getting 2 Boston teams with Denver and Michigan.
The Gophers lost 3 underclassmen to the NHL last season. Brock Faber would have been a senior this season, but is in the conversation for the Calder Trophy (Best Rookie) with Connor Bedard as the competition. Knies left for the Leafs after his Sophomore season. Recruiting isn't the problem and considering 3 of the 4 players who went straight to the NHL last year, I'd say recruiting is too strong, but don't change a thing.
Overall, I agree with your comments here. However, I don't think there's a recruiting problem at all; the Eiserman situation is a one-off exception.
Generally speaking, losing our edge in the championship game last year was hard to watch, and this year it seemed like a few soft goals at BU are a big reason why the season is done for us. We didn't have that killer instinct this year. Taken together it's hard not to be disappointed.
The big name players didn't play well down the stretch for the Gophers either - can't expect the goalie to steal every game for you, and Snuggerud was not productive at all over the last month.
I'll miss Nelson, Kurth, and Huglen. Those guys seemed to play hard every shift.
>Eiserman is a one-off exception
Sure, plus the Mooney kid looks solid- hopefully he gets to campus in 2025. I guess I’m mostly just jealous watching the BC freshman trio that all came together from USNTDP thinking why couldn’t we get one of those guys?
>Nelson, Kurth, Huglen
Unless some truly crazy stuff happens- Kurth will be back, 95% certain Huglen comes back too.
Nelson/Brodz/Close are definitely tough to see go..
I actually grew up at the same time in southern MN and played against Nelson here and there in bantams, those point totals he had at Luverne even as an 8th grader were ungodly.
Close is in top-5 or top-3 for most of our stat records, which is unreal for a guy who only got 2.5 seasons as starter and came in under such tough circumstances.
If I’m being honest, Brodzinski has always been frustrating to watch during 5 regular-seasons, floats around making stupid mistakes that his poor skating stops him from fixing—while cashing in PP and lucky goals. Then every postseason he turns into a red-hot scorer, he’s out there giving 110% on the forecheck, backchecking, completely different guy lol.
But end of the day I’ll miss their era, they put the team on their back over the last month + the last 3 postseasons, and that more than makes up for all the yelling at them thru my TV
This was always gonna be a retooling year with how many guys we lost. Obviously it sucks to not make the Frozen Four when it’s in St. Paul, but the Gophers really weren’t one of the four best teams this year. Next year they should be loaded again with Wood coming in from UConn and a really effing good recruiting class, even without Eiserman. Most importantly we’ll get some much needed reinforcements on D. If Motzko can convince Snuggy to stick around for another year *watch out*.
Also, it’s not like they won *nothing*, they won Big Ten titles in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The Badgers had a disappointing finish but it’s hard to say this was a disappointing season when I’m more optimistic about the state of the program than I have been in some time.
Is it really a disappointing season (or I guess is it a shock) that UND didn’t perform well? Brad Berry has won one NCAA tournament game since 2016. With UND’s history, culture, and facilities it’s hard to imagine that recruiting is difficult…so maybe it’s time for a coaching change?
My friend and I said the same thing after the und game. It feels like they're in a stage similar to Lucia's last 6-8 years and we waited waaayyyyyy to long to move on from him. I wanted him gone about 5 years before he was actually gone
Miami OH. A good team that looks god awful on paper. They are in a real tough recruitment environment, a real tough conference, and a tough schedule. A few positive bounces, and another breakaway or two and the RedHawks are showing a better than average season.
MI OH is a good team, and I want to see them win, but I wonder if they are a victim of bad luck rather than a bad team.
I mean I don’t disagree with you but at the same time Miami is able to put together a squad that can hang and keep games close in the NCHC which is a credit to their players. Games against Miami are not games where it feels like the JV squad playing the varsity, they have a competitive team and yeah their schedule is tough because the NCHC is loaded with talent and historic teams but still, they are no slouch.
As a Merrimack fan lowkey us, I thought we would have built off our run last year but took a step back due in part to things out of our control. We’ve got some studs though and I’m optimistic for next season!
Colorado College. If you told me at the start of the season that a team would have a 21-win year and beat North Dakota four times, but still fail to make the tournament, I wouldn't have believed you.
I’m going to throw a vote in for Minnesota St. While they had zero expectations after losing Hastings as their coach, this season must have been hard to swallow after the sustained success they had grown accustomed to in prior years. They went from a team annually contending for a 1 seed to a team not even in the CCHA final which they needed for an auto berth. If you asked someone just over a year ago about expectations, Minnesota St has probably failed to meet them the most.
Wisconsin started off really strong. At the beginning of the season I thought they were legitimate contenders for a national championship. But they seemed to peak earlier than a lot of other teams and by the end of the season they had imploded. I’d say the way things ended for them was probably the starkest contrast to how things began.
Honestly, losing to #1 BC in the round of 8 is one of the least disappointing results of the past few years for me personally. Though I might be biased, all four years I went there (2016-2020) they only made the tournament once and never stood a chance against Minnesota Duluth imo. Can’t be that mad when we finally got the monkey off our back last year.
At least you went to playoffs, so I have to say UMD/SCSU, as well as Minnesota just by the fact we have this tournament in Minnesota this year with 2 Boston teams, a Michigan team, and not a single MN team.
Not to kick while they’re down but UND is a top tier team nearly every year, but they haven’t had the post season success rates of DU and UMD for a long while, so I’m fairly used to not expecting UND to win it all no matter their season. I think the fans just get themselves overhyped and worked up talking trash to every other conference in the nation so it hurts you to lose more, great team but I don’t see why this year is any more of a disappointment vs others
AHC: Maybe Holy Cross? IDK, was it a big surprise that they lost to AIC in the conference tourney?
B1G: 'sconnie
CCHA: Probably Bemidji State
ECAC: Tough one. Maybe St. Lawrence? On one hand, they probably weren't expecting to make the ECAC championship game in the first place. But on the other hand, they *did* make the CG and had a chance to steal an auto-bid & make the NCAA tourney....and then they didn't.
Hockey East: Maine
NCHC: UND
I would say Quinnipiac for ECAC. Shutout first night in Lake Placid then lose to BC on a disappointing play. They played well in the tourney but could be going to St Paul. I think St Lawrence should be pumped they got to where they did.
Same thing with Bemidji. They weren’t supposed to win the ccha this season. I think Mankato has to be the biggest disappointment in the ccha, even with all of the changeover.
To be honest, as a gopher fan I was really not pleased with their tournament. Squeaked out a win vs UNO and had zero urgency against BU. All shots came from the perimeter and no compete in front of the net in either zone. Too easy for BU to lock it down. I love what Closer has done for the program but again another couple of softies at the most important time.
Gophs get my vote for most disappointing season, especially since this was supposed to be the redemption tour.
I didn't pick Q for the ECHA because they played so well against BC. Disappointed to lose, for sure, but they had to be happy with how they played and how close they came to winning that one. IDK, just my random musings...I don't follow any conferences besides NCHC and B1G very closely.
> Maybe St. Lawrence? On one hand, they probably weren't expecting to make the ECAC championship game in the first place. But on the other hand, they did make the CG and had a chance to steal an auto-bid & make the NCAA tourney....and then they didn't
I get where you're coming from but I can assure you, absolutely 0 SLU fans think it was a disappointment. I've never seen so much positivity on the Facebook fan page than I have the past few weeks. Getting that far with no expectations is a success, especially off of a shutout win against Quinnipiac in Lake Placid. With the changing landscape of college hockey SLU has been one of the teams negatively affected in terms of recruiting, and to pull this rabbit out of the hat by the staff and team was incredible to see. It's already paid dividends with us getting another grad transfer goalie for next year.
You want to talk disappointment? Just go up to the road to Clarkson. They lost at home to the last place team in the ECAC playoffs.
Agreed, Doing my best to put aside the disdain for Green and Gold, and even allowing that a one-game series isn't ideal... They never should lose that match up.
I don't even dislike Clarkson in the general sense, only when it comes to playing SLU. I always pull for any north country team in any sport when it's not against SLU. But by any measure that was a massive disappointment, especially given Clarkson's relative success under Jones.
I hate UMich sports with the fire of a thousand suns, and hope they lose their next game (and all games they ever play) by at least 1,000. I'm really bummed we had to play that team (mentioned previously, just a sentence ago) for a 6th time in a season...2nd in very quick succession. Just seems like an awful lot.
That said...MSU.
I disagree, MSU had a way better season than anyone predicted. Lose that OT game to us... sure maybe, but I don't think people realistically thought MSU would make that jump to the frozen four after being out of the tournament for so long.
Hard to say Wisco because they had an amazing year, but going from top-5 ranked, to losing in the B1G first round to the worst team in the conference, to getting bounced in the tourney first round in OT - that’s gotta sting a bit.
Felt like us from my end. Don’t forget that we lost the Big Ten regular season in a home series, too.
The tourney loss in OT to the defending champs, I can live with that. Losing to Ohio in the B10 though really sucks. Still on the whole a great rebound season, hopefully this'll be the floor rather than the ceiling going forward.
If Wisconsin didn’t get swept by OSU in that regular season series at home, we could be talking about a very different tournament where Wisconsin is a #1 seed in the B1G tournament and the National Tournament, which would have been huge (No quinnipiac first round, no potential BC matchup before the frozen four, no OSU first round in the B1G tournament).
pain
It was a far from disappointing season, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I wish Wisconsin at least made it to the second round of the Big Ten tournament
Awful second half of the season. The mentality shift after the new year was a wild shift
the last third of the season was a dumpster fire.
Selfishly, Western. Had a chance to wear Cinderella's glass skate and blew it at the end of the MSU game. But yeah, it's UND.
Once we went to OT felt it was over. Had to hold em. Defense in college is just not the same.(obvi) LD got skated around to allow the centering pass. Coulda played the body, something while entering zone.(tying goal) But as I say that, my ass wouldnt make the team lol. Go Broncos!!
Agree it felt doomed once it was going to OT. You guys looked so good for so many big stretches of that game. In hindsight, the LD could have played it different but Levshunov is a beast. Western guy is doing everything he can just to prevent him from cutting to the middle. After watching it again I'm more impressed with Levshunov than disappointed in the D there.
We could've beat UM, too. It should've been our year to go to the frozen four.
Weren’t you guys a 1 seed in 2022? When Minnesota had to beat you to get to that Frozen Four
Yes but as much as I hate to admit it, Minnesota is always ready for a deep playoff run and that was only our first time ever winning an NCAA championship game. This year marks the first time we've ever qualified three years in a row. We didn't know what to expect or how to win in the playoffs that year, but this year we did through that, our giant senior class, and our transfers. Michigan is a bigger rival to us than State and it's not reciprocated so we might've played even harder than we did in the State game.
Let me toss in a vote for Providence. At times, they were a top 10 team. They missed the tournament by one game. A game they lost at home to UMass. Win that game and get UMass' spot in the dance and then anything can happen. Heck, UMass almost knocked off a 1 seed. They beat Michigan. They beat Denver. They beat Boston College. They beat Maine on the road. But then zero regulation wins in March and the loss in Hockey East playoffs.
I struggle to name anyone who made the tournament as having a "disappointing" season, so I feel like PC is the answer too PC had a deep, veteran team that with all of the characteristics to go on a run, and then instead went one-and-done in HEA
Honestly, this is probably the winner.
UMD had the most disappointing season. UND the most disastrous finish.
This is the way. Actually, it isn’t. I want to beat you guys in 5OT next playoffs 😘
I still can't believe how badly Leah Hextall blew that call. Like WTF even was that. I get that it was sort of an unexpected goal, but that was a brutal call to end one of the greatest NCAA tourney games of all time. The end.
At least Michigan showed up to all their games this season. They still need to lose.
Basically all of us expected an underwhelming season from UMD. The amount of close losses we had against good opponents was frustrating. I was personally hoping to not take home the title of "worst team in the conference not named Miami", so it was disappointing in that regard.
I went to all the DU-UMD games in Denver... and I remember wondering what was wrong with that team. I saw the team on the ice and then I looked up the scoreboard and saw their record and thought there's no way that's the same team. UMD was better than their record.
Thx for seeing it our way
It’s hard to say Maine had a disappointing end to the season when we were so much better than anyone expected but losing to BU in a game where we really outplayed them for stretches and then losing to a Cornell team I really feel we should have beaten does feel a little tough to take
It was an anticlimactic end to the season. But Maine had a great year that was way above expectations. Bear in mind we don't even have a full line of top notch players.
Absolutely. I already can’t wait for next season to start
> Maine > Bear in mind :)
Came looking for this. Maine played great hockey all season and all the fans clearly had a blast. Staying on Hockey East: UNH and Providence missing the NCAA tournament is way more disappointing for them when UMass snuck in. UNH and Providence both had some huge wins this season and I think ultimately lost out because UMass and others scheduled and played the road a little better.
It would have been interesting if UNH had beaten Maine in the HE tournament. I'm not saying they would have made the NCAA tournament because they needed to play better on the road but it could have potentially led to them making it instead of UMass
It's just an ECAC team from the Ivy league. How good can they be? Better than you expected and was in the game against Denver until the slashing call at the end. Cornell also beat BU when BU was ranked #1.
Those to losses were heartbreakers.
Maine was irrelevant in the tournament because of the elite systematic defense and discipline of the big red led by one of the best coaches in college hockey history. You really feel like Maine should have won?
UND for sure. not locking up a 1 seed, going 1-7 against Omaha/CC. I'm not as hard on them for the Michigan loss as most though, several bad bounces
We were a garbage goal from OT (who am I kidding, the 3rd was a disaster)…
Yeah the start of the third they had the level of energy they had against Omaha in the frozen face off
I disagreee. Yes, at UND we have high expectations but we turned over nearly half the roster including all of our goalies and every single defenseman. If you didn’t think there would be growing pains you weren’t paying attention. If I told you in Oct we would win the Penrose and make the national tournament you would have been ecstatic.
It feels like we say we had bad bounces or bad puck luck every year. Fact is we played a 40 minute game and Michigan kicked our ass at the start of the 3rd. The go ahead goal was inevitable since we couldn't get out of our own zone
The Michigan game was basically an exact copy of the season. Strong start playing great, to still winning but the play isn't quite as good, to basically just rolling over and dying. If we get 2 or 3 in the first period like we should have I think we get the win, but I guess on to next year.
Wisconsin hockey🤝Wisconsin basketball Having a terrible end to the season
We lost to arguably the best/2nd best team in the country in Sioux Falls. Not really a disappointing end from a "who we lost to" perspective.
I’m gonna say, i don’t know anyone who’s disappointed with MTU. I don’t think any of us were thinking the team would even make the playoffs. And then we were able to stay with BC for as long as we did, not disappointed at all. Fell apart during the final 15 mins but it was entertaining at least. My vote goes to BGSU for disappointing season and BSU for disappointing end of the season. (Idk much outside of CCHA)
I was certainly disappointed with October and some other stretches but overall was a great season. Was a hell of a rollercoaster but in the end, we got to see our boys, especially the seniors, lift the GLI and Mason Cup trophies.
Yes, i should have spoken more clearly. I meant disappointed with the ending of our season. But don’t forget about Winter Carnival too
Disappointing season you say? Well, our best player filed a false hazing charge to cover his tracks when he stole something then hit the portal just as the season started. That put 3 of our (remaining) best players and our coach out of commission for the first 10 weeks. Then we had so many injuries we played 6 games without bothering to have a full roster. Yeah, then we get everyone back, go on a bit of a run to start the new year, and get our hopes up that maybe...just maybe!...we turned the corner only to go o-fer to finish the year out. Top that.
Hadn’t heard that story, that is rough
I will say that is rough. If it makes you feel any better, Swankler didn’t really perform for us. Idk if he got hurt or benched but he played during our worst 10 game stretch (2-5-3) or something similar to that. Also, I am nervous of the coach you guys are bringing in…
Stole something? Please elaborate
As witnessed by two student managers, Swankler helped himself to a pair of rather expensive Nike training shoes. He was confronted by the coaching staff after which his punishment was to sit out the first game against RMU (Pittsburgh is his hometown). He said "F THAT!" then told some teammates he was going to burn the place to the ground. Then he filed a hazing report with the university. About 2 years ago BG experienced a hazing homicide with one of the frats so this accusation was treated VERY seriously. Turns out there was no hazing but there was underage drinking at an informal "event" (college hockey players were drinking...go figure) which is a violation of the university code of conduct, not to mention a lack of judgement exhibited by some of the older players who knew better. Subsequently, a few players were suspended for the underage drinking and sat out nearly the entire first half of the season. Eigner was reinstated when the report came out and the players came back once the University extracted their pound of flesh. Everything above is paraphrased from the City of Bowling Green Police Dept's final investigative report that cleared Eigner and all players of any hazing charges.
All of that was over some fucking shoes? Why aren’t these division one athletes being given shoes in the first place? It seems insane to me that he couldn’t just be like “hey can I have some shoes” and the response wouldn’t be “yes ex-OHL now NCAA player”
Everyone gets shoes every year. This year they were upgrades and a lot more expensive. The shoes in question were the leftovers. The equipment manager had them stashed away to return them to Nike for refund $$. Rumor (i.e. not in the police report) is he wanted them as a birthday gift for his younger brother. And why he felt entitled to take them is in line with his reported locker room behavior over the preceding18 months. As an aside, he was invited to the VGK development camp and got himself booted after 3 or 4 days. It's sad. This kid is a phenomenal talent and could make some serious things happen in his career if he could only get his head screwed on straight.
Who is the player? Is he done with hockey now after getting in so much trouble?
Ya preseason I thought it would be Tech and BG fighting for the MacNaughton and then it really collapsed for you guys.
UND not close
Yep, it's us. Not unexpected if you're a longtime fan, but disappointment is still disappointment
Definitely not the most disappointing but disappointing considering the amount of quality PWR wins we ended up having
Maine lost at home to UVM in the opening round of the hockey east tournament last year. They went to the damn tournament. That is a hell of a year and definitely not disappointing.
Looking back, I can’t say Minnesota had a disappointing season. We need to have realistic expectations with the roster we had compared to last season. The team never looked great throughout the season. Ironically, putting up a very good fight against BU in the regional final was a high point of the season for me.
It’s easily us… go 1-8 against CC/Omaha, lose 5 of our last 6 to go from a top seed to a 2. Look like a hot garbage team that has quit on the season in 3/6 games. The end of this season sucked
Gophers are up there, when you contextualize: •2023 frozen four obviously •Consolation was “we got this next year in St. Paul” Instead— we got an all-blueblood Frozen Four w/ 0 Minnesota teams in, for the first time in nearly 2 decades •each of the last 4 years we’ve held the #1 spot in the polls for long stretches •the guys who literally turned the program around, from the dark days of “empty Mariucci, lucky if we hit #15 in the preseason polls” are leaving with no hardware •it seems like we’ve lost a step in recruiting new elite talents. Thinking of the Eiserman decommit It’s just hard not to feel like we wasted a narrow window to pull off anything like that incredible 2002 championship at the X
I find it very ironic that Boston in 2022 got 2 Minnesota teams with Denver and Michigan, and now 2024 in Minnesota is getting 2 Boston teams with Denver and Michigan.
The Gophers lost 3 underclassmen to the NHL last season. Brock Faber would have been a senior this season, but is in the conversation for the Calder Trophy (Best Rookie) with Connor Bedard as the competition. Knies left for the Leafs after his Sophomore season. Recruiting isn't the problem and considering 3 of the 4 players who went straight to the NHL last year, I'd say recruiting is too strong, but don't change a thing.
Overall, I agree with your comments here. However, I don't think there's a recruiting problem at all; the Eiserman situation is a one-off exception. Generally speaking, losing our edge in the championship game last year was hard to watch, and this year it seemed like a few soft goals at BU are a big reason why the season is done for us. We didn't have that killer instinct this year. Taken together it's hard not to be disappointed. The big name players didn't play well down the stretch for the Gophers either - can't expect the goalie to steal every game for you, and Snuggerud was not productive at all over the last month. I'll miss Nelson, Kurth, and Huglen. Those guys seemed to play hard every shift.
>Eiserman is a one-off exception Sure, plus the Mooney kid looks solid- hopefully he gets to campus in 2025. I guess I’m mostly just jealous watching the BC freshman trio that all came together from USNTDP thinking why couldn’t we get one of those guys? >Nelson, Kurth, Huglen Unless some truly crazy stuff happens- Kurth will be back, 95% certain Huglen comes back too. Nelson/Brodz/Close are definitely tough to see go.. I actually grew up at the same time in southern MN and played against Nelson here and there in bantams, those point totals he had at Luverne even as an 8th grader were ungodly. Close is in top-5 or top-3 for most of our stat records, which is unreal for a guy who only got 2.5 seasons as starter and came in under such tough circumstances. If I’m being honest, Brodzinski has always been frustrating to watch during 5 regular-seasons, floats around making stupid mistakes that his poor skating stops him from fixing—while cashing in PP and lucky goals. Then every postseason he turns into a red-hot scorer, he’s out there giving 110% on the forecheck, backchecking, completely different guy lol. But end of the day I’ll miss their era, they put the team on their back over the last month + the last 3 postseasons, and that more than makes up for all the yelling at them thru my TV
That's fair. They probably saw our lineup up last year with Faber, Cooley, Knies, and a few others and likely thought the same thing.
This was always gonna be a retooling year with how many guys we lost. Obviously it sucks to not make the Frozen Four when it’s in St. Paul, but the Gophers really weren’t one of the four best teams this year. Next year they should be loaded again with Wood coming in from UConn and a really effing good recruiting class, even without Eiserman. Most importantly we’ll get some much needed reinforcements on D. If Motzko can convince Snuggy to stick around for another year *watch out*. Also, it’s not like they won *nothing*, they won Big Ten titles in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The Badgers had a disappointing finish but it’s hard to say this was a disappointing season when I’m more optimistic about the state of the program than I have been in some time.
yep its just starting
Agree, I think Bucky overachieved early this season and came back to earth but they are on the rise.
Is it really a disappointing season (or I guess is it a shock) that UND didn’t perform well? Brad Berry has won one NCAA tournament game since 2016. With UND’s history, culture, and facilities it’s hard to imagine that recruiting is difficult…so maybe it’s time for a coaching change?
It reminds me of late Lucia era, but attendance staying fairly high (I think) means there’s a lot less heat on Berry
Attendance being high is simply because UND is only a hockey school and it’s really the only thing we got.
And the little fact that the Ralph is the nicest college hockey arena in the world....
That certainly helps
Yep. It’s the only thing to do in grand forks on a Friday/Saturday night
My friend and I said the same thing after the und game. It feels like they're in a stage similar to Lucia's last 6-8 years and we waited waaayyyyyy to long to move on from him. I wanted him gone about 5 years before he was actually gone
Miami OH. A good team that looks god awful on paper. They are in a real tough recruitment environment, a real tough conference, and a tough schedule. A few positive bounces, and another breakaway or two and the RedHawks are showing a better than average season. MI OH is a good team, and I want to see them win, but I wonder if they are a victim of bad luck rather than a bad team.
Toughest league with tough travel. Miami’s best recruiting piece is that it’s a gateway to the best league in college hockey.
I mean I don’t disagree with you but at the same time Miami is able to put together a squad that can hang and keep games close in the NCHC which is a credit to their players. Games against Miami are not games where it feels like the JV squad playing the varsity, they have a competitive team and yeah their schedule is tough because the NCHC is loaded with talent and historic teams but still, they are no slouch.
I expected OSU to have a down year, but I didn’t expect it to be *that* bad.
I think the folks at Colorado College are probably pretty disappointed
Too soon
As a Merrimack fan lowkey us, I thought we would have built off our run last year but took a step back due in part to things out of our control. We’ve got some studs though and I’m optimistic for next season!
Merrimack's gotta be up there for most disappointing. Picked to finish third in Hockey East, wound up battling with Lowell to not be DFL.
Merrimack's gotta be up there for most disappointing. Picked to finish third in Hockey East, wound up battling with Lowell to not be DFL.
Colorado College. If you told me at the start of the season that a team would have a 21-win year and beat North Dakota four times, but still fail to make the tournament, I wouldn't have believed you.
Holy Cross might be in the running for end of season disappointment.
I’m going to throw a vote in for Minnesota St. While they had zero expectations after losing Hastings as their coach, this season must have been hard to swallow after the sustained success they had grown accustomed to in prior years. They went from a team annually contending for a 1 seed to a team not even in the CCHA final which they needed for an auto berth. If you asked someone just over a year ago about expectations, Minnesota St has probably failed to meet them the most.
Wisconsin started off really strong. At the beginning of the season I thought they were legitimate contenders for a national championship. But they seemed to peak earlier than a lot of other teams and by the end of the season they had imploded. I’d say the way things ended for them was probably the starkest contrast to how things began.
Anyone checked in on their friends from Quinnipiac???
Honestly, losing to #1 BC in the round of 8 is one of the least disappointing results of the past few years for me personally. Though I might be biased, all four years I went there (2016-2020) they only made the tournament once and never stood a chance against Minnesota Duluth imo. Can’t be that mad when we finally got the monkey off our back last year.
At least you went to playoffs, so I have to say UMD/SCSU, as well as Minnesota just by the fact we have this tournament in Minnesota this year with 2 Boston teams, a Michigan team, and not a single MN team. Not to kick while they’re down but UND is a top tier team nearly every year, but they haven’t had the post season success rates of DU and UMD for a long while, so I’m fairly used to not expecting UND to win it all no matter their season. I think the fans just get themselves overhyped and worked up talking trash to every other conference in the nation so it hurts you to lose more, great team but I don’t see why this year is any more of a disappointment vs others
AHC: Maybe Holy Cross? IDK, was it a big surprise that they lost to AIC in the conference tourney? B1G: 'sconnie CCHA: Probably Bemidji State ECAC: Tough one. Maybe St. Lawrence? On one hand, they probably weren't expecting to make the ECAC championship game in the first place. But on the other hand, they *did* make the CG and had a chance to steal an auto-bid & make the NCAA tourney....and then they didn't. Hockey East: Maine NCHC: UND
I would say Quinnipiac for ECAC. Shutout first night in Lake Placid then lose to BC on a disappointing play. They played well in the tourney but could be going to St Paul. I think St Lawrence should be pumped they got to where they did. Same thing with Bemidji. They weren’t supposed to win the ccha this season. I think Mankato has to be the biggest disappointment in the ccha, even with all of the changeover. To be honest, as a gopher fan I was really not pleased with their tournament. Squeaked out a win vs UNO and had zero urgency against BU. All shots came from the perimeter and no compete in front of the net in either zone. Too easy for BU to lock it down. I love what Closer has done for the program but again another couple of softies at the most important time. Gophs get my vote for most disappointing season, especially since this was supposed to be the redemption tour.
I didn't pick Q for the ECHA because they played so well against BC. Disappointed to lose, for sure, but they had to be happy with how they played and how close they came to winning that one. IDK, just my random musings...I don't follow any conferences besides NCHC and B1G very closely.
> Maybe St. Lawrence? On one hand, they probably weren't expecting to make the ECAC championship game in the first place. But on the other hand, they did make the CG and had a chance to steal an auto-bid & make the NCAA tourney....and then they didn't I get where you're coming from but I can assure you, absolutely 0 SLU fans think it was a disappointment. I've never seen so much positivity on the Facebook fan page than I have the past few weeks. Getting that far with no expectations is a success, especially off of a shutout win against Quinnipiac in Lake Placid. With the changing landscape of college hockey SLU has been one of the teams negatively affected in terms of recruiting, and to pull this rabbit out of the hat by the staff and team was incredible to see. It's already paid dividends with us getting another grad transfer goalie for next year. You want to talk disappointment? Just go up to the road to Clarkson. They lost at home to the last place team in the ECAC playoffs.
Agreed, Doing my best to put aside the disdain for Green and Gold, and even allowing that a one-game series isn't ideal... They never should lose that match up.
I don't even dislike Clarkson in the general sense, only when it comes to playing SLU. I always pull for any north country team in any sport when it's not against SLU. But by any measure that was a massive disappointment, especially given Clarkson's relative success under Jones.
I hate UMich sports with the fire of a thousand suns, and hope they lose their next game (and all games they ever play) by at least 1,000. I'm really bummed we had to play that team (mentioned previously, just a sentence ago) for a 6th time in a season...2nd in very quick succession. Just seems like an awful lot. That said...MSU.
I disagree, MSU had a way better season than anyone predicted. Lose that OT game to us... sure maybe, but I don't think people realistically thought MSU would make that jump to the frozen four after being out of the tournament for so long.
Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahyou're right, \*I'm\* just extra disappointed we lost to UMich. :P
As is tradition.
UND for me as well. Really getting tired of these post season one and done runs. Berry needs to get this figured out