Funny that the usual posters who only show up to give Bonin a hard time have been completely silent lately. It was clear to anyone who was looking objectively that this team was going to struggle, and as it stands next year isn't looking any better. Losing Mittlestadt and Thomas on the back end is going to be painful considering who will be coming in and none of the current starters project to be able to play at the level of those two. It is time for a coaching change, let someone new who is willing to embrace the current college hockey landscape build this program back up. Not saying it has to be done during the season, but a change should be made this offseason.
think the challenge is the mass discrepancy in what Bob sold vs what we're seeing on the ice and then the choice from Bob to stand pat on this roster. He's an experienced coach and I 0% buy the bonin take he's just mailing it in. I've watched him too long behind the bench and he reacts too much for a guy who doesn't care (like Lucia who'd just stand there stoically while the team looked like absolute shit). This looks like its hurting him but that does not mean he gets away without blame in it.
If they were playing hard checking, grittier hockey from the guys he brought in with the idea he said we were going to get older and heavier so you could tell it was a clear transition year while older, more finesse guys moved on, sure that's fine. Think that style fits with guys like Hendrickson, Zeimer, Whipple. But instead we're not finishing checks and guys are floating out there. You knew you'd get freshmen mistakes (like the crap that leads to WIs goal post PP where one guy holds up play and 3 guys come towards him with no one reading and communicating its painfully obvious its a hold up play and he's going to dump the puck in, where there should be a waiting Gopher defender instead of everyone acting like a peewee skating to the puck), but that's the part I don't get.
We'll find out this offseason if we have an AD who's going to take hockey seriously. Bob didn't manage the roster well with some lean years in MN recruiting and didn't decide to go address it with adding some guys who were either even older/grittier/experienced in the portal or some high end talent in the CHL which was his choice. He either needs a GM to help with that or we need to move on.
Obviously I think Bob was thinking he'd have some guys be here this year that weren't who would've buffered some of this by being our clear top line who instead have chosen to play AHL minutes or ECHL minutes who really should've stayed (Chesley, Kurth, Moore), but that's on him to have addressed that. There are a couple guys who look like they should be good middle 6 players that have come in (Pritchard, Moe) and some then Mooney is a top line talent coupled with some solid guys like Zeimer and Hendrickson. But there are also too many guys who look like mixes between 4th liners/healthy scratches and Bob should know that seeing them play. I'm not saying this is pitchforks time, but he's going to need to change with the times or this will continue with what he's currently put on the roster and in the pipeline. They don't all need to be 1st rounders (DU has shown that, WMU has shown that), but if they're not going to be 1st round skill guys, they need to work their asses off, hit and play smart hockey. I'm fine with either style, but the horses we currently have don't fit a full roster to play either of those ways
