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Not a hockey fan, but did Blashill leave Murray with a lot of solid talent, and when that talent graduated we're back to what we were before Blashill arrived?

Can Murray recruit, or is he more of a game manager?

Western certainly had a gem in blashill. He understood the college game, and Also hired solid assistants. Not only is he gone, but both assistants are too.

I'm sure Murray knows hockey. You don't coach a while in the NHL, with success, without knowing how to coach. But I agree he either isn't assessing the talent well, or just isnt getting them to play well.

I was at last nights game. We outplayed st cloud, but still, we seemed very sloppy throughout. Sloppy passes. An inability to clear. Unnecessary icings. This is coaching.

I hope we see a turnaround soon. A bad season can snowball, and honestly, we can not afford to find ourselves at the bottom end of this conference. That might have long term effects.

FINALLY.....some one sees the light, Brovol! Murray's systems are NOT cut out for the college game and he is NOT using his players effectively. Its been coming for a long time....but most on this site just won't or don't want to see it!

I don't think it's time we hit the panic button and start questioning things. SCSU is a solid team. They won the regular season last year, were ranked in the top 5 nationally much of the year, and have played nothing but top 10-15 teams this year so far and have won a few of those games. So their record was deceiving.

We played well but a few costly mistakes sunk us. That's what happens when you play good teams. This conference is brutal. Can get beat any given night by anyone. You have to play at a high level every game.

Well I agree that it's still early, but we are getting behind the 8 ball, and the nchc is not the type of conference that you can count on extended winning streaks. So.....let me know when its time to hit the panick button.

(11-15-2014 08:57 AM)BroncoDetroit Wrote:  FINALLY.....some one sees the light, Brovol! Murray's systems are NOT cut out for the college game and he is NOT using his players effectively. Its been coming for a long time....but most on this site just won't or don't want to see it!

Murray's systems had nothing to do with last nights loss, in fact, had everything to do with keeping a very offensive minded team like SCSU to a dozen 5 x 5 SOG for the entire game, and of those, maybe only a couple of scoring chances. And on the offensive end, Murray's system generate so many scoring chances, unfortunately, we came up short with only 3 goals, which isn't bad by any means.

And sinse you fired off this shot, which players is he not using effectively?

(11-15-2014 06:12 AM)brovol Wrote:  Western certainly had a gem in blashill. He understood the college game, and Also hired solid assistants. Not only is he gone, but both assistants are too.

I'm sure Murray knows hockey. You don't coach a while in the NHL, with success, without knowing how to coach. But I agree he either isn't assessing the talent well, or just isnt getting them to play well.

I was at last nights game. We outplayed st cloud, but still, we seemed very sloppy throughout. Sloppy passes. An inability to clear. Unnecessary icings. This is coaching.

I hope we see a turnaround soon. A bad season can snowball, and honestly, we can not afford to find ourselves at the bottom end of this conference. That might have long term effects.

I got nothing against Blashill and Ferchwiler was/is a very good coach. But I'm also starting to see Murray's new assistants thumb print on his team and I really like what I see.

Hockey is hockey and there is no "right" or "wrong" system for the college game. It all comes down to execution and more often than not, puck luck.

I think Murray has done a very good job assessing his talent, both in recruiting and his line ups. This year I've seen so many different forward line combinations and we probably will see several more do to the depth and options Murray has.

We very much out played SCSU last night, in all three zones. They had their moments in our offensive zone were we struggled to clear, but you are not going to shut down a good team every shift.

It's way to early to push the panic button. Sure, I want to win every game by the score of 10-0. But that's not going to happen. In this tough conference, it's more of a long distant race vs a sprint. We win 3 of 4 vs SCSU, we are doing just fine. 2-2 doesn't hurt you, but doesn't help you either, unless everyone in our conference is doing their part in non-conference play, then 2-2 does help us.

Keep in mind, SCSU spilt with #1 MN, UMD swept SCSU in their barn and last night UMD beat MN in Mpls. DU splits with BC in Boston and we spilt with DU at their rink. We are right there with all these teams. We should of swept DU and we should of swept SCSU this weekend. We were/are the better team in these two series, but we are beating our selfs.

What I've seen so far this year is that we can beat any and all of the teams in the NCHC and we match up very well vs all of them.

(11-15-2014 12:38 PM)BroncoFever Wrote:  Keep in mind, SCSU spilt with #1 MN, UMD swept SCSU in their barn and last night UMD beat MN. DU splits with BC, and we spilt with DU in their rink. We are right there with all these teams. We should of swept DU and we should of swept SCSU this weekend. We are the better team, but we are beating our selfs

What I've seen so far this year is that we can beat any and all of the teams in the NCHC and match up very well with all of them.

Spot on, Johnny Fever. I agree. The team is still finding itself and AM is still experimenting with line combinations. I have a feeling that we come out strong tonight and score some goals.

(11-14-2014 09:47 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Not a hockey fan, but did Blashill leave Murray with a lot of solid talent, and when that talent graduated we're back to what we were before Blashill arrived?

Can Murray recruit, or is he more of a game manager?

We are just starting to see some of Murray recruits come in. Keep in mind, recruiting commitments are usually 2-3 years out before they show up on campus. Even though Murray is going into his 4th year at WMU, many of the previous recruits that have came in over the last 3 year are Blashill recruits that Murray still honored.

McCarron (AM), a Montreal 1st rounder, signed a NHL contract before he even played his first Bronco game. Finding a comparable replacement on short notice is impossible.

Osterlee (JB) a late-early departure was not expected and it's next to impossible to find a comparable replacement on short notice. Osterlee was one of the last Edmonton cuts before the start of the season and is seeing top pair minutes in the AHL

Iacopelli (AM) a Chicago 3rd rounder, lead the USHL in scoring last year with 41 points, was scheduled to come in 2014/15, but feel short of the NCAA clearing house requirements, so he will be coming in 2015/16.

SO-Dries (AM) as a freshman played a key role last year on a shutdown line and is one of the teams captains this year

SO-Fleming (AM) and SO-Dienes (JB) are starting to become impact players.

SO-Rebrey (AM) saw limited playing time last year and this year he has been very impressive, showing some serious speed.

SO-Novak (AM) saw limited playing time last year, was out the first 6 games this year and came in last week in his first playing action with 2 goals.

FR-Muir (AM) a Edmonton 4th rounder, is doing a pretty good job so far, show flashes of greatness, though he has struggle with some injuries as of late

FR-Tiffels (AM) is also showing some flashes that he can be an impact player and is getting more opportunities as a result

FR-Nong Lambert (AM) has been impressive, though he is finding it hard to crack that top 6-9 role do to our depth.

FR-Goff (AM) I like what I see though his playing time has been limited in that third pair role.

I'm sure I'm missing some AM recruits. I can only imagine how good this team would be this year if Osterlee had stayed, McCarron not sign and Iacopelli been eligible.

That's the price of recruiting at a higher level. Juniors and the NHL come calling.