It was ugly. If you didn’t or couldn’t watch the top-ranked University of Denver Pioneers lose their second straight game, this time by a score of 7-4, against the Western Michigan Broncos, consider yourself lucky. It was bad.
There isn’t much more to say other than the Pioneers blew a 2nd period 3-0 lead and virtually imploded in the 3rd period. They did manage to score twice on the power play, but that’s about as positive as you can get about this loss. From goalie play to defensive zone play to offensive zone pressure, everything else was just bad.
At times this weekend, the Pioneers looked lost on the ice and it seems they’re sorely missing the on-ice leadership of captain Tariq Hammond right now. While I don’t have an update on his rehab process, I’d be absolutely shocked if he’s not playing next weekend.
not our night pic.twitter.com/HBy8hguDYV
— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) November 5, 2017
In the end, there isn’t anything to say except that it’s a damn good thing it’s only November 4th and not March 4th. The Pioneers must improve. And they will. Jim Montgomery is a good coach and he knows what he’s doing. Be patient and, as always, #TrustTheProscess.
Denver returns home next weekend to take on the top-ranked-to-be St. Cloud State Huskies. You won’t want to miss this series and tickets can be acquired at denverpioneers.com.
I was not lucky. I watched both games. Terrible game management with the lead both nights. The Pioneers need to learn to go for the knockout punch when they have an opponent on the ropes. Let`s hope this is the worst weekend of the season.
This was one of the most regressive meltdown road weekends I’ve seen in nearly 40 years of watching DU hockey. To score nine times in two games is almost always a good thing, except when you let the opponent score 13 times in two games, blowing two and three goal leads as if you were never ahead in the first place. DU was out-scoreed, out-shot, out-hustled, out-worked, out goal-tended and yes, even out-coached in both games.
Monty made two big errors this weekend – one was playing a freshman in goal on Friday night who had never played a league game or a road game before and was not ready for it. You always break those goalies in with home game and relief appearances first, not throwing them to the wolves in the NCHC.
His second error was burning his timeout too early in the Saturday’s game, so he didn’t have it when the roof caved in the third period – slowing down the game at that point to regroup and reset perhaps could have saved them – perhaps.
While we can credit WMU with a great effort both nights, DU’s work rate was simply not good enough in the their period when the game was on the line. And that’s a character issue that must be fixed.
There is plenty of time to right the ship, but all of DU’s weaknesses were terribly exposed in a humbling display of poor defensive hockey this weekend, and let’s hope some home cooking and the return of Tariq Hammond can’t come soon enough.
I’m glad these games weren’t televised. Based on what I’ve heard regarding both games, I may have thrown the TV out the window. What a letdown. I’m shocked.
Next weeks games at Magness against St. Cloud are must see. St. Cloud knows what to expect and they will also come out swinging.
I would love to be watching practice tue. wed. and thur.
Don’t know if I can watch practice, but I’ll certainly be able to hear it from across town.
Gut check early in the season is better than the alternative.
St. Cloud and NoDak coming to town in the next 2 weeks. Then a road trip to Duluth. The work ethic needs to ramp up asap. Balls to the wall.
I was not lucky. I watched both games. Terrible game management with the lead both nights. The Pioneers need to learn to go for the knockout punch when they have an opponent on the ropes. Let`s hope this is the worst weekend of the season.
This was one of the most regressive meltdown road weekends I’ve seen in nearly 40 years of watching DU hockey. To score nine times in two games is almost always a good thing, except when you let the opponent score 13 times in two games, blowing two and three goal leads as if you were never ahead in the first place. DU was out-scoreed, out-shot, out-hustled, out-worked, out goal-tended and yes, even out-coached in both games.
Monty made two big errors this weekend – one was playing a freshman in goal on Friday night who had never played a league game or a road game before and was not ready for it. You always break those goalies in with home game and relief appearances first, not throwing them to the wolves in the NCHC.
His second error was burning his timeout too early in the Saturday’s game, so he didn’t have it when the roof caved in the third period – slowing down the game at that point to regroup and reset perhaps could have saved them – perhaps.
While we can credit WMU with a great effort both nights, DU’s work rate was simply not good enough in the their period when the game was on the line. And that’s a character issue that must be fixed.
There is plenty of time to right the ship, but all of DU’s weaknesses were terribly exposed in a humbling display of poor defensive hockey this weekend, and let’s hope some home cooking and the return of Tariq Hammond can’t come soon enough.
I’m glad these games weren’t televised. Based on what I’ve heard regarding both games, I may have thrown the TV out the window. What a letdown. I’m shocked.
Next weeks games at Magness against St. Cloud are must see. St. Cloud knows what to expect and they will also come out swinging.
I would love to be watching practice tue. wed. and thur.
Don’t know if I can watch practice, but I’ll certainly be able to hear it from across town.
Gut check early in the season is better than the alternative.
St. Cloud and NoDak coming to town in the next 2 weeks. Then a road trip to Duluth. The work ethic needs to ramp up asap. Balls to the wall.
What’s a “proscess?”
Denver has a tradition where internal team slogans are intentionally misspelled as something of an inside joke. In 2016, it was “No Ragrets” )a misspelled “Regrets”) a saying which which was featured as a bad neck tattoo in the movie “We’re the Millers.’
As for the “Proscess” , we know where it comes from – it’s actually a seven point plan for how DU likes to play each game. You can read more about the specifics here: https://thecoachessite.com/2016/04/07/process-jim-montgomery-denver-hockey/
As for the purposeful misspelling of “process” to “proscess”, that origin I am not sure about, but most people outside of Denver just think Denver can’t spell….
What’s a “proscess?”
Denver has a tradition where internal team slogans are intentionally misspelled as something of an inside joke. In 2016, it was “No Ragrets” )a misspelled “Regrets”) a saying which which was featured as a bad neck tattoo in the movie “We’re the Millers.’
As for the “Proscess” , we know where it comes from – it’s actually a seven point plan for how DU likes to play each game. You can read more about the specifics here: https://thecoachessite.com/2016/04/07/process-jim-montgomery-denver-hockey/
As for the purposeful misspelling of “process” to “proscess”, that origin I am not sure about, but most people outside of Denver just think Denver can’t spell….
Yikes..gotta go from a scrimmage type effort, to having to bring your A game for the next 3 series against the toughest competition in the country. I think they will respond well, but it should be an interesting week of practice, for sure.
Yikes..gotta go from a scrimmage type effort, to having to bring your A game for the next 3 series against the toughest competition in the country. I think they will respond well, but it should be an interesting week of practice, for sure.