{"id":27654,"date":"2005-10-07T18:11:14","date_gmt":"2005-10-07T23:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2005\/10\/07\/200506-notre-dame-season-preview\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:19","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:19","slug":"200506-notre-dame-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2005\/10\/07\/200506-notre-dame-season-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2005-06 Notre Dame Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
In history, there are no real beginnings.<\/i> — Warren Sylvester Smith<\/p>\n
Out with the old, in with the new. Or should we say that everything old is new again?<\/p>\n
Not to imply that Jeff Jackson is old, by any means.<\/p>\n
There’s a certain symmetry to Notre Dame hiring Jackson after firing Dave Poulin. Jackson is a coach hired to resurrect a program that once hired Poulin for resurrection purposes. <\/p>\n
Perhaps the Irish should change their name to reflect what they strive to become — the phoenix of college hockey.<\/p>\n
Jackson inherits not only the 2004-05 last-place CCHA team, but one of the worst teams in the country last season. The Irish team offense was dead-last in NCAA play last year — in the whole NCAA, mind you, worse than Army, worse than Air Force, worse than Robert Morris — just one year after Notre Dame received an invitation to the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n
The defense didn’t fare much better, and in nearly every statistical category, the Irish were where no big-name school wants to be. Not one Notre Dame player scored as many as 10 goals in 38 games last year. But Jackson came into the season not wanting to point the finger of blame.<\/p>\n
“I told the players I am going in with a clean state,” says Jackson. “I made an extreme effort not to evaluate them. Last year, it was difficult to say what happened or who was responsible.”<\/p>\n
Jackson says he made an effort not to know his players until official practices began, to give each individual on the team a chance to start fresh. The result is interesting. The captain for this season is junior T.J. Jindra, hardly a familiar name in the CCHA, a winger with four goals and five assists last year.<\/p>\n
Fans may know more about alternate captain Mike Walsh, but everyone will have to learn a little more about the other two alternates, Jason Paige and Chris Tuck.<\/p>\n