Special teams issues are also maddening.

Our power play is as mediocre as it can be, 39th in the NCAA and while 6th among the 7 B1G teams, it is clustered among 5 that are successful between 17.1-19.2% of the time. Not good enough, but nothing shocking for Notre Dame.

What is really unacceptable is the penalty kill. 51st in the NCAA and dead last in conference. Over the entire season to date we're giving up goals nearly a quarter of the time on the PK. The difference between our PP (.185) and PK (.239) is the worst -- by far -- of any of Jackson's teams. Poulin's last team here had a better penalty kill. Think about that for a minute. Poulin's last team here was the worst college hockey team I have ever seen. For 3 solid months it was incapable of winning a game.

What's worse is that the PK is not just bad, it has been "fireable offense" bad in the games following the 7-0-1 start. Over those 8 games, the PK was successful on 23 of 24 occasions. We even held OSU off the board in the October series as they failed on all 7 of their chances and they have one of the best PPs in the NCAA. Following that first OSU series Notre Dame's PK is startlingly bad, giving up goals 35% of the time.

The only saving grace is that despite the team's awful play since starting out 7-0-1 is that it remains disciplined enough to lead the NCAA in fewest penalty minutes per game. If we were mid-pack there we'd be giving up another goal or two per weekend and wouldn't that play fun tricks with an already mediocre record.

If you want to know why this is the worst 15 game stretch of Jackson's NCAA career, that PK is the biggest culprit.