Jackson and Muffet McGraw can sure commiserate

with each other. Neither has experienced a season as frustrating as the ones they are slogging through right now.

The hockey team is 3-10-3 in its last 16 games and you have to go back to Poulin's final season to see a stretch that was that bad for as many games. Even the three teams Jackson's coached here that finished under .500 never struggled that much for as many as 16 games.

It's worth noting that his teams at Lake Superior State never even once had a 3 game losing streak. That is astounding to me. His worst Lake State team -- 1995/95 -- did have a couple of 4 game winless streaks, but that team managed to find their way out of a relatively tough stretch to win a CCHA playoff title and a game in the NCAA tournament.

Another astounding thing to note about Jackson's tenure way up north is that his Lake State teams literally won a championship every single year he was there. Yup, either a CCHA regular season banner, CCHA playoff banner or NCAA championship banner was unfurled following each of his 6 seasons. Had he won at that kind of a rate here, there would be 10 or 11 more banners in the rafters of the CFIA, including 2 or 3 NCAA championship ones. That is how good those Lake State teams were.

The difference though between McGraw's basket ball team and the hockey team is that her team started the season literally brand new. The hockey team was returning a lot of what they had last year. To be sure the departures (early or otherwise) of guys like Bobby Nardello and Andrew Peeke meant there would be a rough night or two, especially early on. But the guys who returned, especially Cale Morris and Cam Morrison, had most believing this team would be highly competitive and an end to the NCAA tournament appearance streak wasn't greatly feared.

Obviously there is still more than enough time for this team to right the ship. But that is only if they are capable of it. Maybe it's just a bad hockey team.

Right now I'm reminded of the 2009-10 and the 2011-12 teams. The 11/12 team started out great and then fell apart. A pre-season number one and after 16 games still ranked number 2 and playing like it. The hype and glory of the new barn proved to be too much and the team limped to a finish one game over .500. The 2009-10 team lost their season opener to Alabama Huntsville on a goal with 5 seconds left in the third period and never really kicked it into gear. It was also saddled with a lot of injury issues. But both of those teams were also beset by off-ice problems and a lack of effective leadership to move everyone in the right direction, and a number of players who cared more about -- as the cliche goes -- the name on the back instead of the name on the front. I was close enough to the pulse of the teams to get a sense of what the problems were. This one I have no idea, it just has a look and feel to it that seems similar to me.