And the team-friendly contract he signed last summer pretty much sealed his fate. With the organization in win-now mode, it seemed like he was going to be sought after in every trade conversation.
Unfortunately, he’s ended up in the absolute worst situation in the NHL and might be stuck there until 2023.
last night for Buffalo
that came pretty close to calling him . . . not tough enough. Perhaps getting away from Cassidy just may rejuvenate Bjork. If he had stayed one more year at ND, we may very well have been admiring a trophy.
I'd like to think he would, but he was pretty invisible against tUMD in the semifinals the previous year.
if your are referring to the 2016/17 season. While we got drubbed in the semis, we don't even get to Chicago if it weren't for his play in the Regionals.
headlights" look than Notre Dame that night. They were so overwhelmed by the moment you could see the flop sweat from the 300 level in the United Center, and the 300 level at the UC is about 12 miles from the ice.
But you're right about the play of Bjork in the regionals, had the game tying and game winning goals in the regional semi-final and assisted on all 3 Irish goals in the regional final. In fact we wouldn't have sniffed the tournament without him that season. I'm not sure but I believe his 1.33 points per game were as good as a Notre Dame player has produced since the program returned to D1 in the 1990s.
Our performance in the Regionals was preceded by a drubbing we took two weeks prior in the HE semifinals by UML (a team we never beat on the road during the regular season during our time in HE).
I don't think I ever sat through a poorer performance by an ND Hockey team going back to my days as an undergrad. It was a portent of things to come I guess in Chicago.
Even with Bjork's play in the Regionals, we were fortunate to get to the finals there. Minnesota must have hit the crossbar and posts about five times in our semifinal game.
any of the 2004-2005 season in person. The latter half of that season was astonishingly bad, the worst I have ever seen a college hockey team play. Even Ric Shafer's first CCHA team playing 4 scholarships short was more competitive. I still find it hard to believe that just 2 years later 10 of the guys on that squad formed the heart and soul of what is still the best Notre Dame hockey team I have ever seen.
I stopped following after I graduated and didn't really start again until they joined the CCHA. As I don't get back to campus much, the only time I got to see them play in person was when they were in HE - something I've really missed.
Having ND's Frozen Four opponents run together is a good problem to have, certainly.
I didn't see the regionals, so I can't comment there, but I did watch ND play at Merrimack that year, and Bjork was excellent in those games.
He's been all over the lineup, never in one place long enough to establish any rhythm. Certainly the onus was on him to make the most of the chances he did get - he clearly wasn't shooting enough and his production is way down from last year - but when you are relegated to fourth line duties and the PK those chances aren't always there.
Be neat to see him on the ice with Fogarty and Oglevie though.