WATERLOO - With many emotions running through his head following the completion of his seventh season as the Waterloo Black Hawks' head coach, P.K. O'Handley tried to pinpoint what didn't go right.

But with only minutes to reflect, O'Handley could only skim off the top of what is probably millions of notes - some mental and some written on paper.

O'Handley has talked countless times this season about how this year's team was possibly his most talented, but he wasn't certain whether it understood how good it could be.

"We had skill and we had a lot of talent," O'Handley said after the team's 8-2 season-ending loss to Green Bay in the first round of the USHL playoffs Wednesday night.

"I don't know if we had the … when the chips were down … I don't know if we had the right stuff."

O'Handley pointed to the possibility of his team being complacent.

"I think to some degree we were too old," he said. "A lot of them played for one championship and some of them played in two Clark Cup finals."

In the end, however, he placed a lot of the blame on himself.

"It probably sits right here," O'Handley said. "I pushed and pushed and pushed and I don't know if we ever realized our potential or where we could be."

O'Handley expects only a handful of players to return next year.

Seventeen of the Black Hawks' 23-man roster have committed to college and forward Brock Montpetit is considering offers from Northeastern and Colorado College.

The only uncommitted players are veteran forwards Scott Pavelski and Eddie Olcyzk, a pair of rookie forwards in J.T. Brown and Matt Johnson and goalie Parker Milner.

Forwards Derek Arnold (Maine) and Tyler Barnes (Wisconsin), both rookies this season, could be candidates to return as could first-year defensemen Zach Palmquist (Minnesota-Mankato) and Dan Sova (Michigan Tech).

"We had a lot of skill this year," O'Handley said. "And, you never can't place a premium on skill. But the players have to buy in and they didn't buy in this year.

"There are going to be a lot of changes. We're going to turn over a lot of players. We'll probably return a handful at best. We will see what comes."

BLAKE TO REPRESENT USA - Former Waterloo Black Hawk Jason Blake has been selected to play for Team USA at the 2009 IIHF Men's World Hockey Championships in Switzerland later this month.

Blake, in his ninth year in the NHL, is coming off his best professional season. He had a career-high 38 assists while scoring 25 goals in 78 games.

He was a member of the Black Hawks for two seasons from 1992-94.

During the 1993-94 season, Blake had 50 goals and 50 assists in 48 games to earn first team all-USHL honors.

Contact Jim Nelson at (319) 291-1521 or jim.nelson@wcfcourier.com