ZBTMP

That was a pretty heartbreaking loss. Had some great offensive zone execution along with some gritty goals. Somehow our defensemen keep messing up their primary responsibility on 2-on-1s. I get that the secondary responsibility is to take away the shooters time and space and you are relatively blind to where the 2nd man is, but this is D1 hockey. Emberson was clearly trying to take the passing lane away, but all I can say is you are an NHL prospect, do better. Vorlicky just wiffed. The problem becomes, the more times you mess up, the more you goalie start to cheat and then you have a mess. I dont know what the ref called by interference on Inamoto, but that was not a pretty sequence either. Weissbach always seems to be the player who gets caught on the ice too long. His half hearted poke check effort on the last goal, ugh. Oh well. The COVID and Hockey Canada made winning the B1G alittle too tough or a hole.

State Championships are set. Hudson-Verona, Superior-St Marys Springs. Not sure Im a fan of the 2 division thing. I guess it gets Minoqua to state, but youth participation and access to the sport in the community are bigger drivers of success than enrollment. There is no perfect answer but Springs-Superior could have easily been the D1 championship. I guess I didn’t even know Verona was fielding a WIAA team. As for the Badgers, I still think rotating the goalies until the postseason is a good idea. Right now Rowe should certainly be the #1 in the playoffs, but what if he starts to have struggles? You are going to go back to Beydoun after not playing him for weeks during the playoffs? Let the sample size get larger and make the decision at playoffs. If one becomes a consistent liability, sure; but I don’t think that’s the case yet. Certainly Wisconsin didn’t initially respond well when Michigan ratcheted up the defensive zone pressure and tried to take away their space with the puck. I think they can make adjustments, will be a matter of them being able to do it on the fly in a game. Keeping pace with Minnesota is going to be a challenge down the stretch. They’ve been flawless against the lower half of the big ten and relatively unscathed by the weirdness of this season.

Yes, but I am not feeling confident. I watched the last few Gopher games and they have looked so good. My hope is the rivalry game gets the juices flowing for Bucky. I'm just glad to see improvement and reason for hope after the last decade+ of misery. There is some weird emotion. Yea, the reality of the program since 2011 or whatever has made this season enjoyable, but it also feels like now or never. Caufield and Holloway are special talents who don’t come along every year. Yes, there will still be talent in the program but not at that level. I want to like Ryder Donovan, I really do. He is big and fast and easy to see why he was a borderline first round evaluation at one point. But the light bulb hasn’t clicked yet. He doesn’t maintain possession or create chances like his raw talents should. After his hit last weekend, I wouldn’t be upset if he was the health scratch both games. Dhoogie and everyone else is just adding more at the point I still think Wisconsin’s forwards are better than Minnesota. Rotate the goalies, stay out of the penalty box, defensemen don’t turn the puck over in their own end and don’t over pinch, don’t get caught on long shifts and I like Wisconsin’s chances.

Overall, exactly what Wisconsin needed last weekend. Obviously there is a world of difference between the offensive playmaking ability of Minnesota and a depleted ASU but the defensive zone coverage and penalty kill were very good all weekend. Really only 2 breakdowns I can recall. I purposely left off Tyler Inamoto off of the criticism of the defensemen last week. He has looked very comfortable with the puck this season without taking unnecessary chances and played physical without taking penalties. Obviously Friday night was a bit more than you can usually expect, but hopefully he is not out for any length of time. The defense group as a whole was far better with little to no turnovers all weekend and took advantage when an offensive opportunity was there. Rowe looks like the answer in goal for the next few seasons. His NTDP/USHL stats weren’t pretty, but so far he looks comfortable and his puck handling is a bonus. Generally I don’t like the 50-50 arrangements in goal, but for some reason my perception is Beydoun looks better when he is fresh so I’d go 1 night each until more sample is available. Every weekend, Im holding my breath expecting them to fall apart, but we are 2 weekends into the new year and so far so good!

I hesitate to raise my expectations because of how much of a disaster the last almost decade has been, but they look good. I thought Holloway was the best player on the ice especially Sunday. Wisconsin forwards looked better than Minnesota. Gophers took advantage when Wisconsin got caught on a long shift with the bottom lines or a D pinched and shouldn’t have. Would be interesting to know what happened with Ranta and Wisconsin. Oh well. Gophers D and goaltending was far better than Wisconsin though and even if they don’t fall apart this year that is probably going to limit them. Beydoun was fine all weekend and did a good job taking the lower half away. But he got cleanish looks at puck upstairs and couldn’t stop them. Granted its not easy, but an elite goalie stops a lot of those. And the Badgers weren’t able to pick the corners on Lafontaine. Ok the pipes helped but that’s not all luck. Osieki needs to earn his paycheck. Vorlicky had a rough weekend and his 3rd period penalty is inexcusable. Peltonen looked out of place from skating speed and strength standpoint. Kehrer has shown potential this season but I thought he had a rough Friday night making bad decisions with the puck. Ess was out of position a few times as well. Next season could get rough assuming the 3 draft picks are gone. Coulemans should have expectations but asking him, with limited junior A experience, to play 25+ minutes a night and be the #1 d on a championship team isn’t fair. Laatsch still needs to add to his frame and NHL teams must not believe he is able to as he went undrafted despite being a plus skater and 6’5”. Martin should step in the lineup but again, would prefer him as a 18 year old that could be paired with a reliable veteran.

The second one was the correct call. The ND goalie was so off balance because his left leg got clipped by the Verona player driving the net earlier in the play. The only thing that was weird was how long it took them in the replay. The first one... was a stretch that would never be called live without replay.

Im starting to think Granato's heart never really was in this job. How do you have 4 first round picks and another 9 NHL picks and be this bad? Id speculate his plan was to build a winning team and then turn it over to Osiecki. I thought his reported comment to Ryder Donovan when he originally committed to UND that he was going to coach him someday seemed like an odd thing to say.

Goals last night for Caufield and Holloway! An exhibition game but still cool to look up the score and see gme notes on this year's team. Unfortunately, when they get into hockey, it gets harder to get to games as Im finding out. Hoping FS Wisconsin picks up more games this year.

Would help if Wisconsin would put out a product worth watching. 3-7 in their last 10 games and outside the top 30 in pairwise after being outscored 7-1 last weekend in Columbus. Embarrassing penalty kill numbers. Year 3 of the Granato era doesn't seem like it is going as planned. They still have a loaded recruiting class next season, but it’d be nice to get the trajectory pointed in the right direction before they arrive.

Minnesota has 58,000 registered hockey players, Michigan had 49,000 registered hockey players with a high % of its population close to the Canadian border and population. Wisconsin has 19,836. Hockey is bigger in those states. Maybe Colorado is a reasonable comparison with both CC and Denver (im not counting AF), but those schools don’t have to compete with the large state public university. The best bet is SNC decides to go D1 for hockey and somehow works out an exemption to let them exclusively play D1 hockey (like RPI), but they seem fine with being a D3 power from my very distant seat. Now there is some chicken and egg thing. Certainly more high quality hockey would grow the game but there isn’t the gap in the market here. Illinois may be another story, but..

Wisconsin played its best game yesterday against #1 Notre Dame at the United Center. Got the first goal, Berry made some strong stops, and Wisconsin buried a few more opportunities. Notre Dame didn’t play its best game but it did show Wisconsin’s potential as they out played Notre Dame most of the game. Hopefully this sparks something. Would be nice to break Penn State's dominance of head-to-head matchups this weekend.

Cole Caufield did indeed end up committing to Wisconsinover the weekend. Up to 23 goals in 17 games. A lot of events happen between then and now, but the 2019-20 team should be loaded.

3 wins in the last 8 games, 6 of which are against teams that will not be in the tournament, isn't going to get it done. 26th in pairwise. Frederic has been held off the score sheet for 4 straight games. My hope was he would improve upon his >1ppg last season but not so far. Its a long season and hopefully Hayton gets hot for a extended period of time, but frustrating last few weeks. Maybe still a season or 2 away.

I didn't have a means to watch Saturday's game but 5 goals on 12 shots seems like it was a bit fluky. Still will hurt if they end up on the bubble come spring, but I don’t know that it is concerning in the long run. Hopefully as the 3 freshmen defensemen mature and Greenway gets back, they can hit their stride in the second half. On a loosely related note, Stevens Point native (and recent Buckeye decommit) Cole Caufield already has 13 goals in just 9 games with the US National U17 team playing primarily older USHL competition. Wisconsin recruiting is pretty booked, but you'd think they can find room for him.

Bumping this thread as Wisconsin hockey now starts in less than a week. I have yet to find a schedule that includes any kind of television schedule. I think missing the tournament this year would be a disappointment. Maybe last season raised the bar too quick and they have to replace Kunin up front, but its hard to imagine them not having some improvement between the pipes with Hayton and on the blueline. Interesting recruiting class with 4 forwards all 5’9” or shorter. I know the fact that commits happen earlier now limited who was available once Granato took over, but not what I typically think of with Wisconsin hockey.