hockeytherapy13

Sweeping St. Cloud was already a great thing. I’ll take more of that please

Now that Swanson is acclimated to the college level and starting to heat up at the end of the half, I wouldn’t mind seeing him with Boisvert. I know for a while the James-Boisvert-Strinden line was looking good but it’s started to fizzle with Strinden having low production (great 2-way play, though) and James not really having the hands to be a great finisher or a consistently smooth passer. I doubt they’ll do it right away but if Boisvert isn’t getting enough looks they could try Swanson up there. Obviously no one can skate like James and Swanson can’t replace Strinden’s speed and physicality but keep one of them on the line and replace the other with Swanson. He is ready to not be buried with Kunz and Wilkie this weekend.

Hoping for split. Feeling confident that the PK goes above 80% this weekend. This is the turnaround for the PK. Even without Zmolek, Berg is back and the freshies know what college hockey is so the PK is going up for sure.

Looking at the team stats, ASU is even better than I had thought. They have 7 players averaging 0.75 or more points per game, 2 of whom are above pt/game and one can assume Lucius will be playing a high end game right away. From an RPI SOS standpoint they are rated 18th and we are 25th, so it’s not like they’ve feasted on cupcakes. Our boys have a tough one on their hands this weekend.

I think that's a fair assessment. The top 12 could be set but that 13th player should still be up for grabs. Because although plus/minus is only a snapshot of a player's skillset, Littler's is too good to just write off, especially with his limited ice time. His foot speed clearly isn't the best but he's definitely worthy of playing over Monty some games because he is better at forward than Monty is at defense, which is most likely where Monty would get slotted in during most game situations. With how poor the PK has been, I don't see them removing Croal altogether but I'm guessing Little and Monty each see 1 game this weekend.

Berg is back in. Who comes out of the lineup Friday night? Littler has only 1 less point than Wilkie in LESS THAN HALF the average amount of ice time. He’s already proven his worth to stay in the lineup with 2-way play and makes hay with his limited ice time. Croal is an absolute grinder with speed and kills penalties very well along with good even strength 2-way okay. Also only 1 point less than Wilkie in essentially half the games and less than half average ice time. Maybe he and Littler alternate on the 4th line or maybe Croal is the extra but I wouldn’t want them out of the lineup. Montgomery is a multi tool, has an A on his jersey, has one more point than Wilkie (haha), and will do anything he is asked to do, but he’s often out of place defensively and doesn’t. In my hot take opinion, I think he should sit. PS I’m not hating on Wilkie, I’m just comparing a player with tons of playing time to guys who, other than Wilkie’s faceoff numbers, have proven themselves to be just as worthy as other players. What does everyone else think here for what they should do for Friday’s game?

We should not expect a sweep in our favor this series and ASU should not be looked at as an inferior opponent. Overall they are just as good and might be better than we are. ASU has been on fire as of late (took it to Denver IN Denver) and they have high end skill. I’ll be happy with a split because I think we’ll be hanging on for dear life in our D zone all weekend.

I think if we played Cornell in December we would have swept them. Woulda coulda shoulda. Getting swept by them combined with the loss and tie to Bemidji are the reasons we have very minimal wiggle room in the 2nd half.

I’m not one of the Eeyore types on this board, but this sounds like an underwhelming recruit. Especially with all of the opportunities with the CHL now but for all we know, Berry and company are about to land a big one

It was a broken hand. And he still dominated faceoffs.

https://www.flohockey.tv/articles/13275113-team-usa-world-juniors-roster-analysis-breaking-down-the-defensemen Chris Peters is pretty surprised about the omission of Emery and the addition of Kleber and Ralph

I guess I can see how they could be worried about some stuff regarding his turnovers and processing when the puck is on his stick. Obviously he’s notably better than most freshman defensemen because he kills plays with his long reach like a maniac. But I could see why there may be a gap or 2 they want him to fill (pun intended) before next year. Or maybe he’s dealing with an injury like the rest of our team.

https://x.com/SCSU_hockey_pbp/status/1869050739655581716

In the interview, Enga insinuated that Berry instructed Schlossman Friday after the game to write an article about Thoreson running the goalie and how he played in USHL. Somewhere between 25-30 minutes into the interview, I can’t remember exactly where. But that’s a different level of grasping at straws and chucking sour grapes.

10/10 savage response. That's great.

There was something that seemed odd last night about a team coached by Berry. Did you notice that late in the game it was tied and we were playing to WIN? We weren’t playing “not to lose”. F2 was pressuring and not staying too high, they smelled blood in the water and went for it. Same thing in OT, they went all in. Don’t get me wrong, we could have lost twice in OT haha but Berry had them go for the kill. A pleasant surprise.

Yeah this would be a great line and would also ensure Swanson gets on a line better suited for his offensive needs. He has to be with at least one guy with higher skill who can finish. We still have yet to see “the line” who is going to take the game over and be the one who can always be relied on. We’ve seen flashes of it with 26-9-21 but it seems like the consistency just isn’t quite there yet. The final go-to big line might need Perron somewhere in the mix.

If you can believe it, I think Geno might even be getting worse…

Getting swept by Cornell and a loss/tie to bemidji are going to continue harming us. It’s going to take a lot more than a home sweep (I guess 1 and 2/3 wins) to level us off due to bemidji and Cornell being less than stellar lately.

I was very wrong about what we’d see this weekend. Major props to the guys for having the mental toughness to stay in the game after going down 3 separate times.

“At the end of the day, you’re a F***ing pu$$y”

I didn’t get to see the game so now I’m really curious. Are we guessing coaches were throwing words because of a nasty scrum at the end of the game or cheap Play one way or the other? Not often you see Berry do that with another coach so it had to be something pretty bad

One thing to note about St. Cloud is that their SOS is ranked 4th compared to ours being at 34th now. Just gives some context to how SCSU might be, xG be darned.

True but if we had a defense playing as well as theirs I can assure you our overall save percentage would be higher too because less quality shots would be getting through. They are already playing stingy defense the way a tourney team would play (see Denver’s 2024 NCAA scores). Closing out 1-goal games takes everyone on the ice. Semptimphelter was pulled in the first period of a game for the first time ever in his career this season. Is that because he got worse as a goalie? No, it’s because he’s been absolutely hung out to dry multiple times since we haven’t figured out how to properly protect the house yet. And I say “yet” with great hope that we somehow get that together haha.

Why move him when he’s having such a productive season so far? (Ahem, Sarcasm emoji) I was wondering the same thing, though. We all know his history is big numbers at the college level at center but it’s not happening here. He either needs a change in position or to hang out on an energy line for a while to see if that sparks something. Having him in a top-6 scoring role is holding back the whole team 5x5 and that won’t fly against Clown. He seems defensively reliable and is good in our own end which is probably why they keep him at center but he might need a little change up.