hockeytherapy13

This team seems like it will Progress faster than that team. Plus that year had older guys that were role players playing big minutes when we had other guys that should have been up the chart. Our young D corps did well this weekend against one of the most gifted offensive teams in the country. The young pups have gotten some good reps against 2 very different types of teams and held their own

TJ was too good last night to change.

This has aged very accurately haha

Giving this one a bump. Hockey puns on this page should get extra credit

1 even strength goal all weekend. And it was only because of a poor line change by Kato. Yikes

That pair Junenvil and Komzak was beyond bad during the exhibition. Both on ice for 2 even-strength goals and both were ugly. I’m guessing those 2 will rarely be on the ice at the same time because they would be a liability. Assume someone else will pair with them each time they are out. This game could get scary because Kato will be forechecking hard knowing out youth and lack of speed outside of our top 3 D tonight. But Strathmann getting elevated to a top 4 and Jubenvil getting thrown into the fire will pay huge dividends down the road.

Hobie deserves a start. If TJ would have been lights out then the choice would be clearly to stick with him. TJ was good, not spectacular, so let’s get our recruit some reps.

The quote saying we returned 83 goals, although true, needs a little bit of context. We scored 151 goals last year and Blake either scored or assisted on 60 of those goals, indicating he played a role in 40% of every goal we scored last year. We have a ton of depth this year, but replacing Blake’s points is going to be an uphill battle some nights because depth doesn’t always give you that go-to line or go-to guy that you can always count on when you’re trailing a goal or 2 in the 3rd period. Hopefully one of these lines pops off the page or maybe each one will be rolling a different night but there has to eventually be the one(s) you can always rely on.

I would defer to others who have a better eye than myself but I’ll take a shot deep into the dark here -Boisvert played the way you hope a freshman in his first game plays. Cautious but didn’t seem to make glaring mistakes. Loved that he was willing to shoot the puck a couple times when it presented itself. He was decent in the dot for a skinny guy so his range and experience at center at lower levels makes me think he stays at center next weekend -Croal seemed willing to get to some dirty places and press the issue. Solid at back checking but clunky at times (the theme of the green team that night haha). Guessing he plays on the 4th line as a wing instead of Littler -Littler is an older freshman but still needs to grow into that huge body to get up to speed of college. He’s an extra skater kind of guy for now or the first guy just barely out of the lineup. See him as a good junior and senior like Kunz -Poor jubenvill was paired with Komzak who set him up for failure. I believe that pair was on the ice for 2 even strength goals against. Hard to get a reading on him but I’m guessing he’s either extra skater or first man out (he and littler will flip a coin for that) -Strathmann was better defensively than I expected. He seemed to have better puck management than Emery did but had several soft passes (yet another green theme that night). It was obvious he was outmatched size-wise because he didn’t come away with the puck much during one on one board battles. Either way he seems like a lock for the lineup and I imagine he gets some power play reps in a month or two.

Please give me a line that includes 7-15-18 this coming weekend. Those guys each had a decent game and it seemed like they that got put together in the 3rd period and was starting to get a little chemistry rolling. Too little too late. Not sure if you blow up all the lines and start from scratch or what you try. I've been hard on him off and on but Schmaltz really had a good game compared to everyone else. But the defense was scary how bad it was with Macdonald maybe being the one who looked lost more often than anyone else. Emery had 2 turnovers in a single shift and had 2 more turnovers in the game, so maybe he needs to be paired with someone other than Macdonald for the first game. Do we keep Livanavage and Zmolek together or break them up to keep each of them with one of the younger guys? It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

They were ashamed of the performance, as they should have been. When Brad asked if there was anything they liked in their game tonight, all 3 of them were dead silent which seemed appropriate because there wasn't a single positive thing that presented itself in the game.

You don’t actually thing It was implied by him that it’s 100% team and 0% coaching, do you? If you’ve followed this coaching staff at all over the last decade you know they own the bad results and know they are the ones to steer things where they need to go. Not sure if that’s what you meant (I may be confused which happens a lot) but if you thought he was fully deflecting to the team and not the coaches I think you may have misinterpreted things.

This is worth 8 mins of your time as it’s one of the most honest interviews you may see from this coach. Berry calls everything out so it’s a great “real talk” moment for him. It’s especially good for those of you who think all he talks about is “culture and a full 60”. I get sick of the rhetoric too but this was some real honest criticism of our play. This mindset is what gets the wheels going the right direction.

This might be the best 2-sentence summary of last night’s game. Coaches have some massive work to do with getting the boys to playing as a 5-man unit in all 3 zones next weekend against a team that took care of their opponent just fine last night.

I really wish they would have pulled the goalie at some point within the last few minutes. At least to get some 6 on 5 practice. Thats a situation that will come about in the season and to not even take a whack at it for the sake of reps seemed like an odd coaching decision.

Even if we play 50% better than we did tonight, we would likely still get beaten by providence.

This was the big problem. No ability to generate offense is a massive concern for a team that is supposed to be offensively deep

I’m fine losing an exhibition. There just isn’t anything to be positive about in this game. Too far to go before playing a top-15 team next weekend

Heck they even changed goalies. But it doesn’t matter because we aren’t getting grade A chances

For a team with so much offensive depth they have a long ways to go before that starts to show. If every team that has decent 5-man structure can keep us away from getting below the dots most of the game, we are going to have to figure some things out

They are so well structured as a unit in the d zone

I think the energy is there but the lack of offensive chemistry is what the concern is for now. They can’t enter the offensive zone with momentum or maintain pressure there. The first game always has rust but I’ve been watching other teams’ first games this weekend and a lot of them are looking sharp against other D1 teams. Either way I love some adversity in the exhibition game cuz it gets them working harder

Jake schmaltz on the power play….this is seriously concerning that we didn’t learn from last year

Something tells me those 2 are going to be fighting hard for that 4th line spot. Also guessing one or the other will be the extra skater some nights. But Jubenvil will likely be extra skater too some games. Glove that these guys have to battle hard to get into the lineup

Yeah these are looking great. Hope they can get some chemistry with these. Wilkie must be scoring a bunch in practice because you know Swanson is going to be paired with a pure shooter