hockeytherapy13

Hobie the only bright spot in this game so far.

Went 15 mins between our SOG

Looks good other than one thing that sticks out to me. I’d like to see Swanson on a line with scorers. He has elite passing skills so why not put it to use in a series where goals will be very hard to come by? Someone talk some sense into me please if I’m missing something (which is very likely).

Yeah with Cornell being the heaviest team in the country, I'm hoping we can come away without any injuries since we are already banged up enough as it is.

My point exactly. He's never been here to be a high-minute player. He's a role guy and he owns that role as someone who has never been to jump into the portal or try his hand elsewhere. He's here to help fill gaps when needed or help out when we are injured. One of the series in Duluth when we had multiple injuries he came in and even scored a goal so he's had a random chip-in a couple times during his 4 years. In this day and age with the portal, it's a gem to find a guy willing to stick around for sake of the team when you hardly get any reps. Which is why I say it's good to find a teammate like him who is going to be slotted in wherever and whenever as needed.

He's a senior this year so hopefully we end up grabbing a guy who can be as versatile as he can be. Hasn't gotten many reps in during his time here but that's his role and he's played it well.

What do you think they do with forward lines when you’re missing your top center? They could keep last week’s lineup mostly intact by moving Jammer up to top line center and have Littler (a big, heavy body to help combat the giants of Cornell) slide into the 4th line with Croal and Schmaltz. Or maybe they throw Wilkie up on the top line and shuffle the deck below. Either way, Perron needs to be with someone who can make plays with him or be a finisher because he was buzzing strong on Saturday and just didn’t get on the scoresheet the way he deserved. I like the idea of 7-9-18 together. They don’t have much size but they would certainly be a scoring threat when out there

This is a great question that I've seen answered quite a bit by Adam Wodon (CHN) and Jim Connelly (USCHO) who give the same answers every time. Bad losses hurt more than good wins help.

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