yzerman19

100% agree with a difference between USHL tough and Canadian Jr tough

As for line combos. I think he might've hit on it this weekend. We lost Friday without the Osh. Even when he's not scoring, the other team has to respect the fact that he is on the ice. I see Vande becoming CHris Porter. He is even almost as good looking Vande with Watkins and Kaip is a very strong second line. They can grind in the corners, they can skate, and they can score (this year) As the season evolves, I like some of the earlier combos too, but I don't see them in practice. Clearly Zajac, Radke and Martens must be doing it in practice to keep logging the ice time. They are not producing in games. Although, Radke's presence on the bench and on the ice has seemed to result in the team playing better hockey. I wonder if Hak has thought about moving him back to his "home" on the point. he would be rusty, probably and would be a liability at this point in the season. Oddly enough, despite scoring some goals this year, Kozek hasn't been given the first line assignment with Osh and Duncs. That might be an interesting change up. Duncan spoke highly to the public about Matt Frattin early on, he could maybe get his crack What if we did: Oshie with Duncan and Kozek Vande with Kaip and Watkins Zajac with Martens and Radke Trupp with Frattin and Malone sorry Miller, you're not doing it Chorney and Bina Finley and Genoway Lapointe and Jones sorry Jake, you log ice next year.

The freshmen are playing like freshmen. Marto is -5 this year. Even though Taylor is having a down year from a specatator's perspective interestingly enough he is Even this year, and even on his career. I for one am much more comfortable with him on the ice than either of the freshmen.

unfortunately our Canadian checkers are giving up goals when they are on the ice. I don't expect them to pump many home, but I also do not expect them to get scored on. They've been scored on. My math is slightly flawed in my earlier post, as surely some of the points scored by both Chorey and Finley are powerplay points.

Finley challenged the whole mN bench at the Ralph. He really wanted to go with Stu Bickel, to the point of asking him if he wanted to do it sans helmet and gloves. Bickel did not see that as an acceptable risk. I would love to let the guys police it themselves a little more. Clearly the officials are not. I'd also love to see some of the high school or NTDP boys drop 'em with a seasoned veteran of the saskatchewan or ALberta leagues...it might be kind of comical.

In conference play, we have 30 goals against (excluding the 4 empty netters). Of which, 9 are pp goals against. So, 21 goals have been scored against us even strength. Considering Chorney is even in +/- and he has 9 assists in league play, that means that at least 9 of those 21 goals have come with Taylor on the ice. More than likely there have been a few times chorns is on the ice for a goal without getting a point as well, so if we just assume that to be the case for two Sioux goals, Taylor Chorney is on the ice playing defense for more than half of the even strength goals we've given up. That is not acceptable for a former captain of team usa and a pre-season all-american. Now Taylor logs a lot of ice time, but I don't believe that he skates half the game during even strength situations. Each D-pairing should theoretically play close to 1/3 of the even strength minutes, give or take a litte. Taylor's minutes obviously go up due to PP and PK time. On the same token, we've scored 45 conference goals, with 9 power play goals. We have not notched an empty netter. Joe Finley is a +16. That means that he has been on the ice for a minimum of 16 of the 36 goals we've scored even strength. If we assume that he has been on the ice for a couple minuses, say 2, then he has been on the ice for half of our even strength goals scored. Who would've thunk it. Taylor giving up more goals per minute of even strength ice time than the other D-men, and Finley being out there for more goals scored per minute of ice time than the other D-men.

Big Joe is by far the most improved defenseman this year. Anyone who says otherwise isn't paying attention. When Big Joe came to GF, he was not good. Now, he is feared. He is holding up his end of the deal. I also would say that ZJones is holding up his end. This team is just getting comfortable. I think the lines will be set after this last win at SCSU, and I predict a strong finish.

Our freshmen D are minus in league play. So are our checkers. That is tough to overcome. I agree that there are situational issues. You are going to have more minuses when you are facing the other teams' top scoring threats, but we need our checkers to play even hockey. They aren't going to score very often, so they need to work hard at keeping the other teams off the board. It doesn't seem to me that Taylor was paired with Robbie all season. Was he, and I just wasn't paying attention? I thought he was playing with Lapointe in the beginning. Watkins is second on the team on shots on goal, that's also an interesting stat.

THe minus half of +/- is an important measure. I don't think minus is a byproduct of opportunity. Rather than +/-, just show me goals against while on the ice. We all know that Osh and Duncs will ahve 40 point seasons, how many goals do they give up when out there? Guys like Jones and Finley aren't going to score, in fact they will most likely look for their partner to move the puck up to transition too, so they aren't going to get assists either. Just show me how many goals they allow per game, that's a stat.

If you take out all the penalties from the end of the Wisco game, we probably aren't that much off the norm for pims per game

He had to pick up groceries and his kids on the way home from practice Maybe he was a walk-on. He only played two years...is it posible this guy was really 32 years old? He's on the 1979 roster as a 31 year old.

I agree that Roe has some sick stick skills. He is definitely one of the shifties tand best stickhandling forwards in the league. He is a baby, and I believe the Motzko's adjective to describe VV is more appropriately aimed at his own little whiner.

Sloppy play in your own zone = Losses. You can not telegraph passes, especially in your own zone. I also noticed the turnovers. I also notice that we don't often break out with speed and authority. it seems more tentative, like we are afraid to get beat one on one (except Osh who goes one on one all the time). Anyway, I saw the sloppy play too. Key areas to get better: Powerplay, puck possession in the defensive zone, and break outs Areas that seem to be clicking: Forecheck, penalty kill, transition through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone Areas hurting us that are not our fault: Refs calling weak penalties. Surviving the opposition powerplay is great, but it wears out your penalty killers for at least one additional shift. That's energy that could be used to generate scoring or to play harder.

I hate the attitude of so many of these players (like Roe) who think they can do or say anything that they want and their buddy or the ref will save them. Case in point the Wisco series how many times was there a 3rd man in? Ridiculous. You want to talk the talk, drop the gloves.

We are absolutely no worse than any other team we've played. Big difference might be the manner in which we do it. We are not subtle. We do not pick a fight and then run behind a ref, knowing full well that a helmets and gloves off fight is unprecedented. I saw St Clown pull all sorts of little cheap crap, and our guys just don't take well to that.

You can't blame Chorney for all the turnovers either. The breakout is as much on the forwards as the D. I see wingers at the blue line way too fast. The D then has to try and hit the long pass, which is easily picked off. Wingers have to get down to the hash, short, crisp passes to transition up. If the breakout isn't there, the d need to recompose and simply wait for their forwards to come back. Remember that Marto and Lapointe are both making TONs of freshmen mistakes in our end. Don't blame Chorns, could you do your best work if you were constantly worrying about the guy next to you. It is also pretty easy to point fingers and give examples of screw-ups and times where our D man gets beat. There are many more times where our D men are winning. TC included. If he was playing that poorly, given the number of minutes he logs, we'd be 0-14 in the WCHA.

A defenseman is only as good as his partner. For much of the year it seems that Chorney has been having to give his partners a ton of help. He can't do it alone back there. One very big disappointment is that he hasn't scored a goal yet. I used to love watching him walk in about 15 feet and let a corner-seeking missile go.

Don't forget that Blaker grew up in GF

Agee that there is a lot more than stats, however to call +/- the worst stat is also kind of silly. It does measure you and your line's ability to play both ends of the rink. Yes, there is some luck, but that's why they call it a game. You win and lose as a team. I love +/- as a line indicator and a d-pair indicator if they are doing their jobs. As for Watkins being a bigger plus than Oshie, that doesn't surprise me. There have been many times this year when I have ben disgusted by the d-zone play of our top fellas. Given the point production of the Osh and Duncs, the fact that TJ is a +1 is really a testament to not playing good tight D. (not just on TJ, but on his linemates and the D pairs). By the way, not knocking theOsh, noone debates his skill and hard style of play. It doesn't do you one bit of good if either Duncs or Osh score on every other shift, but the opponent is answering on the opposite shift. Talk about undeserved negativity on Finley. I think that he has played much better all year. He can't play as physical as he'd like, because he'll draw a penalty every time. Bigger stronger kid doesn't seem to matter to the refs in this league. All that being said, the only stat that matters is wins and losses.

I also feel that this team might've turned a corner this weekend. I like the line combos. I thought we rolled four productive lines. Power play still needs a lot of work. Special teams will be crucial come playoff time. Still really disappointed in the penalty calling. Some of it is diving (Roe) some of it is reputation, but there is no way that a WCHA conference series should ever end with one team having 5 power play chances and the other team having 13. One of the powerplays was at the very end of Friday's game, so I guess we can call it 12 chances. 5 vs 12. I'll accept 5 vs 6, I'll even accept 5 vs 7, but 5 vs 12. We are not that dirty, and St CLown is far from clean. Let them decide it on the ice 5 on 5. Power plays should only be called when its a definite penalty that disrupts a scoring opportunity or could hurt someone, or is just blatently cheap. The league should be made aware of this. The video of Roe "doh se dohing" Kaip and then falling down to make it appear as though Kaiper were holding him in order to draw a penalty should be sent to every official in the league.

How about Jon Casey or Bob Iwabuchi?

VV and Kozek both living up to their end of the deal, but I have to give it to VV. Finley had a great weekend this weekend, so maybe the second half will result in his earning of the award.

You must be looking at Frattin's "other ID" according to the roster, he turned 20 last week.

I heard that they were trying to move away from home rinks and move towards "neutral sites" like the X and the Pepsi center...really neutral

I'd rather be the team known for tough play than the team known for never having won an NCAA game