Second Half & Playoffs

[airmail]

I started this off as a poll, but there were so many possible answers. What do you all think happened to our beloved Sioux around the middle of the season? Around the "water cooler", I've heard everything from "too young" and "started too hot", to "no leader on the ice" and "someone was screwing around with the other guy's chick." (IMHO, all possible reasons)

What are your thoughts?

[skateshattrick]

There is a whole post on this, "Last game reviews . . ." The bottom line: The Sioux were good, but not nearly as good as it appeared the 1st half. There is no depth at forward, goaltending is mediocre, there is no offensive-minded defensemen, and the Sioux specialty teams are not good. They need to get away from dump and chase hockey and get back to speed, passing and quick transition hockey. On the positive side, they are close. If they can replace a few players who have not produced, get a few more scorers (Murray should be an impact player), get a Ballard-type defenseman, and get a good goaltender (Sedevie?), they can compete for a national championship.

[dickgraham]

Defense & goal tending- Everything starts in the nets and moves out from there and we had average goal tending at best while our opponents in the 2nd half of the season had good to great goal tending when we played them. The defense, while talented, were many times out of position and/or made bad choices on passes and turned the puck over to opponents that allowed opposition players to skate in free on our goalies.

Offense- As many an analyst pointed out Thurday afternoon, UND's offense was not in synch. We had very little team offensive flow with all three forwards involved in moving the puck up ice as a unit. Too much individuality. I can remember several games in the 2nd half of the season and the playoffs where one Sioux forward was pushing the puck up on offensive with no help from the other forwards. Passes into the slot with no Sioux players within 5 yds of the pass.

The main thing missing, as Tim O'keefe pointed out on Thursday's radio broadcast of the Ferris State game, was mental toughness.

Youth- Sorry I don't bye into the too young bit. UMD is as young as we are, Minnesota has a younger average age team.

DG

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

It's simple...we didn't bury the puck. Goaltending was a bit of a factor, but for the most part, we hit too many posts and missed too many open nets in the second half of the season. When you out shoot your opponent by over 30 shots and still lose the game......something's amiss

Youth has a little bit to do with this, but is even less of a factor than goaltending. This is a long season, and it takes it's toll on the fr. and so.'s. Remember, the sophomores played about 2 weeks longer than they did last year.

[jk]

There is no depth at forward,

goaltending is mediocre,

there is no offensive-minded defensemen, and

the Sioux specialty teams are not good.

They need to get away from dump and chase hockey and get back to speed, passing and quick transition hockey. On the positive side, they are close. If they can replace a few players who have not produced, get a few more scorers (Murray should be an impact player), get a Ballard-type defenseman, and get a good goaltender (Sedevie?), they can compete for a national championship.

Have to disagree with you on some of this.

Depth at forward. This was the deepest Sioux team since the title team in 2000. The next year had only the Panzer line; 2002 had only the Bayda/Skarperud line. This season obviously had a top-producing first line, but the second was good and produced reasonably well. Massen fading down the stretch had a lot to do with it becoming less dangerous. The third line of McMahon, Prpich and Hale was solid nearly all the time, with good possession and chances; if Hale could have finished a little better, their production would have been there as well. The bottom line is that I was not uneasy when any of the top three lines were on the ice. I didn't feel that comfortable in either of the two preceding years.

I was disappointed that the fourth line didn't play better. I thought with a pool of Fylling, Canady, Connelly and Genoway, a very quick and productive fourth line would have developed. Fylling played most of 2001 on the third line, and Canady and Connelly played most of 2002 on the third line. To top it off, Genoway came with some pretty good preseason talk. Canady's injuries and the complete failure of Connelly and Genoway to produce scrapped that plan.

Goaltending is mediocre. Hard to argue there, if you're talking about the whole season. But Brandt was as good as the opposing goalie for the last few weeks of the season. He made some saves he had no business making against Denver, UMD and Ferris. I definitely haven't been a big Jake backer, but I have to give him credit for stepping up.

No offensive-minded defensemen. This is one of my pet peeves with Sioux nation. Following is my post from a different thread:

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Schneider, 43 games, 11-30-41. To me, to take the view that UND needs an offensive defenseman, you have to crane your neck to see around one that's standing right in front of you. Sure, he's not as slick on the move as Murphy was, but then who is? He doesn't possess the unearthly calm with the puck that Roche has, but who does? But he just had a stunning offensive season:

Preissing 42 games, 52 points

Ballard 43, 41

Schneider 43, 41

P. Martin 43, 39

MacKenzie 41, 32

Plus he did that while being better defensively than Murphy or Williamson. I have no problems with Schneider being on the PP point for the next two years.

---------------------------------------------

In addition, Fuher finished tied for tenth among WCHA defensemen in scoring.

Ballard's a great offensive player, but if he's so head-and-shoulders better than Schneider, how did their production end up the same? Andy's not getting the respect he earned, IMO.

Specialty teams. I agree with you here. For some reason, the PP has almost always been weak under Blais. Even when it had Blake and Panzer on it, it seemed like a PP was more a momentum killer than an opportunity. It was like, let's get back to 5-on-5 so we can get going again.

The Sioux are solid. They are close to being very good. With the kind of goaltending that Brandt delivered at the end of the year, they will be hard to handle next year.

[sprig]

Very nice numbers for Schneider. And defensively, much more solid than Ballard, as well as former Sioux offensive defensemen of the past few years (hard to match Patrick). I think the Sioux have what they need at defense, especially if D. Hale comes back for his senior year.

[skateshattrick]

JK --You cannot be serious when you say that Schneider is better defensively than Murphy and Williamson! He's not even in their league, particularly Murphy. Murphy played the body better, held the zone better, was much better in transition and yes, was much better defensively. Additionally, Schneider is not close offensively. If he was so good, he would play the point on the power play rather than a forward like Lundbohm or Fylling. I think Schneider has potential, but he constantly takes slap shots that are blocked by defenders rather than stepping around or just getting a wrister on net, and mishandles passes at the point and fails to hold the zone. I know Schneider is a local boy, and we love to hate Ballard, but I saw Ballard score huge goals against Ferris State and CC down the stretch because he is such a good skater and puckhandler and moves to the middle of the ice. I would be interested to see how Schneider did against the top WCHA competition like UM, CC, Mankato, Duluth and St. Cloud, and see how many of his points were against subpar competition like Canisius, AAU, Wisconsin, Brown, Bemidji State, etc. There is no bigger Sioux hockey fan than me, but I am also objective. The Sioux still lack the offensive defensiveman that they need for the transition game and power play.

[jk]

Against Michigan, MN/UND (as appropriate), CC, Mankato, Duluth, SCSU and Denver:

Schneider 23 games, 18 points

Ballard 20 games, 16 points

Against cupcakes: Canisius, Niagara, Princeton, UAA, Brown, BSU, ALabama, Mercyhurst:

Schneider 12 games, 14 points

Ballard 5 games, 9 points.

I never said one bad thing about Ballard. He's a great player. But I ask again: If he's so much better offensively than Schneider, then why the even production? Schneider did it against the good teams, just as much as Ballard. If you want objective, there are the numbers.

As for the defensive comparison, Murphy holding the zone better isn't a defensive characteristic, but an offensive one. And I agree that Murphy was much better there. I absolutely disagree that Murphy played the body better. Making contact is one thing, but being strong enough to physically move the guy is another, and Schneider has both Murphy and Williamson in the strength department.

The only thing I can remember about Williamson defensively is his bad pinch at Yost with three minutes left in a tie game; sadly everything else has been blocked out of my memory.

So we disagree about some former Sioux greats. Not really a problem as I see it.

[The Sicatoka]

As I recall, the powerplay units for most of the season were (conference PPGs listed):

Parise (5), Bochenski (6) and Massen (4) (or Prpich (1)) up front with

Lundbohm (2) and Schneider (4) at the points

and

Spiewak (3), Notermann (5), and McMahon (2) up front with

Fylling (0) and Fuher (3) at the points.

We're comparing Schneider this season to Murphy or Williamson. Our memories focus on Murphy or Williamson's senior seasons. Andy's just a sophomore. Before Andy's done we will see.

[skateshattrick]

JK--Well put. We can agree to disagree. I think you are underrating Murphy's strength. If Schneider can get to his level, he will go down as one of the all-time great UND defenseman. Murphy would be in the NHL now if he were bigger. The Wild have brought him up a few times, but keep sending him down.

[Five-HoleFrenzy]

Only Schneider numbers splitting up regular season and playoffs and also coming up with an even split between good competition and so called poor competition:

19 games with the likes of the three bottom WCHA teams UAA, Wis, MTU plus Canisius, Niagara, Princeton, Brown, Yale, and Bemidji.

7 goals 16 assists 23 points

19 games with teams such as Mich, SCSU, MSMU, CC, Denver, Minn, and UMD

4 goals 9 assists 13 points

5 playoff games with Denver, UMD, and Weasal State

5 assists

Coming from a objective viewpoint as a Gopher fan but one who also has an interest in UND, I find Schneiders numbers stand up very well by themselves. Certainly they compare well with Ballard's numbers so he fills the offensive side quit well. Where the Gophers may have an advantage is that they have 3 offensively skilled defensemen in Ballard, Martin, and Harrington. You have Schneider but if Fuher (25 pts) or someone esle could step up offensively that would help your transition game.

Both Schneider and Fuher will be Juniors next year so I would think you will see a nice improvement from them. With Smaby added to your already strong group this is looking like a strength for your team. Adding Brady Murray and Drew Stafford will be a big help. If Parise stays, and I think he will, you will be much better at forward. Also it looked to me like Jack Brandt stepped up as the top goaltender and if you can get one other goaltender out of the rest to step up you will not have the worries you had this year.

In my opinion, for what it is worth, UND and Minnesota will be the favorites to win the WCHA next year so keep your heads up UND fans, from where this gopher fan sits the future looks bright for the Green and White .

[sprig]

The only thing I can remember about Williamson defensively is his bad pinch at Yost with three minutes left in a tie game; sadly everything else has been blocked out of my memory.

I'd almost forgotten, and you had to remind me. Because of that pinch, I've always thought he was poor defensively. It was a glaringly bad pinch, you could see it was bad and that the odd man rush was coming well before Mich cleared the blue line in their own end. I remember screaming at the TV well before the puck (and Michigan players) made it through the neutral zone. I got a lot of crap from Sioux fans (don't remember where) suggesting that the Sioux needed a smart defenseman like Lidtke (sp??) on the blue line (a solid stay at homer). Have no idea how Lidtke played over his Sioux career, but he was sure good (defensively) in the 97 FF.