Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

[WiscDC]

11/28/14 Mens Ice Hockey vs. Ferris State
11/28/14 Mens Football vs. Minnesota

Houston we have a problem!! Looks like the Ferris State game will be "closed" to the public too...what a joke. ..

What? They've played hockey games the evening after a football game plenty of times before.

(P.s. oldtyme...it's intra-squad, not intersquad, when everyone's on the same squad. Sorry, I had to.)

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

My biggest gripe beyond the garbage Eaves is putting on the ice is his handling of the program.

1. When did Wisconsin become a program that is only relevant once every 4 years?
4. Bo Ryan has created an identity and culture around his program while making the Kohl Center one of the toughest venue's to play at.
5. While Mike Eaves boring and non-winning program has fostered a half empty Kohl Center with season ticket holders growing tired of the same old hype and excuses.
6. When Don Morton's attendance dropped in half and the program was floundering, what happened? He was fired.....it is time for a change!

these points are irrefutable.

..It doesn't matter to me if both Fabbro and Jost come in or not unless players of similar caliber begin to follow them to Madison and Eaves retains that level of recruits 1 or 2 of em annually,...mainly because #1 as you allude to. Wisconsin should NEVER be a relevant program once every 4 years. That would not actually be relevance, it would be far less than that.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

2. The Badger Basketball program had an inter-squad scrimmage that was open to the public and drew 8000 fans (almost as many people who now go to a hockey game), while Eaves keeps his scrimmage with St. Norbert's closed to the public.
3. The Wisconsin State Journal has multiple articles about a Basketball inter-squad scrimmage, is "Bagless Andy" too afraid of Eaves to write anything about being tied by a DIII program that also dressed 6 freshman after only 4 days of practice??

Wisconsin hockey also had an intrasquad scrimmage that was open to the public. It was held in Green Bay before the season started.

Guess who is also having a closed door "super secret scrimmage" this year? Bo Ryan. The Badgers have a closed door scrimmage against DePaul.

As for Baggot, I doubt he really cares if Eaves' feelings are hurt or not. It's not as if he was trying to keep anything a secret, he tweeted out score updates.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

What? They've played hockey games the evening after a football game plenty of times before.

Yeah, they've had marathon weekends of a home series and a football game numerous times in the past, just like the ones where there's a basketball game on Sunday afternoon.

In fact, those have been sellouts a lot in the past. In other words: that's not the issue.

[drop_the_puck]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

Even if the team turns it around this year (which I hope they do), starting with a poor record every year has to be killing attendance. Hard for the average fan to get excited and go buy tickets for an unranked, winless team. I noticed BU, BC, NoDak, and the rodents are all off to good starts, which generates buzz about the team, event during football season.
I know the games aren't on the same nights very much, but a lot of my 20-30 year old friends that went to Badger games last year are highly attracted to spending their hockey dollars on the Capitals games instead of Badger games so far this year (cheap parking, $1 beer night, cheap tickets). Hopefully this doesn't further knock down the attendance. The product needs to get better if people want to choose USHL over Div.I hockey.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

My biggest gripe beyond the garbage Eaves is putting on the ice is his handling of the program.

1. When did Wisconsin become a program that is only relevant once every 4 years?
2. The Badger Basketball program had an inter-squad scrimmage that was open to the public and drew 8000 fans (almost as many people who now go to a hockey game), while Eaves keeps his scrimmage with St. Norbert's closed to the public.
3. The Wisconsin State Journal has multiple articles about a Basketball inter-squad scrimmage, is "Bagless Andy" too afraid of Eaves to write anything about being tied by a DIII program that also dressed 6 freshman after only 4 days of practice??
4. Bo Ryan has created an identity and culture around his program while making the Kohl Center one of the toughest venue's to play at.
5. While Mike Eaves boring and non-winning program has fostered a half empty Kohl Center with season ticket holders growing tired of the same old hype and excuses.
6. When Don Morton's attendance dropped in half and the program was floundering, what happened? He was fired.....it is time for a change!

Bingo.

[bakdraft21]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

I doubt any badger fan, journalist, or even Eaves himself expected anything less then a struggle this year. Had Kerdelies stayed....we still would have been bad. You can't turnover what the Badgers did and try to replace it with a bunch of newbies and expect success....unless those newbie's are an elite group. While I like the group of frosh and think they may be the foundation of a nice run in a year or two...they are awfully young and will have some growing pains. Hughes will be a high draft pick, but he just turned 18. Wagner is just 18. Dougherty is a great young prospect, but he's also 18 and the Badgers turned over 5 dmen leaving him with not much else to work with other then fellow frosh. I like Rockwood as the next in the line of smaller playmaker/facilitators ala Zengerle/Davies, but those guys showed up as 20 and 21 year olds...not 19.

The current situation is very much Eaves responsibility, but the result are not indicative of his coaching ability. The situation is an inditement of his roster management which has been feast or famine since he arrived with a 4 year cycle of a large class bubble moving through the program and the timing of that cycle dictating whether we are aweful (first year) to mediocre (2nd-3rd year) or nationally relevant (last year). The guy can coach, he can develop players (both for the pro and college level)....but he has never been able to even out his classes.

The kids will take their lumps this year, but be better for it next. We'll add some really nice talent next year in (especially) Boesser, Kunin, Malone, and Opilka (might be the best goalie coming into college hockey). If Eaves could manage to add a Fabbro/Jost combo to Fredrick/Freytag....that might be a real special year. Problem is Wisconsin has to many advantages to not have special years more frequently then every 4 years.

Oswego put 5 past him sat night on 16 shots,if this is the same kid Opilka, that plays on the U-18team... but hey we all have bad nights

[bakdraft21]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

The scrimmage results are no where to be found in the news. I wonder why?

lol if u go to the D3 SNC thread......3-3 tie and a disallowed goal for SNC that seems ......good game for both teams from what I read.

[Kdaddy1968]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

If Middlebury shows up instead of NoDak, we're sunk.

Post of the week

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

Oswego put 5 past him sat night on 16 shots,if this is the same kid Opilka, that plays on the U-18team... but hey we all have bad nights

Considering he was running a .947 sv pct in the 7 previous games so far this year, I guess you're probably right.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

I have to say I find all the hoopla over the practice or scrimmage... or sorry... I mean game!

...er... strike that. I mean World Championship of the World -- Hockey Spectacular!!!

Anyway, I find it a little mystifying.

[XYZ]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

I have to say I find all the hoopla over the practice or scrimmage... or sorry... I mean game!

...er... strike that. I mean World Championship of the World -- Hockey Spectacular!!!

Anyway, I find it a little mystifying.

The reason it has been at the forefront of the discussion for so long was because UW decided to not allow anyone to go watch it. Maybe such things happen more often than I realize (regardless of division), but I can't recall any in the 17 years I've been intently following DIII. If it were an open exhibition I think it would have been treated the same way the handful of other DI-DIII games in recent years have been: namely, as an intriguing novelty and unique opportunity to see a rare match-up. The seemingly confounding decision by UW itself is what created a stir among a lot of fans. Without that we'd have seen about a quarter of the discussion.

[PSUChamps2001]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

Wisconsin hockey also had an intrasquad scrimmage that was open to the public. It was held in Green Bay before the season started.

Guess who is also having a closed door "super secret scrimmage" this year? Bo Ryan. The Badgers have a closed door scrimmage against DePaul.

As for Baggot, I doubt he really cares if Eaves' feelings are hurt or not. It's not as if he was trying to keep anything a secret, he tweeted out score updates.

Apples and Oranges. You're talking two DI schools in a scrimmage. Facts are Facts, Wisconsin was skeered (I don't think this extends below the coaching staff/players, this was the higher ups) they might lose/tie/not blow out SNC and didn't want to deal with the embarrassment when in fact its been proven over the course of the last few dozen years that the top DIII teams can "compete" with DI teams. The administration keeps coming up with these bogus excuses, "didn't know if it would count against our sos", "didn't have the staff to run two events". Wisconsin missed a great opportunity to do something great with in the hockey reigns of college hockey in the state. 8 out of 10 times Wisconsin probably wins. It's the fact certain suit and ties at Wisconsin wanted to hide this game in the corner and hope no one noticed just incase they got embarrassed. I did hear ESPN was looking at adding them to the "Not Top 10" list for tying a lonely DIII team.....

[GBBadger14]

Any news on the NoDak series being televised/streamed?

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXIX: Yes, this is the Rumpel Rink!

Still to be determined if they'll let the public see the games at all.