Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

[Buckeye22]

I didn't see the game, but from the radio broadcast, it sounded like a lot of the Gopher shots over the first thirty minutes weren't of very high quality: from far out with no screen. They started scoring once they went hard to the net. Go figure.

Ya that's true. When I looked up in the 2nd period and saw Minny had 40-something shots already I was pretty surprised. It didn't seem like it.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Star Gazing has returned. See the WCHA 2016-17 Thread.

Star Gazing for the Saturday Game will have to wait for Sunday Evening. Crazy busy weekend.

For now, I'll just say that both teams played with a lot of courage and congratulate the Gophers on their hard earned win.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

I didn't see the game, but from the radio broadcast, it sounded like a lot of the Gopher shots over the first thirty minutes weren't of very high quality: from far out with no screen. They started scoring once they went hard to the net. Go figure.

Thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately, I did not make it to Saturday's game and was just going by the box score. That shots on goal stat kind of jumped out at me (57-19)! Thanks for the tidbit about Sarah Potomak's goals in Friday's game. She is obviously a gifted player and I think we will see her in the Olympics soon.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Star Gazing for the Saturday Game will have to wait for Sunday Evening. Crazy busy weekend.

For now, I'll just say that both teams played with a lot of courage and congratulate the Gophers on their hard earned win.

To paraphrase the late Dennis Green, the Gophers were who I thought they were (which is one of the top teams in the country), but I do believe our program is in good hands with Coach Muzerall and is making progress. I have been pleased with the effort and competitiveness of our team so far and am enjoying the process.

[D2D]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

...I do believe our program is in good hands with Coach Muzerall and is making progress. I have been pleased with the effort and competitiveness of our team so far and am enjoying the process.

Coach Muzerall seems to have taken many of the same concepts to OSU that she learned under Coach Frost, including use of such concepts and terminology as "process", "culture" and the players "buying in". And of course given the success Minnesota has had, why wouldn't she?

[Reggie44]

Coach Muzerall seems to have taken many of the same concepts to OSU that she learned under Coach Frost, including use of such concepts and terminology as "process", "culture" and the players "buying in". And of course given the success Minnesota has had, why wouldn't she?

The culture appears to be Kassidy Sauve for now. Still a bit of a talent gap.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

The culture appears to be Kassidy Sauve for now.

Calling Kassidy a "cultural phenomena" may be laying it on a little thick. But her star shines brightly. See the WCHA thread.

Still a bit of a talent gap.

No one's disputing that. D2D & '86 certainly aren't.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Calling Kassidy a "cultural phenomena" may be laying it on a little thick. But her star shines brightly. See the WCHA thread.

No one's disputing that. D2D & '86 certainly aren't.

Teams like Minnesota and Wisconsin may have more National Team/Olympians than we do, but I don't feel the talent gap is as wide as it used to be. There are a lot of great players out there and Minnesota and Wisconsin cannot stockpile all of them.

[crutch]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Teams like Minnesota and Wisconsin may have more National Team/Olympians than we do, but I don't feel the talent gap is as wide as it used to be. There are a lot of great players out there and Minnesota and Wisconsin cannot stockpile all of them.

True, but the real issue is depth. Minnesota and Wisconsin gradually bring in freshman playing them as third and fourth line wingers or fifth and sixth d-men. Ohio needs to play their freshman immediately, in key roles. Ohio only has 2 senior players and I dont believe either played on Saturday so its trial by fire. The only time Ohio could compete would be to play 3 defense and 4-5 forwards but that is not sustainable over the course of a game or a weekend. The fact that the games are relatively close bodes well for the future.

I was at the game on Saturday. Yes, Minnesota had a lot more shots, but as pointed out above, many were from far out that make for easy saves. Minnesota and Wisconsin shoot from everywhere. As soon as they cross the blue line they shoot. A great goalie like Sauve directs the puck to the corner, to the D or just swallows it up. Conversely, Ohio does not shoot very often, they look for open players instead of blindly shooting it. Instead of shots, I tend to look at scoring chances. Minnesota may have had about twice the scoring chances but both teams had their share.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

True, but the real issue is depth. Minnesota and Wisconsin gradually bring in freshman playing them as third and fourth line wingers or fifth and sixth d-men. Ohio needs to play their freshman immediately, in key roles. Ohio only has 2 senior players and I dont believe either played on Saturday so its trial by fire. The only time Ohio could compete would be to play 3 defense and 4-5 forwards but that is not sustainable over the course of a game or a weekend. The fact that the games are relatively close bodes well for the future.

I was at the game on Saturday. Yes, Minnesota had a lot more shots, but as pointed out above, many were from far out that make for easy saves. Minnesota and Wisconsin shoot from everywhere. As soon as they cross the blue line they shoot. A great goalie like Sauve directs the puck to the corner, to the D or just swallows it up. Conversely, Ohio does not shoot very often, they look for open players instead of blindly shooting it. Instead of shots, I tend to look at scoring chances. Minnesota may have had about twice the scoring chances but both teams had their share.

Thanks for this information, Crutch. I tend to see things as you do regarding SOG. Yes, one team can outshoot the other by a wide margin, but was it really a good scoring chance? That is why I think the SOG stat does not always tell the whole story as some here seem to think. If the player gets to the blue line and fires it into the goalie's bread basket or lobs it into their glove hand, it counts as a shot. To me, that does not constitute a legitimate scoring chance. I am in total agreement with you regarding SOG versus scoring chances. A real case in point with that was our game at Wisconsin a couple Saturdays ago. We were outshot by a wide margin but were leading 1-0 until Wisconsin scored a power play goal with less than two minutes to go in the game. I also agree with your point that these close games with us being a young team bodes well for the future!

[Buckeye22]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Thanks for this information, Crutch. I tend to see things as you do regarding SOG. Yes, one team can outshoot the other by a wide margin, but was it really a good scoring chance? That is why I think the SOG stat does not always tell the whole story as some here seem to think. If the player gets to the blue line and fires it into the goalie's bread basket or lobs it into their glove hand, it counts as a shot. To me, that does not constitute a legitimate scoring chance. I am in total agreement with you regarding SOG versus scoring chances. A real case in point with that was our game at Wisconsin a couple Saturdays ago. We were outshot by a wide margin but were leading 1-0 until Wisconsin scored a power play goal with less than two minutes to go in the game. I also agree with your point that these close games with us being a young team bodes well for the future!

I didn't get to see the Wisco games so I can't speak to that, and yes a lot of Minnesota's early shots on Saturday weren't great, but still. In the case of Saturday's game at least, 57-19 does do a pretty could job of telling the story. Good shots or not, the first thing you need to do to get a shot on goal is get into the offensive zone and near the net, and we were just totally outpaced by Minnesota when it came to carrying the puck into the offensive zone and keeping it there. I'm not saying I'm not happy with the improvement we've seen from our team this year, I'm just saying there's still a little work to do.

[Blackbeard]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

Thanks for this information, Crutch. I tend to see things as you do regarding SOG. Yes, one team can outshoot the other by a wide margin, but was it really a good scoring chance? That is why I think the SOG stat does not always tell the whole story as some here seem to think. If the player gets to the blue line and fires it into the goalie's bread basket or lobs it into their glove hand, it counts as a shot. To me, that does not constitute a legitimate scoring chance. I am in total agreement with you regarding SOG versus scoring chances. A real case in point with that was our game at Wisconsin a couple Saturdays ago. We were outshot by a wide margin but were leading 1-0 until Wisconsin scored a power play goal with less than two minutes to go in the game.

I remember back in the early '70's when Canada used to play Russia often enough.

SOG would usually be something like 50 - 6 for Canada.

And the final score would usually/often be something like 4-1 for Russia.

They waited and waited and waited and waited until they had a very high percentage opportunity before they pulled the trigger. They were uber patient/disciplined.

[ARM]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

SOG would usually be something like 50 - 6 for Canada.

And the final score would usually/often be something like 4-1 for Russia.

I don't care how good the scoring chances are -- goalies have to find a way to stop more than one out of three shots.

[ne7minder]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

I don't care how good the scoring chances are -- goalies have to find a way to stop more than one out of three shots.

I'm with blackbeard on this one. That Red Army team passed so fast and so accurately that their one-timers were deadly. I often wonder how many saves Tretiak (to my mind the best there was at the time) would have made against them. Not well I believe. Team Canada did manage to beat them but it was took them a while ti figure out how to disrupt the passes and reduce the 'tic-tac-toe to where a human goalie could stand a chance.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State Buckeyes 2016-2017

I didn't get to see the Wisco games so I can't speak to that, and yes a lot of Minnesota's early shots on Saturday weren't great, but still. In the case of Saturday's game at least, 57-19 does do a pretty could job of telling the story. Good shots or not, the first thing you need to do to get a shot on goal is get into the offensive zone and near the net, and we were just totally outpaced by Minnesota when it came to carrying the puck into the offensive zone and keeping it there. I'm not saying I'm not happy with the improvement we've seen from our team this year, I'm just saying there's still a little work to do.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I think we should be working on closing the gap with SOG, and indicated that earlier in this thread. I am sure the coaching staff is aware of that and is working on it. You're not going to get an argument from me regarding there still being work to do with this program. The progress has been good, but we're not a finished product yet by any stretch.