Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2017-2018
I disagree on this. That was certainly true for parts of the game today, but definitely not all, and definitely not all at the end. There were stretches where Minnesota did a good job of breaking that forecheck, but I'll discuss that more in the Gopher thread.
As for the Badgers, they're facing one of the same problems that Minnesota has over the last couple of years (though it's well down the list of Minnesota's problems right now): Mark Johnson hasn't adjusted his coaching to the players he has. Wisconsin skates really well and can control the puck forever, but they just don't generate chances. They're actually pretty good at finishing the chances they get, with some very nice shooting on the rare occasions they had good looks. Yesterday, their goals came when no Gopher was in the same zip code as Shaver to open the game, when Emily Brown and Patti Marshall had a miscommunication allowing Roque to make a fairly easy pass to Wellhausen who shot without anyone really contesting her, and a bad five hole goal. Today was more of the same: both Wisconsin goals came in transition, the first off a center ice faceoff when Lindsey Agnew and Marshall (I think) ran in to each other giving Mauermann and Cogan a 2-on-1 against a defenseman with only one working ankle, and the other in overtime when a Gopher D-man went the wrong way.
Beyond that, Wisconsin had a lot of offensive zone possession, sometimes for several minutes at a stretch, and accomplished very little with it. It isn't that they can't shoot; it looks more like they'd rather just keep the puck than try to generate scoring chances. They won't take any risks. Johnson's systems are extremely conservative, and it seems like he's still trying to coach as if he had a stable of otherworldly talent that can play that way and still get the puck to the net. When you watch them, they look like they're a lot better team than Minnesota, but they aren't really much better at actually winning games; I think the scores this weekend accurately reflect the narrowness of that gap. Johnson's going to have to loosen things up for this team to reach its potential.
Originally posted by ARM
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As for the Badgers, they're facing one of the same problems that Minnesota has over the last couple of years (though it's well down the list of Minnesota's problems right now): Mark Johnson hasn't adjusted his coaching to the players he has. Wisconsin skates really well and can control the puck forever, but they just don't generate chances. They're actually pretty good at finishing the chances they get, with some very nice shooting on the rare occasions they had good looks. Yesterday, their goals came when no Gopher was in the same zip code as Shaver to open the game, when Emily Brown and Patti Marshall had a miscommunication allowing Roque to make a fairly easy pass to Wellhausen who shot without anyone really contesting her, and a bad five hole goal. Today was more of the same: both Wisconsin goals came in transition, the first off a center ice faceoff when Lindsey Agnew and Marshall (I think) ran in to each other giving Mauermann and Cogan a 2-on-1 against a defenseman with only one working ankle, and the other in overtime when a Gopher D-man went the wrong way.
Beyond that, Wisconsin had a lot of offensive zone possession, sometimes for several minutes at a stretch, and accomplished very little with it. It isn't that they can't shoot; it looks more like they'd rather just keep the puck than try to generate scoring chances. They won't take any risks. Johnson's systems are extremely conservative, and it seems like he's still trying to coach as if he had a stable of otherworldly talent that can play that way and still get the puck to the net. When you watch them, they look like they're a lot better team than Minnesota, but they aren't really much better at actually winning games; I think the scores this weekend accurately reflect the narrowness of that gap. Johnson's going to have to loosen things up for this team to reach its potential.
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