Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

[KaMiGo]

Attendance is bad, scary bad, fit everyone into the lower bowl with room to spare bad.

But the guts came out with a little bit of energy. Kunin got a breakaway in the first minute but put it wide.

Shots through 1, UW 13 - NMU 4. I'll take that as a small victory.

[Red_Rob]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

Very low attendance. Linhart with his first goal.

Biggest disappointment has been no mini donuts or good pretzels.

Same crap with the canned piped in music as well.

[WiscDC]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

Solid game on the ice. VERY solid. We can sense the macro issues looming over it, though, trying to salvage the energy we should be able to have in the stands.

[Red_Rob]

Solid game on the ice. VERY solid. We can sense the macro issues looming over it, though, trying to salvage the energy we should be able to have in the stands.

First period was energy second not too bad. See what we can do in the third.

[LordofBrewtown]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

Listening in on 1310 (I'm in Tampa Bay). Without the aid of video, it sounds like Miller is doing OK in goal - so that may address one concern. Any thoughts on that? They are even commenting on the lack of attendance.

DC - if I make it back for a game this year, I'd like to her the student section doing some kind of serenade to Jedd Soleway to theme of Styx's "Come Sail Away" - I'm sure the students can alter the lyrics appropriately to come up with something good.

[Red_Rob]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

Miller isn't doing that bad. The second one he was left out to dry.

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

I listened for about 2 mins tonight as I was running errands

was anyone in this thread at the game tonight? honest opinions?

sounds like the crowd was terrible which is completely understandable given the recent woes

this is not a comment on Brian Lucas or Ian Perrin but man I miss PB and Howie...Bill Howard never minced words, but even when he was pointing out negatives he'd find a way to bring it back and state what the team could do or needed to do to get back on track

[Red_Rob]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

I listened for about 2 mins tonight as I was running errands

was anyone in this thread at the game tonight? honest opinions?

sounds like the crowd was terrible which is completely understandable given the recent woes

this is not a comment on Brian Lucas or Ian Perrin but man I miss PB and Howie...Bill Howard never minced words, but even when he was pointing out negatives he'd find a way to bring it back and state what the team could do or needed to do to get back on track

crowd was horrible...horrible, (attendance wise) could have easily fit everyone in the lower bowl with room to spare. I posted a picture of it on one of the UW Men's hockey facebook posts.

First period, honestly we looked good. We had pep in our step we were ready to play. Had a 5 on 3, registered zero shots (two were blocked by NMU)

Second we got our goal, YAY Linhart's first goal as a badger, good on him. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. Started to show signs of their old selves and typical MM coached teams.

Third....typical Eaves team. Outshot 19-2 at one point. Some folks actually carried it in to the zone instead of dump and chase, however still the same results as the dump and chase. We'd basically turn it over. We were confused no consistency or concentration. We looked lost out there, like a monkey humping a football. You don't know how or why he's doing what he's doing but you know he's doing it. Missed passes, folks out of position, confused players. Eaves let them have a good passing practice from 1:30-1:00 before he pulled miller. It did work since we got a goal with 41 seconds left. Overtime bunch of dumb turnovers and neither team got much going, but NMU had more setups than we did.

Some glimmers of hope, If it was a 1 period game we'd have probably won it. A lot of falling back into the same old bad habits. Malone and Kunin were good to watch. Miller did well and both goals you can't really fault him for. The 2nd, as I said above, he was hung out to dry, a turn over right in front of him and the NMU guy was right there to bury it.

[KaMiGo]

I listened for about 2 mins tonight as I was running errands

was anyone in this thread at the game tonight? honest opinions?

sounds like the crowd was terrible which is completely understandable given the recent woes

this is not a comment on Brian Lucas or Ian Perrin but man I miss PB and Howie...Bill Howard never minced words, but even when he was pointing out negatives he'd find a way to bring it back and state what the team could do or needed to do to get back on track

Yup, I was in section 110, like I'll be for every game
Miller was OK, gave up a lot of bad rebounds.
First period felt good, second seemed even, third felt like we ran out of gas.
Lots of flashes from the team. Both good and bad.
They came REALLY close to getting the winning goal as time ran out, but the review said that they blew the whistle before the puck went in and they put 0.2 back on the clock.
They had a pretty good chance at getting the winning goal right at the end of overtime, but it is still Eaves' team, so they can't win in OT.
looking forward to dinner good stuff as the team continues to gel.

[WiscDC]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

I listened for about 2 mins tonight as I was running errands

was anyone in this thread at the game tonight? honest opinions?

sounds like the crowd was terrible which is completely understandable given the recent woes

this is not a comment on Brian Lucas or Ian Perrin but man I miss PB and Howie...Bill Howard never minced words, but even when he was pointing out negatives he'd find a way to bring it back and state what the team could do or needed to do to get back on track

I was there. My objective-as-possible assessment, starting with on-ice stuff:

What I said about the Badgers playing a very solid game was true at the time, but it got shakier as the game went on. There was a noticeably large difference between how the top two lines of forwards played, and how the bottom two lines played, in all facets of the game. When the second goal was scored, the McGuire - Ustaski - Cavallini line got caught out there a bit long on the 2nd goal. (I believe Kunin was able to get on the ice, IIRC.) I'm not sure if there were more stoppages, or if they were able to successfully keep the lower lines' shifts shorter early on, but it seemed like their depth was exposed as the game went on, which I kind of expected. ("Exposed depth" is my overriding takeaway if I have to sum it up in one short sentence.

For much of the game, it was nice to see that the Badgers were not visibly outmatched in the way they were most of the time last season. The top-4 d-men logged heavy minutes (or maybe the third pairing just happened to be on when their names/numbers were less visible from my seat if I'm not looking for it...I wasn't clocking anything). They were competent. There were some plays where NMU got the best of them, and there were other times where they managed puck possession very well. Those top-6 forwards were winning many battles for pucks, and even if they were at a disadvantage, would make something out of very little.

Speaking of which, Adam Rockwood drew a penalty that really stood out to me. He picked up a loose puck at the NMU blue line and skated in. Because it was a sudden turnover, no Badgers were right there to help him, and he was going against 2 Wildcats players. My initial thought was "nice...oh, but he's kind of in a dead position." Then he managed to split both of them, holding on to the puck.

Miller made me nervous a few times, but he was definitely fine.

Regardless of intent, the officials favored NMU in a noticeable way. By "noticeable," I mean that among plays that I saw well enough and completely enough to judge, we're talking about a 6 or 8 minute swing in penalty minutes that should've gone the Wisconsin's way. The incident that resulted in coincidental roughing minors was a textbook example of what should've been 2 and 4 minute penalties. Both players went after each other, and Cavallini (had to look up which player it was) got headlocked after the initial instances of roughing died down. That's just one example. Oh, and it wasn't the only blatant headlock Northern Michigan got away with. They should've definitely started OT shorthanded. In addition to the bull-poop that was excused by refs afraid to do things other than coincidental penalties, there were two blatant instances of interference that were as blatant and clear as you will ever see. I'm talking open ice hits, far away from the puck, in which it is very clear which player initiated the collision. We got a good "In-ter-fer-ence" chant going after the second one. (We also chanted "he tripped on himself" after what appeared to be a phantom trip, but that was Kunin's slash, not a trip...so there may have been something behind the falling NMU player that we didn't notice.)

Off ice:

At about 6:55ish, I was about the saddest I've ever been at a Wisconsin hockey game. Not the most shocked by a heartbreaking loss. Not the most disappointed from watching the team get shelled. The overall sadness was starting to feel very real, which kind of caught me by surprise, as I thoroughly expected a pathetic crowd, numbers-wise. Seeing it in reality hit me hard. It was a visual representation of the huge difference of what could/should be and what is. It was a visual representation of how the Madison area could have a great college hockey environment, but instead, it just...doesn't.

I'd expect to see more students make it to future games - it was lower level only, save for maybe 2 groups in the second deck's first row - based on the sales and the back-loaded home schedule this year. They've broken 1000, which is bad, but if I recall correctly, is better than the criminally under-hyped 2013-14 team. I've also heard that they are definitely going to try to push it as the year goes on. We'll see how all of that goes. Thankfully, the students who were there still embody that extra specials something that the hockey student section has had and others haven't in my time here. That's still alive. It was weird - the first deck of the student section (especially the front parts loaded with returning students) seemed to have the energy and mentality of this being a big-time sport. The juxtaposition of that next to the very empty rest of the lower bowl and very empty upper levels was somewhat bizarre. It only made sense if you remember that it's a program that always drew big, intense crowds every night just a handful of years ago, but crashed since then. Those were the two Wisconsin Hockey experiences at play. I will concede that there were a few longish quiet periods, but given that the rest of the crowd was in a tough spot being so spread out, and the student section was limited in numbers, it was okay, and even great at times. It didn't help that Tolvanen didn't really do anything very chantable. (I have no idea how good his English is, anyway. :P )No skating around during stoppages, no removing his mask. He did take a drink during play on 2 occasions.

The sequence of events in the last minute of regulation was nuts. When I try and block out all the big issues that we all know about, the hockey game itself was pretty good.

This is much less important than the rest of this stuff, but I want to mention that I think it's nice that they show the NHL rights of the drafted players during player intros. It helps people learn a bit more about college hockey.

[Bonin21]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

I think you guys will double your win total from last year at least. No way it can go that bad again, even if it looks as bad on paper.

[Red_Rob]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

At about 6:55ish, I was about the saddest I've ever been at a Wisconsin hockey game. Not the most shocked by a heartbreaking loss. Not the most disappointed from watching the team get shelled. The overall sadness was starting to feel very real, which kind of caught me by surprise, as I thoroughly expected a pathetic crowd, numbers-wise. Seeing it in reality hit me hard. It was a visual representation of the huge difference of what could/should be and what is. It was a visual representation of how the Madison area could have a great college hockey environment, but instead, it just...doesn't.

I'd expect to see more students make it to future games - it was lower level only, save for maybe 2 groups in the second deck's first row - based on the sales and the back-loaded home schedule this year.

This...it was bad, it was really bad. it was almost ghost town esque at a couple points. no lines for the bathrooms, 3 total concessions stands open up on the 2nd level. You get used to seeing the same people at the games. They're gone. yes it's the first game but they disappeared half way through last year and already told you they won't be back. I think there were maybe 15 people total in my section. The crowds made the game....now the game made the crowds leave.

[WiscDC]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

On the bright side, Dress Up Like an Empty Seat Night was a wild success!

[Red_Rob]

On the bright side, Dress Up Like an Empty Seat night was a wild success!

Women's twitter posted a picture of an empty labahn. Still looked better attended than tonight's game.

Also instead of getting water heaters for the bathrooms they installed a pair of TVs every 6 inches in the concourse and bathrooms. So when you leave you can still see how many empty sears there are.

[XYZ]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey XXXIV: A Season without Chuck

On the bright side, Dress Up Like an Empty Seat Night was a wild success!