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Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.
One of the the things that I am finding confusing is the way Notre Dame seems to be making the same mistakes, seems to be suffering in the same areas of the game, but the other team has not been able to take advantage to the point of winning the game. Still seeing too many turnovers, too many bad breakout passes/plays, and still not dominant at the faceoff dots (although that was much better last night, especially in the second and third periods after a rough start).
Watching us in our own end, we looked the same against WMU as we did against BC, and as we did against LSSU. While I am glad to see the wins, I would like to see some improvement in a weak area or two. Of course the thing that needed the most work coming into the season was the chemistry, especially with so many new faces. That looks to be going quite well. Communication on this team is already better than at any point last year, and the boys are all competing. Hell, communication and competition alone will make for a successful season, no matter how many games they win.
I liked the freshman line a lot too. Most energy of any group on the ice from either team. I liked how Summerhays picked up his game as the night wore on. I liked how the team didn't get frustrated (a couple of dumb penalties notwithstanding) despite the frustrating nature of the game. I can count on one hand the number of shift in the entire game where it looked like any one player tried to do too much. Patience. That's a good sign 6 games in, especially with such a young team.
We've done some good things every night out so far this year, against a number of different kinds of teams. It'll get tougher from here on out. We weren't bad enough long enough to sneak up on anyone. By now the rest of college hockey realizes this team isn't going to be easy to play. So that means the workload will increase. They'll need to step up to meet the challenge.
One of the the things that I am finding confusing is the way Notre Dame seems to be making the same mistakes, seems to be suffering in the same areas of the game, but the other team has not been able to take advantage to the point of winning the game. Still seeing too many turnovers, too many bad breakout passes/plays, and still not dominant at the faceoff dots (although that was much better last night, especially in the second and third periods after a rough start).
Watching us in our own end, we looked the same against WMU as we did against BC, and as we did against LSSU. While I am glad to see the wins, I would like to see some improvement in a weak area or two. Of course the thing that needed the most work coming into the season was the chemistry, especially with so many new faces. That looks to be going quite well. Communication on this team is already better than at any point last year, and the boys are all competing. Hell, communication and competition alone will make for a successful season, no matter how many games they win.
I liked the freshman line a lot too. Most energy of any group on the ice from either team. I liked how Summerhays picked up his game as the night wore on. I liked how the team didn't get frustrated (a couple of dumb penalties notwithstanding) despite the frustrating nature of the game. I can count on one hand the number of shift in the entire game where it looked like any one player tried to do too much. Patience. That's a good sign 6 games in, especially with such a young team.
We've done some good things every night out so far this year, against a number of different kinds of teams. It'll get tougher from here on out. We weren't bad enough long enough to sneak up on anyone. By now the rest of college hockey realizes this team isn't going to be easy to play. So that means the workload will increase. They'll need to step up to meet the challenge.
-- Knute Rockne: All American
We love travelling though, maybe we'll see you out and about!
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