Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

[MadCityRich]

They are so tough during the season, but all it takes is a stinker or 2 to end the season too early, as history shows. Burn out?

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

They are so tough during the season, but all it takes is a stinker or 2 to end the season too early, as history shows. Burn out?

Puck luck. VERY little of it this weekend.

They looked great last weekend at Duluth. Who knows what they'll look like in two weeks, and three, and four.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Dear UW Hockey Players,

When you have a breakaway, please don't deek.

Thanks,

Badger Hockey Fans

Obviously no one from the program is monitoring this site for good ideas. Different day, almost same results. Rowe DID score on a deek, the other 2 did not. Soup is not good in shootouts. Those are done for the season now.

The 4pm game time Friday sucks, but I get it, the guys are playing @ 8. I'm ditching work early and yanking my daughter out of school early. Am I a great Dad or what?

Cogan was out for most of the game today injured, hopefully it's not serious. That lead to Rowe and Schneider playing on first line and moved Curl back to Rowe's, that was interesting.

It did show a lot of character to fight back from being down 2-0 with 4 to go in the 3rd.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Cogan was out for most of the game today injured, hopefully it's not serious. That lead to Rowe and Schneider playing on first line and moved Curl back to Rowe's, that was interesting.

It seemed like Mauermann disappeared for a while during the 3rd period, as well (but then reappeared). Equipment problem? Line combinations during the 3rd were changing shift to shift.

Gutsy that MJ pulled the goalie when he did; had they lost, the decision would have adversely impacted their RPI etc going forward. But I agree with trying for the conference co-championship; worth the risk

BTW: glad you were able to make it to the game.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Gutsy that MJ pulled the goalie when he did; had they lost, the decision would have adversely impacted their RPI etc going forward. But I agree with trying for the conference co-championship; worth the risk

He did the same thing versus Minnesota in 2009 at the end of OT; there were still two weeks remaining in the regular season after that game, so in some ways, it was an even greater risk. It turned out pretty well for him in the long run that year, despite the game ending in a tie as the OSU game did.

[fritz]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Both games this weekend were intense and very frustrating for the BADGERS. I don't think I've ever seen so much bad puck-luck for our BADGER players. They always seemed to be 1/2 stride away from every loose puck, two break-away misses on Friday's game + one ringing off the crossbar. Saturday's game the same. Abby Roque's penalty in the 2nd was totally unnecessary, but the two late goals to tie Saturday were electrifying and for a while there, I thought they'd win in OT. I predicted and agree with MJ's decision to pull our goalie and go for the win Saturday. I was really sorry for Sam Cogan's injury, especially since her parents were there to witness it. She skated off as if she'd dislocated her right shoulder. Ouch. Gotta put all that behind and get ready for next weekend. I'll be there. Thank you again seniors.

[Connaught Point]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

For a team that was supposed to have so much fire power, it seemed like they never got much going. They could score against the lesser teams but seemed to always run into a hot goalie that stood on her head. I wonder how next year will shape up with the loss of Clark and Pankowski. I would like to see MJ take a look at the offence and his assistants and make some changes, everything seems a little stale and other teams are figuring out how to defend our offense. Also, please try one of the other goalies, Soup is good but not elite, always seems to let in some soft goals.

[D2D]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

For a team that was supposed to have so much fire power, it seemed like they never got much going. They could score against the lesser teams but seemed to always run into a hot goalie that stood on her head. I wonder how next year will shape up with the loss of Clark and Pankowski. I would like to see MJ take a look at the offence and his assistants and make some changes, everything seems a little stale and other teams are figuring out how to defend our offense. Also, please try one of the other goalies, Soup is good but not elite, always seems to let in some soft goals.

If I didn't know otherwise, I would think from reading your post that the Badgers' season was over. If we've learned anything, one thing is for sure: there are no perfect teams this season; everyone has flaws that at least occasionally become obvious. This being the case, Wisconsin is one of a small handful of teams that have an excellent chance of winning it all, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they did.

[Connaught Point]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

If I didn't know otherwise, I would think from reading your post that the Badgers' season was over. If we've learned anything, one thing is for sure: there are no perfect teams this season; everyone has flaws that at least occasionally become obvious. This being the case, Wisconsin is one of a small handful of teams that have an excellent chance of winning it all, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they did.

Not what I meant at all, I do believe they will end up at the final four, but I was just stating that for a team that has a lot of goal scorers on it, they had a lot of games where they didn't score very well or as I think Tim, has stated, they ran into a goalie that stood on her head. I know this team is very capable of scoring in bunches and I hope they find that in the playoffs. I do think they need to look at everything on the offensive side and maybe add a new wrinkle or two this off season.

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

I've been making this observation for three years now. Wisconsin is really not a very good offensive team. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the players. They have plenty who would be big scorers on other teams. It's the system. Wisconsin just doesn't take any risks in the offensive zone, and while this is great for holding on to the puck and preventing odd man chances going the other way, it means that goals are going to be hard to come by against good teams. I'm not even saying that it's a negative that they do this, though there have certainly been times it leads them to struggle, but it does mean that you shouldn't expect to see them put up a lot of goals, and it means that they have little margin for error on a night when the bounces go the other way.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Wisconsin just doesn't take any risks in the offensive zone...

I don't agree with this part. UW's D pinch very hard at times, and when teams have had forwards who excel in transition, they've been able to exploit that. However, the Badgers' pinches often seem designed to keep the puck in the zone, rather than create scoring chances off of them, so I'm not always sure that the reward justifies the risk. It works great against bottom-half opponents, but not always against the top teams.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

I don't agree with this part. UW's D pinch very hard at times, and when teams have had forwards who excel in transition, they've been able to exploit that. However, the Badgers' pinches often seem designed to keep the puck in the zone, rather than create scoring chances off of them, so I'm not always sure that the reward justifies the risk. It works great against bottom-half opponents, but not always against the top teams.

There was a sequence in Friday's game where Mikaela Gardner - as she *often* does - went down below the endline, leaving Britta Curl to rotate up to the blue line. OSU got control of the puck and turned it into a two-on-two, with Curl as one of the UW 'defenders'. As a defender, Curl proved to be a great forward. The resulting OSU shot rang loudly off the crossbar.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

For a team that was supposed to have so much fire power, it seemed like they never got much going. They could score against the lesser teams but seemed to always run into a hot goalie that stood on her head. I wonder how next year will shape up with the loss of Clark and Pankowski. I would like to see MJ take a look at the offence and his assistants and make some changes, everything seems a little stale and other teams are figuring out how to defend our offense. Also, please try one of the other goalies, Soup is good but not elite, always seems to let in some soft goals.

Lots of good conversation to be had....we have to trust MJ is playing their best goalie, why wouldn't he? When ARD graduated, it looked like the Cece/Baldwin show. When Soup became available, they recruited her and she came. Then he poached Blesi from OSU as well. Baldwin left, then it was a preseason battle between the other 3 and Soup won. This year Kronish arrives and she never dresses (I hope she redshirted), what does that tell us? Soup is the best they have. It's apparent she's not an ARD or Rigsby talent, but she's the one anchoring the team. She looked bad on the shootouts, but in the games was great. You can't fault her for giving up 3 goals all weekend.

Scoring...I think MJ is too steady eddy on the lines. Some coaches like Frosty are mad scientists with the lines changing all the time, too much. He is just the opposite. He never was able to unlock Pankowski and Clark like he as able to do with Shirley and Curl, which is just a head scratcher. With Cogan possibly out that may force a change. Playing St. Cloud gives them change to play with the lines without a lot of risk, not that he will do that. I do think it would be good for the D to take more risk and sink lower on the backside, but they won't do that without a F covering, which kinda negates the numerical of 3F down low getting the puck to a sunken D on the backside. MJ has always been D first, O second. They never change the breakout, ever. It would be good to have a couple systems and then you switch at certain times in the game between the 2, they are too predictable.

Losing Pankowski and Clark is significant, but they have Dara Greig and Grace Shirley coming in, both are highly regarded. Greig has played for Canada's national team, so has Shirley, who is supposed to be better than her big sister Sophie if you look ay the stats @ Elite Prospects. It may prove to be an issue that next year's Jr glass haven't been much more than role players and 4th liners to this point, though was the Pettet one who took Clark's spot when she was injured. I also wonder if she's still got something going on yet, she doesn't seem to have that top gear right now. (The 3 F coming in the following year are game changers, perhaps the most talent F recruiting class evah)

Obviously it does get harder to score against better teams, that only makes sense, right?

It is a bitter pill to swallow that UW couldn't score on a breakaway to save their lives when it mattered. I thought they'd pull through like they did against Harvard in those OT games earlier this year.

If UW doesn't get the CHA chumpion in the ncaa first round, I am for the first time truly concerned that they may lose at home in the first round, though there is a lot of hockey to be played yet. Hopefully they regain their confidence this weekend and get that playoff wwcha trophy the next week.

Welcome to the board, don't be a stranger.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

There was a sequence in Friday's game where Mikaela Gardner - as she *often* does - went down below the endline, leaving Britta Curl to rotate up to the blue line. OSU got control of the puck and turned it into a two-on-two, with Curl as one of the UW 'defenders'. As a defender, Curl proved to be a great forward. The resulting OSU shot rang loudly off the crossbar.

It was looking like it was going to turn out ok, then she tried to turn like a D does and force the play wide and down she went.

Thank for nice thoughts in regard to the weather from yesterday.

[TinyViking]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2018-2019

Not really hockey-related, but during the second intermission on Saturday my almost-two-year-old met Bucky. She was visibly and audibly excited - it attracted some attention from the passersby - and Bucky sat down and played with her for a long time. I know this is basically Bucky's job, but it felt like a generous effort to make her day. We always have such a great time at LaBahn, even when the game doesn't go our way.