Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

So back to the seating at the LaBahn, what is the seating type for the rodentettes and dawgettes at their home rinks?

[skatefast]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

So back to the seating at the LaBahn, what is the seating type for the rodentettes and dawgettes at their home rinks?

At Amsoil, we have the theater style seats. With cup holders!!. The student section is benches only.

Keep in mind that Amsoil was built for both men's and women's programs and is not specifically for the women the way Ridder and LaBahn are designated.

[EastFan1]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

With the obvious exception of Brianna Decker, the strength of this year's team looks to be on defense and in goal. Rigsby is more than proven and they go a solid 6-7 on the blueline and gets stronger after the New Year when Alev Kelter comes back from the soccer team.

They lost a lot of goal-scoring and there is no way around that. Decker should get her 35-40 goals and Brittany Ammerman should have every opportunity to be a 20+ goal scorer. After that, there is no returning forward with over 7 goals. I would guess that Packer, Turnbull, Sylvester Josephs and Unser will increase their offensive production and (hopefully) it could be significantly.

Unfortunately, I just don't know much about the incoming freshman. All have pretty good resumes and should contribute, just not sure to what extent. Would not be surprised at all if at least one or two turn out to be impact players.

At this point, Wisconsin doesn't rebuild, they reload and I don't see this year being any different.

WI probably needs 110 regular season goals or more to be in the mix in the WCHA and NCAA tourney. WI had 158 regular season goals last year, 134 if you ignore Lindenwood. WI's three seniors had 92 goals.

I doubt WI is going to squeeze an additional 30 or 40 goals out of the existing line up. An entire line up just doesn't double up their scoring in a random year. Without the seniors, I would expect WI to be in the 90 to 95 goal range which was good for the 5 or 6 spot last year.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

WI probably needs 110 regular season goals or more to be in the mix in the WCHA and NCAA tourney. WI had 158 regular season goals last year, 134 if you ignore Lindenwood. WI's three seniors had 92 goals.

I doubt WI is going to squeeze an additional 30 or 40 goals out of the existing line up. An entire line up just doesn't double up their scoring in a random year. Without the seniors, I would expect WI to be in the 90 to 95 goal range which was good for the 5 or 6 spot last year.

While that makes sense logically, there are some mitigating factors. I expect that scoring around the league will be down a bit. Teams like OSU and Minnesota graduated a lot of offense, and UMD won't have Irwin. The players that Wisconsin graduated got a ton of ice time and almost all of the shifts with Decker, so opportunity will be created for others. Look for some impact players to appear out of the sophomore and freshman classes. When Johnson doesn't need scoring from his rookies, he sticks them on a third line and lets them get some experience like he did last year and in 2005-06. When he does need immediate contributions, he seems to find them. Burke is the only one of the rookies that I've seen, and she is excellent, but there are some others who look ready to be difference makers.

The Badgers will be in the mix. I'm certain of that.

As for Ridder's seating, it is a mix of benches with backs and folding chairs.

[EastFan1]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

While that makes sense logically, there are some mitigating factors. I expect that scoring around the league will be down a bit. Teams like OSU and Minnesota graduated a lot of offense, and UMD won't have Irwin. The players that Wisconsin graduated got a ton of ice time and almost all of the shifts with Decker, so opportunity will be created for others. Look for some impact players to appear out of the sophomore and freshman classes. When Johnson doesn't need scoring from his rookies, he sticks them on a third line and lets them get some experience like he did last year and in 2005-06. When he does need immediate contributions, he seems to find them. Burke is the only one of the rookies that I've seen, and she is excellent, but there are some others who look ready to be difference makers.

The Badgers will be in the mix. I'm certain of that.

I agree that OSU will be down, others will be up, but I can't ignore statistics. The three kids leaving had more than 600 shots on goal. To put that in context, there are about three 200 plus shot kids coming back to school next year in all of D1.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

And as I said, those three got a lot of ice time.

Other than UND, I'm not sure that anyone else in the WCHA will be up, especially early on.

[Badger Booster]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

WI probably needs 110 regular season goals or more to be in the mix in the WCHA and NCAA tourney. WI had 158 regular season goals last year, 134 if you ignore Lindenwood. WI's three seniors had 92 goals.

I doubt WI is going to squeeze an additional 30 or 40 goals out of the existing line up. An entire line up just doesn't double up their scoring in a random year. Without the seniors, I would expect WI to be in the 90 to 95 goal range which was good for the 5 or 6 spot last year.

While I'm not saying they will be as offensively prolific as last year, I don't think there will be a major drop off. If the top returning forwards doubled their goals, it would look like this:

Ammerman 26 goals
Turnbull 14
Josephs 10
Packer 8
Sylvester 8
Unser 4

None of those projections look unreasonable. Again, not saying it's going to happen, but it is certainly possible.

[Badger Booster]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

So back to the seating at the LaBahn, what is the seating type for the rodentettes and dawgettes at their home rinks?

As previously mentioned, UMD plays at Amsoil which also houses the men's team so that's not an apt comparison. However, I will be very interested to see how it stacks up to Ridder straight-up. I wish I had printed them out when they were floating around online, but the original plans had the arena being the absolute jewel of women's arena in the country. Capacity of around 4,400 and huge glass atriums with a lot of amenities that I've forgotten about.

I realize that money was the restricting factor (as it is with most things), but I would have done everything possible to make sure it measures up equally with Ridder if not even marginally better.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

While I'm not saying they will be as offensively prolific as last year, I don't think there will be a major drop off. If the top returning forwards doubled their goals, it would look like this:

Ammerman 26 goals
Turnbull 14
Josephs 10
Packer 8
Sylvester 8
Unser 4

None of those projections look unreasonable. Again, not saying it's going to happen, but it is certainly possible.

I don't think that Ammerman scores 26 goals, but I could easily see Josephs having more than 10. It might come down to who plays with Decker.

I wish I had printed them out when they were floating around online, but the original plans had the arena being the absolute jewel of women's arena in the country. Capacity of around 4,400 and huge glass atriums with a lot of amenities that I've forgotten about.

Do you mean of the women-only rinks? Otherwise, the Ralph is going to be hard to top in a secondary rink.

[Badger Booster]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

I don't think that Ammerman scores 26 goals, but I could easily see Josephs having more than 10. It might come down to who plays with Decker.

Do you mean of the women-only rinks? Otherwise, the Ralph is going to be hard to top in a secondary rink.

Wasn't even meant to be predictions, just that doubling goals for returning forwards isn't an impossibility.

Yes, only referring to women's-only arenas. No point comparing them to the top arenas overall.

[granddaddyscout]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

While I'm not saying they will be as offensively prolific as last year, I don't think there will be a major drop off. If the top returning forwards doubled their goals, it would look like this:

Ammerman 26 goals
Turnbull 14
Josephs 10
Packer 8
Sylvester 8
Unser 4

None of those projections look unreasonable. Again, not saying it's going to happen, but it is certainly possible.

Turnbull and Packer were pretty banged up for a good part of last season, the Badgers will need both to play to their capability to find success. Packer had 13 goals as a rookie coming of major knee surgery and Turnbull was hot early on before missing a bunch of games and most of the playoffs if I remember correctly.

[EastFan1]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

Wasn't even meant to be predictions, just that doubling goals for returning forwards isn't an impossibility.

Everyone doubles up. Decker doesn't revert back to 15 goals but actually doubles up to 70 goals. It isn't an impossibility.

[WCHFan]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

Decker 70 goals?? WCHA schedule... Impossible. Teams will key on her and will be tough to score 40.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

I realize that money was the restricting factor (as it is with most things), but I would have done everything possible to make sure it measures up equally with Ridder if not even marginally better.

That's exactly where I was going with this. I'll never get to Ridder, so I'll never be able to compare them myself, but it sounds like BA cheaped out the public areas in the LaBahn to a certain extent. Hopefully he didn't cheap out the player amenities, that is what is most important. It's an arms race so why build new and be inferior?

[Badger Booster]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2012-2013 - The LaBahn Era Begins

Everyone doubles up. Decker doesn't revert back to 15 goals but actually doubles up to 70 goals. It isn't an impossibility.

Ok, I know this wasn't a serious post, but I didn't include Decker in the concept of returning forwards doubling up. The thought was Decker gets her "normal" goar total (30-ish) and the others are able to step up their offensive numbers.