Re: Gophers 2013-14 B1G Things To Come!
Size plays a role in the NHL because those guys draft so much of it because the style is more physical. It's clogged up by the nature of their style. But that's not the rink size at fault. As I said, I watched some of the greatest hockey players ever show tremendous skill and creativity on that size sheet. A lot of it comes down to what the refs/rules allow. Cut down on interference, the game opens up for everybody.
The rink size cuts down some open space but the question is more about whether that has a significant impact. I don't think cutting down on 10 feet of width has that dramatic of an impact on their ability to be successful nor do I think it dramatically hurts the flow of skill play. And let's be honest... we know the brand of hockey Coach Lucia wants to emphasize. Do you really think he'd want to do something that was going to HURT that brand of hockey he wants to play? Something tells me his hockey mind knows better.
By your account of things, you'd think any college team that plays on an NHL type rink would avoid recruiting any of the smaller guys on the college level because they just want to clog, trap, etc. as that is what you think they benefit from on their size rink. But that's not backed up by reality and I gave you examples that prove to the contrary. In particular, BC completely wipes out that rationale. BC has been the most successful college program of the past decade and they have had a number of highly skilled small guys that played big roles in their success. UMD's title team had a top scoring line built on two guys under 5'9" and another guy that was 5'11 and not a big bruiser (and JT Brown at 5'10).
I'll give you an example of how rink size sometimes plays into incorrect assumptions. Last off-season, I saw some guy making comments that Cammy and Kloos wouldn't be as effective in college because he felt much of their offensive success in the USHL was based on the fact they played on an Olympic sheet at Waterloo (close to it via 200x98 sheet). So I decided to look into their USHL stats last year to see if that opinion had merit. What did I find? I found that both players were very close to a 50/50 split in their offensive stats based on home rink (big sheet) vs. away rinks (I believe there is only one other Olympic sheet in the USHL and the rest are regulation or smaller). Considering players tend to have better home stats than road stats, I found that close to even split to be pretty darn good. In other words, his remarks on rink size having a negative impact on their game wasn't validated (at least it wasn't based on statistical production).
As I said, I have no major problem with the Olympic sheet. It's not like I would be upset either way. But I do think some people have opinion based on gut feelings more than what reality actually tends to show.
As for your bottom statement... the point is most of these guys are coming in from having played many of their games in the prior year or two on regulation rinks. They are generally more accustomed to doing their thing on that size rink than they are on a rink that is more of an outlier.
Size plays a role in the NHL because those guys draft so much of it because the style is more physical. It's clogged up by the nature of their style. But that's not the rink size at fault. As I said, I watched some of the greatest hockey players ever show tremendous skill and creativity on that size sheet. A lot of it comes down to what the refs/rules allow. Cut down on interference, the game opens up for everybody.
The rink size cuts down some open space but the question is more about whether that has a significant impact. I don't think cutting down on 10 feet of width has that dramatic of an impact on their ability to be successful nor do I think it dramatically hurts the flow of skill play. And let's be honest... we know the brand of hockey Coach Lucia wants to emphasize. Do you really think he'd want to do something that was going to HURT that brand of hockey he wants to play? Something tells me his hockey mind knows better.
By your account of things, you'd think any college team that plays on an NHL type rink would avoid recruiting any of the smaller guys on the college level because they just want to clog, trap, etc. as that is what you think they benefit from on their size rink. But that's not backed up by reality and I gave you examples that prove to the contrary. In particular, BC completely wipes out that rationale. BC has been the most successful college program of the past decade and they have had a number of highly skilled small guys that played big roles in their success. UMD's title team had a top scoring line built on two guys under 5'9" and another guy that was 5'11 and not a big bruiser (and JT Brown at 5'10).
I'll give you an example of how rink size sometimes plays into incorrect assumptions. Last off-season, I saw some guy making comments that Cammy and Kloos wouldn't be as effective in college because he felt much of their offensive success in the USHL was based on the fact they played on an Olympic sheet at Waterloo (close to it via 200x98 sheet). So I decided to look into their USHL stats last year to see if that opinion had merit. What did I find? I found that both players were very close to a 50/50 split in their offensive stats based on home rink (big sheet) vs. away rinks (I believe there is only one other Olympic sheet in the USHL and the rest are regulation or smaller). Considering players tend to have better home stats than road stats, I found that close to even split to be pretty darn good. In other words, his remarks on rink size having a negative impact on their game wasn't validated (at least it wasn't based on statistical production).
As I said, I have no major problem with the Olympic sheet. It's not like I would be upset either way. But I do think some people have opinion based on gut feelings more than what reality actually tends to show.
As for your bottom statement... the point is most of these guys are coming in from having played many of their games in the prior year or two on regulation rinks. They are generally more accustomed to doing their thing on that size rink than they are on a rink that is more of an outlier.
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