Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

[WiscDC]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

So there was recently pretty heavy criticism about some players being too physical and taking bad penalties... Now we get excited about headlines about our new coach that highlight the same thing.
Some days I get so confused trying to be a Badger fan.

Not everything has to be all in one perfect line of seriousness; allow for some silliness among the fans who have no direct impact on the outcome of games.

I wouldn't look at some recklessness of a guy from 20+ years ago in the NHL and take anything away from it (in terms of being a head coach now). That's particularly true when it comes to penalties and completely gratuitous nonsense, and doubly particularly true when the guy we're talking about is a coach with the Red Wings. (On a similar note, I've learned plenty on this forum about how ironic it is that one of the most prolific scorers in Wisconsin history, Mike Eaves, was in charge for a lot of conservative play as a coach.)

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

KaMiGo gonna KaMiGo.


Still carrying the flag for Uncle Eaves.

[KaMiGo]

KaMiGo gonna KaMiGo.

Still carrying the flag for Uncle Eaves.

Just poking the bees nest to keep things interesting over the weekend

Hell, even I only take half of the things I say seriously

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Sandbagger

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Just poking the bees nest to keep things interesting over the weekend

Hell, even I only take half of the things I say seriously

So... trolling your own team's thread...

[MadCityRich]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Look, I'm pretty sure MCR was saying the D is going to be much more aware and hard-nosed under G2O.

that said, I can't resist:

the criticism was about some UW players taking boarding and checking from behind penalties, both of which are incredibly dangerous and in many/most cases A. avoidable and B. just a downright dirty over-the-top type of play. this is what myself and others on here complained about regarding some terrible misjudgments (at best) of some of the UW players and Dirty/malicious hits (at worst).

Tony Granato was a feisty, hard-nosed player at Wisconsin, in Los Angeles, in San Jose and New York. I don't think he could be labeled as dirty, dangerous, etc. He wasn't say, Shawn Hill out in Denver boarding a guy (the victim apparently never played hockey again, I forget his name offhand), and he wasn't a Downey, or Claude Lemieux type in the NHL. Sorry, your attempt to analogize rings hollow. I don't think you could find an NHL player anywhere who WOULDN'T have wanted Tony Granato on his team.

Thank you. Agree with everything you expound upon. A good comparison to Tony would be Dino Ciccarelli; you hated to play against him, but loved to play with him.

Boys, a couple of you take posts too literal; you're reading too much into them. As many long-timers know, when I first came aboard, it wasn't that I had connections, but I knew players (future and former) and I knew who was going where. I posted what I could for thread info without giving "secrets". I also took the game too seriously, was analyzing games and posts. When MCRJr's long & illustrious hockey career ended (except for beer league in Louisville ), I decided to give it up and just be a Hockey Fan. I enjoy the game so much more I can't explain it.

Relax.

It's a great time to be a Badger hockey fan.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

I need one of you that is heavy into the X's an O's of the game to answer this...

What style of play would you think Team GranatOz to employ? Other than "better", which is obvious, how will the Badgers look different next year in terms of the way the play? One thing I would hope for would be more of an attacking PK than the Eaves rotating box that never seemed to force the issue. Just sat back and rotated with the passes.

Thanks for any info anyone can share.

I posted somewhere earlier in this thread that the schemes Eaves installed this year are similar in many respects to what the Red Wings currently employ. 1-2-2, mostly man up and throw in some overloads, break the puck up the middle, look for the stretch... I don't know if Tony will go in a different direction or not but I wouldn't think radically so. It resulted in a much more up tempo brand of hockey when they had it clicking.

There are few people as competitive as Tony is, and he's well known as a "players coach" so I guess what one would hope for is that Tony will be able to increase the intensity to a degree across the board. Which is good, but I don't know that that is really what the Badger's major problem was last year. They played hard but really broke down in execution in key areas at key times. I see fixing those sorts of inconsistencies in play as a major thing G2O will need to bring to the table. Just do that really well, which Donny and Oz are very good at, and they will be a pretty good team that is fun to watch and will win some games right away.

As far as expecting a return to the good ol' days of very hard hitting, very agressive hockey, well, I think some of that will be there but will be tempered quite a bit. If for example you watch highlights of even the '06 team, there are a number of plays that were just fine then but would probably result in penalties for high hits or interference a lot of the time in today's game. It's just changed and we need to change with it. But I do expect guys to be playing with an edge. The old chip on the shoulder. And these returning guys have plenty of frustration built up to do just that.

Certainly some of it is also just youth, and another year can make a huge difference for some of these guys. Hughes developed a lot in one year for example. (incidentally, I really don't see an upper limit as to how good Cameron Hughes can be.) Some of it is just not enough horses in the barn. Should be a few more in there this year no matter what and more in the future.


One thing to consider on the PK is that it is very difficult to really pressure a lot on the KC ice shorthanded. One or two guys go to the high wall there and it's an awful long way back to the play. I think if you watch you'll see they were much more "aggressive" away on small sheets when the puck got into their pressure points. At the KC they 1-3 it at the Blue line and really try to contest the entry, but failing that, they do pretty much have to fall back. GA often come from getting spread out too much which is pretty easy to do. I thought in general the PK was really pretty good all year, especially with Eddie in there. In any case the point is that on a big sheet PK'ing often requires a more disciplined approach.

[KaMiGo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Here is an interesting update on the schedule for next year.

UW will be playing Ohio State at Madison Square Garden in January (Saturday the 28th). This is not projected to count against UW's home schedule.

With the game at MSG being on a Saturday I wonder if they will try to do some sort of Thursday at OSU, Friday practice at MSG, Saturday game as MSG schedule. Or maybe this will be a 1-game weekend with the other game coming as another 1-game weekend. As a fan, I'd kind of like to see the 2 separate 1-game weekends, it would help avoid the dead space of a bye week later in the season. But maybe it would be good for the team to have the games in a single weekend and allow for a bye at some point.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

I need one of you that is heavy into the X's an O's of the game to answer this...

What style of play would you think Team GranatOz to employ? Other than "better", which is obvious, how will the Badgers look different next year in terms of the way the play? One thing I would hope for would be more of an attacking PK than the Eaves rotating box that never seemed to force the issue. Just sat back and rotated with the passes.

Thanks for any info anyone can share.

I'm not and x o guy, I don't care what systems they run, just win 65% of the games. Winning is fun.

[BuB]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

I'm not and x o guy, I don't care what systems they run, just win 65% of the games. Winning is fun.

Well put - agreed

[bucky15]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

20 former Badgers played in the NHL.

Here is a link to a slideshow to which ones and how they did.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/c...b7f5ada3b.html

[IndianaBadger1995]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Is Kunin waiting to see who drafts him before making a decision on his future or has he already said he's coming back?

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Is Kunin waiting to see who drafts him before making a decision on his future or has he already said he's coming back?

If whoever drafts him is going to put him in the top six on opening day, then I imagine he will take the million dollars and be on his way. I don't think anyone anywhere really sees that happening at the moment. Kunin has said he'll see what happens with the draft but that he wants to play at Wisconsin until he's ready to go to the NHL. Anything can happen I guess, but I'd call it 90% or better that he's back for at least one more year.

[IndianaBadger1995]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

If whoever drafts him is going to put him in the top six on opening day, then I imagine he will take the million dollars and be on his way. I don't think anyone anywhere really sees that happening at the moment. Kunin has said he'll see what happens with the draft but that he wants to play at Wisconsin until he's ready to go to the NHL. Anything can happen I guess, but I'd call it 90% or better that he's back for at least one more year.

Awesome, thanks for the response! Hope the Wild take him or Jost with their 1st rounder. Would think that would guarantee at least 1-2 more years at UW. He can't use the loophole that makes him an UFA if he chooses to leave school, correct?

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey Vol I: Dawn of the Fifth Age of UW Hockey!

Awesome, thanks for the response! Hope the Wild take him or Jost with their 1st rounder. Would think that would guarantee at least 1-2 more years at UW. He can't use the loophole that makes him an UFA if he chooses to leave school, correct?

The team that drafts you has your rights for 4 years. If they haven't signed you by then you're free to sign with anybody you want. Just like you and I are. So you are correct that if Luke leaves early he wouldn't be a UFA.

Edit: Just to clarify that, in Kunin's case his rights will be retained by the drafting team until Aug. 15th, the summer after his senior year.