Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

[NotreDameFan27]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Congrats to Steven Summerhays for being selected CCHA goalie of the month for October.

Let's hope that Steve has another great weekend.

[bronconick]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

I agree. Bershbach and Chase Balisy their 1st two years were like Tynan and Lee. A deadly combo when paired up. Could Berschbach's absence be the reason that Balisy is off a bit points-wise?

Easily. The team is actually averaging more shots and chances this year, everything's just off a couple inches.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

So apparently I have a better chance of seeing my team win if I hop on a plane rather than drive 7 minutes to their home rink?

So apparently when Western loses their best player for the last 40 minutes, Notre Dame comes out of their locker room soft.

So apparently Stephen Johns has never learned that you do not pass the puck up the middle. Right in front of your goalie. When you are killing a penalty. And the other team has a guy so wide open that he was able to wait out Steven Summerhays for not one...not two...but 3 seconds...with still no Irish defender challenging him.

So apparently, T.J. Tynan likes the number 99. I won't even comment on the whiff that led to Western's 3rd goal.

Speaking of that 3rd goal...it wouldn't be a yucky loss without a dumb penalty by Nick Larson. That led to that PP for Western. That led to that GWG.

Unfortunately it was for naught that Anders Lee scored a nice backhander to open the 3rd and lift his team. All this after Mike Voran fought off 5...FIVE...Western players while killing a penalty and consequently drawing a penalty.

What the heck happened in the first intermission?! I gotta tell ya. 1-2 at home is completely unacceptable. Completely.

[NotreDameFan27]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

They played well in the first period, after that not so much.

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

The good news as I see it? The CCHA season is 3 games old. If Notre Dame finishes with wins in 2/3rds of their CCHA games, I'll certainly take that. The bad news as I see it? This team will not win 2/3rds of their CCHA games. Not with that power-play. Not losing at home as often as you win. Not as wildly inconsistent as this team has proven to be for the last season-plus.

The power play is awful. Truly awful. Not just because it's clipping along at around 10%. It looks terrible. It looks poorly coached. It is almost always poorly executed. Lee and Tynan have no power play goals and just 3 power play points through 7 games. What's that cliché about the power play? And coming into the night Western's penalty kill was nothing to shout about and that was against, frankly, 2nd tier competition (Canisius and St. Lawrence had a collective winning % of .381 last season).

And why can't this team take care of home ice? They say all the right things. They talk appreciatively about playing in one of the finest buildings in college hockey. Yet this year and last they are basically a .500 team at home in the CCHA (8-7-0). They are soft, both physically and mentally, at home far too often.

They were outhustled, outmuscled, and outcoached last night. Is this really a team made up of NHL-draft caliber talent and a legendary coach? Well then start playing like it, at least at home, for crying out loud. Win a few faceoffs. Get that talent producing on special teams. Quit taking stupid momentum killing penalties. Put together a complete weekend. Play like home ice matters.

Or get ready for another bottom division finish and another early exit in the playoffs. Yes it is early in the season. But it will get late quicker than you realize.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Speaking of face offs...who is recording these? Because I would be willing to bet my house that Notre Dame is NOT winning about 50% of them. Just because T.J. Tynan is the first one to touch the puck when it drops does not mean the Irish won that face off. A face off win is when your team controls the puck. And I'm not seeing a whole lot of that. In any zone. Western was impressive on face offs last night. Win the face off. Control the puck. Control the game.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

In what is a clear reversal of roles from what has been the situation the last few seasons, the Notre Dame hockey team can clearly learn a few lessons from the Notre Dame football team on what it means to exceed expectations and play like a team should. Please take notes.

[NotreDameFan27]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

The good news as I see it? The CCHA season is 3 games old. If Notre Dame finishes with wins in 2/3rds of their CCHA games, I'll certainly take that. The bad news as I see it? This team will not win 2/3rds of their CCHA games. Not with that power-play. Not losing at home as often as you win. Not as wildly inconsistent as this team has proven to be for the last season-plus.

The power play is awful. Truly awful. Not just because it's clipping along at around 10%. It looks terrible. It looks poorly coached. It is almost always poorly executed. Lee and Tynan have no power play goals and just 3 power play points through 7 games. What's that cliché about the power play? And coming into the night Western's penalty kill was nothing to shout about and that was against, frankly, 2nd tier competition (Canisius and St. Lawrence had a collective winning % of .381 last season).

And why can't this team take care of home ice? They say all the right things. They talk appreciatively about playing in one of the finest buildings in college hockey. Yet this year and last they are basically a .500 team at home in the CCHA (8-7-0). They are soft, both physically and mentally, at home far too often.

They were outhustled, outmuscled, and outcoached last night. Is this really a team made up of NHL-draft caliber talent and a legendary coach? Well then start playing like it, at least at home, for crying out loud. Win a few faceoffs. Get that talent producing on special teams. Quit taking stupid momentum killing penalties. Put together a complete weekend. Play like home ice matters.

Or get ready for another bottom division finish and another early exit in the playoffs. Yes it is early in the season. But it will get late quicker than you realize.

Oh come on. They had a bad night but came in with the most wins in the entire NCAA. Relax.

[NotreDameFan27]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Great win! 4-0. He wasn't terribly busy but Summerhays gets shut out (2nd of season) and an assist. Lee gets two goals (three for the weekend), Rust two helpers, Fogerty gets another and Costello gets the other.

After the first eight games of the season...

Notre Dame is now in sole first place of CCHA (by 3 points), has won the IceBreaker tournament and got a good win vs. the national champion of 2010-11 (the team that beat us in the frozen four semi). In addition, Michigan only managed 2 points vs. Northern Michigan this weekend whereas we swept them last weekend. That's not bad for a team that is supposedly underperforming.

6-2-0 (and counting...)

They still need to work on their faceoffs though, this is one area where they really miss Riley Sheahan.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

They are underperforming. It's called being wildly inconsistent...

Which begs the question: Where the hell was this team Friday?! If this is how they play night in and night out, they won't lose too many, and those they do lose I'll be okay with because the other team will have earned a victory, not have that victory handed to them.

From the net on out, the Irish dominated this game. Special teams (meaning, specifically, Mike Voran). Blocked shots. Battles along the boards. Passing. Forechecking. Shots. Capitalizing on mistakes the other team makes while fixing their own mistakes before they end up behind Steven Summerhays. I could go on.

I had to chuckle at 2 things tonight. David Gerths had a sure goal in the 3rd were it not for his stick snapping in two at the most inopportune time. He finds the most creative ways to not score. And I wonder how T.J. Tynan, who by the way is still stuck on 99, feels knowing that his goalie outscored him tonight.

I also have to ask, where the hell were all the students? The band far outnumbered the few who showed up. Aside from Notre Dame being dominant on the ice, it sure would help the hostile environment thing if a couple hundred students would support their classmates once in a while. I guess that's why Mike Collins says, "It's a hockey night in South Bend" instead of "It's a hockey night at Notre Dame..."

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Relax.

Oh, I'm relaxed. And I'm also right. In fact Jackson spent the first few minutes of his Sunday post game comments pointing out the need -- once again -- to play better at home and to play with consistency. In fact if you go up to 5 ND players at random and ask them what one thing will keep them from a top-4 finish in the CCHA and what one thing they need to do to be successful I bet at least 7 of the 10 answers will be "inconsistency" and "be more consistent." If they don't answer thusly, I'll eat this post.

The fact their play is so up and down from one game to the next and from road venues to the CFIA was a problem last season at times, and obviously is this year. They played their best game of the season last night, coming off what may have been their worst. (yes I think Friday's 3-2 loss was worse in most ways than the loss to UMD)

One of the reasons I underlined the word this in my previous post was to illustrate the point that I fully believe this team is capable of great games and a great season. Just not playing like I have seen them play in about half their home games the last two seasons. While 4 games is too small a sample to make a final assessment, last year and so far this year is not. 9-7 at home in the CCHA is not good enough. Unless you plan on going all season without dropping a CCHA point on the road. I'm not sure without checking, but I'm willing to bet the last time we swept UM at Yost, we were in the WCHA. We're not going 14-0-0 on the road.

Last night was the kind of effort we all like to see. A complete game from the coaches on out. From the moment the team went up 3-0 I can't think of anything they did poorly. Barring injury or illness on a wide scale, there simply is no reason to not bring that effort on a nightly basis. I have noted countless times over the decade plus I have been posting the one and only thing you can control every time you take the ice is your effort. As JJfP also pointed out, if this team does that they'll win just about every night.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Just a couple tidbits to pass along:

Stephen Johns is heading up the team's Movember fundraiser;

You can watch the ND-BC game for a fee through BC's schedule page;

ND is organizing a home holiday tourney to be held over Thanksgiving weekend (hopefully) beginning next season. WMU is one of the teams invited should it get the go-ahead.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Remember when I said UMD scared the bejeezus out of me? Well they are cute, cuddly kittens compared to the huge, hairy, creepy tarantula that is Boston College.
Spiders scare me. BC scares me. And I'm scared to verbalize what I think will happen Friday night.

BC has 8 guys who have at least a half a point/game so far. And while ND has 7 players in that category, only one has more than 2 goals. BC has 5 guys who have scored more than 2 goals. Anders Lee may be our stud, but Johnny Gaudreau isn't alone in the stud corner for the Eagles. Lee is the only ND player with at least a point/game. Gaudreau is joined by 4 other teammates who have at least a point/game.

Let's ignore the creepy tarantula for a moment and look at special teams. While our PP and PK are beginning to show some baby fangs, BC's are Dracula. On steroids. With a really good dentist. And a pet rattlesnake. Their PP is clicking...no, screaming along at a 40% clip. Yes, I said forty. 4-0. That means if ND manages to take only one penalty a period Friday night, statistically BC should score a PPG. While our special teams are over that combined total of 100 (100.3 to be exact), BC's is 128.9.

ND's shot % is 8.5%/game. BC's is 11.1%/game. ND's most accurate period is the 2nd (11.9% shot accuracy) while BC's most accurate shots come in the 3rd (15.4%) not counting OT.

Steven Summerhays and our strength of schedule are the only 2 parts of this season I wouldn't trade with BC right now. Summerhays has a better save % and GA (.935, 1.58) than Parker Milner (.932, 1.99) thus far. Our opponents' combined record in the first month has been 15-19-3 for a winning % of .446. BC's opponents' combined record is 6-19-2 (.259 winning %). I'd like to think BC hasn't really been tested yet while ND has been tested and has just as many wins as the Eagles, both teams leading the rest of the country in that category with 6 wins apiece.

On paper, I think BC will score 3.15 goals to our 2.89 goals Friday night. Now we just have to find a way to score 27/100 of a goal to win.

Sean Connery once stated, "There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man."

[IrishHockeyFan]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Hopefully Pooley is taking a close look at video from the two games BC has played against UMass. They've managed to kill off a very respectable 5 of 6 BC power-play opportunities and scored two PP goals of their own in 5 chances against the Eagle PK. The games were also played 2 weeks apart so they've obviously figured something out. In the other five games BC has played the PP is steaming along at a nearly 50% clip and they've killed 29 of 31 opponent power plays. If they put up similar numbers all season this team will win 40 games.

I think Notre Dame can have some success, similar to what was seen in the second Western game, as long as we possess the puck. Notre Dame is a bigger team and can dictate the tempo if the game is played in the corners and along the walls. The key is getting the team to understand how they need to play to win this one. All five guys on the ice will need to be acting as a unit, with puck support, getting into proper position, and creating their own space. If the Eagle skaters are able to effectively move the puck out of their end and through center ice BC will also have an advantage, so turnovers are a serious no-no. You have to make the most of your chances.

It should be a typical close game between these two teams and no outcome will surprise me. And with the conference shifting getting underway next season, this is the last time (for a while anyway) this game will be played out of conference. Next year it becomes just another game -- well sort of -- among 20. Whoever wins this one will probably take away a little more than just pairwise love. It will probably be remembered more than most of the other regular season meetings between the two schools.

[Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres.]

Re: Irish hockey '12-'13: Why would you not wanna go there?

Okay, I'm gonna b.i.t.c.h in a moment, so look away if you don't feel like reading it.

Aside from BC skating like hummingbirds to our 3-toed sloths (especially where our Dmen are concerned), our PP needs a tad bit of tweaking. And by "tad" I mean a "freakin' mountain." If I witness another Notre Dame PP that is pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass...I'm gonna hop over the boards, steal Anders Lee's stick (and I'm not even left handed) and shoot the puck myself. I likely won't score, but neither does Notre Dame when all they do is pass.

I would say our face off guys need some practice too. And by "practice" I mean whatever would be the face off version of Herbies. Until they puke.

Other than that, I'm happy about shutting down BC's stellar PP with our solid PK. Other than that...not much else to be happy about.