Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

Good news: we now have sole possession of 57th place in the Pairwise. Better extend Eaves another year. You know, because some mountains start below sea level.

[Go4PuckFan2.0]

Losing games against #1 UND, @#10 DU, last night against #16 PSU, and #18 NMU, aren't particularly suprising to me, as I didn't expect a top 20 team. .

I'll bet you DID expect a, say, top 50 ranked team a third of the way into the season.

[bucky15]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

1-10-1 ouch. This going from bad to ugly to nasty real fast. I am slowing moving towards the fire Eaves bandwagon. The only reason I haven't is because I think there is no chance BA will fire Eaves. The only game I plan on going to this year is against BU and that is to see a BU player not the UW team.

Sad stuff. Feel bad for Rumpel.

[burd]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

Recruiting: As long as Eaves maintains his track record of guys moving on to the next level (like the one thing he does consistently), we might only suffer a little bit in recruiting.

Fair point, EODS, but the problem is that UW is competing against programs Like UND, UMinn, BC, UMich, etc, who also have a strong rep for moving players to the next level.

If I were an 18 year-old recruit and saw UW and UND as being equal, player development wise, I'd pick UW for the overall college experience. Or would have. If a large number of fans are calling for the coach's head and the games are poorly attended, I'd take that into account.

This situation won't last, though, painful as it is.

[Hammy]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

Pretty soon changes will have to be made for recruitment reasons alone. Difficult to sell the program when there are a ton of empty seats and an angry fan base calling for the head coach's head. These kids are pretty aware.

There's nothing wrong at UW. Eaves is staying. Everybody move along now...

[GoBucky!]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

You seem to be suggesting that losing last night to PSU was somehow an embarrassment to the program because it's Penn St.

I do! You make good points about Penn St. being a good team. The problem to me is a school who upgraded from a club sport 3 years ago is significantly better than us.

I don't believe Eaves has somehow forgotten how to coach but doing nothing to even out the recruiting classes after all this time is ridiculous.

What would have happened if they saved a little scholarship money some of the years they brought in huge classes? Maybe they have a rash of injuries and have to play guys who wouldn’t have played, or at least wouldn’t have played as much? That would be awful, I’ll bet in that situation things would get so bad they would only win one game out of twelve...

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

I do! You make good points about Penn St. being a good team. The problem to me is a school who upgraded from a club sport 3 years ago is significantly better than us.

I don't believe Eaves has somehow forgotten how to coach but doing nothing to even out the recruiting classes after all this time is ridiculous.

What would have happened if they saved a little scholarship money some of the years they brought in huge classes? Maybe they have a rash of injuries and have to play guys who wouldn’t have played, or at least wouldn’t have played as much? That would be awful, I’ll bet in that situation things would get so bad they would only win one game out of twelve...

Don't kid yourself, Penn State University isn't exactly Niagra or Holy Cross when it comes to recruiting or anything else. It's a big money school that will continue on as a big time program from here. Plus Pennsylvania alone has 150 high school hockey teams, besides PSU's proximity to New York, New England, and Eastern Canada. But even so, I wouldn't say at all PSU has 'better' players than Wisco, rather, with 17 Jr's and Sr's, they have older and more experienced players. Wisco has more raw talent now and on the way. Of course they brought in only 3 freshman this year so they might have some of the same issues we have now in a year or two.


Agree completely that unbalanced classes is at the heart of everything that's wrong here. Your suggestion is fine, but how is it better than the current overall situation winning wise? I'd suggest the best way to balance it out would be to recruit over the top of Sophomores and Juniors in the future and kick the kids you don't like as much to the curb. Of course doing that probably creates another whole set of problems...

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

was Boeser in the building last night?

I have to think UW just cemented his decision not to come

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

was Boeser in the building last night?

I have to think UW just cemented his decision not to come

I don't know, but you wouldn't think he would've been hard to spot!

[GoBucky!]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

Agree completely that unbalanced classes is at the heart of everything that's wrong here. Your suggestion is fine, but how is it better than the current overall situation winning wise? I'd suggest the best way to balance it out would be to recruit over the top of Sophomores and Juniors in the future and kick the kids you don't like as much to the curb. Of course doing that probably creates another whole set of problems...

Well, it wouldn’t be better as far as one season but my thinking was if it had happened years back things would be more evened out by now. I also wonder about transfers. Brining in kids with only a couple years of eligibility left at the right time would help, however it doesn’t seem like there are many quality players looking for a new team.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

Well, it wouldn’t be better as far as one season but my thinking was if it had happened years back things would be more evened out by now. I also wonder about transfers. Brining in kids with only a couple years of eligibility left at the right time would help, however it doesn’t seem like there are many quality players looking for a new team.

I think in theory what you suggest could have been done in 10-11 when last year's big class came in and we still had Shultz and Smith and Gardiner, etc. left over to lead and put the puck in the net. Easy now maybe, but hard to say at the time who you leave out of that class of recruits... Maybe you get lucky, or maybe you leave out Mike Mersch. And I don't doubt we've looked at transfers. Not like nobody is aware of what is going on, but finding the right kid at the right time... I'm not aware off the top of my head of when it could have worked out.

Don't know, but of course everything is always better if you are biting the bullet in some season other than the one you're playing in.


Could be solo's been right all along and Eaves now should just get axed on principle. I don't have a big argument either way. But at the same time, I haven't seen many people say Eaves should have specifically done A, B, and C to unequivocally fix the problem at point x, even with the gigantic advantage of hind sight.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

I've seen 2 games this year, the PSU ones. The Friday game was horrific. The Saturday game was MUCH better.

The stick breaking that lead to the sh goal was just bad luck. I've never seen a broken stick end up being so epically tragic.
Dougherty missed a wide open net off a faceoff late in the 3rd with the Rumpel pulled. 2 plays from that being a 3-3 game.

I liked how McGuire looked, Z's goal was sweet.

Things are looking up.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

I've seen 2 games this year, the PSU ones. The Friday game was horrific. The Saturday game was MUCH better.

The stick breaking that lead to the sh goal was just bad luck. I've never seen a broken stick end up being so epically tragic.
Dougherty missed a wide open net off a faceoff late in the 3rd with the Rumpel pulled. 2 plays from that being a 3-3 game.

I liked how McGuire looked, Z's goal was sweet.

Things are looking up.

Has anybody considered the possible relationship and timing between Shulze's stick breaking and the answer to the broadcast trivia question being Phil Kessel?


After Friday I would have sat Ustaski if I could have, he just looked lost out there. Last night he moved his feet, took bodies, played both ways, and really worked. I was impressed. He was so close on that 5 hole shot from in close... PSU got a trickle in and Ustaski just didn't. Kid's got great hands, skates alright for his size and with hard work he could really be something special for us.

[UWisco]

I've seen 2 games this year, the PSU ones. The Friday game was horrific. The Saturday game was MUCH better.

The stick breaking that lead to the sh goal was just bad luck. I've never seen a broken stick end up being so epically tragic.
Dougherty missed a wide open net off a faceoff late in the 3rd with the Rumpel pulled. 2 plays from that being a 3-3 game.

I liked how McGuire looked, Z's goal was sweet.

Things are looking up.

McGuire has given his full effort and has looked decent doing it.

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope

I am somewhat surprised JoeyV has not checked in with some sage words here...although, he may be even more upset w/Eaves than myself (and a few others)...I'd certainly love to hear his take though.

bottom line to me is while I expected a .500 season, I didn't expect and will not abide 1-10-1 and will not tolerate excuses. As a fan and season ticket holder I don't care about frosh or whatever other excuse may be bandied about now, we should be seeing a superior product on the ice, period.

My family is actively debating dropping season tickets we've had since 1984...ugh