Wisconsin Hockey 21-22: Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

[Timothy A]

With the large turnover of players, lots of scoring gone, we really have no idea Watts to expect of the team, especially offensively.

Trading Saturday for Thursday is an attendance killer. I was thinking about going to the Saturday tilt.

[Timothy A]

Stole this from the offseason thread....

"Initial power play groups according to Milewski:

Achan-Caufield-Stange-DSP-Ceulemans

Bantle-Baker-R Donovan-Malmquist-Ess/Kehrer"

I'm little shocked to see Donovan and even Baker on the PP. Would like to see Gorniak on the PP. I have big expectations for Malmquist for this season. He's a very experienced Fr.

[Timothy A]

I might take in the first game of the year. The first period might be poorly played at times, but it's the first game for both teams. Or maybe Saturday, but usually the crowd is bigger so I'm not sure. Tons of single game tickets still available for the rodent series, the B16 home opener. I am a little surprised by that, but the first game is still 2 weeks out and I'm not sure how hockey conscious the general public is at this point.

[solovsfett]

…man…Graham Mertz is the most overrated recruit in the history of badger sports.

also, give the HC to Leonard and send Chryst and Rudolph packing.

[Timothy A]

…man…Graham Mertz is the most overrated recruit in the history of badger sports.

also, give the HC to Leonard and send Chryst and Rudolph packing.

Not to get off topic of hockey, but I'd like to comment, we're all buds anyway. Graham looked fantastic in the Sr bowl thing he played in. He looked insanely amazing against IL. As the season went on, he played worse and worse. His confidence was destroyed. It's still shot. I think he has all the tools to be as great as he has shown he can be, but the coaching staff needs to figure out how to get him to stick in the pocket, trust the O line and make quick reads and throw with confidence. I listened to the game on the radio and the UW's guys were amazed how much poise the ND 3rd stringer had in the pocket while Mertz had zero poise. I HATE how they are rotating 8 linemen in and out. Pick 5 and ride them. I think their confidence is damaged as well, just like yanking a goalie all the time. I think the way Chryst is managing the O he is destroying them. It's a mega trainwreck. I'm not ready to fire Chryst yet, but the team MUST play better and show progress. Today was a totally winnable game and they blew it.

[digitalbooya]

Stole this from the offseason thread....

"Initial power play groups according to Milewski:

Achan-Caufield-Stange-DSP-Ceulemans

Bantle-Baker-R Donovan-Malmquist-Ess/Kehrer"

I'm little shocked to see Donovan and even Baker on the PP. Would like to see Gorniak on the PP. I have big expectations for Malmquist for this season. He's a very experienced Fr.

Surprised Johnson isn't on one of the units. Am I missing something there? Eliteprospects has him at 143 games played and 122 points over 4 seasons at Bowling Green.

[solovsfett]

Not to get off topic of hockey, but I'd like to comment, we're all buds anyway. Graham looked fantastic in the Sr bowl thing he played in. He looked insanely amazing against IL. As the season went on, he played worse and worse. His confidence was destroyed. It's still shot. I think he has all the tools to be as great as he has shown he can be, but the coaching staff needs to figure out how to get him to stick in the pocket, trust the O line and make quick reads and throw with confidence. I listened to the game on the radio and the UW's guys were amazed how much poise the ND 3rd stringer had in the pocket while Mertz had zero poise. I HATE how they are rotating 8 linemen in and out. Pick 5 and ride them. I think their confidence is damaged as well, just like yanking a goalie all the time. I think the way Chryst is managing the O he is destroying them. It's a mega trainwreck. I'm not ready to fire Chryst yet, but the team MUST play better and show progress. Today was a totally winnable game and they blew it.

sorry for the non-puck talk guys. TimothyA I mostly agree with all of this.

what is worrisome to me and how it relates to hockey is how personnel decisions are made with seemingly no thought to consequences re chemistry.

it was abundantly clear the o line guys loved Jack Coan, and maybe the whole team did. After all they called him “Jacky Heisman”. Now they push him out to favor a highly regarded freshman. And that freshman flops and is still flopping. Then to compound issues they obtain a Clemson xfer rb in Melussi and suddenly last year’s revelation Jalen Burger is 3rd string. That’s horse****. And how do you hold the locker room together???

On this note: I have a feeling badger hockey will reveal the extent of Cole caufield’s presence and lack there-of this year. I predict and average season but they will be a much better TEAM without having the primadonna CC to gobble headlines and inflate his already outsized ego.

tgese coaches need to tread carefully on this. They all want the best players but we saw with Eaves in 06 that just a small handful of Great players mixed with the lunch pail Burish and Degenhardts can win you a championship.

[Timothy A]

Surprised Johnson isn't on one of the units. Am I missing something there? Eliteprospects has him at 143 games played and 122 points over 4 seasons at Bowling Green.

Yeah he's another guy who should be on the PP for sure.

UW picked for 3rd the the B16. Maybe a little high but I'd not be surprised if they would finish there. Last year they were picked 5th LOL. Rowe is predicted 2nd team all conference. We shall see how TG managed the goalies, it will be a crucial element in the success of the season. Shocked Corson isn't on the predicted all rookie team.

[WiscTJK]

Ranked 11 in the preseason poll. That is much to high in my opinion.

https://madison.com/wsj/sports/colle...3d73a8827.html

[Timothy A]

Ranked 11 in the preseason poll. That is much to high in my opinion.

https://madison.com/wsj/sports/colle...3d73a8827.html

Yeah that is nuts. It just shows the preseason pollsters do absolutely no homework prior to filling out the ballot. Really sad that they don't take their job seriously. Maybe rank them 18ish?

[WiscTJK]

Yeah that is nuts. It just shows the preseason pollsters do absolutely no homework prior to filling out the ballot. Really sad that they don't take their job seriously. Maybe rank them 18ish?

Don't want to be called a negative nancy, but I think 18 is optimistic. I suspect if the other team scores 3 goals we will lose. So if we don't put D first, it will be a tough year. We hear all the right things from Granato, but until I see it on the ice, I will remain a skeptic.

[digitalbooya]

Don't want to be called a negative nancy, but I think 18 is optimistic. I suspect if the other team scores 3 goals we will lose. So if we don't put D first, it will be a tough year. We hear all the right things from Granato, but until I see it on the ice, I will remain a skeptic.

I guess it’s a good thing our starter’s GAA last year was 2.05. Bodes well for this year. Has there been a Granato coached team that has averaged under 3 goals for per game? I don’t think goal scoring will be an issue. It wasn’t an issue before Caufield/Holloway. Shouldn’t be an issue if the system works. The trouble was always keeping the puck out of the net off of defensive breakdowns and that was mostly negated when Kalynuk and Miller turned pro.

[WiscTJK]

I guess it’s a good thing our starter’s GAA last year was 2.05. Bodes well for this year. Has there been a Granato coached team that has averaged under 3 goals for per game? I don’t think goal scoring will be an issue. It wasn’t an issue before Caufield/Holloway. Shouldn’t be an issue if the system works. The trouble was always keeping the puck out of the net off of defensive breakdowns and that was mostly negated when Kalynuk and Miller turned pro.

You are right never under 3. But there is a big issue when you score over 3, but allow more per game in GA......
16-17 3.38 GAA 3.28 20-15-1
17-18 3.11 GAA 3.35 14-19-4
18-19 3.05 GAA 3.51 14-18-5
19-20 3.08 GAA 3.75 14-20-2
20-21 3.81 GAA 2.58 20-10-1

Tony Granato total record 82-82-13

Looking at these stats, there is one outlier, last year with the super star offense. All gone. I suspect regression to the mean which means it will be more like 18-19 or 19-20, unless as Tony has been touting, they actually become defense first. I am not holding my breath.

Your are fine with a .500 coach and nothing to worry about right?

[WiscTJK]

Bob Johnson .632 win %
Jeff Sauer .549
Mike Eaves .538
Granato .500

[digitalbooya]

You are right never under 3. But there is a big issue when you score over 3, but allow more per game in GA......
16-17 3.38 GAA 3.28 20-15-1
17-18 3.11 GAA 3.35 14-19-4
18-19 3.05 GAA 3.51 14-18-5
19-20 3.08 GAA 3.75 14-20-2
20-21 3.81 GAA 2.58 20-10-1

Tony Granato total record 82-82-13

Looking at these stats, there is one outlier, last year with the super star offense. All gone. I suspect regression to the mean which means it will be more like 18-19 or 19-20, unless as Tony has been touting, they actually become defense first. I am not holding my breath.

Your are fine with a .500 coach and nothing to worry about right?

The outlier from my perspective is last year was the only year where the team averaged less than 3 goals against per game. But again, I attribute the horrible defense to Kalynuk and Miller for the prior years. Offensive guys that were defensive and neutral zone disasters. The recruiting was catastrophic for defensemen during the beginning and prior years to when Granato took over. In 16-17, a 4th line forward looked like the best defenseman on the team. A far cry from 7 years prior when the entire d core was NHL quality players.

I'm not worried about having stellar defense this year with the return of Inamoto, Kehrer, Ess, Peltonen, Vorlicky, and Rowe. Those guys might not be fantastic offensively, but they can hold down the defensive fort. There is ZERO chance they put up the defensive numbers of the 18-19 or 19-20 teams.

I'll take a guess for season stats:

3.05 GF/GP
2.68 GA/GP

18-12-4

As for your last comment, I'm cool with seeing how the season goes before whining about the coaching staff that just came off their best year.