Wisconsin Hockey 22-23 Empty Dreams & Empty Seats

[Timothy A]

the only team over .500 we have beaten is michigan. Liu, lindenwood and umd are all under .500...

bam!!!!

[solovsfett]

Reading this thread makes me doubly glad we found a great coach (and recruiter) in Bob Motzko. I'm sure there's more out there, like Bob, that could turn things around for you guys...not that I'm hoping for this to happen anytime soon.

Best of luck - unless you're playing my Gophers!

Signed,
D2D - 50 consecutive year Gopher Season Ticket Holder

I’m glad Minnesota is a top 5 school again. That’s the way it should be imo. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Denver and one of the Boston schools.

i wasn’t sure of how good Motzko was when he was in St. Cloud but he’s made a believer out of me now.

btw… when I watched Wisconsin vs Minnesota Mariucci looked quite empty. Is it pricing? Fans still ****ed about B10? Or?

[D2D]

I’m glad Minnesota is a top 5 school again. That’s the way it should be imo. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Denver and one of the Boston schools.

i wasn’t sure of how good Motzko was when he was in St. Cloud but he’s made a believer out of me now.

btw… when I watched Wisconsin vs Minnesota Mariucci looked quite empty. Is it pricing? Fans still ****ed about B10? Or?

First game vs. the BADgers the box score shows an attendance of 8,961:
https://gophersports.com/sports/mens...boxscore/19799

Second game was 9,713:
https://gophersports.com/sports/mens...boxscore/19800

Just about every school in the country would love to have that kind of attendance for a weekend series.

[TJ77]

I don't think he will be fired until they lose in the B10 tournament. If they made a deal when his buyout was reduced, like making the NCAA tournament or you are out, then they wouldn't let him go until every avenue to do that is done. Day after, he is gone.

[solovsfett]

Phil!!! https://youtu.be/P1qDL-T19c0

[MadCityRich]

…. I may need to just move on to other sports or just replace hockey with concerts.

Blasphemy!! Just do as I do; If you recall 4 years ago, I dumped my Badger tickets (that have been in my family since the mid-70s), and Mrs. Mad City lets me use my allowance for the NHL!
Here in Madison, we're in a unique geographical location that's allowed me to drive to Chicago & St. Paul many times, Nashville (once), & St. Louis (twice). I had tickets for the Avs AT the Jets in March 2020 but Covid shut everything down. We all love college hockey, but if you haven't attended the 'chel', you're missing out.

Hopefully next year I'll buy a pair of UW season tickets, but it depends.

[digitalbooya]

Blasphemy!! Just do as I do; If you recall 4 years ago, I dumped my Badger tickets (that have been in my family since the mid-70s), and Mrs. Mad City lets me use my allowance for the NHL!
Here in Madison, we're in a unique geographical location that's allowed me to drive to Chicago & St. Paul many times, Nashville (once), & St. Louis (twice). I had tickets for the Avs AT the Jets in March 2020 but Covid shut everything down. We all love college hockey, but if you haven't attended the 'chel', you're missing out.

Hopefully next year I'll buy a pair of UW season tickets, but it depends.

This is where I’m at. Went to my first pro game last year (Wild vs Blackhawks, Wild 3-1 win) instead of Badger games. The drive isn’t drastically different from Stevens Point (1.75 hours to Kohl Center, 3 hours to Xcel Energy Center).

It’s nice to have a pro team that is pretty good despite adversity ($13-15M in dead cap next 2-3 years). I can get my hockey fix through them instead of Wisconsin. It has gotten to the point that the Badger hockey team is an afterthought for me where if I have a game on each of my three computer screens, say Mn Wild, Iowa Wild and Wi Badgers, the Badgers are the last team I pay attention to of that group.

If the University athletics office were to read the above it should be sounding off all sorts of alarms. Badger hockey used to be #1 and I never got to see the golden era. Never got see Badger Bob. I was born after 13 years of Sauer as the HC. Saw my first game in 2005. Went to 5 games in 05-06 (including the “Kessel game”) and have a jersey signed from the “Skate with the Badgers” that year. Had season tickets with my parents (UW Alumni) from 06-08. Hell, I used to go to skating courses that featured Adam Burish around that time.

UW needs to fix this problem. There are a ton of people out there that care about this team.

[solovsfett]

Blasphemy!! Just do as I do; If you recall 4 years ago, I dumped my Badger tickets (that have been in my family since the mid-70s), and Mrs. Mad City lets me use my allowance for the NHL!
Here in Madison, we're in a unique geographical location that's allowed me to drive to Chicago & St. Paul many times, Nashville (once), & St. Louis (twice). I had tickets for the Avs AT the Jets in March 2020 but Covid shut everything down. We all love college hockey, but if you haven't attended the 'chel', you're missing out.

Hopefully next year I'll buy a pair of UW season tickets, but it depends.

I think I’m replacing Badger Men’s hockey with women’s hockey and concerts. I enjoy the NHL but like pro football and basketball I enjoy the atmosphere at NCAA games much more.

[Timothy A]

I think I’m replacing Badger Men’s hockey with women’s hockey

The women are where it's at. Watts took so long??!??!!!

Lake St, tomorrow. At least it's not going against the joke of JV football game being called a bowl game this week.

[Timothy A]

So. Caden Brown has left the team. A really weird scenario that a USDP forward couldn't crack this scoring challenged line-up. Him and Morrison leaving essentially because Merch, Gorniac Caufield stayed. Being completely honest who would UW be better off with playing long term, Brown and Morrison or the covid guys? I'd vote for the youngsters.

Smilanic is back with the team and practicing, may not play this series. Horbach, Lucius and Strammel are not in the line-up this weekend.

[solovsfett]

So. Caden Brown has left the team. A really weird scenario that a USDP forward couldn't crack this scoring challenged line-up. Him and Morrison leaving essentially because Merch, Gorniac Caufield stayed. Being completely honest who would UW be better off with playing long term, Brown and Morrison or the covid guys? I'd vote for the youngsters.

Smilanic is back with the team and practicing, may not play this series. Horbach, Lucius and Strammel are not in the line-up this weekend.

Bizarre. Mersch and Gorniak are really 4th line talent which this team has far too much of.

they really just need to clean house and start over.

[druzy192]

Watching the bowl game on and off and I've scene at least 5 or so fans in the stands wearing badger hockey jerseys. Interesting for a program that hasn't won an NCAA playoff game in 12 or 13 years.

[druzy192]

So. Caden Brown has left the team. A really weird scenario that a USDP forward couldn't crack this scoring challenged line-up. Him and Morrison leaving essentially because Merch, Gorniac Caufield stayed. Being completely honest who would UW be better off with playing long term, Brown and Morrison or the covid guys? I'd vote for the youngsters.

Smilanic is back with the team and practicing, may not play this series. Horbach, Lucius and Strammel are not in the line-up this weekend.

Granato can recruit but he doesn't seem to know what to do with them once he gets them.

Before it amazed me that Granato could still recruit good players to come here with the bad record and empty stands. Then once Fickell came and I saw what other coaches and players were saying about him and recruiting... "9 out of 10 players will decide a school based on the relationship with the coaches".

That seems a little high (90%), but still. Shows Granato is definetely very good at relationships. His ability at relationships has probably helped him keep his job longer than he should.

[Timothy A]

So UW plays 3-13-2 Lake St. tonight. Either Clarkson 7-8-2 or UMass 10-6-1 tomorrow, then 3 weeks home with UND 8-8-2, U18, OSU 12-7-1. So a little 4 game WI homestand. I suppose 3 and 3 is a reasonably aggressive hope.

[WiscTJK]

First period in. Wisconsin played the 57th of 62 ranked pairwise team even. They are awful. It’s hard to watch.