Wisconsin Hockey 23-24: Hastily Making Wisconsin Hockey Great Again

[drewski192]

On the radio they said the flu is running thru the team and Hastings even left the bench for several minutes in the second. I wonder if that hurt the energy level. Either way they have to be much better to get the split. MSU looks like the best team they played this year. They almost doubled our SOG.

Team with the flu and without the leading goal scorer and captain will be at a significant disadvantage coming into the game.

They were losing most of the corner battles, scrambling in the d-zone and puck control wasn't very good anywhere on the ice, but especially in the neutral zone. Had a hard time entering the zone with possession.

MSU looked borderline amazing. Not sure if it's them or the Badgers having a stinker. We'll see tonight!

[digitalbooya]

Women's team was swept. Here's to hoping the men's team doesn't follow the same path.

[digitalbooya]

Our defense is so slow. Michigan St is exposing that with their forward speed.

[digitalbooya]

Brutal weekend.

[WiscTJK]

Michigan State looks like the real deal. But the Badgers had huge injury/sickness issues. They were better on Saturday, but they really only won one period out of six. That’s not going to cut it.

[Almington]

That was not the weekend that we were hoping for. The curse of being #1 struck again.

1.) Michigan State is a very good team, I would not be surprised if they win the Big Ten title.

2.) Some clear rust from the bye week that was compounded by illness and injury. On of the downsides of having an odd team league is that someone always has a bye.

3.) By and large, the two teams were evenly matched. The late season rematch (and potential playoff showdown) will be epic games.

4.) The last 5-6 minutes of the 2nd period Friday, the Spartans REALLY took control of the game and had the Badgers back on their heals and earned those 2 goals.

5.) No puck luck on Saturday, much of that goes to the credit of MSU for not leaving the space needed for luck to happen but UW didn’t generate the space they needed either.

6.) I’m never happy being swept, but I wasn’t disappointed with the teams play given the uncontrollables they faced over the week given the quality of the play from the other team. The Badgers never gave up and stopped playing to win, which isn’t something that I would have said about previous teams.

[WiscTJK]

Rough Weekend for UW Athletics in general:

1. Football Win against Nebraska
2. BB win against Robert Morris (but will probably lose to Virginia tonight)
3. Men's Hockey - swept by MSU
4. Women's Hockey - swept by OSU
5. Volleyball - lost to Purdue
6. Wrestling - destroyed 0-42 by Iowa State
7. Women's BB - lost to Kansas State

I will have a stat update later once I see where the polls have UW. Pairwise we are sitting at 7th so still really good for NCAA playoffs.

[Gurth 2.0]

Figured this was gonna happen at some point and didn't believe we were the best team in the country just yet.

Now for the response which will show whether or not the new culture has taken hold.

3 Home series against decent but not elite competition and then the Holiday tourney.

One game at a time though - have a great effort against AA Friday night and get a W to right the ship.

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Craptastic Badger sports weekend.

Volleyball just not the same since earlier season dominance - BIG game on Friday to hopefully secure a top 4 seed. Gotta win.

W T F is going on with the women's team that they only had 3 lines on Saturday? Looked completely outmatched for most of both games.

Football... well the effort was there. I'll give em that. Not sure why Ficks hates field goal attempts so much (in regulation) though - could have been up 9 instead of only 3 at the end. Slave to the analytics? Good to get those extra bowl practices but ever since our first loss, the only thing that I care about is the axe. Get the axe and now, prevent the Rodents from being bowl eligible. Minnesota has had the axe what, 3 of the last 4 years? After we had it like 18 straight years. Fleck is a tool and really not that successful but he sure has our number. Rowing that boat! It's disgrace and a pall over these current Badger football classes.

[WiscTJK]

Record: 9-3 overall (4-2-0-0 12 pts, T-2^nd in Big7); (1st), (-1)
USCHO Poll: 6^th (0 of 50 first place votes); (1^st) (-5)
PWR: T-7^th of 64; (3^rd after 11/13) (-4)
RPI: 7^th; (3^rd after 11/13) (-4)
Scoring: 3.25 GPG, T-19^th; (3.50) (T-15^th) (-4)
Defense: 2.08 GAPG, T-3^rd; (1.80) 3^rd (n/c)
Save %: .923, T-4^th; (.929) T-4^th (n/c)
Power Play Rate: 18.75% (9 of 48), T-33^rd 22.50% (9 of 40), T-17th (-16)
Penalty Kill Rate: 88.10% (37 of 42), 8^th; 89.19% (33 of 37), 13^th (+5)
Penalty Min per Game: 9.58 (40^th) (1st is worst); 10.30 (34^th) (+6)
Penalty Min: 115, (103)
Shorthanded Goals Scored; 1, T-23^rd; (1), (T-15^th) (-8)
Shorthanded Goals Allowed: 1, T-23^rd (1^st is worst); (1), T-13^th (+10)
Team Faceoff: 52.2%, 22^nd; 52.5%, 16^th (-6)
SOG taken: 419 (9^th); 355 (5^th) (-4)
SOG allowed: 324 (T-36^th) (1^st is worst); 254 (T-21^st) (+15)

This week: Alaska Anchorage 11/24 Friday 7 pm (TV – BTN+); 11/25 Saturday 6 pm (TV – BTN+)
Next week: Ohio State 12/1 7 pm (TV – BTN+); Saturday 12/2 8 pm (TV – BTN+).
Following week: Penn State

Time to take the 3 home weekends in a row and bank some wins and Big 7 points!

[WiscTJK]

Big 7 in USCHO top 20 poll this week (PWR in quotes):

6 Wisconsin (T-7)
7 MSU (T-7)
8 Goofers (12)
14 Michigan (23)
18 N/D (14)
19 PSU (19)
R/V (#24) OSU (29)

[Timothy A]

W T F is going on with the women's team that they only had 3 lines on Saturday? Looked completely outmatched for most of both games.

(

2 forwards are out since the beginning of the season due to injury and the leading scorer Simms also missed Saturday's game with an injury she played through Friday. They are also missing all world offensive defender Caroline Harvey who is also injured. They looked iffy the series before against St. Cloud with missing players, so I was not shocked to see how these games went.

[digitalbooya]

It’d be nice if our 1st round pick could do literally anything to make a positive impact - signed a frustrated Badger and Wild fan

[WiscTJK]

It’d be nice if our 1st round pick could do literally anything to make a positive impact - signed a frustrated Badger and Wild fan

Yeah it's a little surprising. Is he a potential portal guy after this season?

[MisterMunn]

That was not the weekend that we were hoping for. The curse of being #1 struck again.

1.) Michigan State is a very good team, I would not be surprised if they win the Big Ten title.

2.) Some clear rust from the bye week that was compounded by illness and injury. On of the downsides of having an odd team league is that someone always has a bye.

3.) By and large, the two teams were evenly matched. The late season rematch (and potential playoff showdown) will be epic games.

4.) The last 5-6 minutes of the 2nd period Friday, the Spartans REALLY took control of the game and had the Badgers back on their heals and earned those 2 goals.

5.) No puck luck on Saturday, much of that goes to the credit of MSU for not leaving the space needed for luck to happen but UW didn’t generate the space they needed either.

6.) I’m never happy being swept, but I wasn’t disappointed with the teams play given the uncontrollables they faced over the week given the quality of the play from the other team. The Badgers never gave up and stopped playing to win, which isn’t something that I would have said about previous teams.

I just want to say that Wisconsin is by far the best team that MSU has played all year. While MSU played inspired hockey, I don’t believe that there was that much difference between the two teams. Your goaltender was phenomenal all weekend and I didn’t see any soft shots anywhere near him. While I’m happy that MSU swept, I have a very strong feeling that when Wisconsin is fully healthy it will be a much different dynamic. I hope that when these teams meet again that they are fighting for first place (I just can’t root for Wolverines or Gophers).
Keep your heads up, your team is going to win a lot of hockey, and long as your coach sticks around they will be contenders.

[digitalbooya]

Yeah it's a little surprising. Is he a potential portal guy after this season?

I hope not. He's the guy I hope replaces Silye's production next season. But, if he's not producing then it is a pretty moot point anyways. The potential is there. It's driving me crazy that he can't produce.