Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2021-2022

[Timothy A]

So WI gets to play a triple header trip in MN playing St. Cloud twice and the Tommies once the 28th-31st. They get 1 game back anyway, but sadly I lose 2 home games.

Let's go RED!

[Steamboat]

Gophers over Badgers 2 - 1.

[Timothy A]

Gophers over Badgers 2 - 1.

Golly thanks for letting me know, I had no idea! I finished my Walmart greeter shift, then my dishwasher shift and I just got off my 3rd shift security job, all solo jobs I couldn't delegate. WINK. There's always today for a W. Let's go RRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[robertearle]

One silver lining to yesterday's wins by Minnesota and Duluth (and of course, there's a long ways to go): it becomes more likely that Duluth heads to Minneapolis for their NCAA "quarterfinal", instead of coming to Madison.

(The other thing to note is that it is really close between Clarkson and Colgate for 9th and 10th in the Pairwise and RPI ... And that means one of them gets into the 11 team field, and one doesn't. Expanding the field doesn't "fix" that kind of problem, it just changes the "friction point".)

[Steamboat]

One silver lining to yesterday's wins by Minnesota and Duluth (and of course, there's a long ways to go): it becomes more likely that Duluth heads to Minneapolis for their NCAA "quarterfinal", instead of coming to Madison.

(The other thing to note is that it is really close between Clarkson and Colgate for 9th and 10th in the Pairwise and RPI ... And that means one of them gets into the 11 team field, and one doesn't. Expanding the field doesn't "fix" that kind of problem, it just changes the "friction point".)

Hopefully that friction point moves next year.

[Steamboat]

... all solo jobs I couldn't delegate.

You fail the test of the true fan. One could call you a dilettante.

[robertearle]

It's tough to tell when watching on the video stream, but as best I can tell, UW is using different D pairings today than they did yesterday. I haven't seen Helgeson at all, I've seen Posick way more often than Toft, Bowlby is maybe double-shifting, and as a result, the defensive play has been not at all good. Still suffering from the absence of Kendra Nealey.

[robertearle]

It's tough to tell when watching on the video stream, but as best I can tell, UW is using different D pairings today than they did yesterday. I haven't seen Helgeson at all, I've seen Posick way more often than Toft, Bowlby is maybe double-shifting, and as a result, the defensive play has been not at all good. Still suffering from the absence of Kendra Nealey.

I hadn't really thought about it in these terms until today, but...

Before Nealey's injury, Wisconsin was 13-0-1 (though Nealey missed two of those prior to her 'big' injury)
Since her injury, they're 5-2-2 (and likely to be 5-3-2 by the end of the day)

Some of that is 'quality of opponent', but still....

[Steamboat]

Gophers win 4 - 3 to sweep the number 1 rated team. Shakeup in rating maybe on Monday?

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Gophers win 4 - 3 to sweep the number 1 rated team. Shakeup in rating maybe on Monday?

I'm wondering if Northeastern will get voted in as the new No.1.

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

It's tough to tell when watching on the video stream, but as best I can tell, UW is using different D pairings today than they did yesterday. I haven't seen Helgeson at all, I've seen Posick way more often than Toft, Bowlby is maybe double-shifting, and as a result, the defensive play has been not at all good. Still suffering from the absence of Kendra Nealey.

Yeah, that was noticeable, especially today as Blair wasn't given the best support on Minnesota's last three goals. I think Blair would like to have the first goal Minnesota scored back as that seemed like a shot she would normally save.

[robertearle]

Yeah, that was noticeable, especially today as Blair wasn't given the best support on Minnesota's last three goals. I think Blair would like to have the first goal Minnesota scored back as that seemed like a shot she would normally save.

I'm pretty sure that it was forward-playing -defense Maddie Posick that screened her. I'm not looking to slam Posick here, she's being asked to play a position she has not played before, but she got beat on that one. Emblematic of the UW's problem right now.

[Timothy A]

Gophers win 4 - 3 to sweep the number 1 rated team. Shakeup in rating maybe on Monday?

1 UM
2 NE
3 OSU
4 UW

There's no way MN isn't #1. Anything else is complete lunacy.

[Timothy A]

I hadn't really thought about it in these terms until today, but...

Before Nealey's injury, Wisconsin was 13-0-1 (though Nealey missed two of those prior to her 'big' injury)
Since her injury, they're 5-2-2 (and likely to be 5-3-2 by the end of the day)

Some of that is 'quality of opponent', but still....

This is great insight. MJ knew he had issues on the backend coming into the season, that's why he pursued Nealy. They were supposed to have Buchbinder and Harvey back there. Nealy was playing well enough for them not to miss Buchbinder and be able to spot play the 3rd pair in favorable matchups. With Nealy out, this is reminding me of the last Olympic cycle where UW just had enough to chug along but not enough to close the deal. UW is in real danger of not even getting home ice in round 2 of the ncaa's. There's enough opportunities for quality wins with OSU and UMD coming up to write the ship, plus the WCHA tourney, but I don't feel confident. The only hope is that the D continue to improve as the season's 9 regular season come up, plus 3 to 4 wcha playoff games. Their play can only improve as far as their talent come bring them.

[Bonzo]

A couple things strike me after watching both games this weekend:

• In her last 8 games Sophie Shirley has 1 goal and 0 assists. I believe the first 3 years she played a lot with Britta Curl. I wonder if not having Britta has really impacted her opportunities. Coming into the season I would have thought she would be one of the best players in the WCHA
• The Badger power play is really disappointing. Seems to lack puck control lately and haven't had as many opportunities as one would expect with such talented offensive players. The PP ranks 5th in the WCHA which is not where it should be
• It seems to me that the Badgers don't have as much traffic in front of the net as other top teams. The Gophers got a goal from a deflection in front yesterday. Rarely lately have we had traffic in front of the net for screens, tip ins, rebounds etc.
• Kennedy Blair has not played her best hockey against the Gophers. From the puck handling errors in the series in Madison, to a couple of soft goals this weekend she hasn't been at her best.

Plenty of time to bounce back in the chase for the WCHA title but now the team has left little margin for error. Never would have imagined coming into the season that the Gophers would take 11 of 12 possible points in the regular season.