Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2022-2023

[robertearle]

This is really good: Chayla Edwards with a nice pass to sister Laila, who one-times it for the goal. And notice the woman in the second row in the white UW jersey going crazy. lower right on the replay; their mom. She might have had the best view in the building of the whole thing.

https://twitter.com/BadgerWHockey/st...91531102994433

--------------------------------

Highlighting this one so that Tim sees it: not quite the "Rigsby save" but quite remarkable, none the less.

To even it out, Gervais badly mishandled a puck out away from goal late in the third to give St Cloud a goal, making it 3-2 and giving us a nervous final five minutes.

https://twitter.com/WisconsinOnBTN/s...97786777489408

[Patricio]

Well. Another weekend fostering a feeling of impending doom. The Badgers simply were unable to sustain an offensive presence that inspired any confidence in their ability to avoid calamitous outcomes in the next two weekends The StC goal on Friday and the two on Saturday were weak giveaways with the second one on Saturday the result of a horrendous turnover by Gervais when she basically passed the puck to a StC player as she came out of her net to clear the puck during a Badgers 5 on 4 advantage, giving the player a shot on the open net she had left behind. It had to be seen to be believed but I had to ask several people around me to verify it had indeed happened. Suffice it to say, the level of play left a sense of impending doom for the end of the season.

But there were several things of interest. One is that MJ juggled the configurations of all the O lines again, and the makeup of the lines on Saturday differed from the one of Friday. Prime examples are lines on Saturday of Enright-Simms-Eden and Compher-Kurl-LEdwards. This has been an ongoing “theme” for MJ since the Quinnipiac weekend and suggests he is struggling to find a way to right the faltering ship. For me, it also raises the question of what happened at Quinnipiac that led him to begin doing this as the solution to whatever he saw as the issue, something I commented on following the debacle with Duluth when he made the initial changes.

Another item of interest is a statement by LaMantia following Friday’s loss that there are no issues among the players in the locker room that could be seen as a factor in the sudden swoon by the Badgers. This had never occurred to me, and I find myself wondering why she felt it to be necessary to address it as a possible contributing factor.

In my view, the explanation for the situation the Badgers lies in MJ’s refusal or inability to modify his offense to address the new defensive approach Muzerall introduced to the league. For a number of years, she has focused on developing a defense that has been frustrating for MJ’s approach to offense. She generally managed to keep the games close despite being outshot by considerable margins, often pulling off upsets. Now, she has begun adding considerable punch on offense. Other teams are adopting a similar style – a strong D with a solid O as well. OSU and MN are prime examples of this, and Duluth is headed in that direction. StC’s new coach also has stated that his initial focus has been on upgrading the team’s D but soon will begin more intensive development of his O as well.

Women’s hockey has entered a new world in which there are a growing number of innovative young coaches who are adopting new strategies and approaches to the game, ones that make MJ’s offense less intimidating, less threatening, and, in fact, something they find ways to exploit. In addition to changes in the assignments of players to his lines, he needs to revisit the possibility that he needs to make changes to the structure of his offense. He certainly has a lot of talented players who certainly could perform well against any D. He just needs to study ways to modify his approach vis-a-vis the defenses that are proving so difficult to penetrate reliably and respond accordingly. Not easy to do after so many years of success. But I fear the handwriting is on the proverbial wall.

[MinnOTB]

I looked at BTN video. Eden intercepts a pass a little ahead of center ice, and hasn't quite 'settled' the puck when she gets to the blue line, and ends up backing into the zone while (arguably) not quite taking full possession of the puck. You can see why they made the call reversal they did. But it's still pretty ticky-tack.

The one I really don't get is the 'too many players' right after that. For those who maybe didn't see the game, St Cloud got called for a trip in the UW D zone, play continued for another 30 seconds, and then St Cloud finally controlled the puck and play was stopped. Trip signaled, ST Cloud player skates to the penalty box. Normal stuff. Then maybe two minutes of real life time later, the refs announce that Wisconsin is getting a penalty for 'too many skaters' Nothing was called at the time; if it had been, play would have been whistled dead. But after two minutes of discussion, somebody decides UW had too many on the ice. I look at the video, and in the 30 seconds of game time between the trip and the whistle, UW has only four and then five skaters in the offensive zone. They never do get a sixth skater into the zone. All five St Cloud defenders are in their zone. After the first few seconds subsequent to the penalty being signaled, you can't see the UW bench on the video, so no real idea what is happening - other than the usual goalie skating over, 6th player coming off, etc. But again, UW never even gets a sixth skater into the offensive zone. And the puck is nowhere near either bench. So even if UW had two skaters come off the bench and skate ten feet or whatever, no 'advantage' at all gained. But somehow UW gets a matching minor, wiping out a power play.

Fifteen seconds into that 4-on-4, St Cloud scores the only goal of the game.

That is, in a series of events that last maybe a minute of game time, UW has a goal negated by an offside video review, have a power play negated by a weird phantom 'too many skaters' call, and the only goal of the game is scored against.

(Just the way the game went. I remember another bit in the 2nd period. Faceoff in the UW offensive zone that UW wins clean just as one of the linesmen whistles it dead because a St Cloud player was moving, or too close, etc. So redo the face off. St Cloud wins the redo and clears the zone. Good think that St Cloud wasn't able to get away with that unfair advantage!)

After watching the sequence of events surrounding the too many players penalty, let me propose an alternative explanation and timeline of what occurred. At 4:58 on the game clock, the trip occurred and within one second or so Ludwig, who is deep in the Badger D zone, raises his hand to signal the delayed penalty for the trip. By 4:56, players on the Wisconsin bench are aware of the penalty and try to signal to Kronish to get off the ice for the extra attacker. Here pay particular attention in the video to the goalie to the far right who starts waving just before she goes out of view as the camera pans to the left toward the St. Cloud D zone. Ludwig doesn’t blow the play dead until 4:36 when a Huskie player finally controls the puck. Because no extra attacker is ever seen within camera view in the offensive zone and because the linesman never blows the play dead before Ludwig’s whistle, it’s pretty clear to me that the too many players infraction didn’t occur until just before or simultaneously with the whistle. It’s not surprising to me that the player told to join the play as the extra attacker got a bit impatient while waiting over 15 seconds for her teammate to get off the ice and jumped on early. We are left to speculate as to whether the call was good or not because no wide-angle replays were shown.

Regarding the actions of the officials after the whistle, the video does show the linesman who made the too many players call skating up to Ludwig as he is announcing the tripping penalty and speaking to him immediately afterward, presumably to inform him of the second infraction. The next 25 seconds or so of video is a closeup shot of Idalski and when it cuts away to a wider view we can see the lineman who made the call arriving at the Wisconsin bench and Ludwig joining her a few seconds later. Before the two officials start to skate away from the bench area about 50 seconds later, the play-by-play guys notice the Wisconsin penalty box door is open so the scorekeeper likely had to have been informed of the penalty during the time the video was focused on Idalski. The main point of confusion for us fans was that we weren’t made aware of the penalty until the scorekeeper announced it when the Badger skater finally entered the box.

Finally, with respect to the offsides call made just earlier, I agree that they got the call right with the video review but I wouldn’t call it ticky-tack. It looks clear cut to me. As I understand the offsides rule, for a player to be onside when they enter the offensive zone ahead of the puck, they must have gained possession and control of the puck with at least one skate still in the neutral zone, and only then are they allowed they allowed to bring the puck in behind them. In Eden’s case it was quite clear that she was fully in the zone before gaining control of the puck. It was a very close call as to whether she gained control of the puck while it was still on the blue line but at that point both of her skates were already past it by at least 3 feet, so whether or not she had control before or after that moment isn’t relevant.

[wiscolorado]

Well I'm a lot less disappointed at having missed fill the bowl after the fact. I'm glad to see we at least managed to split the series. And I still am looking forward to the last home series against OSU in two weekends, even if I don't have terribly high hopes about how those games might go.

[Timothy A]

In my view, the explanation for the situation the Badgers lies in MJ’s refusal or inability to modify his offense to address the new defensive approach Muzerall introduced to the league. For a number of years, she has focused on developing a defense that has been frustrating for MJ’s approach to offense. She generally managed to keep the games close despite being outshot by considerable margins, often pulling off upsets. Now, she has begun adding considerable punch on offense. Other teams are adopting a similar style – a strong D with a solid O as well. OSU and MN are prime examples of this, and Duluth is headed in that direction. StC’s new coach also has stated that his initial focus has been on upgrading the team’s D but soon will begin more intensive development of his O as well.

Women’s hockey has entered a new world in which there are a growing number of innovative young coaches who are adopting new strategies and approaches to the game, ones that make MJ’s offense less intimidating, less threatening, and, in fact, something they find ways to exploit. In addition to changes in the assignments of players to his lines, he needs to revisit the possibility that he needs to make changes to the structure of his offense. He certainly has a lot of talented players who certainly could perform well against any D. He just needs to study ways to modify his approach vis-a-vis the defenses that are proving so difficult to penetrate reliably and respond accordingly. Not easy to do after so many years of success. But I fear the handwriting is on the proverbial wall.

You are so in my head again! I was entertaining these exact thoughts, but the discussion with myself always came back to "hockey is so organic that an offensive change in approach isn't a realistic solution" so I never posted anything on it. I do think once you get the cycle going, maybe there are maybe different things that you can try and do to break down the box. I think where the wcha has improved overall is stick and position discipline in the D zone. Team speed overall has equalized across the board as well.

[Timothy A]

Another item of interest is a statement by LaMantia following Friday’s loss that there are no issues among the players in the locker room that could be seen as a factor in the sudden swoon by the Badgers. This had never occurred to me, and I find myself wondering why she felt it to be necessary to address it as a possible contributing factor.

OB said something similar last week as well. Obviously losing could be driving wedges into the team bond. Expectations were and are so high that falling short frequently is not anything these players are that well versed in dealing with, though at the end of the year only 1 team's season has a happy ending.

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

No worries Sinner fans...The upcoming series with the Tunnelers will cure what's ailing the team you support.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Well TimothyA, are the Badgers going to do the Buckeyes a solid and take at least one game from the Gophers? I don't mind a Badger sweep either! (Wink)

[Timothy A]

Well TimothyA, are the Badgers going to do the Buckeyes a solid and take at least one game from the Gophers? I don't mind a Badger sweep either! (Wink)

They are gonna kick rodent ***, then they are gonna kick buckeye ***. Enough of this garbage, it's go time.

[Timothy A]

Let's go Red!

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

They are gonna kick rodent ***, then they are gonna kick buckeye ***. Enough of this garbage, it's go time.

Actually being serious when I say this...The sinners have the talent to do this and if there was ever a time to get on a roll, the next 4 games are it for them.

[robertearle]

Tonight is on Bally Sports Wisconsin 'Extra' (channel 682 on Charter/Spectrum in Madison, though the guide on the cable box has it listed at the wrong time), and tomorrow is on regular BTN.

(I didn't realize it until seeing tweets just now, but it is UW vs Minnesota everywhere this weekend: women's hockey, men's hockey, women basketball, men basketball, even wrestling.)

[robertearle]

WCHA playoff 'pre-sale' for season ticket holders happening today. Friday Feb 24th 7 PM, Saturday 25th 3 PM.

[Timothy A]

WCHA playoff 'pre-sale' for season ticket holders happening today. Friday Feb 24th 7 PM, Saturday 25th 3 PM.

Thanks for the heads up! Our season tix are attached to my wife's email, so I never would have known.....

[Timothy A]

Actually being serious when I say this...The sinners have the talent to do this and if there was ever a time to get on a roll, the next 4 games are it for them.

They totally have the talent to win all 4 games. It hasn't come together yet, so I'm under no grand illusion that magically they'll average 4 goals a game over the next 4 games. Another 55 gallon drum of thinner is on standby.