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Wcha 2022-23

OSU got 5 of 6 points from UMD, and outshot them by a decent margin both games, which I at least was expecting.
UW clobbered BSU, not shocking.
MN sweat out 2 wins against St. Cloud, definitely a surprise.
MSU sweeps the Tommies, not a shock, though only by 2 goals each game.

This week....MEGA MATCHUP WEEK.

All 4 series could be coinflips.

Tommies at St. Cloud.....this one should be a sweep, but you never know.
MSU at BSU..... I have not seen MSU play yet, BSU had a sum total of 1.5 periods against UW that were better than any other opponent who has played at WI. This one could be a split.
UW at UMD.....UMD sharpened the sword against OSU, UW has O/D'ed on cupcakes. If UW can get out of the first period of game one not losing by more than 1, they will sweep they are just too deep. If the hole is too big to dig out of, split.
UM at OSU.....UM not terribly impressive against St. Cloud, also enjoying the cupcake bar UW has been frequenting, OSU sharpened the sword against UMD. OSU sweeps.
 
Timothy A said:
Megaweekend starts today, what are your thoughts people?
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However we view these teams relative to each other this morning isn't how we're likely to view them in four months. Right now, SCSU looks to me to be the strongest of the teams that finished in the bottom half in 2022, but the separation to MSU and/or BSU can disappear if a player or two emerges.

As much as fans of Wisconsin and Minnesota like their teams, only tOSU has a winning record versus contending teams (or what we think are contending teams). It's one thing to win when you're scoring a half dozen goals. The trick is to keep winning when you don't get close to that. We'll learn a little this weekend, but not much more than that.
 
It was quite a battle between the Buckeyes and Gophers. The Buckeyes had so many golder opportunities to score but just couldn't get it past the Gophers D and goalie. Minnesota got those oh so sweet chances and bounced that good teams turn into goals. Today's game should be a barn burner!
 
Given that Webster didn't play, how much does yesterday's Buckeyes/Gophers result even mean in terms of the relative strength of the teams? Once she switches sports, tOSU gets deeper and more talented. It's not like UM was able to control the game even w/o her. Last year, the Buckeyes established themselves as the team to beat, and thus far, I don't see that has changed.
 
ARM said:
Given that Webster didn't play, how much does yesterday's Buckeyes/Gophers result even mean in terms of the relative strength of the teams? Once she switches sports, tOSU gets deeper and more talented. It's not like UM was able to control the game even w/o her. Last year, the Buckeyes established themselves as the team to beat, and thus far, I don't see that has changed.
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But should the Gophers somehow sweep today and remain undefeated at 7-0 wouldn't they then establish themselves as "the team to beat"?
 
D2D said:
But should the Gophers somehow sweep today and remain undefeated at 7-0 wouldn't they then establish themselves as "the team to beat"?
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In my mind, not yet. OSU has shown it can win big games in March; the current group in maroon & gold hasn't. Four months down the road, a series in October isn't going to look all that significant. Admittedly, all the players can win today are October games, so that's where their focus has to be.

As far as rankings, at some point we have to get serious about figuring out where Colgate, Quinnipiac, and the rest of the ECAC fall in the mix.
 
ARM said:
As far as rankings, at some point we have to get serious about figuring out where Colgate, Quinnipiac, and the rest of the ECAC fall in the mix.
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Q > than toothpaste right now so they are the cat's meow...

The WCHA top four are all pretty darn good. The Yuckeyes, when they have Webster, may still be the top of the heap, which for now is the Tunnelers. The Tunneler's 4 forward lines are going to be a matchup nightmare for any team.
 
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UMD rides that top line like crazy. Game 1 Hughes took 22 faceoffs, the rest of the team took 20 ( only 3 players took them). Game 2 she took 27, the rest of the team took 30 (5 total took faceoffs this game). I think all the tv timeouts helped them quite a bit.
 
I'd guess that UMD's top D pair was out there even a higher percentage of the time.
 
Ohio State is a very good, very skilled team. They are also Exhibit A for why the league needs to start calling the rulebook as it is written. They are extremely physical, and throw bodychecks constantly. I don't think that they play dirty or particularly dangerously, but they are committing a lot of penalties if you read the rulebook.

Nadine Muzerall is daring the refs to actually call things, and the officials are not stepping up. If there's little or no price to pay for it, there's no incentive to stop.

At this point, it's not about the decision making of individual referees. This is the league office setting the tone. There are two possibilities here. The first is that this is the sort of game that Greg Shepherd and his bosses want. In that case, they should petition the NCAA to change the rulebook to allow checking. Until it is changed, they have an ethical responsibility to enforce the rulebook.

The other possibility is that they don't want to call penalties out of a misguided desire not to have the refs affect the outcome of the game and because they don't want games to be filled with too many penalties breaking up the play. This is letting a short term outcome prevent them from solving a long term problem. Call bodychecking as they are supposed to, and teams won't do it as much. Early this season, they made a few delay of game calls for multiple face-off infractions. It worked. The face-off shenanigans are way down from previous seasons. Call bodychecking, and the number of penalties will go up immediately, and then drift back down. You can reach a new equilibrium.

I don't really have a problem with a coach who chooses to skate on or over the edge of what is allowed, so long as they aren't significantly compromising player safety, so this isn't a complaint about the Buckeyes or Muzerall. But the league needs to be willing to impose a cost for that decision, and they aren't.
 
UMD is better than I thought they were though I think they benefitted more than UW with the TV timeouts. Or UW's cupcake schedule betrayed them as far as prepping for a tough opponent. Or a combo of both. MN was not betrayed by their sugar loafs, they got my attention. The wcha is just loaded this year. I think there will be a different regular season champ and tourney champ. If one of the 4 gets hot and starts destroying the other three that would be impressive.

UMD at UM. Bigtime measuring stick series. I'm hoping UM buries UMD to make it a 3 horse race.
St Cloud at BSU. Interesting.
OSU at Tommies. Get out the tourniquets
Sacred Heart at MSU. Defend the West MSU.
Bye at UW. The UW pp will still suck.
 
MSU sweeps Sacred Heart.
St. Cloud sweeps BSU.
OSU sweeps the Tommies, but only 4-0 and 6-0
MN with the unconventional sweep of UMD.

What was the N/C game between St. Cloud and UM all about on Monday?

This week....
Tommies and Lindenwood tangle, should be very interesting.
UMD at St. Cloud. VERY interesting series.

Looky here, St. Cloud in 4th place! Wow. Looks like Idalski is having a major impact and quickly too. I hope they get out of this weekend still ahead of UMD in the standings.
 
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