WCHA 26-27 Season Thread

[Arreis]

Last week.....

UMD at BSU - Battle of Mediocrity #1-------------BSU is not good.
TWSNBN at Boomtown Rats - Battle of the Best-----------This was wild. TWSNBN has D issues and BT Rats are for real; a game 1 butt kicking and a huge game 2 comeback, but a loss
St. Cloudy at St. Tommy - Battle of Mediocrity #2 -------------Cloudy gets a couple 1 goal wins.
MSU at UW - Battle of the Basement------------Game 1 was not very satisfying; game 2 was. UW is out of the basement.

This week....
Lindenwood at BT Rats. Well, well, well......Watts to we have here???????? It was not too long ago Rat fans were giving BADger fans crap for scheduling Lindenwood. Maybe the BT Rats will just forfeit and save themselves the embarrassment of playing these games.
MSU - Bob Morris. Don't let us down.
MSU - BC. Make T3's head explode please.
BSU at SCU. The huskies are FEASTING on wcha cupcakes. They could be in first place by the end of the weekend! Getting swept by Colgate is killing you.
Colgate at TWSNBN. Fascinating. Colgate is ranked 8th, but St. Cloud was their toughest opponent.

Why in your opinion do you think TWSNBN has "D issues"?

 

[robertearle]

Why in your opinion do you think TWSNBN has "D issues"?

Tim can answer for himself, but my answer is what I wrote back in May, in the "other" Ohio State season thread:

"OSU returns a great majority of their goal-scoring (rather similar to what Wisconsin did this past year), but it's on the back end this year where the Buckeyes are a bit lacking in depth and experience. Beyond Jungaker and Raunio, the rest are either new to Ohio State or played sparingly last year."

From the line charts they have published so far, they have split Jungaker and Raunio, pairing Jungaker with freshman Viel, and Raunio with transfer Sydney Sawyer. And leaving returning OSU D players Roth and Wicks as the third pair (with, I'm guessing, freshman Hause getting a shift from time to time).

And then this week, after the Minnesota series, I noted the results of those pairings seem rather mixed, shall we say?

"As "imperfect" a player's plus/minus can be as a stat, right now the +/- of Buckeye defenders are pretty interesting.

"The top pair of Viel and Jungaker are +9 and +6. But after that, Raunio and Sawyer are +1 and -1, and Roth-Wicks-Hause are -2, -1, and -3."

If I were a Buckeye fan, those numbers would make me nervous...

(And even HockeyBuckeye allowed for the idea that "this teams achilles heel was more evident in our goaltenders.)

 

[Arreis]

Tim can answer for himself, but my answer is what I wrote back in May, in the "other" Ohio State season thread:

"OSU returns a great majority of their goal-scoring (rather similar to what Wisconsin did this past year), but it's on the back end this year where the Buckeyes are a bit lacking in depth and experience. Beyond Jungaker and Raunio, the rest are either new to Ohio State or played sparingly last year."

From the line charts they have published so far, they have split Jungaker and Raunio, pairing Jungaker with freshman Viel, and Raunio with transfer Sydney Sawyer. And leaving returning OSU D players Roth and Wicks as the third pair (with, I'm guessing, freshman Hause getting a shift from time to time).

And then this week, after the Minnesota series, I noted the results of those pairings seem rather mixed, shall we say?

"As "imperfect" a player's plus/minus can be as a stat, right now the +/- of Buckeye defenders are pretty interesting.

"The top pair of Viel and Jungaker are +9 and +6. But after that, Raunio and Sawyer are +1 and -1, and Roth-Wicks-Hause are -2, -1, and -3."

If I were a Buckeye fan, those numbers would make me nervous...

(And even HockeyBuckeye allowed for the idea that "this teams achilles heel was more evident in our goaltenders.)

That's interesting. Their strength of schedule currently is the highest of all WCHA teams. What I find interesting is that they haven't really put up big goal differentials to date yet have put up about 100 more shots then allowed to opponents. Statistically their opponents have a higher scoring percentage yet they only have one loss. Given that couldn't you also say they have a scoring issue?

Defensive issues + Scoring issues + Goaltending issues = #1 Ranking. Who knew?

 

[robertearle]

That's interesting. Their strength of schedule currently is the highest of all WCHA teams. What I find interesting is that they haven't really put up big goal differentials to date yet have put up about 100 more shots then allowed to opponents. Statistically their opponents have a higher scoring percentage yet they only have one loss. Given that couldn't you also say they have a scoring issue?

I think about to what degree team sports "integrate"; that is, how much does one aspect affect other aspects. Baseball, for example, is a series of discrete events that don't really affect one another particularly, offense to defense and back again. Football and volleyball, on the other hand, are VERY integrated; everything affects everything. I'm not sure hockey is as integrated as those two, but it's still integrated to a good degree. Offense can't score goals if the defense can't get the puck away from the other team, can't beat their forecheck and break out of the D zone. Your shot total stat is interesting; time of possesion might be interesting, as well. Yes, that they haven't scored all that much is surprising, but they've played a tough schedule so far.

 

[BuckyB]

They have goaltending issue as well as a penalty discipline issue.
Their D is not fast and aside from Jungaker.... eh

 

[Timothy A]

Why in your opinion do you think TWSNBN has "D issues"?

I have no idea. I haven't seen more than 5 minutes of them play.

 

[Arreis]

I have no idea. I haven't seen more than 5 minutes of them play.

So basically you just write random stuff. Cool.

 

[Timothy A]

D

So basically you just write random stuff. Cool.

Well yeah! . Others said it was more of a d problem than a g problem, and I trust their input to run with it.