Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

[gwhinwi]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

Good chances that the Badgers didn't take weren't there.

The thing was that there were good chances, especially on the power play, but people just weren't looking in the right directions or executing on them when they were there. I was sitting in the 200 level and could see a few opportunities where defensive players were out of position and the Badgers failed to make the passes and plays to punish them for it.

Having said that, Ohio State played VERY well and their goalie stood on her head for most of the game and was incredibly good in goal. Absolutely no disrespect to them was intended with my statement. I wouldn't have been bothered by the result at all if the Buckeyes would have won, as their defensive play would have deserved it. As it is, they did get a point for their efforts and that was definitely deserved.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

I disagree with this in its entirety. Good chances that the Badgers didn't take weren't there. All of the puck movement didn't produce quality looks at the net. Some of that is great defense by Ohio State, but a lot of it is on Wisconsin.

Look at the numbers. Wisconsin's problem on offense isn't that they aren't taking shots. It's that, of their last 112 shots, only three have gone in, and only one at even strength. What they need is some combination of better shooting and creating better chances, mostly the latter. There's a reason why Roque is scoring a high percentage of the goals lately: she's the only one who consistently drives to the net. Mauermann likes to get in there and mix it up after the whistle is blown, but that doesn't really help you score.

Right now, the Badgers look like they did three years ago, when they just weren't a good offensive team. They aren't especially scary at the moment, though I don't think that anyone else is, either.

"...It's that, of their last 112 shots, only three have gone in..."

And prior to that, 16 of 80 went in (in two games).

Randomness. 'Regression to the mean'. Small sample sizes. Etc Etc.

[Offsides Guy]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

I disagree with this in its entirety. Good chances that the Badgers didn't take weren't there. All of the puck movement didn't produce quality looks at the net. Some of that is great defense by Ohio State, but a lot of it is on Wisconsin.

Look at the numbers. Wisconsin's problem on offense isn't that they aren't taking shots. It's that, of their last 112 shots, only three have gone in, and only one at even strength. What they need is some combination of better shooting and creating better chances, mostly the latter. There's a reason why Roque is scoring a high percentage of the goals lately: she's the only one who consistently drives to the net. Mauermann likes to get in there and mix it up after the whistle is blown, but that doesn't really help you score.

Right now, the Badgers look like they did three years ago, when they just weren't a good offensive team. They aren't especially scary at the moment, though I don't think that anyone else is, either.

I agree with this. I would add that from just an "eye test" perspective they seem to lack the urgency needed to bury opponents early. I realize MJ is sacrosanct when it comes to criticism but you have to wonder how well the coaches have been addressing this issue as it seems it's been going on for a while. For example, I noticed the same thing in the first period of the recent Mankato debacle. Simply put, the Badgers have way too much talent to not be getting it done in a more impressive manner.

[ARM]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

... should cause fear for everyone they would play in the post season.

From what I've seen of the national picture, looking in the mirror should cause fear for everyone, with a possible exception of Cornell. Even the Big Red aren't exactly dynamic on offense, so if they should fall behind in NCAAs, oh-oh.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

The thing was that there were good chances, especially on the power play, but people just weren't looking in the right directions or executing on them when they were there. I was sitting in the 200 level and could see a few opportunities where defensive players were out of position and the Badgers failed to make the passes and plays to punish them for it.

I was in the 200's as well and there were quite a few great looks that did not end up connecting either a bad pass, blocked pass, not seen or a decision to shoot instead of pass. There were also chances where they passed and should have shot. I recall SS cutting to the front of the net in the 3rd then passing to the edge. This not like UW teams a few years ago that lacked talent to score like those teams did, this team has plenty of talent, they are just in a slump right now. The question is will they get a chance to break out of it with UMD coming up, then probably a bye. I still say everything has come apart with the superline being broken up. They are 5-3-1 since they were broken up and were 21-1-1 when they were together.

[Still Eeyore]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

"...It's that, of their last 112 shots, only three have gone in..."

And prior to that, 16 of 80 went in (in two games).

Randomness. 'Regression to the mean'. Small sample sizes. Etc Etc.

"Regression to the mean" in this case meaning "playing someone other than St Cloud."

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

"Regression to the mean" in this case meaning "playing someone other than St Cloud."

... whose goalie shut out Bemidji Saturday on 41 shots.

Randomness, Small sample sizes.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

I was in the 200's as well

It just baffles me how they decide to assign seats for the 'assigned seat' games. For 'Fill the Bowl' in 2014, I had an excellent seat: section 123, pretty much immediately adjacent to the 'family section' - Jenny Ryan's mom sat next to me for a while and we chatted, until she realized she was in the wrong row. In 2017, I was way over in 111 (I think), about even with one of the goals, and 25 rows up - not great. Yesterday almost dead center center ice, 108, seven rows up. Same with NCAA games at LaBahn: one year great seat, the next not so great. No rhyme or reason.

(One year for NCAA, they gave me a ticket for one row off where my 'usual' seat for LaBahn games is, the seat I take when I'm there early enough to seat just anywhere I choose. Right seat number, one row off. It was borderline creepy; how did they know?)

I hope your 200 seat was something really good; 207/209 or 221/223 blue line, etc. The first couple rows up there are awesome seats. Otherwise, season ticket holder really shouldn't have been in the 200s.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

It just baffles me how they decide to assign seats for the 'assigned seat' games. For 'Fill the Bowl' in 2014, I had an excellent seat: section 123, pretty much immediately adjacent to the 'family section' - Jenny Ryan's mom sat next to me for a while and we chatted, until she realized she was in the wrong row. In 2017, I was way over in 111 (I think), about even with one of the goals, and 25 rows up - not great. Yesterday almost dead center center ice, 108, seven rows up. Same with NCAA games at LaBahn: one year great seat, the next not so great. No rhyme or reason.

(One year for NCAA, they gave me a ticket for one row off where my 'usual' seat for LaBahn games is, the seat I take when I'm there early enough to seat just anywhere I choose. Right seat number, one row off. It was borderline creepy; how did they know?)

I hope your 200 seat was something really good; 207/209 or 221/223 blue line, etc. The first couple rows up there are awesome seats. Otherwise, season ticket holder really shouldn't have been in the 200s.

Actually my 2 season ticket seats were in 119 I think, but I bought 10 more for a group in the first row of 224. I really like sitting on the first row in the 200's or 300's, the view of the play is so awesome. I sat with my group in the 224 row, the 2 lower bowl tickets sadly went unused. I don't want to rain on the parade of the awesome attendance, but there is no way there was 14000+ butts in the seats.

[robertearle]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

Actually my 2 season ticket seats were in 119 I think, but I bought 10 more for a group in the first row of 224. I really like sitting on the first row in the 200's or 300's, the view of the play is so awesome. I sat with my group in the 224 row, the 2 lower bowl tickets sadly went unused. I don't want to rain on the parade of the awesome attendance, but there is no way there was 14000+ butts in the seats.

Every year, sometime later in the spring, the Athletic Dept will announce the numbers for tickets scanned vs tickets sold (not just for hockey, but for all sports). I actually went back and looked it up recently, though I don't have it in front of me right now. But IIRC, Fill The Bowl ran about 2/3rds actually scanned vs the number sold. In 2017, the 15K announced meant a little over 10K actually in the seats. So expect something like 9K to have been there Sunday.

"Only" 9000 showing up for a women's hockey game! Does that equal Hockey East's entire season, all teams?



EDIT (now that I'm out of bed and at my computer, not on a tablet):
Here is the link where I found the 'scanned vs sold' numbers. From the WI State Journal, and Todd M (of course). If you scroll down to the table for the game-by-game, you'll see a 'bar' when you can pull up prior years and their numbers. 2017, eg, 15,359 sold, 10,247 scanned.

https://madison.com/wsj/sports/colle...91dc8b48a.html

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

"Only" 9000 showing up for a women's hockey game! Does that equal Hockey East's entire season, all teams?

Probably the ezac and hockey easy combined. LOL

From where I was, the atmosphere wasn't as great as in Labahn though. All the noise and yelling kinda gets lost in the volume of the air and the 7000+ causal fans.

[gwhinwi]

Probably the ezac and hockey easy combined. LOL

From where I was, the atmosphere wasn't as great as in Labahn though. All the noise and yelling kinda gets lost in the volume of the air and the 7000+ causal fans.

But still louder than the men's games from this season.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

But still louder than the men's games from this season.

Absolutely.

[NMH]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

9,000 would be more than all-but four teams pulled in all season - Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cornell and UMD https://www.uscho.com/stats/attendan...ision-i-women/

[D2D]

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2019-2020 Season Thread

9,000 would be more than all-but four teams pulled in all season - Wisconsin, Minnesota, Cornell and UMD https://www.uscho.com/stats/attendan...ision-i-women/

Hats off to Wisconsin - and their fans - for leading the nation, both in the number of fans overall and in average attendance. Need to point out, however, that said figures are very much distorted by the one "Fill the Bowl" event. Kudos to Wisconsin for having it once a year at where the men's team plays, instead of their own rink. But without this one special event the attendance numbers between the Badgers and the Gophers would be pretty much a wash. And one could argue that Wisconsin's numbers should be higher than they are, considering the fact that they've been ranked No. 1 for most of the season.

All that said, I do wish our women's D1 hockey sport (which we all love here) generated much greater fan interest and attendance numbers than is currently the case. When looked at it this way, Wisconsin and Minnesota are leading the way.