Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

I think we can also agree that Ahcan is just the type of player you want on the team, but a first line player he is not. He did just about nothing on that line. Now maybe if this team or that line actually generated forechecking pressure he'd be great in the corners, but they either don't want to play that way or can't, so he's not in the right spot IMHO. He was great when he was down the lineup further, very noticeable. Gorniak has some wheels, I'd like to see him play on the 1 with guys who have comparable speed. My only concern is that he seems to be weak on his skates. Vorlicky has been very good for a straight out of HS guy, very impressive.

Seeing that UND throttled the rodents on the road just makes a guy shake his head even more. The rodents are not good, the weasels are not good. Not pulling a winning record out of these 4 games is a bummer. Those Sparty games are always tight. There's always hope the light will go on, but there isn't a lot of signage that the light is plugged in.

[Bonin21]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Two programs, both alike in history
In fair North, where we lay our scene

What we are seeing here are two traditional hockey programs dealt an excruciating blow by the formation of a stupid hockey conference no one really wanted or likes more than the old one, combined with holding onto coaches way too long because of long ago national championships.

Granato and Motzko were left with empty cupboards, and it's evident that given the circumstances they'll probably both get at least five years before being fired becomes a possibility. If Motzko fails to make the tournament the first four years, I believe the discussion should be happening though he'd likely get at least another year. This is year 4 for Granato.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

This has nothing to do with WCHA 1.0 vs BTHC.

This is just a great recruiter that is also a terrible hockey coach, with players who make terrible choices on the ice. No more, no less.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

This is just a great recruiter that is also a terrible hockey coach, with players who make terrible choices on the ice. No more, no less.

I sure thought a below average NHL hockey coach could make some hay in the ncaa. TG seems like a very principled man, IF they just never get it together, does he resign? Or is he too competitive to give up like that?

[digitalbooya]

I sure thought a below average NHL hockey coach could make some hay in the ncaa. TG seems like a very principled man, IF they just never get it together, does he resign? Or is he too competitive to give up like that?

You think he’d walk away from being the highest paid head coach in the NCAA? I don’t see it, competitive or not.

[sunprairie]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Outside of the less-than-satisfying results on the weekend, I need to also throw in a big-time gripe about the lack of any band at the Kohl Center for a Big 10 series (or any home series for that matter). I know it was a holiday weekend, and I kind of expected that might be the case Saturday if the band was traveling to Minnesota for the football game (not sure if they did or not), but usually in those cases there are a couple drummers and even a sparse alumni band to rev up Power Plays and to hit On Wisconsin for the goals. For there to be no band for the entire series was miserable.

The canned versions were miserable during Saturday's wins, and even worse Sunday when the board operators decided to follow the Christmas Vacation theme and run the Hallelujah chorus clip of Clark Griswold finally getting his light display to work on Cole's lone goal instead of On Wisconsin. Not to mention the canned Power Play drums and recorded crowd chants was downright embarrassing - literally pumping in crowd noise to a quiet arena. I'm not making any excuses for the team's play, but the band is a key driver to making the Kohl Center environment a vibrant one and to lead the crowd's cheers. Without it, the silence is deafening. Under Leckrone I can't remember a weekend when there was no band presence for an entire series. I hope this doesn't happen again.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Outside of the less-than-satisfying results on the weekend, I need to also throw in a big-time gripe about the lack of any band at the Kohl Center for a Big 10 series (or any home series for that matter). I know it was a holiday weekend, and I kind of expected that might be the case Saturday if the band was traveling to Minnesota for the football game (not sure if they did or not), but usually in those cases there are a couple drummers and even a sparse alumni band to rev up Power Plays and to hit On Wisconsin for the goals. For there to be no band for the entire series was miserable.

The canned versions were miserable during Saturday's wins, and even worse Sunday when the board operators decided to follow the Christmas Vacation theme and run the Hallelujah chorus clip of Clark Griswold finally getting his light display to work on Cole's loan goal instead of On Wisconsin. Not to mention the canned Power Play drums and recorded crowd chants was downright embarrassing - literally pumping in crowd noise to a quiet arena. I'm not making any excuses for the team's play, but the band is a key driver to making the Kohl Center environment a vibrant one and to lead the crowd's cheers. Without it, the silence is deafening. Under Leckrone I can't remember a weekend when there was no band presence for an entire series. I hope this doesn't happen again.

The athletic department stopped caring about collegiate atmosphere and the role the band plays in it years ago.

They seemingly have a very strong preference for Jump Around and Buttercup than anything that Leckrone had been building for 50 years.

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Was taking the little McBadgerton back to college until late, so watched the replay later last night.

The Hammer was terrific. When he stays in the net and doesn't overplay his position too much, he can be very good. Getting the bench for a game might have really helped him to re-focus. He was great all weekend.

Agree, the no band, no even a smattering of alumni band... I could see and hear how awful that was and I wasn't even in the house.

The not starting well... The all access video last week has Tony at the white board talking to the team about starting strong and dictating play at the puck drop rather than waiting to see how it's all going to go before deciding to play. That was last Monday and apparently a main theme for the week. It's on the coaches to communicate these things to players, but I don't know how much more plainly it can be stated for the 100th time. Apparently it's not being communicated well enough yet though, because after talking about it all week (again) the boys did just the opposite. (again)

I know Tony has been ill recently, but he's been looking like he's aged 15 years. I don't think it's all from the flu. Man... I'd be washing down double handfuls of Prilosec with Jack Daniels and chain smoking 6 packs of Lucky's a day were I in his shoes. Probably on my 3rd heart attack and 5th aneurysm already this season. Just so frustrating to see them play so well at times and for long stretches, and then turn around and just make such bad decisions, turn the puck over, (and over, and over) and just plain get beat up for such long stretches. So, so, frustrating...

[WiscTJK]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Updates after the Wolverine series (W 3-2, L 1-3)

Record: 7-8-1 (2-5-1-1 - 8pts, 6th in Big7)
USCHO Poll: 19 (n/c)
USA Today Poll: NR (n/c)
PWR: T29 (-8)
RPI: 30 (-9)
KRACH: 21 (-4)
Scoring: 3.25 GPG; T15th (-5)
Defense: 3.38 GAPG; 48th (+1)
Power Play Goals: 14; T9th (+2)
Power Play Rate: 21.88% (14 of 64); 17th (n/c)
Penalty Kill Rate: 79.31% (46 of 58), 40th (-10)
Penalty Min per Game: 12.88; 22nd (1st is worst) (n/c)
Shorthanded Goals Scored; 3; T4th (-1)
Shorthanded Goals Allowed: 1; T30th (-29)
Team Faceoff: 49.2%; T34th (+1)

Hole being dug is getting deeper........

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Since this came up on twitter, something about turnovers and strategy.

It has been shown for a long time that zone entries (entering with possession) highly correlates with more quality scoring chances and therefore more goals. So an offensive objective would obviously be to carry the puck into the zone much more often then you chip or dump and chase. A problem that has arisen though is that high zone entries also correlates very strongly with a high turnover rate. This makes sense of course, because players are reluctant to dump the puck when under pressure and they then give it up more often. Giving turnovers correlates even more strongly with high scoring chances and goals against, though. (Naturally, as turnovers often lead to odd rushes, or at the least, a scrambling, less organised back check.)

When you have a team like the Badgers, who began struggling with high turnover rates, it makes perfect sense then to chip and chase more in an attempt to reduce turnovers and goals against. They have (I think sensibly) moved on a bit from striving for high zone entries and gone more to working more of a controlled dump and chase. (Preferably you put the puck in a spot where you at least create a 50/50 battle for it. ) When they do so consistently, they don't turn the puck over a lot, but, they also aren't particularly adept at, or probably built for, playing that style and they aren't creating a lot of scoring chances. The majority of the top nine aren't really go into the corners against 6'5" D and dig out pucks kind of guys. They are mostly more carry the puck in and get quick scoring chance type of guys.

So what to do? I don't know, it's above my pay grade. Get better at zone entries without turnovers or get better at retrieving pucks, I guess. How they do that quickly I'm not too sure.

[WiscTJK]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Great article by Todd. Twitter comments are interesting.

In each of the first three seasons under coach Tony Granato, the #Badgers were one game over .500 at the break. They're 7-8-1 with only games at Michigan State left in 2019 — not quite what many expected from this season. More in today's notes:https://t.co/MOhTLGftig

— Todd Milewski (@ToddMilewski) December 2, 2019

[WiscTJK]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

Coaching Records and Winning %:

Bob Johnson 1966–82 367-175-23 .670
Jeff Sauer 1982–02 489-306-46 .609
Mike Eaves 2002–16 267-225-66 .538
Tony Granato 2016– 55-60-11 .478

[solovsfett]

Coaching Records and Winning %:

Bob Johnson 1966–82 367-175-23 .670
Jeff Sauer 1982–02 489-306-46 .609
Mike Eaves 2002–16 267-225-66 .538
Tony Granato 2016– 55-60-11 .478

Says it all doesn’t it?

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War

I have an idea. You won’t like it but...sit Caufield, Turcotte and Miller for Friday night’s game. Send a message that it doesn’t matter where you’re drafted you play 200 feet today or you ride the pines.

[MadCityRich]

*** is Granato even doing.

He's preparing kids for the NHL. He even said so. **** a B1G title and a national championship.