Re: 2014-2015 Minnesota Women's Hockey: The Maroon & Gold Strike Back!
Garzone is emerging as the 4th D. She appeared more poised with the puck than she was last year when making the transition.
Yeah, she looks nice, but I thought she looked good with darker hair too.
Oh, maybe you girls are talking about how she plays hockey?
Playing defense is not a glamorous job, that’s why I developed the Pokechecker efficiency ratio. For the past 2 years she has been among the team leaders in having the highest ratio of goals scored to given up on the team. In fact as a freshman not a single even strength goal was scored while she was on the ice. Now I know you girls don’t put much into statistics, math probably isn’t your strong point, so you go by how a player looks on the ice. It’s too bad a player has to look good on the ice for you to be impressed; you’d think getting the job done would be good enough. The fact that she has played on the PK the previous 2 years should have been your clue but it’s nice that 3 years into it you are no longer clueless.
I’m not sure how ARM came to the conclusion that Cline needs to become Katey Frischman and that Haley doesn’t make for a good forward. If he had been paying attention Friday he’d have seen Haley is good with the puck in a crowd, and last year demonstrated impressive speed with the puck at open ice a few times and is an adept passer. Given she’d be the tallest forward there is a lot of upside for her playing forward, I thought she played well at forward on the 4th line last year, but there isn’t the need for her at forward, it’s not that it isn’t a good fit for her. I thought she played well this past weekend and if given the ice time she’ll be an asset at the blueline this year.
I have no idea why you’d want Cline to play forward, although she certainly can in a pinch, but there are other options as well, and besides there are plenty of forwards. It looks to me like she’ll be the 6th, if not the 5th, D this year, She played well yesterday against a very good opponent. Like Haley it would be better to be given a defensive role and stick with it to maximize their development. Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships. That has been proven the last 3 years.
I don’t know who picks the stars of the game, but it’s just like the WCHA players of the week, they ignore the defensive aspect of the game except for goalies. It’s not that Lorence, Ramsey, or Piazza didn’t deserve it but the job Stecklein & NcMillen did defensively was fantastic, not to mention they both played well offensively too. In the end, who really cares. It’s just a good excuse for the fans to cheer and the players to receive some recognition. It sure would be nice if they recognized players for their defensive play though.
