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2021-22 Penn State Nittany Lions

It's halfway through the second period, and Cornell is up 3-1, and I'm done watching the game, so if someone else wants to do period updates it's all yours. This Penn State defense is so frustrating to watch trying to get out of the defensive zone. They're just really bad at it. Cornell has figured out that Penn State defenders prefer to play around in the defensive zone, and now they're just jumping all over these defenders.
 
Cornell goes up 5-1 as two Penn State players watch the puck sort of drift slowly past them, so a Cornell player says, "I'll take it" and scores.

OOPS. Now it's 6-1. I need to type faster. I didn't even see that one.
 
That's not the game I'm watching. Other than Dobson the offense is in quicksand. The goalie is at .78, faceoffs are extremely weak. Terrible D turnover on 1st goal, but before a calamity of events leading up to that including a Hextall pass to them giving up posession, followed by an offense men not hustling behind the net to tie up the puck. Then, you have Heising with a nice goal. That's about it. Long layoffs have not been kind to PSU.
 
Penn State snuck Cam Leonard into the net without telling anybody, so we'll see how that goes. As the announcer said, at this point it's unlikely PSU is going to do something to make this game interesting.
 
So Dean Jackson whips up an umbrella forecheck with a flat two deep zone and just obliterated PSU. The way you beat that exotic system is that all five players have to be at the dots or lower and your breakout wing might even have to be on the halfwall between the dot and the corner boards. It is imperative for that wing to not carry the puck and fire the puck up the middle with your offside wing sprinting to the middle blue line and your c curling to the middle top of the circles in case someone jumps it. At that point it is now two on two with the d just backing up. The offense cannot just dump it in and give up posession. At least one player needs to maintain posession before you line change. The other way to beat it is the d has to carry it straight up the circle dots on a straight line. Again the d can't be satisfied chipping it in once they get to the red line. You will see it again.


Nice that the other two goalies received some time. It is really interesting that Cornell's all america did not get the game.
 
I was just looking at the roster and noticed it's down to 22, and a quick look back at an older game lineup sheet showed why: the two Shirer sisters are now off the roster, for whatever reason. Neither one of them ever played, always listed as "not dressed", but they're gone now. They were commits for a couple years, not last-minute additions, so that all worked out kind of weirdly.
 
Penn State heads to winless RIT for a weekend series tomorrow and Saturday. Both games are on the Stretch Internet livestream for $10 a pop, so I won't be watching, but the option is there if you want to watch the stream. Tomorrow's game is at 2:00 (Eastern), and Saturday's game is at 1:00 (Eastern): https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ritwhockey/

RIT is 0-20-1, with the tie coming in OT against Long Island University...yup. That tells you how dominating a series it better be for Penn State. I'm guessing they got put into stocks and flogged after Tuesday's embarrassment and lack of effort against Cornell, so maybe they've been "inspired" to play like they mean it this weekend. RIT did take Syracuse to OT on November 5, but then lost 7-0 the next day, so the OT was more an off game for Syracuse than it was a sign of good stuff for RIT.

There's really not much to be taken from this series, unless Penn State loses...maybe I shouldn't say that out loud.
 
A couple of years ago the Miami Dolphins played the New England Patriots and the Patriots were not prepared for the Wildcat. Did that make Bellicheck a bad coach? No. Did Bellicheck throw everyone under the Bus even though the Patriots looked terrible that day. No. Hmmmmm.

The other day I watched a basketball game and one team was using a full court press and the other team had never practiced against or seen a full court press. The team that had never seen a full court press played a street basketball style and looked to be disjointed and in quicksand. Their point guard kept dribbling into traps. So that point guard got sat. The next point guard did the same thing. Finally, the third string point guard got his chance and then the game ended. I can't place my finger on an eerily similar scenario, but it was like deja-vu.

Flush it and move on almost sounds Bobby Knightish.

​​​​
 
Game day at RIT, starting soon (2:00 Eastern) - here's the video link again, and each game is $9.99: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ritwhockey/

Syracuse is currently in first place in the CHA, with Mercyhurst and Penn State tied for second, two points (one game) behind. Syracuse is off this weekend, and Mercyhurst plays Lindenwood at home, so this weekend will likely end with Mercyhurst and Penn State tied for first in the CHA. Syracuse gets RIT next weekend, though, so they'll be moving back up.
 
As expected (or hoped for), this game is all Penn State so far. After one it's 2-0, on goals from Natalie Heising and Kiara Zanon (a shorthanded breakaway). Penn State has taken the only penalty. Shots on goal are 13-9 for Penn State. More often than not, Penn State has so many players on the puck that they're getting in each other's way, but that's better than getting beat to the puck, right?
 
After two, it's 4-0 Penn State on another goal from Natalie Heising and one from Mya Vaslet. Both teams have taken two penalties. Shots on goal are 24-13 for Penn State. RIT switched goalies for the second period.
 
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