ZedLeppelin
Motormouth
It seems like I say this a lot in recent seasons, but I'm not a fan of the defensive style overall. I think they are way too quick to give up the offensive zone and start backpedaling way too soon, when a little more aggression at the blue line could keep plays alive for the offense. When a defender does choose to pinch at the blue line, it works and the play stays in the offensive zone, and I'm yelling at my screen, "See? It works!"...ugh. But that's why I'm not a coach, because there's probably some logical reason for that style of defense, and it works for them.
Penn State is the only unbeaten team in AHA play at the holiday break. They had a big gap to close when Mya Vaslet went out in the fourth game with an injury. No, Vaslet is not a Tessa Janecke, but she was a big enough impact player that her absense required a lot of shuffling of lines. She was on an upward trajectory and really prime for good things this season, too, so I feel badly for her. Kampersal has done a great job of rebalancing lines. The same goes for managing a defense that is missing two key players to injury. This holiday break comes at a good time, and hopefully Santa brings a big bag of healing goodies to the team.
Speaking of Tessa Janecke, she's at 131 career points now, six points away from Natalie Heising's program record. Heising set the record over five seasons - Janecke is halfway through her third season. It was great to see her not take a single penalty all weekend at Mercyhurst.
Being halfway through the season, and really bored today, I'm going to take a shot at a freshman report card:
My easy favorite freshman forward is Grace Outwater, who is fourth in scoring behind only Janecke, Maddy Christian, and Katelyn Roberts, and within four points of Christian and Roberts with one fewer game being played. She settled in to D-1 play pretty quickly, and is a good aggressive player with a deceptively good shot. She's not super-flashy, just good with the puck.
Abby Stonehouse came in with a bit of hype, but she hasn't found her scoring touch in D-1 yet, with only 2 points on the season so far. She's absolutely a hustler and a fast player, always jumping into a scrum and battling on the boards and not afraid to bang it up with anyone. She has no shortage of energy, for sure...sort of like another Alyssa Machado, minus the scoring touch. She'll get there.
Nicole Hall is another strong forward a little short on scoring, but no shortage of hard play. Like Stonehouse, she is quick and not afraid to mix it up along the boards, and also like Stonehouse I think she will be fine once she settles into D-1 and learns the parts of her game that work to bring out the scoring. She's got the hustle, the fight, the strength, all of that...she just needs to find what in her game works best.
McKenna Walsh is fun to watch, which is probably a little rude to say, because she's fun to watch due to being so little (barely over 5 feet tall...yikes). With players getting bigger every year, that doesn't seem fair to her, but here she is. She's a scrapper, too. I don't know what to say about her, because she's not a game changer with scoring or anything, but she really leaves it all out on the ice when she plays. She is definitely valuable for the role she does play, and she plays it with gusto.
There are only two freshman defenders - Grace Tullock and Taya Macdonald. I don't remember ever hearing Tullock's name on a livestream, so she must be doing okay, or at least not getting smoked. There isn't a single thing I can think of to say about her game, because I can't say I've noticed anything...good, bad, or neutral, I just haven't noticed her. On the other hand, Taya Macdonald has made her presence known, and is settling nicely into D-1 play. She's listed at 5' 11" tall, and it's nice to have a big defender on the roster. She's even got points, so bam...she's a keeper. I'd like to see her work on moving the puck a little quicker, but that will come. It's going to be fun to watch her game develop over her time at Penn State.
$100 to anyone who actually read every word of this babbling (okay, not really, but bless you for your endurance).