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Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Don't know if anyone else caught Coach Jackson's interview on WSBT radio, but some of the highlights were next year's in-the-works schedule that includes starting at UMD, playing RPI and NU here and a possible outdoor game in Minnesota. The interview should be archived for a later listen if anyone is interested.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

What is this fascination with playing outdoors?? Don't people realize when the water outdoors is hard enough to skate on, that it's bloody cold??
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Speaking of interviews, here's Brett Lebda from the Maple Leafs website:

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Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Coming to my first game of the season tonight! Hoping for a win! Go Irish!
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Whew. That was an ugly win. But I have to admit...I'd rather see the ugly win than the ugly loss. While watching WMU forecheck at will and prevent ND from getting a shot on net for the first 3/4 of the first period, the only thought going through my mind was :eek: . The next thought was, "I'm worried about tomorrow night."

Amazingly enough, ND wound up with more shots on goal than WMU when all was said and done.

WMU's 2nd goal came when Steven Summerhayes overcommitted big time to the far post, leaving their guy all alone on the back door. Still, kudos to Summerhayes (whom I did not expect to see in net) for his first victory in an Irish jersey. I'm guessing Mike Johnson will be in net in hostile Lawson.

Double kudos to David Gerths for his 2 goals. Game winner kudos go to Anders Lee for his turn-about-is-fair-play back door goal. And man, that line of Gerths, Jeff Costello and Mike Voran was fantastic all night, so they get the workin' man kudos. Breakaway kudos go to Riley Sheahan, who for the 3rd time in this short season tried, but didn't quite get it. Shot blocking kudos go to Cap'n Lavin for stopping a point blank try with seconds left.

I have to say I don't like 5 forwards on the PP. And I'm hoping for a better showing in our end, with passes and physicality. It ain't mini-mites playin', it ain't me playin' and it sure ain't women playin'. So pretty please, with sugar on top. Back check. Crisp passes. And lay a body on someone.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Unexpectedly I got to watch the game thanks to the Notre Dame web site. Very nice. Saw some repeats of Western's mistakes in earlier games: Lots of unscreened shots to the goalie's chest and they dominated play until they started taking penalties. The penalties changed the whole flow of the game. Notre Dame will be a fun team to follow this season. Lots of promising kids who will, hopefully, keep getting better. Great coach of course. Happy to see that Western finally has a coach. Maybe Poulin and Culhane should get together.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

One of the the things that I am finding confusing is the way Notre Dame seems to be making the same mistakes, seems to be suffering in the same areas of the game, but the other team has not been able to take advantage to the point of winning the game. Still seeing too many turnovers, too many bad breakout passes/plays, and still not dominant at the faceoff dots (although that was much better last night, especially in the second and third periods after a rough start).

Watching us in our own end, we looked the same against WMU as we did against BC, and as we did against LSSU. While I am glad to see the wins, I would like to see some improvement in a weak area or two. Of course the thing that needed the most work coming into the season was the chemistry, especially with so many new faces. That looks to be going quite well. Communication on this team is already better than at any point last year, and the boys are all competing. Hell, communication and competition alone will make for a successful season, no matter how many games they win.

I liked the freshman line a lot too. Most energy of any group on the ice from either team. I liked how Summerhays picked up his game as the night wore on. I liked how the team didn't get frustrated (a couple of dumb penalties notwithstanding) despite the frustrating nature of the game. I can count on one hand the number of shift in the entire game where it looked like any one player tried to do too much. Patience. That's a good sign 6 games in, especially with such a young team.

We've done some good things every night out so far this year, against a number of different kinds of teams. It'll get tougher from here on out. We weren't bad enough long enough to sneak up on anyone. By now the rest of college hockey realizes this team isn't going to be easy to play. So that means the workload will increase. They'll need to step up to meet the challenge.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

So I shelled out the money to watch this on WMU's site. No PBP. I could barely hear the PA announcer. Very strange. Got to watch the entire "game" and listened to the SO on the way to my game. Not a lot of forechecking. Not a lot of backchecking. Not a lot of shots.

Did anyone else who watched or attended the game think it moved in slow motion? It was as if all the players were simply gliding along the ice. It was as if they were out of shape 40-something beer leaguers.

However, I was pleased with the freshmen. Did anyone realize ND dressed 10 freshmen both nights? Ten. That's half the bench. Of the 14 points registered by ND this weekend, 10 went to freshmen. Ten. That's 71% of the points. Hell, 60% of Western's points came from freshmen. Bodes well for the futures of both teams.

In the end, slow motion or not, I'm pleased with 5 of 6 points.

Happy Halloween.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Couple of thoughts come to mind after watching the last two games.

The first thing is last year there is little chance we would have seen 5 points out of the weekend. There was just enough adversity in the two nights that I could have seen one or both games being coughed up. Its looking more and obvious that with all the new blood on the team there is not a lot left over from last year.

The second thing is it looks like I may be worrying too much about the couple parts of the game where we still have a way to go. Good teams take advantage of what they do well, and minimize areas of weakness. Even championship caliber teams will have a weak spot. As long as they focus and keep playing hard, they'll continue to put themselves in a position to win. Early success like this will build confidence so they only get stronger, hopefully.

As for the games themselves this weekend, one thing I think is very clear is that these two teams seem to have a genuine dislike for each other. There was real animosity in some of the post-whistle stuff, and when checks were delivered, there was some good old fashioned contempt in them. I get the feeling that if fighting was allowed in the NCAA, or if this was the old days from 3 decades ago, we would have seen some gloves dropped at some point.

Next up is a BGSU team that we struggled with mightily last season. We didn't look good in any of the four meetings, and after going 15-0-1 against them from the start of Jackson's tenure, last year managed just one win in the four tries. They've been inconsistent and streaky this year. Go get 'em Irish!
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres. said:
So was it just me or did Saturday's game appear to play out in slow motion???
Click to expand...

I thought it plodded a little more than Friday, and certainly wasn't played at the frenetic pace of last weeks game with BC. I think Western played a little more to slow ND down than they did on Friday. I don't know I would go as far as to say slow motion, maybe just the typical Saturday game of a two game series with travel thrown in. Maybe not slow motion but construction zone speed?:D
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

For those of us who "live and die" for our favorite college hockey team, there comes a time when that is secondary. And that time came to Pioneer fans this weekend.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — University of Denver center Jesse Martin sustained three neck fractures in Saturday night's hockey game at North Dakota and was transferred to a Minneapolis hospital this morning where doctors are deciding if emergency surgery is required to relieve swelling of the spinal cord, the player's father said.

Read more: DU's Martin facing emergency surgery for broken neck - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_...#ixzz13z0LjWRS

A new thread has been started
"Pass on your best wishes to Jesse Martin here"
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Okay. The interview with Joe Lavin (smiley. heart.) definitely seals it. He's my favorite this season. (sorry Calle...) But his major was my major as an undergrad! PoliSci, baby! Kindred spirits. I wonder if he loves Reese's peanut butter cups as much as I do?

My posse and I are making our first road trip of the season. The only fear is that every time we travel to BG games, the temp plummets to well below freezing. I hope we're safe this weekend.

For those wondering, Jesse Martin has feeling in his extremities. He made a phone call to Brad Malone. A hard call to make...and receive.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

And when she says well below freezing that is exactly what she means! I think the high in our last 3 trips to BGSU was a balmy 9 below 0. Yes , 41 degrees below freezing. I should be able to handle this trip as long as the temps stay above 20 degrees.

Here is hoping Jesse Martin continues to make progress!

And no one can love RPB cups as much as JJfP. The trick or treaters didn't get a one at her house.
 
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Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres. said:
Okay. The interview with Joe Lavin (smiley. heart.) definitely seals it. He's my favorite this season. (sorry Calle...)
Click to expand...

I was pleased to see, twice I believe, he commented on putting off thinking about his future whereabouts, leading me to believe all he cares about -- at least as far as his hockey goes -- is how far can he lead THIS team. You can't argue with that mindset at all.
 
Re: Irish hockey '10-11-Everyone bets on a sure thing, but it takes guts not to fold.

Ah, election day. A day when pulling a lever is a tacit approval of the system. To quote Sir Winston Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government...except for all the others." Sports are the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal. If you and I like (or hate) the same team, it's all good.

I have a few worries about this weekend. BG does not have a win in the league yet. It's gotta happen sometime. What if it's this weekend? Neither team averages even a 50% winning percentage in face offs. Who will win a majority? I tend to get speeding tickets in the state of Ohio. Will I get one this weekend?

As stated, ND averages 48% on face off wins. BG wins 45.6% of theirs. Eesh. ND is 5-1-1 (3-0-1-1 in the league). BG is 3-5-0 (0-4 in the league).

I like most of ND's stats. Most. They're averaging 3.57 GF. I like that. They give up 2.43 GA. I don't like that as much. Their PK is 89.7%. I like that. Their PP is 13.2%. I don't like that. They're 1-0 in the shootout. I don't like shootouts. ND averages a hair over 7 penalties/game. That's not too many, but their opponents average under 7 a game. I don't like that.

BG is averaging 2.12 GF while giving up 3.25 GA. Their special teams need work as their PP is clicking at a 4.5% rate while their PK succeeds 72.5% of the time. They seem pretty disciplined, taking only about 5.5 penalties/game.

ND is led by senior Ryan Guentzel who has 9 points. I like that. Leading the juniors is Sean Lorenz, with only 3 points. Leading the sophomores is Nick Larson with 5 points. And for the freshmen, it's Anders Lee with 8 points. He also leads the team in goals (6) and is the CCHA rookie of the month for October. I like all of that.

BG is led by sophomore Jordan Samuels-Thomas with 6 points. The junior class is led by James McIntosh with 2 points. David Solway leads the seniors with 4 and leads the team with 3 goals. Mike Fink is the top new guy with 3 points.

It's interesting to note that for several CCHA teams, the least productive class is the junior class. Same goes for ND and BG. Lorenz is 11th on the team in scoring and McIntosh is 9th on BG's stats sheet.

I'm wondering about goalies this weekend. Will we see 2 different goalies for ND? Mike Johnson has a GA of 1.97 and a save % of .934 while Steven Summerhays has a GA of 3.54 and a save % of .844. Summerhays needs to bring his GA down and his save % up if he ever wants to go up against a team like Miami who averages a zillion goals for.

BG has been employing both goalies each weekend. Sophomore Andrew Hammond (who has greatly improved from last season) has been in net Fridays, while senior Nick Eno has worked Saturday nights. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Hammond in net both nights as his numbers are more solid than Eno's. He has a GA of 2.57 and a save % of .919 compared to Eno's GA of 3.77 and save % of .867.

I agree with IHF that it's impressive that Cap'n Lavin is focusing on this team right now. JC Penney said it best, "Give me a stock boy who has goals and I'll show you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll show you a stock boy."
 
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