LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

[Bill]

We also though McParland would have way more than six goals at this point of the season. Of course Jean leaving early was the biggest downfall.

No doubt having both a healthy Campbell and Jean would have helped the Lakers this season. I'm not so sure Jean would have been a bigger loss than Campbell. Jean has a lot of raw talent that is still developing, but he had a tendency to almost disappear from the scoreboard for several games at a time. Maybe he would have overcome that if he had stayed with the Lakers for this season.

 

[PerkyforPrez]

I thought VanWagner was o.k. when he replaced Crawford, especially when comparing him to the quality of some of the opponent broadcasters.

I don't think he was even ok. He had a hard time keeping the listeners in the flow of the game.

I am sure we would still be complaining had someone else replaced Crawford for that season. I remember complaints about Fornes when he called the games for 2-3 years when Borek was the coach.

Fornes is delusional, as of 3 years ago he still considers himself the true voice of the Lakers. Nope I'm going to have to agree with Jeff Jackson on this one, Bill C. is the best college plp in college hockey.

 

[FRICKER]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

I've listened to Bill Crawford since I was a little boy (only kidding), and have always appreciated his insight and observations in addition to doing play-by-play. I've always thought he was just about enough of a "homer" for you
to never be mistaken who he was rooting for - he's most deserving of retiring from his second job!!!!

 

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

If the Lakers play 4 games in the playoffs like they did this weekend, they will be at Joe Louis Arena. Against any other team in the conference, they win both of those games. Are the Lakers a great team? No. Can they be? I believe so (when the stars align).

Did anyone actually think the Lakers were going to make the NCAA tournament? If you did, your a fool. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

This season has been a bit of a disappointment for me, but considering the injuries and players leaving, it could have been much worse.

Congrats to Bill Crawford on his retirement. Although I share Tooth Squid's sentiments on the night, I'm sure the guys didn't mind. They are all class-act guys.

This to me is the reason the Lakers are not winning or becoming a top tier team > The Lakers can have games like the one against Miami and not win and why ? the offense can't find the back of the net. Forty plus shots a game with one goal is not going to win it for you and that is where this offense seems to linger at . I don't care how good they look going up and down the ice . The forwards have to score when having forty plus shots a night and they fall flat more often than hit home on those shots.

What did Roque say after they lost to Bowling Green ? they played nice. What the hell does they played nice mean ? After the loss to Miami he said he was proud of them and the bounces will come eventually . What bounces has he been waiting on these last eight years ? The problem isn't skating up and down the ice. the problem has been same for years. If you have twenty shots or forty , you have to score and if you only get one goal in those shots,you most likely will lose.

 

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

The Lakers have played 12 conference games this second half and are 3-8-1 and that is a bit of a disappointment ? Playing 500 would have been acceptable but 3-8-1 and two games left . Huge disappointment .

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

In all fairness to the Lakers, they scored 4 goals Friday against a team who only allowed 4 goals in a game 1 time all year, against Williams who has a 1.88 gaa. They had one goal on 41 shots Saturday against a goalie who has a 1.05 GAA and a .967 save pctg. No one else scores against McKay, why should the Lakers be expected to light him up, especially considering their scoring woes this season? You can point to other series and say that, but we got an excellent Miami team who showed up both nights and that was probably the best fate we could have asked for.

Can't deny the 3-8-1 2nd-half record is abysmal. We seem to play to our opponent's game instead of our own and it has been futile. Hence the losses to UA-H and Michigan and MSU.

Miami is a very good team, but given that we also played them tough at their rink, I think it's reasonable that we should have expected at least a split at the Taffy.

 

[Laker54]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

Can't deny the 3-8-1 2nd-half record is abysmal. We seem to play to our opponent's game instead of our own and it has been futile. Hence the losses to UA-H and Michigan and MSU.

I couldn't agree more about playing to our opponent's game!

 

[PerkyforPrez]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

VanWormer from the Eagles committed to Ferris State. He would have looked good with the Anchor on his chest.

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

VanWormer from the Eagles committed to Ferris State. He would have looked good with the Anchor on his chest.

I heard Roque say on one of the shows that there were a couple of players on the Eagles that the Laker coaches like, but they had no room for them. He didn't say if they were forwards or d-men.

 

[PerkyforPrez]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

Yeah I know Bill we already have a huge class coming in. Any luck finding out who the kid from Edmonton is ?

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

Yeah I know Bill we already have a huge class coming in. Any luck finding out who the kid from Edmonton is ?

I know who the Alberta kid is, but I don't think it's appropriate to post his name on here until the AJHL, or his current team, or his local newspaper, or one of the college recruit sites, first make some kind of announcement about his verbal commitment to the Lakers. I've been checking those type of sites, but haven't seen anything yet. Once a kid verbally commits, sometimes that info comes out pretty quick and sometimes it doesn't.

I think there are still some things that aren't clear about next season's incoming class. Assuming Lain doesn't come back, and I don't think most Laker fans are expecting him to, that means we would be losing 5 forwards from this season's team. Counting Matt Johnson who is already enrolled at LSSU, we have 6 incoming forwards if all the committed guys show up. So are we losing someone else in addition to Lain for whatever reason, or is it that one of the commits for next season may actually stay in Juniors for one more year?

 

[PerkyforPrez]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

I think Nardi may wait another year if that's the case. Campbell may be a possible early departure if he has a great camp this summer. And he looked real good right from his first shift this year.

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

I think Nardi may wait another year if that's the case. Campbell may be a possible early departure if he has a great camp this summer. And he looked real good right from his first shift this year.

Nardi, Globke and the Alberta kid are 93 birth dates and therefore could play another year of Juniors. Campbell certainly has pro potential, but having missed most of this season following surgery it seems like he would likely come back for his Senior year and get in a full college season before going pro. Robinson is another guy who possibly could leave early and go pro if he so chooses. There are other reasons we could lose someone early; academic problems, personal reasons, Roque could cut a guy or two, etc.

 

[sm2pk]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

What would drive Lain to jump pro ? The guy hasn't exactly been a power scorer for the team in his 3 years . If anything,Lain needs to stay and finish out his college.

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

What would drive Lain to jump pro ? The guy hasn't exactly been a power scorer for the team in his 3 years . If anything,Lain needs to stay and finish out his college.

The way the game is being reffed now, he can hardly check someone on the opposing team without getting called for a penalty. His size pretty much means it's going to look like he is hitting his opponent high. He can't play to his ability level in college. I think academically he may even be fairly close to being eligible to graduate.

 

[Lakerblue]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

Seems to me most players jump after the third year. I think -- and I absolutely could be wrong -- but I think the draft rights ends at the end of the fourth year, so NHL teams are interested in locking up players before the year ends? Bill or Frick could probably give a better answer than I could. Sometimes its not always the player, but the NHL parent team that waives some decent money as an encouragement to jump with a year left on your college career.

 

[PerkyforPrez]

What would drive Lain to jump pro ? The guy hasn't exactly been a power scorer for the team in his 3 years . If anything,Lain needs to stay and finish out his college.

He is graduating.

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

On the Laker Hockey Show this evening, Tim Christian said they were having a kid in for a visit today (evening); a possible recruit for the season after next.

 

[AnchorsAway]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

As the last regular season game approaches, I can't help but think back to Lakerblue's predictions earlier in the season. He said the Lakers would need to score 120 goals and give up less than 100 in order to finish in the CCHA Top 4 and secure an NCAA berth. After reviewing some stats, here is what I have noticed thus far.

1) 100 goals scored and 80 goals given up is probably what the Lakers needed to secure an NCAA berth.
2) Only one team, Nationally, has a shot to get 120 goals scored (Minnesota)
3) Nationally, scoring defense is a lot more important than scoring offense. (Michigan leads CCHA with 3.09 goals/game. Too bad they give up 3.59/game)
4) Of the Top 10 Pairwise teams currently, 7 of them are in the Top 10 ofScoring Defense. Only 5 out of 11 are in the Top 10 Scoring Offense. (Minn, Minn St, & Niagara are in both)
5) Domenic Monardo is accounting for 25% of the Lakers goals. Ciotti is the only other guy over 10.
6) Domenic has 146 shots, next closest is McParland (88) and Czuczman (87). The Lakers clearly need to shoot the puck more. They are -150 in shots vs opponents.

Lakers2Glory, Those were my projections, I posted a couple updates throughout the season, and I had aimed to post another late season update but with only one regular season series remaining I figured I would wait until after this weekend to post the final update, I will expand upon my observations when I do so but you are certainly correct that 120 goals was a bit high for a projection.

To Bill's point about having 6 forwards coming in with (apparently) 5 leaving, it will be interesting to see what happens, It would seem cutting someone would be an odd move since Roque hasn't really been in the business of cutting people when there are not injury issues involved, even when he probably should have. Academic issues I don't see as likely because to have 6 recruits in the bag as we now do, there was obviously some planning that would have had to take place awhile back and it seems like any academic issues that were a problem that far back in time could have had the opportunity to have been corrected. Personal reasons could be a possibility because it's hard to speculate on that....I don't think anyone on the roster who is in the position to benefit from another year of juniors is eligible age wise either. So from where I sit it seems as though it's most likely to be either someone in addition to Lain turning professionally, the aforementioned hard to speculate personal reasons, or the possibility of a transfer, which I don't think has been mentioned yet. Wees as a sophomore and freshman Vernace, McKay, and Spratte all received minimal playing time this year and have enough eligibility left to transfer. Maybe one of those guys feels that they would get more time at another place, specifically the defenseman, who will be basically in the same logjam depth chart wise next year since we wont losing any D-men to graduation.

 

[Bill]

Re: LSSU Laker Hockey 2012-2013, Part 2

Lakers2Glory, Those were my projections, I posted a couple updates throughout the season, and I had aimed to post another late season update but with only one regular season series remaining I figured I would wait until after this weekend to post the final update, I will expand upon my observations when I do so but you are certainly correct that 120 goals was a bit high for a projection.

To Bill's point about having 6 forwards coming in with (apparently) 5 leaving, it will be interesting to see what happens, It would seem cutting someone would be an odd move since Roque hasn't really been in the business of cutting people when there are not injury issues involved, even when he probably should have. Academic issues I don't see as likely because to have 6 recruits in the bag as we now do, there was obviously some planning that would have had to take place awhile back and it seems like any academic issues that were a problem that far back in time could have had the opportunity to have been corrected. Personal reasons could be a possibility because it's hard to speculate on that....I don't think anyone on the roster who is in the position to benefit from another year of juniors is eligible age wise either. So from where I sit it seems as though it's most likely to be either someone in addition to Lain turning professionally, the aforementioned hard to speculate personal reasons, or the possibility of a transfer, which I don't think has been mentioned yet. Wees as a sophomore and freshman Vernace, McKay, and Spratte all received minimal playing time this year and have enough eligibility left to transfer. Maybe one of those guys feels that they would get more time at another place, specifically the defenseman, who will be basically in the same logjam depth chart wise next year since we wont losing any D-men to graduation.

Roque likes to have 8 defensemen, so although it's possible we could lose someone like Wees or Spratte, I'd be a little surprised to see that happen. If we did lose one of them, Roque would probably just bring in another late D recruit for next season to fill behind whoever left. I'd be more concerned that someone on D like Czuczman left early for the pros; it would be hard to fill behind him this late in the recruiting season. But even if he has thoughts of going pro, it seems like he would come back for at least one more season with the Lakers. Spratte saw limited playing time mainly because of injury, so I'd be surprised if he didn't come back to show what he can do when healthy. Again, if we lose any D early for whatever reason, I think Roque would bring in another late recruit on D to fill behind whoever didn't come back.