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Michigan Hockey 22-23, new coach, new players, new era
- Thread starter MichVandal
- Start date
MichVandal
Well-known member
They're still making too many errors, especially defensively. But, Michigan just split with maybe the best team in the country in their building. Take that momentum and start playing hard every game.
As I see it, the only reason MN is #1 is they are a great *team*. For the most part, the talent is largely the same- same age, same potential- seeing how both the pros and the Jr teams view the players. There just isn't that great of difference in talent.
We've split with pretty much everyone recently, so doing it with #1 isn't that different than normal. The last time we swept a weekend was in October. We've split with the entire Big 10, except being swept by Minnesota at home.
My real frustration is that on paper, we should be a lot better than we are, and more consistent. One game we let up +40 shots, and then the other night isn't bad. What's up with that?
wolverineTrumpet
not particularly bad
Happy to get the split at Minnesota. Looks better than the shellacking we had at home against them when our team was sick and so short handed the 3rd string goalie skated out. Certainly a better feel for what a healthy full roster can do.
There were many points in those games where we had the momentum and looked like the better team. Agree with Vandal though, the defense needs work. Too many shots against, too much time in the defensive zone.
Currently we're sitting 6 points behind MSU who would be getting home ice for round 1 B1G (4th place), 9 points behind PSU & aOSU who are tied for 2nd. This weekend against PSU and next weekend against Wisconsin are huge. We need some conference points. This team should be better than 6th place out of 7 conference teams.
There were many points in those games where we had the momentum and looked like the better team. Agree with Vandal though, the defense needs work. Too many shots against, too much time in the defensive zone.
Currently we're sitting 6 points behind MSU who would be getting home ice for round 1 B1G (4th place), 9 points behind PSU & aOSU who are tied for 2nd. This weekend against PSU and next weekend against Wisconsin are huge. We need some conference points. This team should be better than 6th place out of 7 conference teams.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Much better D in that game. PSU did get their expected lots and lots of shots- but for much of the first period were dump ins as opposed to real shots. Their second goal was a pretty poor turn over, but the others were ok, I think. Not ideal, but not total confusion and break down. And it helps a lot that our shooting was quite good- chasing their goalie after just 12 shots on him.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Lot to unravel in that game.
Two goals against in the opening min....
A pretty phantom hit to the head call- I'd have to see a reply, but what I saw on the overhead was that Edwards had is back to the PSU player, so I really didn't see any hit to his head.
And we get a goal- no wait, no- another completely missed hit to the head that was somehow a major but NOT a misconduct.... Uh, what? And they score one. So instead of 2-1, it's 3-0.
Duke gets a good rush on the net, gets turned around from behind, no call. How, I'm not really sure.
Then we get a goal. Whew.
Then they get their 4th, and at the same time, edit-Casey gets hit and injured- I'd have to see that one again, but it sounds like he was hurt via a hit from a PSU player- no call, and a goal. edit again- it was a pretty questionable hit as I saw it, knee to knee. Of course the refs missed it.
More goals. Good.
Fantilli gets hurt from a slewfoot, no call, and we can't review since we lost the goalie interference review from their 4th goal.
Duke then again gets pulled down from behind, but this time he scores. Should be 4-4 with a 2 min penalty- but the refs miss what appeared to be another obvious call.
Finally, the hero of the game gets his 4th goal to put it at 5-4.
From there, the team did a GREAT job bottling PSU in their own zone, not allowing much time to have 6 skaters.
Sometimes you just have to play the other team, sometimes the refs think they should be biased. And we still came back and won that.
(still have work to do, but enjoy the first sweep since October)
Two goals against in the opening min....
A pretty phantom hit to the head call- I'd have to see a reply, but what I saw on the overhead was that Edwards had is back to the PSU player, so I really didn't see any hit to his head.
And we get a goal- no wait, no- another completely missed hit to the head that was somehow a major but NOT a misconduct.... Uh, what? And they score one. So instead of 2-1, it's 3-0.
Duke gets a good rush on the net, gets turned around from behind, no call. How, I'm not really sure.
Then we get a goal. Whew.
Then they get their 4th, and at the same time, edit-Casey gets hit and injured- I'd have to see that one again, but it sounds like he was hurt via a hit from a PSU player- no call, and a goal. edit again- it was a pretty questionable hit as I saw it, knee to knee. Of course the refs missed it.
More goals. Good.
Fantilli gets hurt from a slewfoot, no call, and we can't review since we lost the goalie interference review from their 4th goal.
Duke then again gets pulled down from behind, but this time he scores. Should be 4-4 with a 2 min penalty- but the refs miss what appeared to be another obvious call.
Finally, the hero of the game gets his 4th goal to put it at 5-4.
From there, the team did a GREAT job bottling PSU in their own zone, not allowing much time to have 6 skaters.
Sometimes you just have to play the other team, sometimes the refs think they should be biased. And we still came back and won that.
(still have work to do, but enjoy the first sweep since October)
Last edited:
MichVandal
Well-known member
So looking over at mgoblog (not a member- just don't want to pay for it), it seems that a 4 goal game excuses Hughes on the mistakes he's made.
I disagree- this shows what he's capable of doing, but he still needs to do 60 min of it (or whatever icetime he gets). I'm super happy for him and the rest of the team that they came back from all of that last night and swept PSU- I really am. But if they want to use their PRW position to it's max, they need to really fix all of the faults, and play to their potential for the entire game. If they can manage that, they certainly can go all the way.
Also- no word on how bad Casey was injured- the way he was carried off, it's a leg issue of some type. Hope he's ok, and it's just a bruise or something like that. And it's still not really clear how injured Samoskavich is.
I disagree- this shows what he's capable of doing, but he still needs to do 60 min of it (or whatever icetime he gets). I'm super happy for him and the rest of the team that they came back from all of that last night and swept PSU- I really am. But if they want to use their PRW position to it's max, they need to really fix all of the faults, and play to their potential for the entire game. If they can manage that, they certainly can go all the way.
Also- no word on how bad Casey was injured- the way he was carried off, it's a leg issue of some type. Hope he's ok, and it's just a bruise or something like that. And it's still not really clear how injured Samoskavich is.
wolverineTrumpet
not particularly bad
6 points this weekend helped keep us in the hunt for places 2-6 in the conference. Now tied for 5th with Sparty, as opposed to 6th all by ourselves.
Can this team put together a decent sized win streak with Wisconsin coming to visit this weekend? Sure hope so.
Vandal,
I agree with a lot of what you said as that was my experience watching the officating at Yost Saturday. NaSK wasn't feeling well and stayed home to watch, where he said he agreed with a most of the calls. Watching the replay of the 5 min that took away our goal, I thought it was questionable. Obviously not intentional (which the refs agreed with no game misconduct). It's hard for me to watch players get called for contact to the head against a guy who is skating with his head down. The view I saw, with my super biased eyes, was guy skating with his head down, turns into Michigan player's shoulder.
Can this team put together a decent sized win streak with Wisconsin coming to visit this weekend? Sure hope so.
Vandal,
I agree with a lot of what you said as that was my experience watching the officating at Yost Saturday. NaSK wasn't feeling well and stayed home to watch, where he said he agreed with a most of the calls. Watching the replay of the 5 min that took away our goal, I thought it was questionable. Obviously not intentional (which the refs agreed with no game misconduct). It's hard for me to watch players get called for contact to the head against a guy who is skating with his head down. The view I saw, with my super biased eyes, was guy skating with his head down, turns into Michigan player's shoulder.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Vandal,
I agree with a lot of what you said as that was my experience watching the officating at Yost Saturday. NaSK wasn't feeling well and stayed home to watch, where he said he agreed with a most of the calls. Watching the replay of the 5 min that took away our goal, I thought it was questionable. Obviously not intentional (which the refs agreed with no game misconduct). It's hard for me to watch players get called for contact to the head against a guy who is skating with his head down. The view I saw, with my super biased eyes, was guy skating with his head down, turns into Michigan player's shoulder.
I half expected that was the reason. But the BTN replay I saw, they didn't show the replay. So I've still never seen it. And it made me think that teams should get short players so that they can pretty much play the entire game on a major penalty....
And while I've not reviewed the rules, I still don't understand how you get a major for hit to the head that isn't a misconduct.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Good win, but given how the season started, or more what happened in November, there was one highlight to me- Steve Holtz in the line up. Pretty awesome to come back from an illness that took him to the hospital.
MichVandal
Well-known member
I guess I should read the news more often on the USCHO home page- Paula Weston did a great article focusing on Steve and somewhat on Narauto- https://www.uscho.com/2023/02/02/th...ing-pretty-damned-good-all-things-considered/
I had no idea it was that bad. And 5 of our players were in the hospital from being sick is also worse than I thought. Crazy that Steve has no memory at all of the days leading up to him going to the ER just after the ND weekend. And this was leading into the Minnesota weekend- which is even more of an explanation of how bad it was and how gutsy it was they played so hard against the gophers.
At the same time, takes some respect away from their coach- who insisted we play in spite of all of our sick players. Not only because he took advantage of a weak team, he also very much risked the health of his own team by mixing with a bunch of players who were around kids who ended up in the hospital.
Knowing more of what happened to Steve makes it even better to see him out on the ice.
I had no idea it was that bad. And 5 of our players were in the hospital from being sick is also worse than I thought. Crazy that Steve has no memory at all of the days leading up to him going to the ER just after the ND weekend. And this was leading into the Minnesota weekend- which is even more of an explanation of how bad it was and how gutsy it was they played so hard against the gophers.
At the same time, takes some respect away from their coach- who insisted we play in spite of all of our sick players. Not only because he took advantage of a weak team, he also very much risked the health of his own team by mixing with a bunch of players who were around kids who ended up in the hospital.
Knowing more of what happened to Steve makes it even better to see him out on the ice.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Well, if I came away with anything from that game is that the refs were pretty useless. They missed some calls that made both teams mad, and then made some questionable ones, which made both teams mad. And that almost totally boiled over- leading to Holtz getting ejected with 3 unsportsmanlike calls at the same time.
And thanks to their calling of the game, that just took forever. Especially at the end where they called some incredibly close, if not made up, calls. That Wisconsin cross checking near the end very much wasn't. The call didn't need to be done, and it just made the game longer.
And thanks to their calling of the game, that just took forever. Especially at the end where they called some incredibly close, if not made up, calls. That Wisconsin cross checking near the end very much wasn't. The call didn't need to be done, and it just made the game longer.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Can they review hits after the game? Joshua's hit on Hughes was a forearm to the head, much worse than the one that Edwards got.
Frustrating to see an easy power play turn into a fight.
If they could keep up the puck control they had in the first period, these games would be considerably less stressful.
Good win, even so, against a rival at home. Their last home game of the season.
Frustrating to see an easy power play turn into a fight.
If they could keep up the puck control they had in the first period, these games would be considerably less stressful.
Good win, even so, against a rival at home. Their last home game of the season.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Not sure who to blame for the game getting out of hand for the refs, but thanks to that, Fantilli's frustration is keeping him out of tonight's game.
And that hit on Hughes was pretty important, given he had to play so much with so many Dmen out (including Edwards). If Joshua really connected, he could have hit Luke out of tonight's game, too.
But I'm sure the B1G won't bother to check that hit post game, even though it was pretty clear he directed his forearm to Luke's head- meaning it was fully intentional and not a basic hit to the head. Far worse than Edwards that kicked him out of the game.
And that hit on Hughes was pretty important, given he had to play so much with so many Dmen out (including Edwards). If Joshua really connected, he could have hit Luke out of tonight's game, too.
But I'm sure the B1G won't bother to check that hit post game, even though it was pretty clear he directed his forearm to Luke's head- meaning it was fully intentional and not a basic hit to the head. Far worse than Edwards that kicked him out of the game.
Can they review hits after the game? Joshua's hit on Hughes was a forearm to the head, much worse than the one that Edwards got.
Al Randall seems to think so but it might require Naurato to challenge the call. He asked Naurato about that during the post-game portion of the broadcast. Naurato said they were looking into that. But what would the possible remediation be? Having to sit out all or part of the next game? Tuesday night at the Pretzel Bell should be very interesting.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Al Randall seems to think so but it might require Naurato to challenge the call. He asked Naurato about that during the post-game portion of the broadcast. Naurato said they were looking into that. But what would the possible remediation be? Having to sit out all or part of the next game? Tuesday night at the Pretzel Bell should be very interesting.
I thought if you got a major + game late enough in a game that it carried over to the next game.
MichVandal
Well-known member
If tonight's game at LCA wasn't already a sell out (I seriously doubt it) last night's game should have changed that.
Depends. The way the refs called the game last night, I would not want to see more of it. Getting a little tired of watching the refs lose control of a game leading to endless reviews.
MichVandal
Well-known member
How in the world was that not a major???? Shoulder to Duke's head, and it wasn't even called, even after a review. That was also worse than the one that got Edwards DQ'd last night- as it was head first as opposed to momentum to the head.
Add that to Joshua's forearm to the head that wasn't called or reviewed. What a joke.
Given how this season has been called- we would have gotten a major and a DQ for that. And that's why I think the refs are making this game hard to watch.
Add that to Joshua's forearm to the head that wasn't called or reviewed. What a joke.
Given how this season has been called- we would have gotten a major and a DQ for that. And that's why I think the refs are making this game hard to watch.
MichVandal
Well-known member
Of course they tie it up when we should have been on the PP. Thanks, refs.