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Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Well, ND is still ND. Definitely one of the toughest teams to play against in the country. They’re just so rock solid everywhere and never seem to make mistakes.

But still, we were so close to that sweet W. I thought we played marvelous defense the entire 3rd period and that tying goal really took the wind out of us. Felt like we had to desperately hang on to get to the 2nd OT and secure a point. If we get any points tomorrow I will consider this weekend a grand success.

Great game again by Lethemon. He’s a beauty.
 
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Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Given the quick ND goal, and then literally not having offense for the first 13 minutes of the 3rd, that was not the result I expected. Especially against Notre Dame, who I think are just the college version of the 90s Devils.

I'm still not sure how Lambdin scored the second goal. I didn't think it was possible to snipe Morris. And this team must've gotten pelted with pucks all summer practicing tips in front of the net. They were trying last year with some success, but now it's a legit threat.

Biggest con of the night was the PP. Would've been better off declining penalties tonight. There are inept PPs, but tonight was a case of a team somehow getting better on defense during the PK. Don't get how it happens, but it made for an ugly four minutes of gameplay.

But, no reason to be negative tonight. 90 seconds from a sweep, and took 4/6 from the #3 team in the country, and 3rd in the Big Ten, with the most points of any team with six games played in conference. Somehow sweep next week and MSU will find themselves in first place.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Given the quick ND goal, and then literally not having offense for the first 13 minutes of the 3rd, that was not the result I expected. Especially against Notre Dame, who I think are just the college version of the 90s Devils.

I'm still not sure how Lambdin scored the second goal. I didn't think it was possible to snipe Morris. And this team must've gotten pelted with pucks all summer practicing tips in front of the net. They were trying last year with some success, but now it's a legit threat.

Biggest con of the night was the PP. Would've been better off declining penalties tonight. There are inept PPs, but tonight was a case of a team somehow getting better on defense during the PK. Don't get how it happens, but it made for an ugly four minutes of gameplay.

But, no reason to be negative tonight. 90 seconds from a sweep, and took 4/6 from the #3 team in the country, and 3rd in the Big Ten, with the most points of any team with six games played in conference. Somehow sweep next week and MSU will find themselves in first place.
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Biggest regular season win since ? (Come-from behind style). Amazing how one guy's skate n score can energize a team to that degree.

Ok Spartans, now you REALLY have my attention.
 
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owslachief said:
Biggest regular season win since ? (Come-from behind style). Amazing how one guy's skate n score can energize a team to that degree.

Ok Spartans, now you REALLY have my attention.
Click to expand...

I thought the sweep at Cornell last year was going to be a jump start, but things kind of unraveled after that.

That crazy OSU comeback last year ended in a 7-7 tie (with a 3x3 win), but that was the most electric I’ve seen Munn sans Michigan games. Since there were only about 3k fans left after OSU went up 7-4, I don’t know if that per-fan energy will be matched again.

As far as biggest come from behind? I can’t remember too many. Quite honestly, the answer might be last week. Two down at Yost and still getting the W may have been the trigger this team needed.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Really, really glad to see Lethemon take ownership of the starting role in net. I'm not a fan of the goalie platoon system. I think we go as far as Lethemon takes us. This just isn't a sufficiently high-scoring offense, so we've got to win it with goaltending and defense. Both facets continue to exceed my expectations.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Not sure what else to add here. Every season usually has at least 1 home game that leaves you completely elated and that one certainly counts as that. Most of third period was very typical MSU vs. ND with ND leading and putting an absolute stranglehold on an MSU team that lacks firepower. Lambdin’s streak down the right side and score was as much a shot of adrenaline I’ve ever seen a team and crowd receive. The game completely flipped and suddenly we were flying when a minute
previous I was thinking how I had read this book so many times before.

Defensively, we’ve become legitimately great with Lethemon backing us up. Sometimes I wish we were a little more aggressive like ND pressuring guys with the puck but we clog the middle and block shots/passes as well as any team in the country, I’d bet.

OSU’s next and they just came off a big win of their own. I wish it’d get easier for a weekend or two but it’s not the old CCHA anymore.

Great student section, btw. They should keep those light sabres. It looked awesome and gives context to all the dorky hand motions they do.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
I thought the sweep at Cornell last year was going to be a jump start, but things kind of unraveled after that.

That crazy OSU comeback last year ended in a 7-7 tie (with a 3x3 win), but that was the most electric I’ve seen Munn sans Michigan games. Since there were only about 3k fans left after OSU went up 7-4, I don’t know if that per-fan energy will be matched again.

As far as biggest come from behind? I can’t remember too many. Quite honestly, the answer might be last week. Two down at Yost and still getting the W may have been the trigger this team needed.
Click to expand...
Cornell fans often discussed what might have been last year had we not dropped our first two games to MSU. Seems like that situation might be reversed this year. Flip those two results and MSU is sitting in 5th in PWR (with Cornell dropping to 8th).
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Spartanforlife4 said:
I thought the sweep at Cornell last year was going to be a jump start, but things kind of unraveled after that.

That crazy OSU comeback last year ended in a 7-7 tie (with a 3x3 win), but that was the most electric I’ve seen Munn sans Michigan games. Since there were only about 3k fans left after OSU went up 7-4, I don’t know if that per-fan energy will be matched again.

As far as biggest come from behind? I can’t remember too many. Quite honestly, the answer might be last week. Two down at Yost and still getting the W may have been the trigger this team needed.
Click to expand...

Pretty important though because here we are down in the 3rd period, and I'm getting that feeling that it's becoming yet another frustrating slog through a ND neutral zone-focused D that's led to a few years of frustration against them, when they have the lead. But thankfully Nodler showed some creativity, and Lambdin can skate.

Maybe Morris got too little work the first several minutes and wasn't quite prepared for the shot.

On Charleson; those are some gaudy numbers. And, it's evident the guy wins championships. Looking good for the first wave of signings.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

To me there are a couple of things that are different this year and that are leading to success (at least lately).
Our defense is vastly improved. Last year we were breaking in 3 new guys and it showed.
Last year we were a one line team, this year we have a second scoring line. ND was able to shut down our top line, but not the 2nd which scored all 4 goals against ND.

I have no illusions. We don’t have the talent of a frozen four team yet, but are much better than when Cole took over. I’m hoping for another 6 league points over the next two weeks. And hey if we can start 2020 above .500 that would be even better.
 
wsummers said:
To me there are a couple of things that are different this year and that are leading to success (at least lately).
Our defense is vastly improved. Last year we were breaking in 3 new guys and it showed.
Last year we were a one line team, this year we have a second scoring line. ND was able to shut down our top line, but not the 2nd which scored all 4 goals against ND.

I have no illusions. We don’t have the talent of a frozen four team yet, but are much better than when Cole took over. I’m hoping for another 6 league points over the next two weeks. And hey if we can start 2020 above .500 that would be even better.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of this. But while we technically have scoring depth, we still don’t have a ton of firepower. So while optimistic, I think this team goes as far as Lethemon will carry them. I don’t mean that it’s all on him, as the team In front of him has been and likely will continue to play very good defense, but if he goes into a slump I doubt we’ll be able to outscore many teams.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Looking forward to you guys coming to Columbus this weekend. Don't know if Nappier will be in net, no word about what injury he had Saturday at Penn State but no love lost on Tommy from you guys.
I watched him take an obvious dive right in front of me last season at the Saturday game in East Lansing and the stupid ref bought it and we were already on the PP!
Don't know if I ever heard a goalie get booed & cat called so much before! LOL! There was a great shot of the students all flipping him off that made social media.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

20th in USCHO and 16th (technically ORV) in USA Today. I believe it’s the first time the Spartans have been ranked since 2012.
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
Looking forward to you guys coming to Columbus this weekend. Don't know if Nappier will be in net, no word about what injury he had Saturday at Penn State but no love lost on Tommy from you guys.
I watched him take an obvious dive right in front of me last season at the Saturday game in East Lansing and the stupid ref bought it and we were already on the PP!
Don't know if I ever heard a goalie get booed & cat called so much before! LOL! There was a great shot of the students all flipping him off that made social media.
Click to expand...

Oh geez I forgot about that. The game was well in hand for you guys at that point as well so it felt especially egregious.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Just as an interesting bit of info, it was mentioned last weekend in the form of a trivia question that Austin Kamer currently has a 4.0 GPA in Chemical Engineering. Extremely impressive.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Pirateasaur said:
Oh geez I forgot about that. The game was well in hand for you guys at that point as well so it felt especially egregious.
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Yeah, it was a kind of kick em when they're down thing but you have to fault the zebra as much as Nappier.
With the entertainment and movies out there these days the refs are just used to bad acting.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Pretty much the outcome I was expecting, a defensive slugfest. When I learned that Nappier was sitting out the first game, I was hoping for at least a split. No such luck. Good news is that Lethemon and the defense continue to impress. However, the lack of scoring is a constant theme.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Seemed strange to see a Joshua wearing green & white. Lucky for us he's not at the level his brother Dakota was!
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

FLHockeyMom said:
Pretty much the outcome I was expecting, a defensive slugfest. When I learned that Nappier was sitting out the first game, I was hoping for at least a split. No such luck. Good news is that Lethemon and the defense continue to impress. However, the lack of scoring is a constant theme.
Click to expand...

Unfortunate that our PP has disappeared. We have played two excellent defensive teams the last two weeks, but still need to do better than 0fer.

Get the Badgers next week. Two winnable games.
 
Re: Michigan State 2019-2020 Season Thread

Watched the game today and the result felt about right.

If you would have told me that Lethemon would allow a total of 3 goals this weekend I’d have felt very good about our chances. Our GA #ms have been great lately but this highlights the fact that Cole absolutely must recruit more firepower. We can’t hope to ever win a championship if the offense disappears for entire weekends no matter how stout the D and goaltending are.

Notre Dame got punked by Bowling Green this weekend and Minny by Nodak. Notre Dame is a good team, and so is Ohio State. MSU might be something approaching good, but I don’t think the B1G will have what it takes come NCAA tournament time.
 
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