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Michigan State Hockey 202?-202?

aallenpollreisz said:
So, does anybody know what the situation is with the Spartan Brass?

I wasn't at the rink Thursday, but they were absent for the home opener and tonight's game.
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They were there Thursday.

But the home opener was the night of Midnight Madness at Breslin so I bet they were there. Yesterday was the homecoming parade and stuff so they probably were doing something for that as well.

If the brass has anything basketball or football related to attend they’re gonna be there instead of hockey.
 
Associate head coach Jared DeMichiel was recognized as one of five inductees into the RIT Sports Hall of Fame this morning. It was great to see him here in Rochester, especially sporting an orange tie.
 
Granted, we didn't play top-tier talent over the weekend, but it was nice to put eight on the scoreboard for the first time in ages. (2013, I think?)

Probably our toughest challenge of the early season against Notre Dame this weekend. It'd sure be great to at least come home with at least a split.
 
After 6 games…
The team is playing a high energy style that is very enjoyable to watch.
Goaltending - looks like St Cyr will get most of the games this year. Charleston got the Saturday game and confirmed St Cyr is the better choice in this system.
Defense - MSU has 9 that could play and typically has used 7. They are much more aggressive in carrying the puck into the offensive zone and taking shots.
Forward - interestingly no goals so far for Davidson or Middendorf and only one for Tucker. The best line has been the Dorwart, Russell, and Joshua line.
Special teams - PK has been decent. PP prior to Saturday was poor. It will be interesting to see if Saturday was a fluke or an indication of things to come.

This is a team that is continuing to improve. I think they have a good chance to take a game at ND this weekend.
 
wsummers said:
After 6 games…
The team is playing a high energy style that is very enjoyable to watch.
Goaltending - looks like St Cyr will get most of the games this year. Charleston got the Saturday game and confirmed St Cyr is the better choice in this system.
Defense - MSU has 9 that could play and typically has used 7. They are much more aggressive in carrying the puck into the offensive zone and taking shots.
Forward - interestingly no goals so far for Davidson or Middendorf and only one for Tucker. The best line has been the Dorwart, Russell, and Joshua line.
Special teams - PK has been decent. PP prior to Saturday was poor. It will be interesting to see if Saturday was a fluke or an indication of things to come.

This is a team that is continuing to improve. I think they have a good chance to take a game at ND this weekend.
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Agreed on the emphasis on offense. The only drawback I have seen is that we do seem to give up a slightly worrying number of breakaways due to aggressive D. Usually, St. Cyr has bailed us out so far.

I’ll give Nightingale a lot of credit in that he seems to be squeezing offensive juice out of a roster I didn’t think had any. Even games we don’t score much we still possess the puck nicely and get shots to the net.

We’ll see how the B1G schedule goes. I still think we’ll probably end up no better than .500 which would be pretty great, really.
 
Well I will take that weekend against a good Notre Dame team on the road. I didn't get to watch any of it but it seemed at least in the shot department we hung in there both nights and probably should have won outright on Saturday.
 
gomsuman said:
Well I will take that weekend against a good Notre Dame team on the road. I didn't get to watch any of it but it seemed at least in the shot department we hung in there both nights and probably should have won outright on Saturday.
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Winning the shootout feels like it makes all the difference. Friday night was a humbling for sure, it looks like. But yes, it looks like this team is still putting pucks on net, which is good, but we just don’t have the pure scorers capable taking advantage of opportunities consistently. As a result, shots/goal ratio is pretty bad.
 
When’s the last time an MSU player scored 4 goals in a game? You could tell me it’s been 20+ years and I’d say you’re probably right. Congrats to Middendorf for breaking out.

A great game all around except we lost some focus in the 3rd. Wisky did have their chances but St. Cyr was amazing. I don’t think we’re 5 goals better than them most nights so we gotta be ready to roll tonight.
 
I just wanted to put it into text somewhere how cool I think it is that MSU killed nine minutes of penalty time in the second last night.

A 44-save shutout and a guy scoring four goals? Also great!
 
Pirateasaur said:
When’s the last time an MSU player scored 4 goals in a game? You could tell me it’s been 20+ years and I’d say you’re probably right. Congrats to Middendorf for breaking out.

A great game all around except we lost some focus in the 3rd. Wisky did have their chances but St. Cyr was amazing. I don’t think we’re 5 goals better than them most nights so we gotta be ready to roll tonight.
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Last 4 goal game was January 10, 1998….Today would be a good time for Davidson to score a couple.
 
Signed yesterday were Oravitz, Geary, and Varner. So far no surprises.
This week should be a good test…I’m hoping for a split.
 
Grappling with having to recalibrate my expectations into something that involves more emotional investment. For a decade+ it never really felt like we were playing for any real stakes so losses bounced right off me.

i don’t think we’ll end up competing for a B1G regular season title but could an NCAA birth be in the cards? It still feels like the bottom will drop out at some point and we’ll drop like 5 straight but I’m getting pretty optimistic.
 
Pirateasaur said:
i don’t think we’ll end up competing for a B1G regular season title but could an NCAA birth be in the cards? It still feels like the bottom will drop out at some point and we’ll drop like 5 straight but I’m getting pretty optimistic.
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My old rule of thumb: Major conference programs that win 20 or more generally go to the NCAA tournament.

Though I'm currently having a ton of fun, I'm leery about saying we're winning 20. Cool if we did, but I think we're probably finishing around the 15-17 win mark. (And I'd be totally fine with that. That's still a huge improvement.)
 
I can’t get excited until I see how we match up against U-M; Minny; and PSU. All too often our schedule is back-loaded such that we fall off a cliff after the first third to half. If we match up well or, even better, prevail against those three teams, then we’re much further ahead in the rebuild than I ever expected with this roster. At this point I’m still expecting a 0.500 season at best which, as mentioned, is quite the coaching accomplishment.
 
FLHockeyMom said:
I can’t get excited until I see how we match up against U-M; Minny; and PSU. All too often our schedule is back-loaded such that we fall off a cliff after the first third to half. If we match up well or, even better, prevail against those three teams, then we’re much further ahead in the rebuild than I ever expected with this roster. At this point I’m still expecting a 0.500 season at best which, as mentioned, is quite the coaching accomplishment.
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The next 8 games should tell us a lot. 4 wins (sweep of Miami plus taking 2 more from the top 3 conference teams) might be the best to hope for…but so far this team has exceeded my expectations.
 
It’s great to see Dylan St. Cyr doing well for your program. We had a 1 and 1A goaltender at Q’Pac and he was back-up to a tender that had the most shutouts in NCAA history. Be following him rest of the way….good luck
 
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