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Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Also, how about Ryan Keller making an impact on the scoreboard in the 2nd half? Pretty cool.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Pirateasaur said:
Gah, I hope it is not serious. Knudson's chance to insert himself back into the rotation? Who else? Hoomaian? Bondra? Stenglein?

I think we have the forwards to step in and not miss a beat. Gatt's absence might sting more. While I think Knudson proved capable of having a regular role in the rotation last season, he has only played 1 game since last season. Minnesota's speed and big ice might be tough to handle until he gets his feet going again.
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I think Krygier is the better option to replace Gatt this weekend as he has more speed than Knudson and has been playing more this year (even if some was as 7th defensemen). Forward will most likely be Sorenson or Darnell as both have been scratches as of late but both also have proven scoring ability (Sorenson especially against Minnesota). It will be interesting to see if missing Pavelek will force Anastos to change up the lines any as they have been pretty consistent as of late.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

On one hand, it sucks we blew a chance at a road sweep for the second week in a row. On the other hand, Thursday was a teaching moment for this team. I don't think they win tonight if they don't blow the game yesterday. They knew they had to play a full 60 and couldn't just coast after the first goal.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Great win ... biggest of Anastos' career so far. Not good to hear that Walsh is out with a broken jaw. But Holland and Draeger really stepped up tonight.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

I was thinking we'd be in much better position had we not lost to three last place teams (UMass, UW, Princeton), but CHN has a Pairwise calculator, so I went back and gave us those wins. It only moved us up three spots to 30th. Even sweeping BC and the BU/UML trip only moved us up to 20th, which would still have us in contention for an at-large, but man is that proof of the hole we dug ourselves in the first half of the season.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

4 games left.

OSU helped us out a lot by sweeping PSU. Gives us a game of comfort for the three seed, though we still lose the ROW tiebreaker.

1. UM 33, 2 at PSU, 1 at MSU, 1 vs MSU
2. Minny 30, 2 at OSU, 2 vs PSU
3. MSU 28, 2 vs UW, 1 vs UM, 1 at UM
4. PSU 25, 2 vs UM, 2 at Minny

Realistically, I think we can win all the home games. That gives us 37 points. To be at that second seed and get the bye, we'll need Minny to split their final games. If they go 2-1-1-0, that gives them 37 to tie, but if I'm reading the tiebreakers correctly we lose it, falling to the third seed.

Between UM and PSU, a split there helps the most too. If we can win our home games, that would actually create a scenario where we would have the 1 seed going into Yost, notwithstanding what Minnesota does.

What all this means, is, holy crap, we're in title contention.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Game day bump!

Not much news, besides the usual preview with "This team is better than they look" type quotes.

No bones about it, like I covered in the previous post, we need to sweep. Anything less is a failure and will essentially ensure we play on Thursday in two weeks.

Munn will be close to a paid sell-out tonight, though the student section will be pretty empty, and even more empty tomorrow. MSU got screwed this year by Big Ten scheduling, with home games on both ends of Spring Break.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Spartanforlife4 said:
Game day bump!
Not much news, besides the usual preview with "This team is better than they look" type quotes.
Click to expand...

Oh you sound like a coach :D.

The nice thing is if MSU gets just 3 points out of the weekend, we'll probably play the same team again on Thursday. :rolleyes:
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

owslachief said:
Oh you sound like a coach :D.

The nice thing is if MSU gets just 3 points out of the weekend, we'll probably play the same team again on Thursday. :rolleyes:
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That's because I was quoting coach ;)

I'm really hoping for a top 2 seed. Mainly for selfish purposes because I want to go to the BTT, but can't go on Thursday and don't want to pull the trigger on tickets until I know for sure we'll be playing Friday. It would be a lot nicer knowing a week in advance than less than 24 hours.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

My predictions for this weekend:

Friday (aka tonight): MSU 4-1 victory
Saturday: 2-2 tie with Wisconsin taking shootout victory

I just have a sinking feeling Wisconsin will sneak away with some points this weekend; not really sure why because MSU has been playing some real good hockey recently.

Also any word on Walsh being back in the lineup this weekend?
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Sloppy first, but really proud of the boys for the effort tonight. Complete domination on faceoffs and locked down on D in the first to only allow 1 shot, which helped make up for some of the poor passing.

Big Ten is now at
1. UM 33, 1 at PSU, 1 at MSU, 1 vs MSU
2. Minny 33, 1 at OSU, 2 vs PSU
3. MSU 31, 1 vs UW, 1 vs UM, 1 at UM
4. PSU 28, 1 vs UM, 2 at Minny

A sweep by us, and a sweep by PSU puts us in a situation where we only need to win at Munn to secure a 2nd seed, though that's assuming PSU doesn't steal one at Mariucci.

I still can't believe a conference title is within reach. A whole lot of growth in the program this year and it's great to see.
 
gomsuman said:
My predictions for this weekend:

Friday (aka tonight): MSU 4-1 victory
Saturday: 2-2 tie with Wisconsin taking shootout victory

I just have a sinking feeling Wisconsin will sneak away with some points this weekend; not really sure why because MSU has been playing some real good hockey recently.

Also any word on Walsh being back in the lineup this weekend?
Click to expand...

Walsh is likely out for the remainder of the year. Has a jaw fracture.

Winning tomorrow is absolutely crucial. Pretty cool that we get to say that now rather than "winning tomorrow would be...good!"
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

1st place. Just need three points of any combination next week for a bye.

Still hard to believe. I also think Hildy shut out Wisconsin for the last 7 periods of the series.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
1st place. Just need three points of any combination next week for a bye.

Still hard to believe. I also think Hildy shut out Wisconsin for the last 7 periods of the series.
Click to expand...

MSU has won the last three games against Wisconsin by the same 3-0 score, so it's been at least 9 scoreless periods....
 
wsummers said:
MSU has won the last three games against Wisconsin by the same 3-0 score, so it's been at least 9 scoreless periods....
Click to expand...

Ah, you are correct. Make it 10 periods.

Also, this means back to back to back conference home sweeps. I went back to 2002-03 schedules and couldn't find another instance of this. Part of that is the CCHA doing home and homes, but i didn't see a 6 game conference home winning streak in that time span either, but I could've missed one. Very impressive, even if this league is just a step above the AHA this year.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Wow. First place into the last weekend. Pretty darn happy right now. This team has grown a ton since October, and Hildebrand has remained fantastic.

Completely controlling our destiny now. If we want the league championship, all we have to do is beat UM twice.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

The last time MSU played Michigan at home for Senior Night was March 3, 1979 - Amo Bessone's final season at the helm. That's 3 coaches ago, fans!
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

While a regular season title would be nice (and quite surprising based on the start of the season), MSU will still need to win the playoff title to make the NCAA tournament.

Perhaps the greatest indictment of the Big 6, is that the possible regular season champs (if MSU wins) aren't even remotely close to being in the field of 16. That speaks very loudly and clearly to how weak the conference is overall. Whether MSU wins the playoff title or not, the probability is very real that the Big (or is it Little) 6 will only have one team in the NCAA tournament. Very AHA/C-esque.
 
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Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

samboni said:
While a regular season title would be nice (and quite surprising based on the start of the season), MSU will still need to win the playoff title to make the NCAA tournament.

Perhaps the greatest indictment of the Big 6, is that the possible regular season champs (if MSU wins) aren't even remotely close to being in the field of 16. That speaks very loudly and clearly to how weak the conference is overall. Whether MSU wins the playoff title or not, the probability is very real that the Big (or is it Little) 6 will only have one team in the NCAA tournament. Very AHA/C-esque.
Click to expand...

Hey, is this some kind of therapy for you? Best of luck in your endeavors :)
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

About 40 seats left for Friday's game. Then if those sell out at least 700 standing rooms are available.

As much as potentially winning a conference title and not making the tournament sucks, we knew it could be a possibility when the conference was formed. Have a bad non-con and it can do you in. We've been playing great hockey in the second half, but doing well against 5 teams doesn't help when you've done awful against 10 others, especially not when you've dropped games against three last place teams.

If we win the title but not the tournament, I'll be a little disappointed because it means we had potential to steal a bid and didn't. But I can't get too upset when expectations as early as the Michigan series were to just try to finish in 4th. Plus this late season push has brought momentum that can be used in the first half of next season, so maybe then we won't have to rely on an autobid.
 
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