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

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

Entertaining game tonight at Munn. Good to see the new ribbon strip and scoreboard in action. I thought both teams had a good compete level (30+ shots a side) and that killing off the two penalties in the first was important. I thought Berry had the "it" factor tonight and could be in for a big second half.

Great moment when the woman behind the goal flipped off the OSU goal scorer :-)

You think they would have staggered the Globetrotters start so that they didn't both end at the same time.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Excellent performance from the guys last night and a great crowd to do it in front of. I think we were all wondering how much we were missing Berry and I thought his response last night was excellent. He played great. I am glad to have him back.

So many times have I been excited for a potential sweep only for us to not deliver the 2nd win. I like this team's compete level most games and I think 3 points tonight could set us up to actually make a run for 2nd place. It might take a little bit of luck but we will be right there.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

I feel like Ralphie from a Christmas story when Santa asks him about a football.

Sweep? Sweep? What's a sweep?
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Also, something big I just noticed: The other three teams that we'll have to compete with for the title (UM, Minny, PSU) have all played Wisconsin. By the time we're done with this two week Michigan series, both Penn State and Minnesota will be done with Wisconsin for the season. That means we have a potential easy 6-12 points to add to our standing that the others don't have.

I know we can't count automatic wins, especially since we just had our first sweep since I think PSU last year, but if this team can learn to play a full weekend it'll be a very exciting Big Ten season.
 
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Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Spartanforlife4 said:
Hockey Classic Jerseys



The OSU fans were saying in their thread that they don't play defense. They were right. If you count post shots, plus the wide open net shots we missed, plus the most frustrating stop ever when it was a foot away and simply got overpowered by a stick, that game is 8-2 or 9-2.
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Michigan has scored 18 goals in two games against the Buckeyes. Most of that was created from poor defensive coverage. Wisconsin isn't too far behind in their poor coverage. At least the Badgers have a decent goaltender who is absolutely shell shocked right now.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

I didn't think it would ever happen, but we swept an opponent. It feels good, guys.

As for OSU and their wretched defense, I think they really committed to it last night. They sat back and did not threaten much on offense but scoring chances were more difficult to come by for us. We struggled to score goals again but for once, 1 goal was enough. Then the insurance snipe by Darnell was a beaut.

I really do think this team plays well and I think we have potential to do damage in this B1G race. I just cannot be convinced that our meager offensive production won't hamstring us both in games we can win(any) and games we absolutely should win.(wisconsin).
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

The thing I'm most concerned about is this team always has one period a game where they don't do jack. This weekend it was the first period in both games, and luckily that didn't hurt us, but if you're only a legitimate threat for 2/3 of a game, it's going to come back to bite you. Especially these next two games going up against a team that scores like it's an All-Star game.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

This would have been a great weekend to have recruits in the building, b/c not only did the new bells&whistles make the place look great and there were two sellouts, but THE Ohio State helped make MSU look good, too.

++ Weekend for Keller, Walsh and Maceachern (or Maceacren if you like) and, thankfully, OSU was short 4 regular forwards. I'm sure Hildebrand will get the B1G accolades as goalie too!
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Pirateasaur said:
I really do think this team plays well and I think we have potential to do damage in this B1G race. I just cannot be convinced that our meager offensive production won't hamstring us both in games we can win(any) and games we absolutely should win.(wisconsin).
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Hey, if Paula picks you guys to win the B1G Conference Tourney, (which she did) then you may be on to something. :eek:
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

streaker said:
Hey, if Paula picks you guys to win the B1G Conference Tourney, (which she did) then you may be on to something. :eek:
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Maybe. The way the Spartans are playing defense right now, coupled with good goaltending, I'm counting on slowing down the juggernaut the next two weekends. Slowing down, mind you ;). Granted, 3 of tOSU's top-10-scoring forwards were out of the lineup (30% of their scoring), but there's maybe a little "mo" going into JLA.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Sigh...

Another large donation to the athletic department, another donation ignoring hockey. Pentecost's donated 3 million so the basketball offices and practice area could be redone. I think those are only like 15 years old.

There's gotta be some donor out there that likes hockey, right? I think 3 million can get everything but the actual arena named after you according to the Munn renovation site.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

Spartanforlife4 said:
Sigh...

Another large donation to the athletic department, another donation ignoring hockey. Pentecost's donated 3 million so the basketball offices and practice area could be redone. I think those are only like 15 years old.

There's gotta be some donor out there that likes hockey, right? I think 3 million can get everything but the actual arena named after you according to the Munn renovation site.
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I saw that headline earlier and thought "ah, maybe some will help hockey?" Nope. I think if the program takes a step forward and competes for a B1G title a couple years in a row then some movement would happen. While we may have been able to observe some improvement over the last few years, most people will just see the sub .500 record and think it's not worth it.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

There's sort of a chicken and the egg question like that with football. Skandalaris donated money to renovate the pratice building (the first time) in the summer of 2007. Did he do it just because, and it has helped Dantonio, or did he do it because he thought Dantonio could get the job done and it would be worth it?

We might be at that point in hockey, only it's even more difficult because it's such a niche interest. Is someone going to donate millions to a program that will, at best, be third most popular? This isn't the 70s and 80s anymore, there's about a 1% chance we ever become a hockey school again, or even have hockey as the 2nd most popular sport. So we need someone who really really cares about hockey, and then either supports Anastos (probably not likely) or will donate anyway.

Since about three unscheduled renovations are now in the planning process due to donations since the Munn plan went up, and absolutely nothing is going to hockey, we've either got no support in Anastos from the higher ups, or just have no one that cares about hockey. The first one is reasonable, because frankly there hasn't been much support for Anastos since he arrived due to the commissioner status. The second one is scary though, because that means we could be waiting a long time.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

I like 4-3-2-2 and tied for second in the conference, don't you? :) MSU's conditioning looks really good and some of these guys are growing up fast.
 
owslachief said:
I like 4-3-2-2 and tied for second in the conference, don't you? :) MSU's conditioning looks really good and some of these guys are growing up fast.
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I almost didn't watch the game and made plans earlier than I normally would on a Friday night because watching us play michigan in hockey is always too uncomfortable for me. More than football or basketball for some reason. I am glad I was brave because it was a hell of a performance. I have had more faith in this team than anybody rightly should in a sub .500 team and am pleased to see that it is starting to show up in the win column.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

It's actually the opposite for me. I'm the least nervous for hockey because there are so many chances per season.

I'm not even sure what to think right now. A three game winning streak? That's something we haven't done since November of last season, and two of those wins were against AIC. The last three game winning streak in conference was three years ago in the spring of 2012 when, coincidentally, we swept OSU and got the first against UM.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

When we took that penalty near the end I thought we were in trouble. I was watching to see if Red would pull the goalie to get the 2 man adv. This team does play well defensively (I'm putting aside the 5-0 Gopher loss) but I can't say I'm comfortable with this style being the model for success. When the puck is in your zone that much bad things can happen.
 
Re: Michigan State's Eternal Optimist Thread, 2014-15 edition

demhall said:
When we took that penalty near the end I thought we were in trouble. I was watching to see if Red would pull the goalie to get the 2 man adv. This team does play well defensively (I'm putting aside the 5-0 Gopher loss) but I can't say I'm comfortable with this style being the model for success. When the puck is in your zone that much bad things can happen.
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You have to play this way against Michigan. Be patient with the puck in your own zone, ensure you have support and then work the puck forward. We are not yet a team that can go up and down the ice on these guys. Try to push it too much and they will jump on a turnover. What I liked about last night was we may have made a couple careless passes but for the most part kept it very clean in our D-zone. U-M's forecheck is what kept us at times reversing the puck a few extra passes (and this led to some time behind our blueline) but I think State got them (U-M) to over-commit and we burned them a couple times. Really the only turnovers we had were some backchecking plays by their stronger forwards.
 
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