Re: Michigan Wolverines: 2012-2013 Season thread!!!!!!!
I have to say, I'm pretty happy about the change of play- with a night of thinking about it.
We almost had a big change a few weeks ago with a pair of wins over MSU, but I know I'm not the only one who noticed that the games were two games between bad teams. Reality struck against ND.
Then two weeks off, and a pair of games against OSU. I wish I saw them live, but we were on a big ship that weekend. Noting the scores- the D was better, Racine was better, and the offense was very good. Better than anything- with OSU scoring, the mental aspect of the game didn't collapse, and they kept playing.
Friday, you could see a big change- the passing became crisp, the offensive pressure became stonger, and the defense didn't collapse when they had in the past. And I think that Racine's mental state was in good shape thanks to the rest of the team. Not what we normally expect of our goalies, but so much better than we've seen all season.
Then we had last night. Can't say the D was hugely better, but they did good- passed the puck *better* than past. BUT- Racine was where we needed him to be. Sure, Ferris missed a lot of shots- but IMHO- that's a two way mental street- if a goalie is playing well, shooters over think. He seemed to really get under the head of Ferris shooters, as they missed some great chances. He really stood on his head.
So I said the D wasn't prefect- but they did move the puck really well. And the offense really was into the game- except the shooing. So *most* of the mental aspects were feeding off of each other. Pretty nice to see the TEAM play more like teams we've seen in the last 22 years.
The big question now- do they have at least 6 more wins in them, only allowing a loss in the first two weekends? Margin of error is thin. As have been pointed out, we've done it before. We got a BIG boost from what was a good MSU team in a free fall. Can we get that again? Going to be tough, but if they make it into the NCAA's- it will be epic.