Re: Minnesota vs Jan Brady State (home and home) Nov 18th-19th
Good info and appreciated. Yeah, Bjugstad is an obvious one. Kid is huge, has great speed and skill to go along with it. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he finish high school a year early and start playing with the Gophers last year when he "should've" been a senior in high school? Unreal. Hearing of Schmidt's success is bittersweet with him being a St. Cloud kid and all. Would've been great seeing him in Cardinal and Black but when you're that highly touted at a young age you're going to get offers that are hard to pass up from big time programs.
As for the Huskies, they're at a little bit of a crossroads right now. Lee is gone for the season and the "heart and soul" captain Drew LeBlanc has a broken leg (happened against Wisco.) Fortunately one of the strengths for the Huskies is their depth. No one big line to focus on, especially now with Drew out as he was our leading scorer when the injury occurred and that top line was really starting to gel. Cam Reid (talented sophomore) has been moved from wing to center on that line with Jared Festler (IMO, best sniper on the team) on the wing and last weekend Brooks Bertsch was on the other side. Will be interesting to see if Bob sticks with Brooks or tries someone else, like Garrett Milan who in my mind could be compared to former Huskies like Lasch/Roe in terms of size and speed....whether that translates to points is yet to be seen. Most Husky fans will say that Hanowski-Dowd-Eddy is our top line now. They played awful last Friday night and were a combined -10, but they knew they played poorly and took ownership of it. Came back and had 2 of the 3 goals Saturday. Eddy started slow but is coming on, Dowd is an impressive sophomore that can make plays happen and Hanowski (the Bear) is putting pucks in the net like we expected him to when he came in. 3rd line of MacMillan-Thorson-Novak is starting to find their place. Thorson has a point in 5 of the last 6 games and Novak would be in the running for fastest guy in the league. 4th line of Oliver-Christian-Milan/Holka brings some energy.
Defense has been a pleasant surprise as that was the biggest question mark coming into the season. Freshmen Jarrod Rabey and Andrew Prochno (Minnetonka kid) have played much better than expected as freshmen. Prochno is very good with the puck and is paired with our best defensemen from last year, Sophomore Nick Jensen. Rabey is a BIG kid, listed at 6'1" and 238lbs....but he skates well, can move the puck, and has a big shot. Kevin Gravel (6'4" sophomore) has been solid on the blueline as well. You could see 3 freshmen on the blueline for the Huskies with Tim Daly getting more playing time. They're young and have definitely made some mistakes but overall have surprised on the upside.
At goalie, freshman Ryan Faragher has stepped in to fill the void Lee's injury caused. In his "surprise start" at UND he stood on his head and made 41 saves in a shutout. Since then he has played well giving the team a chance to win each game. He has continued to make some really impressive saves but has had a couple goals I'm sure he'd like back. He takes up a lot of the net being 6'2" and doesn't seem to lack confidence, which I like to see in a goalie.
Special teams have been boom or bust with bust being the case lately. Last weekend they were something like 0-10 on the PP and gave up TWO short-handed goals to the landcows. In order to beat the gophers the special teams play will need to be drastically improved over last weekend. Quick injury side note, Husky fans are also hopeful to see freshman David Morley at some point in the season. He came in with high expectations but has been sidelined from the start of the season with a concussion.
Before the season if you had told me two of the three captains in Lee and LeBlanc would be gone before the second weekend in November I would've said bottom half of the league no doubt. But with a goalie showing he can step up and a defense that is starting to come around I think this team can finish in the top half of the conference and contend for a bid to the NCAAs. There are still a lot of unknowns though. It's only been one weekend since Drew's injury and we'll know a lot more about this team being able to contend after this weekend. I'm sure other Husky fans can give a different perspective/info but this is my "optimistic" take at this point. Should be a great series.
