Re: Official Oswego State 2014-2015 Thread...LETS FINISH THE JOB!!!!!
I thnk he may stay with Gilbert and the hot hand......buff and Freddy always seem to be chippy,and yea these teams get up big time for Oz,should be a close tilt tonight as well.
So what a great weekend of hockey. Takeaways:
1. It may well be that every single game this season is going to be a thrill ride. Even when they blow out their opponents, they're gonna wait until the second half of the game and make you stress out for the first half
2. Gilbert improved over the summer. No question about it. He didn't like the amount of ice time he got last year and the fact that he was passed up when it came time to make a run in the playoffs. And he did something about it. He got better. He had a good game tonight, and had a great game last night. I think he gets the start for Cortland unless something changes dramatically during practice.
3. Z is still a great goalie, and could still be the #1. Last night, on a fluke, he let in 3 goals, not all of which were completely his fault (what were you expecting to happen on a 5 on 3 power play and then another one right after?). I think he will get the start just as soon as Gilbert lets in more than 2 goals. The important question we ask is if it seems like a toss-up between the two, does Gilbert get it by nature of being a junior? Or does Z get it by nature of his phenomenal post-season run last season? In the end, I think they'll go with the hot hand.
4. What the heck was up with the Freddy announcers? Seriously? Talk about poor sportsmanship. Not professional at all. It's one thing to make a couple slights towards the other team, but they started making fun of Krystian Yorke in a way that I thought showed very poor taste. Well they can have their petty immature insults. Yorke is skating away with 5 points on the night. I think the announcers got pulled or something during the 3rd period because there was no more audio and there was a written apology on the screen. Which was odd.
5. That Buff State game gave me more heart attacks than I was expecting. Oswego needs to watch out for taking too many penalties. If Buff State had been more disciplined themselves they would've walked away with 2 points. For the first period and a half of that game, Oswego looked disconnected and confused. We were going even on shots, but our penalties gave them better opportunities. The goalie change sparked a fire under our guys though. I think about 75% of Oswego's shots in that game came after the goalie change.
6. Oswego has an offense. Holy mother of all that is good, we have an offense. Awesome. Not only can we blow lesser opponents out of the water with it, we can also rely on it to get us out of sticky situations. I think that's the difference between the first game of the season this year compared to last year. Last year we pushed it to OT, then let the game slip through our fingers. Yesterday, we fought our way back from a 3-goal deficit, and took and held the lead with less than a minute left in regulation. I'd prefer most games this season to go like the Fredonia game instead of the Buff State game though.
7. Cortland, on paper, shouldn't be a huge challenge for Oswego. But what's on paper and what plays out on the ice can be very different. Oswego is the better team, and they need to play like it. They don't need to start trading penalties. They don't need to take unnecessary risks. Last year Cortland let in 40% more goals than they scored in SUNYAC play. Oswego scored 50% more goals than they allowed last year in SUNYAC play. Play smart, don't take dumb penalties, and the game will come around.
8. Welcome Mitchell Herlihey to Oswego State hockey. Score two goals and an assist every game, and you'll be good to go.
Overall, I like what I see. When a team concentrates on trying to stop individuals like Galati on Oswego, they fail to realize that all the other players on our team are offensive weapons too. That's how you see 10 goals scored by 7 different players. While other teams concentrate on how to get their best guy open and give him opportunities, Oswego can say "oh you want to cover our 'best guy'? We'll just score goals with some of our other 'best guys'."