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Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Hockeybuckeye said:
I get the impression we went up there with swollen heads & egos underestimating BG because of where they were ranked in the conference.
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I think we did as well. I think we spent our Christmas break reading the rankings and the press clippings and thought all we would have to do in the second half was step on the ice and win. We wanted it to be easier than it was. Ask Coach Oz and the boys how that worked out for them?
 
Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Perspective:
In the second half of the season tOSU suffered 4 shootout losses and lost 4 1-goal games. They were competitive in all but perhaps 3 of the games after January, despite losing as many as they did (outdoors against the Weasels, the first MSU game, and the second Miami game they were not good). They never quit. They struggled scoring goals, which really made the difference in the second half, but I do not think that is surprising with the number of underclassmen on this team (and I'm sorry - the 16 or so games they played before Christmas does not make a freshman 'experienced' at the college level, as several on here have asserted). Compare this team to last year's team.

2010-2011: 10 Seniors and 4 Juniors. Overall record 15-18-4. CCHA record 10-14-4

2011-2012: 12 Freshman, 11 of which dressed (and 9 regularly) plus 7 sophmores. Overall record 15-15-5 (better winning percentage). CCHA record 11-12-5 (again, better winning percentage) in arguably one of the toughest seasons with respect to parity the CCHA has seen in several years.

To those of you who are wringing your hands and to those crying out like Chicken Little, I say take a deep breath and chill out. This is a talented team that stuck together in adversity (more than any of you likely realize, particularly late in the season) and did not fold, despite the disappointing record the second half and a lot of bad luck. They will be challenging for the league title soon enough under Osiecki.
 
Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Arpod said:
Perspective:
In the second half of the season tOSU suffered 4 shootout losses and lost 4 1-goal games. They were competitive in all but perhaps 3 of the games after January, despite losing as many as they did (outdoors against the Weasels, the first MSU game, and the second Miami game they were not good). They never quit. They struggled scoring goals, which really made the difference in the second half, but I do not think that is surprising with the number of underclassmen on this team (and I'm sorry - the 16 or so games they played before Christmas does not make a freshman 'experienced' at the college level, as several on here have asserted). Compare this team to last year's team.

2010-2011: 10 Seniors and 4 Juniors. Overall record 15-18-4. CCHA record 10-14-4

2011-2012: 12 Freshman, 11 of which dressed (and 9 regularly) plus 7 sophmores. Overall record 15-15-5 (better winning percentage). CCHA record 11-12-5 (again, better winning percentage) in arguably one of the toughest seasons with respect to parity the CCHA has seen in several years.

To those of you who are wringing your hands and to those crying out like Chicken Little, I say take a deep breath and chill out. This is a talented team that stuck together in adversity (more than any of you likely realize, particularly late in the season) and did not fold, despite the disappointing record the second half and a lot of bad luck. They will be challenging for the league title soon enough under Osiecki.
Click to expand...
I'll still be at the Joe getting my college hockey fix whether OSU is there or not. The finals could be intense.
 
Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Arpod said:
Perspective:
In the second half of the season tOSU suffered 4 shootout losses and lost 4 1-goal games. They were competitive in all but perhaps 3 of the games after January, despite losing as many as they did (outdoors against the Weasels, the first MSU game, and the second Miami game they were not good). They never quit. They struggled scoring goals, which really made the difference in the second half, but I do not think that is surprising with the number of underclassmen on this team (and I'm sorry - the 16 or so games they played before Christmas does not make a freshman 'experienced' at the college level, as several on here have asserted). Compare this team to last year's team.

2010-2011: 10 Seniors and 4 Juniors. Overall record 15-18-4. CCHA record 10-14-4

2011-2012: 12 Freshman, 11 of which dressed (and 9 regularly) plus 7 sophmores. Overall record 15-15-5 (better winning percentage). CCHA record 11-12-5 (again, better winning percentage) in arguably one of the toughest seasons with respect to parity the CCHA has seen in several years.

To those of you who are wringing your hands and to those crying out like Chicken Little, I say take a deep breath and chill out. This is a talented team that stuck together in adversity (more than any of you likely realize, particularly late in the season) and did not fold, despite the disappointing record the second half and a lot of bad luck. They will be challenging for the league title soon enough under Osiecki.
Click to expand...

I respect your post and tend to agree with most, if not all of it, but I still have a problem with the second half of the season regressions two years in a row. When a team goes 1-11-4 in the second half, that's regression, no matter how many freshmen are on the team. Ideally, you want to see your team get better as the season goes on. Clearly, that wasn't the case with this team, and that's concerning.
 
Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Arpod said:
This is a talented team that stuck together in adversity (more than any of you likely realize, particularly late in the season) and did not fold,
Click to expand...

:eek:

C'mon. This is the very epitome of not handling adversity (the first couple of bad weekends after the break) and folding up the tents. Hell, it might be the greatest collapse in the history of college hockey and certainly in the history of Ohio State athletics.

I'm not saying that Oz should be fired, and we should start over. There, however, is cause for concern moving forward.
 
Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

It seems to be a matter of personal perspective on how to explain the collapse and where to place blame, on the coaching, the players or both. Oz's track record elsewhere and that of his assistant's show a high degree of experience and competence so is it logical to assume the lion's share of the blame goes there? Although as with any coach that is where the responsibility ultimately rests.

We have a young group of players with 12 of them having no collegiate experience before this season. We had upperclassmen who were comitting frivolous penalties all season long at the worse possible moments in a game. Does this look to be a scenario where one might find problems?

We also need to be aware when passing judgement we were not privy to inside information on things that might have had affect such as nagging injuries, disciplinairy or personal issues.

Nobody should have expected instant success with coaching change and I believe most of us predicted several years for things to come together. I know after rising so high and then falling so far it's created a lot of anguish for us all but once we get past this season's emotional shackels where clearer thought comes back into play I think for those of us who know a bit about the inner workings of a collegiate team a lot of positives come forward.

Trust me, come next season we may not rise up to #2 nationally again but I think we'll see a higher level of performance applied more consistently and that will get us on the path that we all want the program to be on.

If one looks up the stats on today's top performing programs on the first several seasons of their coach's tenure you may find some remarkable similarities.
 
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Re: Ohio state " buckeyes " 2011 / 2012 season.

Hockeybuckeye said:
Trust me, come next season we may not rise up to #2 nationally again but I think we'll see a higher level of performance applied more consistently and that will get us on the path that we all want the program to be on.
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I'll be fine as long as we improve as the season goes on, not the regressions we've seen two years in a row. A good coaching staff has their team playing better hockey as the season goes on, not worse. Clearly, this group did not get better as the season went on. They went in the other direction. You are correct that we may not rise to #2, but as long as we are improving as the season goes on, I will be fine with wherever we end up. My only concerns are the regressions two seasons in a row. It's on the coaching staff to get that corrected and reverse that trend.
 
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