Ohio State Buckeyes 2023-24 The Muzzinator Gonna Muzzinate!!

[Hockeybuckeye]

Her high school team remains a dumpster fire, which may not totally be her fault but they've continually underachieved which is enough said.

Sorry to hear that but with the skill level of those girls I'll make a guess team chemistry could be a factor? One of the things that's made Ohio State such a strong team is we have exceptional on ice chemistry and it all starts in the locker room. Though most of our girls are stars in their own right we have no prima donnas, no one puts themselves above their teammates. If it's good in the locker room it's good on the ice!

 

[robertearle]

I think it's funny that Wisconsin posters get accused of downplaying the quality of Ohio state's roster. That is not the case. What wrinkles the feather of Wisconsin and Minnesota fans is the fact that Tosu posters are constantly asserting that the Ohio State players are all the best that everybody else is just an annoying fly on the screen. I appreciate your enthusiasm but a little less bravado would go a long way towards a peaceful coexistence amongst WCHA fans. But I get your perspective, you went from being total garbage to national champs, and it appears it's a sustainable level of quality and not a flash in the pan.

I think it remains to be seen how sustainable the current model of building a team through transfers is once the pool of COVID-year players runs dry.

Otherwise, what Tim said.

 

[robertearle]

We all have our biases. The one i can’t get over at Wisco is the head in the sand about Mark Johnson retiring one day and how that will apparently have zero impact on recruiting and on ice success.

I don't think any of us expects "zero impact". The degree of the non-zero impact is something nobody knows, within or without the UW fan base. We also don't know if "one day" is five weeks from now or five years from now.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I think it remains to be seen how sustainable the current model of building a team through transfers is once the pool of COVID-year players runs dry.

Otherwise, what Tim said.

You must not have seen our recruit list, were not hurting in any way on the level of incoming talent.

 

[robertearle]

You must not have seen our recruit list, were not hurting in any way on the level of incoming talent.

If I'm not mistaken, there are at least ten players on your current roster who are playing their final year of eligibility.

Are there ten players on your recruit list?

 

[Sierra]

The TP is part of the Buckeyes strategy in team building. The "old way" of team building is over. Programs will decline if they do not adapt. Coach Muzerall has embraced and understands the football model. Top young talent wants to come to OSU, and athletes who are not happy in their current situation will enter the portal, and OSU will gobble them up. OSU is so far ahead of any other program in the NCAA when it comes to the TP, and the athletes now know how OSU operates. OSU will feed the PWHL just as our football program feeds the NFL. The athletes know this ... whether you agree or disagree, college athletics is no longer what it was. I personally wish the TP was never created for many reasons. I also understand why it now exists.

 

[robertearle]

The TP is part of the Buckeyes strategy in team building. The "old way" of team building is over. Programs will decline if they do not adapt. Coach Muzerall has embraced and understands the football model. Top young talent wants to come to OSU, and athletes who are not happy in their current situation will enter the portal, and OSU will gobble them up. OSU is so far ahead of any other program in the NCAA when it comes to the TP, and the athletes now know how OSU operates. OSU will feed the PWHL just as our football program feeds the NFL. The athletes know this ... whether you agree or disagree, college athletics is no longer what it was. I personally wish the TP was never created for many reasons. I also understand why it now exists.

I think *it remains to be seen* how sustainable the current model of building a team through transfers is, once the pool of COVID-year players runs dry.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I think *it remains to be seen* how sustainable the current model of building a team through transfers is, once the pool of COVID-year players runs dry.

You're absolutely wrong. Look at the list of the 2023 transfer portal in the link. There is only ONE 5th year senior in the entire list and she didn't come to Ohio State. There's a whole gammut of girls who are not seniors. The COVID class is no longer a factor in the portal and yet the Muzzinator ruled it!

https://www.therinklive.com/womens-college/2023-womens-college-hockey-transfer-portal

 

[BadgerPete]

You're absolutely wrong. Look at the list of the 2023 transfer portal in the link. There is only ONE 5th year senior in the entire list and she didn't come to Ohio State. There's a whole gammut of girls who are not seniors. The COVID class is no longer a factor in the portal and yet the Muzzinator ruled it!

https://www.therinklive.com/womens-c...ransfer-portal

Um, Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes, Kelsey King, and Stephanie Markowski are all 5th year seniors using their COVID year. I don't mind homerism but ignoring basic facts is ridiculous.

Markowski career stats: https://www.uscho.com/stats/player/wid,14938/Stephanie-Markowski/
Bilka career stats: https://www.uscho.com/stats/player/wid,14873/Hannah-Bilka/
King career stats: https://www.uscho.com/stats/player/wid,14848/Kelsey-King/
Barnes career stats: https://www.uscho.com/stats/player/wid,13236/Cayla-Barnes/

 

[robertearle]

You're absolutely wrong. Look at the list of the 2023 transfer portal in the link. There is only ONE 5th year senior in the entire list and she didn't come to Ohio State. There's a whole gammut of girls who are not seniors. The COVID class is no longer a factor in the portal and yet the Muzzinator ruled it!

https://www.therinklive.com/womens-c...ransfer-portal

They have a spreadsheet at that web site that lists 144 players in the transfer portal, but I do not see a column that shows 'years of eligibility remaining'.

But contending that there was only one player transferring for their final year is just silly. Bilka and Barnes are both transfers in their final year; Markowski is, King is. Reese Hunt happens to be at the top of the spreadsheet, and she's in her final year. One of the two (and maybe both?) Badgers who entered the portal, Grace Shirley, is playing at Providence in her final year.

These guys showed 150+ players who entered the portal during/after the 2022-23 season, they show 89 of them as having done so with a single year of eligibility remaining.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1606114829

The questions will be for the coming year, will there be as many as 144 or 150 entering the portal, and what sort of 'breakdown' of years of eligibility remaining will be. I expect the number will be smaller, and likely much smaller.

But IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN.

---------------

Adding, it is also possible that the number of 'one year remaining' COVID year players entering the portal also drove the number of 'more than one year' players higher, and as the one falls, so will the other. Ohio State had five (?) players transfer OUT last year; did they do so because they saw playing time and scholarship diminish because of the players transferring in? Fewer players transferring in could well translate into fewer players transferring out, driving the total 'population' available in the portal lower.

 

[osualum86]

Second, every time this comes out "But hey, let them all continue to disparage our team. That bull**** will get back to Coach and she'll use it to motivate our girls." I laugh audibly out loud. No way is Coach Muzerall dumb enough to come into practice and say "hey gals, I heard two internet *******s thought a couple of other players were better than you" and think that she found the motivation that was going to push the team over the top. We're USCHO posters: embrace your complete and utter irrelevance. I know I have.

"Embrace your complete and utter irrelevance." Ok, thank you. This made me LMAO!! I'll 'fess up, I am not 100% sure Nadine ever uses any of this stuff to motivate our players (probably not). I just like to stir the pot a little sometimes. I do happen to know that her Mom and Husband read this stuff, but that is it. So, you are probably right that she has other ways of motivating our players.

 

[osualum86]

I think it's funny that Wisconsin posters get accused of downplaying the quality of Ohio state's roster. That is not the case. What wrinkles the feather of Wisconsin and Minnesota fans is the fact that Tosu posters are constantly asserting that the Ohio State players are all the best that everybody else is just an annoying fly on the screen. I appreciate your enthusiasm but a little less bravado would go a long way towards a peaceful coexistence amongst WCHA fans. But I get your perspective, you went from being total garbage to national champs, and it appears it's a sustainable level of quality and not a flash in the pan.

I don't recall asserting that our players are all the best and everyone else is just an annoying fly on the screen. If someone has gotten that from anything I have posted, they'll have to point it out to me so I can make sure I don't do that again. I am enthusiastic about my team because I lived through the years when we were irrelevant and couldn't even get to the WCHA Final Face-Off, let alone anything beyond. I have had to learn to "act like I have been there." I even told Coach that in her second season when we started winning. In her second season, we had just swept a highly-ranked opponent. I gave her a big hug and was dealing with some happy tears, and I think she was a little stunned by it or something. I said, "Sorry, Coach, I know we are supposed to act like we have been here, but until now, we haven't been here." I am not on here trying to piss people off, I guess I just get a little over-excited sometimes about Ohio State Women's Hockey being relevant and competing for titles. There was a time when I never thought Ohio State Women's Hockey would get to Frozen Fours and actually win a National Title.

 

[osualum86]

They have a spreadsheet at that web site that lists 144 players in the transfer portal, but I do not see a column that shows 'years of eligibility remaining'.

But contending that there was only one player transferring for their final year is just silly. Bilka and Barnes are both transfers in their final year; Markowski is, King is. Reese Hunt happens to be at the top of the spreadsheet, and she's in her final year. One of the two (and maybe both?) Badgers who entered the portal, Grace Shirley, is playing at Providence in her final year.

These guys showed 150+ players who entered the portal during/after the 2022-23 season, they show 89 of them as having done so with a single year of eligibility remaining.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1606114829

The questions will be for the coming year, will there be as many as 144 or 150 entering the portal, and what sort of 'breakdown' of years of eligibility remaining will be. I expect the number will be smaller, and likely much smaller.

But IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN.

---------------

Adding, it is also possible that the number of 'one year remaining' COVID year players entering the portal also drove the number of 'more than one year' players higher, and as the one falls, so will the other. Ohio State had five (?) players transfer OUT last year; did they do so because they saw playing time and scholarship diminish because of the players transferring in? Fewer players transferring in could well translate into fewer players transferring out, driving the total 'population' available in the portal lower.

I agree with you regarding it remains to be seen what role the transfer portal will play in the future. I think there will always be some players who are unhappy with their situation and will enter the transfer portal, but I think it will decrease once this season is done and there are no longer players who have the extra covid year. I counted 8 grad students on our roster playing their extra year this season. Of the eight, only two of them have been here at OSU all five seasons. The other six transferred in. Whatever happens with the transfer portal, I trust Coach Muzerall to adapt.

 

[osualum86]

Ok, well, there was a game played earlier today. The Buckeyes completed their sweep at St. Cloud by a final score of 3-2. As expected, the Huskies made Ohio State work hard for this one. St. Cloud opened the scoring in this one on a goal by Emma Gentry and led 1-0. The scored stayed that way until late in the first period when Kiara Zanon lit the lamp for the Bucks to tie it at 1-1. Ohio State's Makenna Webster scored the only goal of the second period and the Buckeyes went into the final intermission with a 2-1 lead. Joy Dunne would find the back of the net in the third period to give Ohio State a 3-1 lead and they would need her goal as Taylor Lind got a late 6-on-4 PP goal to cut the lead to 3-2. The Buckeyes did not allow the Huskies to get the equalizer and that is how it ended. Ohio State outshot St. Cloud 36-20 in this one with Amanda Thiele stopping 18 of the 20 shots to get the win. Sanni Ahola was brilliant, as she usually is, stopping 33 of the 36 shots she faced in the loss. Ohio State returns home next weekend to take on the Bemidji State Beavers. St. Cloud will travel to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers.

 

[pgb-ohio]

You don't understand how this thread works. It's 100% hype and positivity 110% percent of the time. It's perfection exemplified and nothing less. There's not room for objective analysis. The thought of a Muzzinated player not being perfect is completely bonkers. I personally appreciate it though.

Personally I've overtly embraced the goal of being "relentlessly positive," posting that disclaimer many times over the years. So I guess I'm part of the successful effort. (winking emoticon here)

Objectivity in this forum? I'd say that's pretty much limited to the material provided by USCHO Staff. The vast majority of the user posts are influenced by the user's vantage point. It's not a shocker that the Ohio State thread is Buckeyecentric.

I think it's funny that Wisconsin posters get accused of downplaying the quality of Ohio state's roster. That is not the case. What wrinkles the feather of Wisconsin and Minnesota fans is the fact that Tosu posters are constantly asserting that the Ohio State players are all the best that everybody else is just an annoying fly on the screen.

I take it you routinely skip my 3 Stars Posts, which of course you have every right to do. But I try hard to include praise for opposing players. IMHO, the OSU thread praises opposing players at a rate that's well above average.

I appreciate your enthusiasm but a little less bravado would go a long way towards a peaceful coexistence amongst WCHA fans. But I get your perspective, you went from being total garbage to national champs, and it appears it's a sustainable level of quality and not a flash in the pan.

You're not 100% wrong. Some of our posts in recent seasons can characterized as nouveau riche. But if you're really opposed to bravado, you might want to hold off on phrases like "total garbage." That's certainly intemperate, and in this case it's demonstrably false.

I've been around for all 25 seasons. Pre-Nadine, the big picture is that OSU was a good, middle-of-the-pack club. Won lots of games with many admirable players. Didn't win championships. Couldn't break into the WCHA's Top 3. Was generally battling for 4th Place. Did a decent job of representing the WCHA in non-conference play.

One season the Buckeyes finished as the WCHA Playoff Runner-Up. Other seasons can be fairly characterized as failures. But these seasons were outliers.

Fully objective? Oh, probably not. But from a Buckeye vantage point, I'll claim it's a decent effort at objectivity.

 

[pgb-ohio]

...every time this comes out "But hey, let them all continue to disparage our team. That bull**** will get back to Coach and she'll use it to motivate our girls." I laugh audibly out loud. No way is Coach Muzerall dumb enough to come into practice and say "hey gals, I heard two internet *******s thought a couple of other players were better than you" and think that she found the motivation that was going to push the team over the top.

I agree that this specific scenario isn't happening.

We're USCHO posters: embrace your complete and utter irrelevance. I know I have.

You need to loosen your embrace. The college hockey world is much smaller than you think it is.

I'll emphasize that I'm not commenting on any current coach in either the Women's WCHA or the Men's BTHC. But I know from first hand knowledge of multiple past coaches who read USCHO, occasionally including the Fan Forum.

When you think it through, it makes some sense. These days everyone who has goods, services or entertainment to sell wants consumer feedback. I don't know about you, but my experience is that I've been absolutely bombarded with requests for feedback from every imaginable seller.

Whether a coach makes any actual use of public opinion is more speculative, of course. But they do want to be aware of the opinions that are circulating.

 

[Lindsay]

Too lazy to quote but yes referring to teams as total garbage is just insane. Kind of funny because when Muzerall first joined and had success haters said it was because what she inherited was already good. We have to pick a lane, lol.

 

[Timothy A]

Personally I've overtly embraced the goal of being "relentlessly positive," posting that disclaimer many times over the years. So I guess I'm part of the successful effort. (winking emoticon here)

Objectivity in this forum? I'd say that's pretty much limited to the material provided by USCHO Staff. The vast majority of the user posts are influenced by the user's vantage point. It's not a shocker that the Ohio State thread is Buckeyecentric.

I take it you routinely skip my 3 Stars Posts, which of course you have every right to do. But I try hard to include praise for opposing players. IMHO, the OSU thread praises opposing players at a rate that's well above average.

You're not 100% wrong. Some of our posts in recent seasons can characterized as nouveau riche. But if you're really opposed to bravado, you might want to hold off on phrases like "total garbage." That's certainly intemperate, and in this case it's demonstrably false.

I've been around for all 25 seasons. Pre-Nadine, the big picture is that OSU was a good, middle-of-the-pack club. Won lots of games with many admirable players. Didn't win championships. Couldn't break into the WCHA's Top 3. Was generally battling for 4th Place. Did a decent job of representing the WCHA in non-conference play.

One season the Buckeyes finished as the WCHA Playoff Runner-Up. Other seasons can be fairly characterized as failures. But these seasons were outliers.

Fully objective? Oh, probably not. But from a Buckeye vantage point, I'll claim it's a decent effort at objectivity.

I think you are lumping yourself into a larger group that you don't quite fit the bill for being in that group.

I do regret the "total garbage". Posting in haste sometimes does not allow for proper wordsmithing. I had the thoughts of the 15-0 weekend dancing in my head and that was just one weekend many years ago.

I wish we were all just a little softer with each other, myself included. It would be sad to see this forum goes the way of the men's or worse the open forum.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

I think you are lumping yourself into a larger group that you don't quite fit the bill for being in that group.

I do regret the "total garbage". Posting in haste sometimes does not allow for proper wordsmithing. I had the thoughts of the 15-0 weekend dancing in my head and that was just one weekend many years ago.

I wish we were all just a little softer with each other, myself included. It would be sad to see this forum goes the way of the men's or worse the open forum.

You did stir it up with your question in the bc thread, which obviously wasn't taken very well. I frankly think that was actually a pretty good question to ask as it is evident to this outsider that bc needs to make a coaching change. No better example of what a coaching change can do than what has happened with the yuckeyes and if you want to look at the men's side, your very own sinners under new leadership have turned it around.

 

[pgb-ohio]

I think you are lumping yourself into a larger group that you don't quite fit the bill for being in that group.

I certainly agree that individual posters should be judged on their individual body of work. My posting style does differ from most others, including those in my own fanbase.

But I'm not the one who did the "lumping." I am an OSU Poster. My 3 Stars Posts have been an inherent part the Ohio State Thread for many seasons. Yes, if you go back enough years, the 3 Stars used to appear on the WCHA Thread. But they were always identified as coming from an Ohio State perspective.

Anyhow, these are long-standing affiliations. Not things I signed up for in the last week. If you're going to sit in judgement of the Ohio State Thread, then my work deserves to be included in that conversation.

I do regret the "total garbage". Posting in haste sometimes does not allow for proper wordsmithing. I had the thoughts of the 15-0 weekend dancing in my head and that was just one weekend many years ago.

I wish we were all just a little softer with each other, myself included. It would be sad to see this forum goes the way of the men's or worse the open forum.

I certainly support your call for civility. I agree that the other boards have been damaged by a lack of the same. You are a major contributor on USCHO and I appreciate you.