Re: SCSU 2009-2010 Season Thread
But the point is that they haven't been playing just 'anyone' (except they did play UHM's favorite team).
Denver and NoDak are very good teams. Wisconsin is a good team but I believe somewhat overrated. Splitting with those 3 is ok, but the rest of the season's been up and down. We usually play up to our strongest opponents, but play down to our weaker ones. I believe this team has the talent, but they gotta show it by doing something good teams do... put out a good effort 80% to 90% of their games.
I agree and they really do need to go on a run. They need 10 out of 12 points from the next 3 conference series.
Remember, you're talking about a squad who's biggest winning streak of the year is at 2... and they've only done that once. Now they MUST win 5 out of 6, or go undefeated in 6 with at least 4 wins? I'd love to see it, but honestly, I'd be happy with them surviving an up and down first half with an above .500 record, then start playing their best hockey of the year (up to that point) in January.
Sweeping CC might be unrealistic even at home, but we can always hope!
Now, I'm not saying we MUST sweep CC, but I sure as hell think we can. You're talking about a team that's got a (albeit good so far) freshman goalie, lost a lot of their best talent from a year ago, and was most people's 7th or 8th place selection in the WCHA in the preseason. I'll go on record as saying I still think they might not get home ice, and 4th place is absolutely as high as they finish. Look what they've done so far:
Split with NE at home; not impressive.
Take 3 @ UW; by far the most impressive of any series, but in mid October, who knows what form the Badgers were in
Sweep MTU @ home; we may have lost in Houghton, but sweeping MTU at home is as close to a gimme r pts as there is in the WCHA
Split w/tUMD @ home; I'm not anywhere near the tUMD bandwagon, I think they'll fade, and we did better than split with the Bulldogs
Sweep in Mankato; thought MSU-M would be a quality team this year, but to this point they've failed miserably to accomplish that
Sweep Robert Morris; even easier than sweeping MTU
Split with UAA at home; UAA might be feisty and plucky at home, but outside of Alaska they're 1-5-0, with their only win coming in CC's barn. UAA is Jekyll and Hyde in their own state vs. the mainland (hell, they're so bad away from home the GOPHERS swept them, outscoring them 9-2)
*Notice something interesting about CC's games so far? They've played 10 of their 14 games at home. That, of the 5 WCHA teams they've faced, its possile that if Duluth doesn't hold on, 4 of the 5 may finish in the bottom half.
Honestly, I think travelling to UAA may in some regards be a tougher series than hosting CC. I'm not saying 4 points are in the bag from the Tigers, hell, we play like we did in a lot of games this year we could lose that series, but I don't see how everyone's on CC's bandwagon. [/RANT]