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Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

It's mid-December and time to see where this team is compared to what I was expecting (hoping).

The KHL line is as good as expected. Beyond that the team is playing better hockey, although the results don't always indicate it. My hope was a second line would materialize...it hasn't. When the 3rd checking line is outscoring your 2nd scoring line (with 4 total goals in 16 games) you have a problem. As a result, unless the KHL line and/or goaltender has an outstanding game we lose.

This team is going to win a few more games, the question is will there be enough wins to escape 7th place?

Looking into the future...there are at least 3 players leaving and at least 10 (several having good years) scheduled to replace them. Obviously a number of those will be told to wait a year. Will be interesting to see if the KHL line stays together one more year and if somehow a 2nd line can be put together.
 
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Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Fun exhibition last night. Fast paced and lots of chances for both teams. After an ominous first several minutes I thought MSU settled in nicely and I liked our game the rest of the way.

5 forward lines rolled equally and some interesting combinations. No Hirose for some reason so I found it interesting that Keefer was elevated to the KKL line. He has worked his way into the lineup in recent weeks and did well last night so we’ll probably be seeing more of him.

The U18 is pretty dang good. They have good speed, skate beautifully and can really move the puck. That’s probably one of the better editions of that team i’ve seen in some time. We got outstanding goaltending and maybe a bit of puck luck to keep them off the board.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Perhaps it was agreed upon in advance to prevent serious injury - we don't play our best player, Hirose, and they didn't play their best player, Hughes.
 
FLHockeyMom said:
Perhaps it was agreed upon in advance to prevent serious injury - we don't play our best player, Hirose, and they didn't play their best player, Hughes.
Click to expand...

Hughes is off skating with the World Junior team. Perhaps we were just sitting Hirose for the reason you mentioned.

Neither of the Krygiers were there but we know one has been out with a broken hand.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Pirateasaur said:
Fun exhibition last night. Fast paced and lots of chances for both teams. After an ominous first several minutes I thought MSU settled in nicely and I liked our game the rest of the way.

5 forward lines rolled equally and some interesting combinations. No Hirose for some reason so I found it interesting that Keefer was elevated to the KKL line. He has worked his way into the lineup in recent weeks and did well last night so we’ll probably be seeing more of him.

The U18 is pretty dang good. They have good speed, skate beautifully and can really move the puck. That’s probably one of the better editions of that team i’ve seen in some time. We got outstanding goaltending and maybe a bit of puck luck to keep them off the board.
Click to expand...

That was a solid effort. This is one of the better defensive squads that U18 has had - they kept a lot of puck traffic to the outside and blocked a lot of shots - but their goalie was sharp too. Could be a far different result had Hughes been on the ice; he's that impactful. It was good to see us getting some meaningful shots when the opportunity was there, although inevitably when the other netminder is on his game we start aiming high & wide as was the case in the third.

That appeared to be both a happy and relieved bunch heading of the ice though, a positive way to go into the break.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Some updates from USHL;

Egor Afanasyev (Muskegon) is tied for 5th in overall scoring with 31 points in 23 games.
Egor's teammate and fellow commit to the 2019-20 class, Jagger Joshua, has 16 points in 20 games.
Josh Nodler (Fargo) is tied for 5th among rookies with 19 points in 21 games. He is projected for 2020-21.
Reed Lebster is having a fine campaign, but unfortunately has changed his commitment to UMass-Amherst.
 
owslachief said:
Some updates from USHL;

Egor Afanasyev (Muskegon) is tied for 5th in overall scoring with 31 points in 23 games.
Egor's teammate and fellow commit to the 2019-20 class, Jagger Joshua, has 16 points in 20 games.
Josh Nodler (Fargo) is tied for 5th among rookies with 19 points in 21 games. He is projected for 2020-21.
Reed Lebster is having a fine campaign, but unfortunately has changed his commitment to UMass-Amherst.
Click to expand...

Depending on who leaves this next offseason I wonder If Nodler will come in next year. He’s on pace for close to 20 goals and 30 some assists. Good production in the USHL. We need goal scorers something fierce, especially if our only current goal scorers leave early.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Pirateasaur said:
Depending on who leaves this next offseason I wonder If Nodler will come in next year. He’s on pace for close to 20 goals and 30 some assists. Good production in the USHL. We need goal scorers something fierce, especially if our only current goal scorers leave early.
Click to expand...

Like so many long-tenured lines before them, one guy leaves and you figure out quickly the "whole was more than the sum of its parts". In other words, say take away Khodorenko's projected 23-ish goals and MSU loses far more than 27% percent of its scoring with his departure alone.

Odds are there could be quite a different offensive makeup to MSU next season.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

I blame yesterday’s results entirely on not wearing the scripts. Gotta go traditional in the GLI.

But really, I don’t know what happened with this team. We’re still putting up goals, but they’re coming randomly now. Nothing comes out of offensive sets, the PP is getting worse by the weekend, and the smooth flow we saw in the first five games is gone. Probably got too confident after that 5-3 win over Ferris, but a 4-1-0 record and an on ice chemistry we hadn’t seen in years was on display that night. Not sure what happened during the bus ride to Big Rapids but nothings been the same since. The closest we’ve come to recreating it was against ND, but their D was too good for us to capitalize on it.

Go out there and get third place today, hopefully set up some momentum for the Buckeyes.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Spartanforlife4 said:
Probably got too confident after that 5-3 win over Ferris, but a 4-1-0 record and an on ice chemistry we hadn’t seen in years was on display that night. Not sure what happened during the bus ride to Big Rapids but nothings been the same since.
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Ferris State is not a very good team, so unfortunately there's not a whole lot of positives you can take away from that series.
 
FLHockeyMom said:
Ferris State is not a very good team, so unfortunately there's not a whole lot of positives you can take away from that series.
Click to expand...

True, but it was more a culmination of all the positives that the team had built up against NMU and Cornell.

Also, we gotta be #1 in the nation at centering the puck with no one there. Immensely frustrating no one recognizes that they need to fill in. Probablt turned it over 10+ times yesterday doing that.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Well, can't make it Friday but looking forward to being there for Saturday's game. Munn's a very nice arena with a great hockey atmosphere.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

I guess you can’t say the GLI weekend was anything other than a disappointment with 0 wins. However, I do not believe we played poorly at all. 2 very competitive games against solid competition and we very easily could have been 2-0. I just wish more of these types of games would fall our way.

Tough series with OSU coming up. I hope we manage to get the split at least.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Pirateasaur said:
I guess you can’t say the GLI weekend was anything other than a disappointment with 0 wins. However, I do not believe we played poorly at all. 2 very competitive games against solid competition and we very easily could have been 2-0. I just wish more of these types of games would fall our way.
Click to expand...

Makes me wonder if the outcome would've been different had Cole started DeRidder vs. LSSU. You typically start your strongest goalie in game #1 of a tourney, and it seems like we still haven't figured out which goalie that is.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

It ended in a tie, but tonight was the biggest win of the season. Really glad we ended up taking the 3x3 point for momentum going into tomorrow. If only it was so easy to score every night...

Nice to see Cesana showing up as routinely in the box score as the KHL these days.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Spartanforlife4 said:
It ended in a tie, but tonight was the biggest win of the season. Really glad we ended up taking the 3x3 point for momentum going into tomorrow. If only it was so easy to score every night...

Nice to see Cesana showing up as routinely in the box score as the KHL these days.
Click to expand...
I guess the Christmas season lingers as that was quite a gift we gave you last night.
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Well, we played a good first ten minutes, and a decent final ten, and that's pretty much it from last night. About the only thing on the ice to talk about is the Nappier trip/slash/clothesline/whatever you want to call it that somehow turned into a penalty on us. Cole mentioned there's no way anyone saw the play or they couldn't have possibly called it that way, and I gotta agree with that.

Off the ice, can't say I was overly impressed with the OSU visitors section. Strange, because I don't remember there being issues Friday, let alone all the other years of B1G and CCHA play, but after their first goal last night it was a constant barrage of taunts, and not very good ones at that (telling everyone to warm up the bus and go home doesn't really work when we're the home team).
 
Re: Spartan Hockey 2018-2019 - Preparing for Glory

Spartanforlife4 said:
Well, we played a good first ten minutes, and a decent final ten, and that's pretty much it from last night. About the only thing on the ice to talk about is the Nappier trip/slash/clothesline/whatever you want to call it that somehow turned into a penalty on us. Cole mentioned there's no way anyone saw the play or they couldn't have possibly called it that way, and I gotta agree with that.

Off the ice, can't say I was overly impressed with the OSU visitors section. Strange, because I don't remember there being issues Friday, let alone all the other years of B1G and CCHA play, but after their first goal last night it was a constant barrage of taunts, and not very good ones at that (telling everyone to warm up the bus and go home doesn't really work when we're the home team).
Click to expand...
Yeah, Tommy did take a dive and was all smiles after the call. Looks like one of the MSU students got her 5 seconds of fame on B1G Network giving Nappier some love. LOL!
BTW, I was one of the behaved OSU fans. I Cheered and applauded and high fived when we scored of course but nothing more. I respect that we're in someone else's barn.
 
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