4 wins in 10-11
2 wins in 11-12
1 win in 12-13 (Division I, that is)
2 wins in 13-14
I want to see a hell of a lot more than 4 wins next year. I would be very happy with an eight-win season. I haven't seen the home schedule, but the teams we played twice this year will be the ones we play four times next year, save BG, who are our designated rival. (I think that everyone in the league sees the sense that swapping UAH-BG and BSU-MSU makes, but we live with what we got. LSSU got Ferris.)
Soooo ...
- BG 4x: they're a tough team, but we beat them. Figure one win.
- FSU 4x: we might pick them off at home, but no way we'll win in Big Rapids just yet — 15-16 or 16-17, yeah! Anyway, figure one win.
- LSSU 4x: new coach, figure we split.
- Alaska 4x: they were hot at the end until they hit their rivals. I'd say that we stand a good shot of a home win, but you know that Westy will light a fire under them. He was not happy about not getting the job.
- Tech 4x: Mel Pearson is going to be under pressure to win, but they retain a lot of firepower from a top-half team. Figure one win, hopefully at home. Pheonix Copley left early, so they'll be searching for an identity in net. They have talent there, though.
- NMU 4x: the games in Marquette will be non-conference games. UAH played them decently well at home — that's a 3-2 game without that terrible turnover by Reider. Figure on a win in there somewhere — hopefully at home, because that will count in the league standings.
- Anchorage 2x here in town: those were the first D-I points that we've picked up at home since 2011. Sigh. Anyhow, another year of development for the team probably sees us splitting or better.
- Mankato 2x in MN: Dear Lord, send us good weather that weekend. Picking up points in Mankato would surprise me given their record this season. They lose Lehrke and McInnis, which are big losses to be sure, but they're going to be a **** good team next season with their speed, offensive skill, and goaltending. Stephon Williams could start for most everyone in the league, and Cole Huggins is flat-out amazing.
- Bemidji 2x at the Sanford Center: beat 'em once up there, we can beat 'em again.
I haven't seen the full schedule. I'm surprised that the league schedule didn't get released at the Final 4ive. I've heard that ours is done, though. I am blanking on our NC foes. Maybe Michael remembers.
Anyhow, that would be ten wins, and I don't think that I'm being overly crazy in thinking that. Bemidji got ten league wins this year, so that would put us in the run for a playoff spot. I don't expect to make the playoffs next season, but this league likes to regress to the mean. The top two teams in the league are probably going to be the same next year, although I expect that Mankato will be better than Ferris. We're not going to be pulling wins from the top-half teams, but those bottom-half teams are beatable.
A year of conditioning on the freshmen, a shot in the arm of new scoring talent (looking at you, Kestner and McHugh), and a summer of R&R for Matt and Carmine. I like the puncher's chance we've got going. 15-16 is when we should be really good.
Believe in the Herd!
GFM
But I guess that it's nice that someone wants kids that de-commit from us.
The break point of the puck seems to be closer to 20,000 lbs, not the 83k they stopped it at.
