Re: UMD 2012-13 SEASON!!! The Quest for 6 begins!!!
I think Clarkson and Harvard are stronger this year than they've been in a while. BC has their best offensive team, although w/o Molly Schaus, I don't know that we can yet say best overall. I was more impressed by BU than you were. UMD is never easy to play on a weekend when Miller has circled the date on the calendar and decided to pull out all of the stops. The Bulldogs are a good defensive team, although at times they look like they have no idea of how to score. Today they generated lots of chances at times, but there wasn't much for finishing touch.
Is Wong still hurting? She just didn't look like herself out there.
At the risk of revisiting a bad memory for you, I was disappointed that Clarkson didn't fare better two years ago by season's end after that series with you where Raty got scored on from center ice at the boards to her right. I was impressed with them and thought they would add a great flavour to the Frozen Four.
Since I've been following the game I've always thought Harvard was overrated...great coach, but I've never been impressed with the team...(eg: being ranked in the top 5 before they ever played a game and then shortly after their season started, proving that that never should have been the case)...although my apathy has caused me to ignore them so far this year. Maybe their annual high expectations by some are a hold over from their glory days of 8-10-12 years ago with the likes of Botterill and Chu etc.
As much as I've always enjoyed watching them play for some reason (maybe it's partly because of their away jerseys that I like so much...those new, at least I think that they're new, beige jobs are horrible) I'm not overly impressed with BC this year especially sans Schaus and Stack. I always think that they are interesting, Carpenter is dangerous and Motherwell always seems to be a presence, and I'm intrigued by them but their result against an extremely weak, injury riddled and disjuncted UMD earlier this season was, very underwhelming, especially for a team ranked so highly.
Miller commented early in the season that they were going to concentrate on defence this year and I agree with you, they are a good defensive team which is all the more amazing considering the depleted talent level as compared to the last couple of years. And I also agree that they often look like they have no idea how to score. I've addressed that a few times in this thread this season with comments about the basics...like shooting as though you mean it, and I wasn't joking. At times it's been embarrassingly pathetic. The last couple of weekends have seemed to be better in that regard but there is no consistency.
And yes, lots of chances today and yesterday but just can`t close the door...strikes me as partly having to do with not enough of them being on the same mental page.
Wong hasnt looked right so far this season and regardless of Miller`s comments of a few weeks ago that the injuries are behind them there are still players that are constantly missing in action. The bench looks more like a chunk of swiss cheese. And it certainly doesn`t help now that Cournoyer`s career is over although there is no question that she made the right decision.
It`s been a strange season for them so far and also for many other teams it seems as well.
