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WCHA 2023-2024 Calamity Or Calmness?

Timothy A said:
Wilgren was under the radar compared to the splashy moves Muzzy made. She picked up top 6/4 talent from programs that were annually ranked. Wilgren had missed more games injured than she had played over her career. To survive the Harvey injury was a major accomplishment. I do think having Enright for sure could have tipped the balance a bit more in UW's direction in their competitiveness with Tosu and MN. Perhaps she would have ended up in Hall's spot in the top 6. Hall has a way to go as far as distributing and being physical in puck battles, Enright had a full year last year and was moving up the line-up as the year went on. Vasseur is an unknown to me anyway, I have no idea how much she could tip the scales.
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Besides Enright and Vasseur, Wisconsin had nine skaters who played in all 36 games this year, and nine skaters who missed at least one game for one reason or another.
 
Timothy A said:
Wilgren had missed more games injured than she had played over her career.
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No. She played all 35 games her first year and was on the WCHA All Rookie Team. She played all 37 games as a sophomore and was 3rd Team All WCHA. The Covid year she played 16 games, and I have no idea how many games MSU played, but I doubt it was too many more. Then she was centralized. Granted, she missed all but three games last year due to injury, but that was the only such season. I don't know if it's just that your radar is lousy, or if you're intentionally taking a foolish position of "Muzzy gets better players than we do."
 
ARM said:
"Muzzy gets better players than we do."
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There's plenty of good talent to go around. What makes a difference is how many exceptional talents a coach can acquire and get them to adapt to your system and hope that team chemistry working to it's full potential.
 
The dissonance on portal usage by Wisconsin fans continues. Johnson uses the portal and has had tremendous success with it. Am I really reading that he deserves Coach of the year for his portal tactics but Muzerall should be insulted to be known as queen of the transfer portal?

OSU calmly dismantling UMD. Perhaps calamity awaits next game.
 
Lindsay said:
The dissonance on portal usage by Wisconsin fans continues. Johnson uses the portal and has had tremendous success with it. Am I really reading that he deserves Coach of the year for his portal tactics but Muzerall should be insulted to be known as queen of the transfer portal?

OSU calmly dismantling UMD. Perhaps calamity awaits next game.
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Fan, not fans. And I don't think that's an accurate characterization of what he's saying.
 
robertearle said:
Fan, not fans. And I don't think that's an accurate characterization of what he's saying.
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fans for sure. You guys have had fewer transfers but they were huge gets. Totally relevant to telling the story of the story of the last 3 national championships.
 
Lindsay said:
fans for sure. You guys have had fewer transfers but they were huge gets. Totally relevant to telling the story of the story of the last 3 national championships.
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The issue is NOT a simple binary "use/not use".

How Muzerall has used is quantum level away from how UW and most everyone else has used. And that's her choice. It worked to a good degree last year, and it has worked to an equal or greater degree so far this year. But as I have repeatedly said, I do not think it is a workable model going forward. She has , IMO, mortgaged the next couple years to get to where she is right now. Her choice. We'll see who's right over next year or two.
 
robertearle said:
I do not think it is a workable model going forward. She has , IMO, mortgaged the next couple years to get to where she is right now. Her choice. We'll see who's right over next year or two.
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I don't know if you saw Muzerall's WCHA pre tournament interview with Bilka but she basically said concerning the portal if a coach doesn't adapt to it and use it that puts them behind the eight ball these days. (not an exact quote)
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
I don't know if you saw Muzerall's WCHA pre tournament interview with Bilka but she basically said concerning the portal if a coach doesn't adapt to it and use it that puts them behind the eight ball these days. (not an exact quote)
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Once more, it is not a binary question of "use" vs "not use".
 
robertearle said:
The issue is NOT a simple binary "use/not use".

How Muzerall has used is quantum level away from how UW and most everyone else has used. And that's her choice. It worked to a good degree last year, and it has worked to an equal or greater degree so far this year. But as I have repeatedly said, I do not think it is a workable model going forward. She has , IMO, mortgaged the next couple years to get to where she is right now. Her choice. We'll see who's right over next year or two.
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Muzerall has been running a successful program since her 2nd year. Where was the portal then? The TP will be a part of womens college hockey. Going forward, teams will always have the opportunity to get one to three players a year. During the 2nd period, Muzerall even spoke about how she has built it into the program. The old way is dead. Athletes can leave once they see that they made an error in their early decision. Muzerall has the vision and the no how to implement this general manager front office style. It's no longer being a good coach. The requirements in today's game are coaching, recruiting, and management. With the PWHL, athletes will be able to leave at any time, so let's see how the WI model survives going forward when all your talent can leave and play pro, especially when MJ leaves.
 
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Hockeybuckeye said:
I don't know if you saw Muzerall's WCHA pre tournament interview with Bilka but she basically said concerning the portal if a coach doesn't adapt to it and use it that puts them behind the eight ball these days. (not an exact quote)
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Dam Hockeybuckeye you beat me to it
 
Sierra said:
With the PWHL, athletes will be able to leave at any time,
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Considering the small number of women's professional teams compared to the NHL how many openings will there be to add to the rosters each year? When you add the number of seniors who graduated each year who are talented enough to go pro what does that leave available for girls with eligibility left to leave early? I think the number who do leave early will be very very small for the reasons I stated.
 
robertearle said:
Once more, it is not a binary question of "use" vs "not use".
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Well you know college football is saturated and dominated with transfer portal use. The top programs found it's the only way to be competitive anymore as recruiting and developing the recruits just doesn't cut it these days. It's EXACTLY the same for women's hockey now. It will not change or drop off as long as the rules don't change. The Muzzinator was one of the first to realize this and is the best at utilizing it thus far. For those who think it's not really an all Ohio State team because of transfers need to stop living in the past.
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
For those who think it's not really an all Ohio State team because of transfers need to stop living in the past.
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robertearle's point remains. Her success with transfers will make tOSU more attractive to transfers going forward. It could also make her team less attractive to prep recruits going forward, if that roster spot doesn't mean much.
 
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