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Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Timothy A said:
I love the fact that St. Louis & Calgary dumped Els and now they are both out..
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I feel the same way including your thoughts on the Wild. By default, I've always been an Avalanche fan, actually going back to the Nordiques. I even have a Quebec Nordiques Forsberg jersey!

So needless to say, I've been without a playoff team for years.....UNTIL 2018!!! Tough first round for me because I really like the Preds since Smitty is a family friend. I just hope I don't run into his dad in the next couple of weeks.🙊
 
MadCityRich said:
I feel the same way including your thoughts on the Wild. By default, I've always been an Avalanche fan, actually going back to the Nordiques. I even have a Quebec Nordiques Forsberg jersey!

So needless to say, I've been without a playoff team for years.....UNTIL 2018!!! Tough first round for me because I really like the Preds since Smitty is a family friend. I just hope I don't run into his dad in the next couple of weeks.🙊
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Ewwwww, a Colorado fan? Gross.

Edit: My dislike spurs from the 2014 playoffs Avs vs Wild.
 
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digitalbooya said:
Brian Elliott not looking very good.
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Yeah, too bad. I thought he should've had all 3 of those so far.

By the way, if you have Center Ice like I do, it's done for the season. NBC takes over. Watch for games on NBCSN, NBC, CNBC, USA and wait for it.......the GOLF Channel 🏌️ haha! 🤣

As usual, the Wild are still on Fox North, and some Wild games might still be on Fox Wisconsin unless the Bucks or Brewers are in the way.
 
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Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Schultz picked up an assist last night for the Pens. Haxs says his gut feeling is to go with Els in game 2. I think he has to.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

I just read that Kyle Hayton signed an ATO with the Admirals. I'll stop there.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

MadCityRich said:
I just read that Kyle Hayton signed an ATO with the Admirals. I'll stop there.
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As with all former Badgers, I wish him the best of luck. Hopefully he does great and at some point gets into the NHL.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Timothy A said:
As with all former Badgers, I wish him the best of luck. Hopefully he does great and at some point gets into the NHL.
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I second that. I don't think this seasons issues were all his fault and hope that he has a great pro career.
 
MadCityRich said:
I just read that Kyle Hayton signed an ATO with the Admirals. I'll stop there.
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We’ll see what happens, but I think this was more of a case of Nashville calling up Milwaukee’s starter and then just needing a bench backup who was close by for the last two games. Wish him well, but also wish we wouldn’t have gone through this experiment in hindsight.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

sunprairie said:
We’ll see what happens, but I think this was more of a case of Nashville calling up Milwaukee’s starter and then just needing a bench backup who was close by for the last two games. Wish him well, but also wish we wouldn’t have gone through this experiment in hindsight.
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Yeah, pretty sure you're right.

Hayton was as quick post to post as anybody I've seen, but the holes in his game need a some rebuilding. Difficult to get the chance in the pros though as there are a lot of good goalies and not a lot of spots to fill.

Elsewhere, Matt Ustaski was called up to the AHL Manitoba Moose yesterday. Moose are in the playoffs so we'll see if he sticks.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Top line: Ranta/Malone/Wiessbach Too much of a one line team then?
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Ronny Wolf said:
It this point it's more interesting for me to try and figure out who'll be on this team next year instead of linemates.
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Trying to keep positive vibes going thinking about tons of goals being scored.

They are up to 18 F next year. Freytag is a maybe just because he didn't play every game the last 2 years, which tells us he might be a bubble guy, though I hope not. His shots have eyes for the net. Zimmer also did not play in every game last year, hence the maybe.

On
Malone
Johnson
S Dh
Baker
Weissbach
Mersch
Messner
Ranta
Caufield
Achan
Gorniak

Probably
Freytag
Zimmer

????
Zirbel
J Dh
Skiold
Labosky
Peltonen
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Based only on the last 15 or so games of the year, I'd rank the play of returning F's in this order:

Malone
Weissbach
Freytag
Zimmer
Baker
Johnson
S. Dhooghe

They will very likely all play. Incoming we have:

Ranta

Mersch -Messner -Gorniak(?)

Ahcan - Caufield


(?) for Gorniak, because coming straight from WI HS, his role depends entirely on how he makes the jump. But the kid can really skate. Ranta is a high-high-high end sniper. But he's pretty much a one-way player at the moment. Kinda like Weissbach's D coming in. (Linus has now improved to a 1.33-way player.) Mersch, Messner, Ahcan, and Caufield all play 200' and can get the puck to the net.

So that's 13, of which 11 or 12 will surely play a lot. Could play 11 F's + 7 D with all the D we have.

Zirbel - J. Dhooghe - Will likely not play much. Except that we don't really have Centers and Zirbel is a capable bottom 6 Center. Or Tony could go back to having two 4th lines alternating nights.

Anyway, that's 15. Anybody else is practice squad bodies, moral support, or heading down the highway.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey - 2018 Off-Season - Hope or Despair?

Ranta is 21st in USHL in goals with 23 in 53 games played and .70 points per game. Cole Caufield has 23 goals in 32 games. Certainly Ranta is a skilled player but hardly a "high-high-high end sniper" and just one more goal than Mersch (22 goals and 57 games and .70 points per game).

Just want realistic expectations.
 
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