Re: Wisconsin Hockey 2019-20 Part II: Civil War
My daughter and I had a fun time last night. No one was sitting around us so we commandeered a seat between us for a table and coat rack and spread out and enjoyed our center ice seats. I much prefer that than being sardined. Driving home on an unplowed 151 for an hour at 40 mph not so much, but at least everyone was driving responsibly.
Random thoughts.....
Turcotte needs to sit tonight. 2 boneheaded slashing penalties lead to 2 goals. Slashing is the stupidest penalty to take. He did lose at least a shift to Holloway right after that. He also at time was playing out of control like he was trying to skate himself out of his skates. Clearly he is pressing and frustrated.
Holloway was awesome. In the first period every time he had a shift his line created chances. I was frustrated that TG seemed to be messing with lines after that. That line was working. The 4th line brought energy and physicality, I liked that. Too bad they didn't score on the SH breakaway.
The D wasn't as atrocious as in the past, but they still don't close on puck possessors in the D zone and allowed the OSU guys to do some short pass creative things with the time. The first ppg that was scored the D was oblivious to that there was a player behind them. Zero awareness. And then they allow the pass through the slot past the 2 D and neither got a stick on the pass. One play in the O zone I think it was Emberson who could have got to a puck to hold it in the zone with some + effort but he didn't really try too hard.
There were times in the O zone where they were too passy, too cute, especially in the first 2 periods. The 3rd period being SH for 7 minutes ruined that period. The interference call on Caufield in the 3rd with 3 to go was crap.
Being in the rink with the injury it was interesting to see the how the crowd dealt with being conflicted over the concerns about a very serious injury and yet want to cheer on UW knowing the urgency of the situation on the scoreboard. I was conflicted. I am a loud fan. I almost felt guilty cheering for UW just because it seemed to be a potentially serious injury. It was interesting before the injury UW was being more physical in the 3rd either by design or chance, and Linus got caught up in that and screwed up. I didn't see the play, so I had no idea if it the call was legit or not. Obviously seeing it after it was.
I do think all these reviews are just killing the game. There were 3 reviews last night and all 3 were confirmed as the right call on the ice. I'd rather play with the human error on everything BUT goal scoring situations.
I'd bet Berry starts tonight. TG was hard on the Hammer in the post game. The 2nd goal was BAD. I did not see the 4th goal where he got turned around. He also had some big saves, he was challenged with more quality shots than Nappier was, but goal 2 just can't happen. He's not the biggest problem, the PP sucks, effort is uneven, PK sucks, D zone play isn't where it needs to be, and they don't generate a lot of quality even strength opportunities. I'd come back with the Hammer, I believe in redemption for goalies.
Not scoring on the 5 on 3 was a huge bummer. Caufield did great to draw the 2nd penalty. Got pot one during that sequence.
The faceoffs were decently even until the 3rd period when to bottom fell out and OSU owned them.
So yeah, more of the same as we all had hoped against.
