Wisconsin Hockey 24-25 Improving With All Due Haste.

[LordofBrewtown]

The portal can be used as leverage by players. If you sit me, I will go. When teams are riding high, that's less of a threat since you can fill that spot as players may be lining up to go to the places you mention. Unfortunately, as you have detailed, at this point we aren't a highly regarded destination, and keeping players from jumping into the portal is more critical, and thus could lead to placating mediocrity.

I do wonder if this affected Hastings normal coaching patterns. I remember someone quoting him/playing a clip early in the year where he mentioned that the only thing he's found that really gets through to players is ice time. However, it didn't appear that anyone ever really suffered any ice time repercussions for their decisions/effort. Maybe there were repercussions that were just not noticeable, maybe injuries played a factor, or maybe Hastings felt pressure/that he wasn't in a position to enforce/take away ice time - especially after our poor and somewhat unlucky start & given the talent level of the big ten. If the latter is the case, I wonder if he has regrets/would coach differently if he had the chance.

 

[HighToTheGloveSide]

How on earth do you follow up a seven goal performance with a total no-show on senior night?? How this team gets appreciably better next season is a mystery to me unless the freshman class is completely lights-out. I have faith in Hastings but if you have a repeat of this performance next year he’s gonna be firmly on the hot seat.

 

[srkbadger]

Pre portal, college staffs were on planes, trains, and automobiles across North America competing for talent across the continent. Once signed, they were committed to your institution, and could transfer out with the loss of a year of eligibility. If there was a real issue you could move on with some cost.
Now, the same recruiting battles go on, but signing a NLI is much less meaningful. They can walk whenever they want. All that recruiting effort wasted. The premiere programs at the time the portal hit caught lightning in a bottle. The best players on any team in D1 are always looking for an opening on the top teams. And the teams not at the top won't get as much interest from the portal. Even before the portal, the elites had an a recruiting advantage, but the portal has put this advantage on steroids. Today, if a top guy at BC is unhappy, how likely is it that he'll find a better situation overall elsewhere? He'll be drafted and do you think his NHL rights' holder will want him to transfer to Wisconsin (or about 2/3 of any of the D1 programs)? Whereas I wouldn't doubt some of our guys are getting plenty of whispers from their NHL team to move on it they are struggling. In the old days there was a cost, now just pack up and move on. It's free agency every year, and the top teams will have first pick. It's a system that they will keep them on top, and make it difficult for the lower 2/3 to break through with the leftovers.

 

[digitalbooya]

Kinda underscores if Finley leaves that’s a death blow to next season.

It would suck if he left but it wouldn't be a death blow. Tulk is on pace for 43 goals in 68 in the WHL. Montgomery is on pace for 29 goals in 53 OHL games. I'm sure there will be more portal transfers as well. We have goal scorers on the way.

 

[srkbadger]

It will be interest to see if the inclusion of CHL players will provide enough talent to fill the rosters with competitive talent more equitably throughout D1 hockey. Even the top programs can only take on so many players.

 

[srkbadger]

It would suck if he left but it wouldn't be a death blow. Tulk is on pace for 43 goals in 68 in the WHL. Montgomery is on pace for 29 goals in 53 OHL games. I'm sure there will be more portal transfers as well. We have goal scorers on the way.

Please assure me that we'll have the ability to keep a few more pucks out of the net next year. I'm not being a smart a**, the defensive effort has lacked this year. How's that side looking?

 

[digitalbooya]

Was Cujo going to stop any of those goals last night? I don't think so. Maybe he should have poke checked the last one. Losing Laatsch 12 games /Schulz 9 games / Palodichuck 9 games and replacing them with Phelan/Knox/Horbach is an impossible task. Hensler missed 5 games and Kehrer 2. And on top of it Dexheimer had bad lapses that he never should have had that cost them.

Goal scoring. Losing Lucius was big, but he missed the whole first half of the season anyway and then when he came back he didn't do much, 7 pts in 14 games. He was a good fit here. Whitelaw had 14 points in 31 games, about the same as he had with us last year. Stange had 27 pts and Urdahl 19 and they missed 3 games total for UNO. They were replaced with transfers Mosley 35 pts, Kukkonen 17 pts, Laskosky 9 Pts. Fr Morrissey 22 pts, Botterill 7 pts, Mehlenbacher 4 pts. Pietila 2 pts, Buss 0 pts. You could say Mosley replaced Lucius and Kukkonen replaced Whitelaw. I can by that. The problem is no one replaced Stile 32pts , MdSP 27 pts, or Bantle 19 pts. I would have liked to see Stange and Udahl stay that could have filled some of that loss. Then you didn't need Laskosky and Buss. That's a bad trade there.

Who underperformed? Jr's Fitzgerald 15 pts Dyck 12 pts, Tassy 10 pts. Laskosky. Dyck just doesn't have it. Laskosky was a bust averaged over a pt a game at RIT. .36 this year. Tassy's pts/game are half of last year. Fitzgerlad's pts/game was half of his fr year. I was expecting more out of Botterill as well, but him being a Fr I'll let that go and hope for the better. Pietila was skating penalty.

They had 5 holes to fill at F and only 3 guys stepped up, 3 guys regressed, 1 guy went nowhere and one was a bust. If Fitz, Tassy and Laskosky just played up to their best previous numbers, it's a different story.

Scarfone was not McClennan, but he was good enough. Gramme fell off the face of the earth apparently or they would have played him. Castro may not be an every day D1 player.

Obviously the coaches could not have planned for the regressions/busts at F and the D injuries. In the end it was a mess. The O could not overcome the bad D and the D could not overcome the bad O. When you can't hang your hat on either phase of the game, you are screwed.

That is for the entire season, not just last night. Strong disagree that Scarfone was good enough. We can blame the D all we want but the goaltending was not good enough for the season. I would really like to see the NCAA dive into the advanced analytics that the NHL does. Goals saved above expected would be a great stat to track for goaltenders.

You forgot Stramel as well; all situations top 6 center on one of the best teams in the country. Definitely could have used him at 2C over Fitzgerald.

Agreed that a lot of players underperformed and that neither phase of the game could overcome the other. Hope the staff can turn it around fast... Some fans appear ready to jump ship already lol

 

[digitalbooya]

Please assure me that we'll have the ability to keep a few more pucks out of the net next year. I'm not being a smart a**, the defensive effort has lacked this year. How's that side looking?

Not sure I can give that in regard to the defensive recruits coming in next year. I know very little about them overall. For the team structure, we cannot play Dexheimer and Hensler together. That pairing is a nightmare defensively. We need Palodichuk to be healthy next year.

Dan Hauser is a really solid goaltender. Had a .918 sv percentage for Calgary after they acquired him via trade. That is really good for Canadian major juniors; where defense is more optional than required. His combined sv percentage is .907 - 7th best overall in the WHL and 4th best if you remove goaltenders that played less than 20 games (Hauser has 38 games played).

 

[srkbadger]

Not sure I can give that in regard to the defensive recruits coming in next year. I know very little about them overall. For the team structure, we cannot play Dexheimer and Hensler together. That pairing is a nightmare defensively. We need Palodichuk to be healthy next year.

Dan Hauser is a really solid goaltender. Had a .918 sv percentage for Calgary after they acquired him via trade. That is really good for Canadian major juniors; where defense is more optional than required. His combined sv percentage is .907 - 7th best overall in the WHL and 4th best if you remove goaltenders that played less than 20 games (Hauser has 38 games played).

I agree about Dexheimer and Hensler. Knox seemed good in limited work. Phelan has been beaten several times when he's had to turn from fronting his man and pivoting to skate with him. He's been noticeably slow on that pivot and his man gains position. He's also made some agregious breakout passes that have cost goals. Last night both Hensler and Dexheimer left the guy they were covering and moved to the puck carrier who was already being defended. That player made a pass to the open guy for goals. I think it was Horbach covering a guy coming down the slot, and I don't know who was covering a man skating around the back of the net when Hensler left his guy wide open for the goal.

 

[solovsfett]

It would suck if he left but it wouldn't be a death blow. Tulk is on pace for 43 goals in 68 in the WHL. Montgomery is on pace for 29 goals in 53 OHL games. I'm sure there will be more portal transfers as well. We have goal scorers on the way.

The problem is Wisconsin would lose at least 19 goals. That’s 3-4 more losses imo. Freshman can help but they cannot carry a team. And other than the Heater and Jason Zent years ago who came in highly touted and scored a bunch? Caufield? If the opposition can key on one guy or one line UW is in trouble.

Early in the year I said it looked like the coaches don’t know how to fix the issues or words to that affect. 4 months later nothing has changed.

Re goaltending. I just think you cannot take. Goalie from RIT and think they’ll magically stop snipers on the B10. The level of talent is vastly superior to what Scarfone played against. On a good or great UW team he’s a back-up.

 

[Timothy A]

That is for the entire season, not just last night. Strong disagree that Scarfone was good enough. We can blame the D all we want but the goaltending was not good enough for the season. I would really like to see the NCAA dive into the advanced analytics that the NHL does. Goals saved above expected would be a great stat to track for goaltenders.

You forgot Stramel as well; all situations top 6 center on one of the best teams in the country. Definitely could have used him at 2C over Fitzgerald.

Agreed that a lot of players underperformed and that neither phase of the game could overcome the other. Hope the staff can turn it around fast... Some fans appear ready to jump ship already lol

Stramel! The amount of turnover this year was ridiculous. Stramel Urdahl and Stange would have been a solid line based on this year's output. I'd love to know why these players left.

 

[WiscTJK]

Lack of discipline is on the coaches. That can be coached out of players or they should ride the pines if they can’t or won’t or learn. I’m pretty surprised at the play/lack of discipline of this team given Hastings reputation.

…re portal…The portal is an issue for all coaches yet Denver, BC, BU and just keep rolling generally. Why is Wisconsin the school that doesn’t overcome the challenges?

You can't discipline players when they have so many injured. 6 healthy d-men and 6 play. Not defending Hastings, but they have had so many injuries, he's forced to play pretty much all healthy players.

 

[WiscTJK]

Why did they extend Fickell if he was on the hot seat?

Standard extension that all coaches get. Not surprised by that. You really can't not extend if you want them to be able to recruit.

But what is surprising is that they didn't reduce the buyout in the extension, in fact it goes up. That is a huge mistake by the AD and will almost certainly and deservedly get Mac fired with Fickell if they suck again this year. When they extended Granato a couple of years ago, they reduced his buyout.

 

[WiscTJK]

Twice this year I have left before they played varsity. Never thought I would get to that point.

Hastings is at his best when he can develop players for 4 years and I don't see how that can happen with the portal.

Mrs and I decided a month ago to cancel our season tickets, not because of the state of college hockey, but because of the fact that we know we can go to a game any time we want to because the place will just never be full.

Tonight, and the Saturday Penn State game, were just abysmal hockey.

I LOVE Wisconsin hockey, but.... man... this was an awful experience at the Kohl Center.

Saturday's have been a train wreck. I left after 2 periods on Saturday. I wasn't feeling that great and they were sucking. I at least got some decent Friday games this year.

Hastings has some good portal players, but he is struggling to getting them to play as a team. When they do play as a team, we get games like Friday where they can compete with anyone. Unfortunately, that has been the great minority of games this year. He and his coaches will need to adapt and work on improving that.

 

[wjefwhite]

Timothy A, well done assessment. Since leaving Madison in 21 for the desert I watch from afar. Badget Season Ticket holder from Heatley Rhienprect to The 21 season. Hate bigplus but you get what you get. I am disappointed with the extreme drop offs the last 2 years at seasons end. You helped clear that up. Hastings is a warrior but it will take 3 to 5 years at best to put the program on solid footing. Considering it's was the end of year. The fans very much want to back a winner. They are loyal to good hockey. Wild cards, transfer portal and being able to bring in players from the CHL. In all those years 2010 and 2006 stand out as my high points in fandome. Go Red!

 

[wjefwhite]

That is for the entire season, not just last night. Strong disagree that Scarfone was good enough. We can blame the D all we want but the goaltending was not good enough for the season. I would really like to see the NCAA dive into the advanced analytics that the NHL does. Goals saved above expected would be a great stat to track for goaltenders.

You forgot Stramel as well; all situations top 6 center on one of the best teams in the country. Definitely could have used him at 2C over Fitzgerald.

Agreed that a lot of players underperformed and that neither phase of the game could overcome the other. Hope the staff can turn it around fast... Some fans appear ready to jump ship already lol

Jumping ship. Where do fans go with football in the dumps? B Ball is better. Women's volleyball tix hard to get. No, I suggest no place to go. Our fans have endured so much since 2010 . Also Big7 could be the best in college hockey top to bottom. NCHC being their top rival. BU BC top heavy in Big East.

 

[HighToTheGloveSide]

It would be nice to keep Finley but he's been MIA the past four weeks so I don't think it kills them if he leaves. Maybe the one good thing about players that have been drafted is that their NHL team has some input and doesn't want them transferring if they're well coached and having success?

 

[solovsfett]

Fink left and had at least 19-20 goals for ped state. That was a HUGE loss in offense

 

[WiscTJK]

Jumping ship. Where do fans go with football in the dumps? B Ball is better. Women's volleyball tix hard to get. No, I suggest no place to go. Our fans have endured so much since 2010 . Also Big7 could be the best in college hockey top to bottom. NCHC being their top rival. BU BC top heavy in Big East.

I saw a UW survey about having additional volleyball matches at the Kohl Center where they could obviously have a much higher capacity, but would take away from the awesome atmosphere at the Field House.

 

[digitalbooya]

I agree about Dexheimer and Hensler. Knox seemed good in limited work. Phelan has been beaten several times when he's had to turn from fronting his man and pivoting to skate with him. He's been noticeably slow on that pivot and his man gains position. He's also made some agregious breakout passes that have cost goals. Last night both Hensler and Dexheimer left the guy they were covering and moved to the puck carrier who was already being defended. That player made a pass to the open guy for goals. I think it was Horbach covering a guy coming down the slot, and I don't know who was covering a man skating around the back of the net when Hensler left his guy wide open for the goal.

Totally agree. The defense on Saturday night would make the Granato coached teams blush.