Wisconsin Hockey 24-25 Improving With All Due Haste.

[srkbadger]

Hating on Finley, or criticizing his play to make him as accountable as the rest of the team? Being the top talent doesn't make him immune, and his disappearing act down the stretch needs to be remedied. With that talent comes responsibility. Likely more talent around him would help, but he's got to be better and make others better next year if he's a leader on this team.

 

[GoBucky18]

The two most difficult things for me this past season are in 2 clear categories:

1) D zone exits and covering opposing players on breaks took a noticeable fall backwards.

2) Yes we put a lot of shots on the goal, but there was a clear inability to generate high quality scoring chances that result in goals. They consistently outshot opponents, but also could only put 2 goals in each night.

Even shut down D doesn't score goals in the BIG. Everything since the BIG was formed has proven you need high end scorers to be successful. The only one we have had was Caufield, and maybe Kunin. Losing Fink was no bueno after seeing what he did this year in the same Conference.

 

[UW student and hockey fan]

The two most difficult things for me this past season are in 2 clear categories:

1) D zone exits and covering opposing players on breaks took a noticeable fall backwards.

2) Yes we put a lot of shots on the goal, but there was a clear inability to generate high quality scoring chances that result in goals. They consistently outshot opponents, but also could only put 2 goals in each night.

Even shut down D doesn't score goals in the BIG. Everything since the BIG was formed has proven you need high end scorers to be successful. The only one we have had was Caufield, and maybe Kunin. Losing Fink was no bueno after seeing what he did this year in the same Conference.

I agree, and am not disagreeing that losing Fink stinks in retrospect. However, that's just what happens when you switch coaches: players leave. There's a lot of current and future contributors who we wouldn't have if not for Hastings, and I think it tends to even out in the end.

 

[GoBucky18]

I agree, and am not disagreeing that losing Fink stinks in retrospect. However, that's just what happens when you switch coaches: players leave. There's a lot of current and future contributors who we wouldn't have if not for Hastings, and I think it tends to even out in the end.

All you did was talk about Fink lol

 

[UW student and hockey fan]

All you did was talk about Fink lol

I do agree with your points, though, especially that the high number of shots we took didn't exactly correspond to high quality scoring chances. I felt like both 23-24 and this season the team tended to throw a lot of pucks on net, but in 23-24 we had guys such as Stramel, Bantle, and a healthy Tassy who could get second chances out front, while this year I felt like the team was missing some of that physicality and presence up front. I am curious if others agree/disagree with this, however.

 

[WiscTJK]

Physicality was lacking overall in my opinion and the Badgers struggled against teams that were physical.