Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Episode XXXI: A New Hope
Does anyone have positives to take from this past weekend? I didn't get to listen to either game.
0-6....At this point going .500 (which was my hope for the season) seems out of reach
It was straight-up respectable, despite the way game 2 ended.
The first 4 games matter when it comes to national rankings, but in terms of predicting what to expect moving forward, I think it's reasonable to throw those games out the window. They were competing with UND in most areas of the game for most of the weekend.
As WiscTJK mentioned, Ustaski made me raise my eyebrows and comment at least once. Besse was an animal. It's crazy how strong I get the feeling that, at the same time, a) everything sucks, but b) there are completely legitimate reasons to be optimistic.
Shaky special teams, obviously. When you can't clear the puck once during a PK, that's not good.
Offensively, the Badgers' performance on Saturday was better than 1 goal indicates, but I'm not one of those people who ignores the fact that if you miss a shot, you missed the shot. However, I do recognize that it's more indicative of future success than when you're completely shut down all night except for one goal. During Saturday's game, UND had more sustained offensive attacks than the Badgers. Possession was more even for much of Friday's game, but the Badgers did a poor job getting around UND blocks, and UND did a great job dropping to one knee and stopping passes and shots (that happened a
lot during the first period Friday).
I'm glad they have another off-week. I'm glad their schedule is backloaded.