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Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

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Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Did u guys not see last weekend's game? Going to be lots of penalties.

Mark isnt too bad on radio, the other guy i can do without. Time for him to stop reading the hockey cliche book.
 
Definitely letting these kids play. Love seeing them getting to display their puck skill instead of a rigid system. Some jaw droppers tonight and it's really fun to see in person.

Defense needs to be a LOT more responsible though. They look pickup hockey bad.

Small crowd, but I'm right above the band and the energy level down on this end is great. Student section rocking tonight.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Jut has made some timely saves, but BC has flubbed a number of their prime opportunities or this could be a different game.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Seriously haven't seen individual plays like this in years.

Quite fun.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Defense is still a major issue(salute). Jurusik was very solid and that's exciting to see. Kunin was MIA. Wagner is the most noticeable player for me. Great with puck possession/energy. Not a fan of Ustaski, still too slow for my liking. Labosky is the opposite, he's so fast. Lastly, thought the zebras were consistently inconsistent. Ticky-tacky calls being made and then letting obvious penalties go.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Just so refreshing to see the team play an atacking brand of hockey and ATTACKING on the penalty kill when an opportunity to do so arises. If this team can keep winning on a fairly consistent basis I have to think the KC will continue to see jumps in both energy at games and in attendance.

Awesome win for the good guys tonight....
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Although giving up a goal just 12 seconds after scoring is never a good thing....
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

BuB said:
Although giving up a goal just 12 seconds after scoring is never a good thing....
Click to expand...

My roommate after UW made it 3-0: "oh, we've got this in the bag." BC scores two seconds after he finishes his sentence... :mad: I think we know who to blame for that one.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Jurusik was rock solid. The BC had better quality chances but Jurusik either stoned then or BC flubbed them. The team D wasn't as good as BC's or what one would expect from UW, but it was way better than last year. Attendance was aweful. The home opener against a national powerhouse with a new coach with all sorts of press and advertising leading up to the game....has hockey been permanently damaged in Madison? I was expecting Friday to be decently full and Sunday thinner the da Pack playing at the same time. Make me wrong. Sweep BC.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Timothy A said:
Jurusik was rock solid. The BC had better quality chances but Jurusik either stoned then or BC flubbed them. The team D wasn't as good as BC's or what one would expect from UW, but it was way better than last year. Attendance was aweful. The home opener against a national powerhouse with a new coach with all sorts of press and advertising leading up to the game....has hockey been permanently damaged in Madison? I was expecting Friday to be decently full and Sunday thinner the da Pack playing at the same time. Make me wrong. Sweep BC.
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It was good to see a full lower section of the student section at the START of the game. Sounds like good energy there too.

It's still football season for High School, Friday won't be packed until most teams are done. Don't know the stats, but I believe last year attendance was way less than 8K. It will take some time, but I think the 8K that where there were louder than I've heard in a while.
 
Timothy A said:
Attendance was aweful. The home opener against a national powerhouse with a new coach with all sorts of press and advertising leading up to the game....has hockey been permanently damaged in Madison?
Click to expand...

Not permanently, but for the long term. I'm not exaggerating when I say they need to rebuild the program as if it's brand new. (See my last post.) Hockey fans around here mostly don't care about UW hockey. Non-hockey fans obviously don't, either. It's not seen as a major sport. Instead, it's a little extra thing that's a more popular/expensive version of volleyball.

All that press and advertising? That's important, but for MOST potential fans, it wasn't going to affect them to the point where they get up and go to the home opener. All of that press and new TV coverage is important to plant the seed in potential fans' heads that big-time college hockey IS big-time college hockey, not some extra little thing.

Last night's win is an excellent start to get people on board. Remember how atrocious attendance was last year? Last night's crowd was decent by comparison. The empty seats last year, for the most part, didn't represent people just itching to go to games as soon as they made a change. (Some were those people; they comment on hockey boards and articles.) They were mostly people for whom UW hockey was not on their radar.
 
WiscDC said:
Not permanently, but for the long term. I'm not exaggerating when I say they need to rebuild the program as if it's brand new. (See my last post.) Hockey fans around here mostly don't care about UW hockey. Non-hockey fans obviously don't, either. It's not seen as a major sport. Instead, it's a little extra thing that's a more popular/expensive version of volleyball.

All that press and advertising? That's important, but for MOST potential fans, it wasn't going to affect them to the point where they get up and go to the home opener. All of that press and new TV coverage is important to plant the seed in potential fans' heads that big-time college hockey IS big-time college hockey, not some extra little thing.

Last night's win is an excellent start to get people on board. Remember how atrocious attendance was last year? Last night's crowd was decent by comparison. The empty seats last year, for the most part, didn't represent people just itching to go to games as soon as they made a change. (Some were those people; they comment on hockey boards and articles.) They were mostly people for whom UW hockey was not on their radar.
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Spot on. Wisconsin hockey has been in a malaise since about 1995. Great years in 06 and 10 but a whole lot of mediocre in between and you couple that with the sustained rise and prominence of football and basketball and you've got a program that needs to be repackaged and sold as if it were a new program.

Let's face it, no-one under 30-35 really got to witness Wisconsin Hockey as a national powerhouse unless they were going at ages 6-7-8 in the early 90's.

Tony Granato and co are doing and saying all of the right things and combine that with creative racehorse hockey and add in some wins and they'll start to redevelop the fanbase
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Friday nights have never been good draws, even going back to the Coliseum days; Friday night football, people working late, etc. I had Saturday night tix at the Coliseum, but could always get in on Friday nights. Friday night ticket holders I knew could not get in on Saturday unless you talked to the losers on the bikes circling the building. (Those losers are probably retired in Florida about now.) I agree it will take time, but exciting hockey and WINNING cures all. (See B.Alvarez 1990..."get your season tickets now")

I was there for periods 2 and 3. It was great to be back. I like the new uni's. Student section was great. I can't wait to get 13, 14, - 15,000 in there again. It certainly was speedy, up and down hockey. BC is always fast and they weren't any faster than us. I really think they are over-rated, but that doesn't diminish what I saw from UW. Since the place was so empty I moved around, and of course had to sit behind Jurusik for a period. He really stood strong. He was square. He played short side nice. Not too many juicy rebounds. I was impressed. That "new" obstruction, interference, whatever they want to call it, is bull****. I don't want the NCAA to turn this into baseball where you time a game with a calendar.

I had fun and that's what it's all about. Now we need 4 -5 thousand more people on a regular basis.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

MadCityRich said:
Friday nights have never been good draws, even going back to the Coliseum days; Friday night football, people working late, etc. I had Saturday night tix at the Coliseum, but could always get in on Friday nights. Friday night ticket holders I knew could not get in on Saturday unless you talked to the losers on the bikes circling the building. (Those losers are probably retired in Florida about now.) I agree it will take time, but exciting hockey and WINNING cures all. (See B.Alvarez 1990..."get your season tickets now")

I was there for periods 2 and 3. It was great to be back. I like the new uni's. Student section was great. I can't wait to get 13, 14, - 15,000 in there again. It certainly was speedy, up and down hockey. BC is always fast and they weren't any faster than us. I really think they are over-rated, but that doesn't diminish what I saw from UW. Since the place was so empty I moved around, and of course had to sit behind Jurusik for a period. He really stood strong. He was square. He played short side nice. Not too many juicy rebounds. I was impressed. That "new" obstruction, interference, whatever they want to call it, is bull****. I don't want the NCAA to turn this into baseball where you time a game with a calendar.

I had fun and that's what it's all about. Now we need 4 -5 thousand more people on a regular basis.
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Hoping you would comment on goaltending.

Big difference between the two weekends for Jurusik. Last night he more technically sound. More confident and higher out on the crease. Puck position was very strong. He keeps improving and get more comfortable, I think Buckey will have a really good goaltender in Jurusik. I think Sunday will be harder for the whole team. BC will be looking for win.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

Regarding the emphasis on actually calling obstruction-type penalties as they happen, I like it. There were one or two I disagreed with, but I'll take that any day over the nonsense that I've seen before. The women's WCHA was the worst until they miraculously got better within the last couple of years. (It finally got to the point where you could honestly believe they were trying to call the game correctly.) They're all playing under the same rulebook, and just because some old Canadian farts learned a variety of hockey where you can jab your stick in your opponents' midsection (and assault him after the play) doesn't mean it makes for better hockey. I'd much rather see the players adjust to the rulebook that is already in place than have referees arbitrarily calling penalties when they feel like it.

If the refs are doing the best job possible, they're not the ones who decide how many penalties each team takes. It's the players doing illegal things. When refs decide to "let them play" is when they're really doing the opposite - inserting themselves in the game so that it fits their script.
 
Re: Wisconsin Hockey, Vol II: Rebuild, Refresh, and Renew!

WiscDC said:
Regarding the emphasis on actually calling obstruction-type penalties as they happen, I like it. There were one or two I disagreed with, but I'll take that any day over the nonsense that I've seen before. The women's WCHA was the worst until they miraculously got better within the last couple of years. (It finally got to the point where you could honestly believe they were trying to call the game correctly.) They're all playing under the same rulebook, and just because some old Canadian farts learned a variety of hockey where you can jab your stick in your opponents' midsection (and assault him after the play) doesn't mean it makes for better hockey. I'd much rather see the players adjust to the rulebook that is already in place than have referees arbitrarily calling penalties when they feel like it.

If the refs are doing the best job possible, they're not the ones who decide how many penalties each team takes. It's the players doing illegal things. When refs decide to "let them play" is when they're really doing the opposite - inserting themselves in the game so that it fits their script.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with however they call it, as long as it's consistent both ways, and for the whole game. What I see, (perhaps anecdotally) is a good number of box scores already with 10-15 penalties called in periods 1 and 2, and then only 1 or 2 called in period 3. For example, Friday there was 14 penalties in the first two, and then 2 in the third for UW/BC. Miami/ OSU was 11 and 1; DU/BU was 9 and 1; UMASS/CC 10 and 2. Which at least in some cases, does suggest the old "swallow the whistle and let them play" in the third. Which is nonsense.
 
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