Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XX - Growth Through Experience
I have been thinking, and I wonder if the problem isn't not having enough top end talent, but that WI isn't producing (or UW isn't landing) the mid-level talent at forward (Burish, Dowell, as examples) who are going to be able to grow from 15 point scores as freshmen to 40 point scores as seniors while still being able to play a sound all around game that Eaves system demands. I wonder if Eaves stinginess with the scholarship $ is allowing/forcing/driving some of the WI player to other schools who are able/willing to offer a larger financial aid package.
In other words, solo might have been right in identifying the symptom, but slightly off in diagnosing the cause.
This is a good argument, though I think there are a few players, freshman, who will turn into this mid-level talent or better: Woods and Navin. They have both showed flashes of giving something more to the team, but then fade and/or are stuck on the bottom lines grinding. I'm waiting for Jason Clark to do something too, he scored a lot of goals at Shattuck.
I look at this from a different angle. I don't think offense is the problem, I think defense is the problem. This team is letting up 3.2 goals/game in WCHA play. That is just too high, plain and simple. To make matters worse, the PK is LAST in the WCHA at 74% or so. This is not UW hockey. Some of this can be contributed to the freshman goalies, but the defense is just not good enough. We don't have the kind of two way forwards the team enjoyed for many seasons like Burish, Dowell, Geoffrion, Bohmbach, Stepan, Street, Murray, etc. The blue line is very young still, and Schultz can't do everything, even if it seems like he can.
If you look back over the past few seasons, this team isn't scoring that poorly, but the goals allowed per game is the worst in six years:
Goals Scored/Goal Allowed (per game)
06/07: 2.27/2.02
07/08: 2.85/2.55
08/09: 3.28/2.65
09/10: 3.98/2.58
10/11: 3.15/2.39
11/12: 3.12/2.96
This leads me to a few conclusions. 1) The offense on this team isn't as bad as some are making it out to be. If you look at the stats, 3 players already have 10 or more goals and 7 already have 10+ points, w/ 5 more a few away from making double digits w/ at least 10 games to play. Basically, the top lines are doing ok, and the bottom lines are doing their job too, scoring here and there, which is what is expected of them. Play good defense and when they score its a bonus for the team. 2) My other conclusion is that the WCHA is a little down this season overall, and that means this Badgers team is overachieving offensively, but then underachieving significantly against the somewhat watered down conference opponent quality. And that might not be true either, it just seems the WCHA isn't stacking up as well against everyone else.
I didn't look at defensemen scoring, but just a glance at the player stats says it is way down. It is hard to compete w/ the defense for the ages a few years back, but Gardiner is a big loss last season, Springer is not very good, and Ramage is frankly playing like crap most nights.
So, my point, compared to some past Badger teams the scoring isn't the issue, defense and goaltending is. Honestly, if Zengerle returns next season, there should be NO issues for offense, especially if someone can run the power play (McCabe?) w/ the new additions. The real question is, can the defense, goaltending and PK improve significantly? While several other Eaves teams have not hosted first round WCHA games, all of those teams were in contention right down to the wire in the past 5 seasons, while this team is sunk w/ 8 to play.
