Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day
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Zent, Heatley, Earl, Rafalski, Schier, McDonald, Suter x 4, Granato x 2 (Don and Tony), Pavelski. those aren't guys that brought in JR or HS habits that brought them down or caused them to stumble so it's not like this is a universal problem that every frosh has to overcome annually, if that were the case frosh wouldn't play at all (ala football unless you're Dayne, R)
when a player needs grooming (like over 1/2 the team right now) yeah, you've got problems. I guess that's been the point for me, not enough difference makers brought in, each class needs about 2 of those.
I agree with Almington that the times were different. There is another factor with these comparisons. You seem to forget the upperclassmen that all of those players got to play with.
You also mentioned that you saw the Burish class was something special from the beginning. I'm not sure what you saw then that you don't see improvement in this years sophmore class. The Burish class had 34G, 68A, for 102 pts. as freshman. The Barnes class had 24G, 69A, for 93 pts. which is not a huge difference. In their sophmore year the Burish class had 42G, 63A, for 105 pts. An increase of 3 pts. The Barnes class this year had 51G, 95A, for 146 pts. An increase of 53 pts.
As far as LaBate not living up to billing, compare him to someone more recent. He had 5G, 15A, for 20 pts. Blake Geoffrion had 2G, 4A, for 6 pts. as a freshman. Navin with 6 pts, Paape with 9 pts, McCabe with 10 pts, and Woods with 10 pts all had even or better years than Geoffrion. And once again, look at the upperclassmen that Geoffrion had to play with.
I'm encouraged for the future from what I have seen and I'm usually on the Scooby side of the glass. Paape, Woods, LaBate, McCabe and even Navin have shown flashes at times. I think the sleeper of this group could be Navin. Don't forget, this kid came right from high school in which he missed a good chunk of his senior year.
The glass is half full!