Badger Hockey

[logan82]

The hockey season is finally upon us. It looks like we are going to be a competitive team, but the offense seems to be a big question mark. I hope we can

find some consistent scorers and fast. The schedule is brutal for the first 8 games.

[tristarscoop]

Did you see that they changed the rule in the offseason because of us? You now have to have a winning record to make the postseason. Eaves basically said he understands, but that it will really effect how they schedule non-conference stuff. Before they were more concerned with RPI, but now they have to be concerned with their record.

 

 

So excited the season's starting I almost wore my sweater to work today. I'm sad the game's not on TV, even in the Boston area, but the radio feed's available on bceagles.com

 

Under Jerry York, the Eagles are 10-4-0 in season openers, but they lost last year's.

They're the defending NC and are going to play the final 10 minutes of last year's NC winning game before tonight's game and then raise the banner.

 

All signs point to the team's inability to score going to be as big a problem this season as it was last.

 

Can't wait for the 25th, home opening weekend against MN!

[logan82]

My brother and I are going to the October 25th game. We are hoping that some of the BF.net people would like to meet somewhere before the game.

[fondybrewfan]

Badger Hockey Game are fun, atleast if the band is allowed to play. Some of their chants at the opposing players are pretty hilarious. Hockey is so much better in person than on TV it isn't even funny.

[danzig6767]

The hockey season is finally upon us. It looks like we are going to be a competitive team, but the offense seems to be a big question mark. I hope we can find some consistent scorers and fast.

This seems to be a yearly problem. Eaves sure can recruit top shelf defensemen, but bringing in and/or developing goal scorers is another story. I've loved Badger hockey since i was a kid, but the last few years since winning it all, it can get kinda frustrating and kinda boring watching them struggle so badly to score goals.

[burniebrewer]

Tough 5-4 loss tonight, especially giving up 2 shorties.

[logan82]

danzig6767 wrote:

This seems to be a yearly problem. Eaves sure can recruit top shelf defensemen, but bringing in and/or developing goal scorers is another story. I've loved Badger hockey since i was a kid, but the last few years since winning it all, it can get kinda frustrating and kinda boring watching them struggle so badly to score goals.

Ever since they won it all they have had their best forwards leave early. Turris almost left in the middle of the year last year. Kind of a two edged sword recruiting top players.

[danzig6767]

Tough 5-4 loss tonight, especially giving up 2 shorties.

What's going on with that? Last year they had the same problem. If i remember correctly, the Badgers gave up 9 or 10 shorthanded goals and only scored i believe 2 for themselves. I also think they had a really rough stretch trying to score on the power play last year and over an extended length of time, had actually given up more shorthanded goals than they scored on the power play.

 

Man, last year was a frustrating season.

 

BTW, i know there aren't many hockey fans on this board, but to those that are, what's your thoughts on Connelly? He wasn't terrible last year, but he sure seems to give up more "soft" goals than any Badgers goalie in awhile. He is very athletic and can make a few highlight reel saves a year, but i really wish he was just more consistent making the average or fairly tough saves.

[trwi7]

Ever since they won it all they have had their best forwards leave early. Turris almost left in the middle of the year last year. Kind of a two edged sword recruiting top players.

I think it's more than that. The offensive system that has been implemented at Wisconsin makes it very difficult to consistently score goals. They have talented guys who can bring the puck up ice, they would be best served letting them work in the open ice to create odd man rushes and make the defense scramble. Instead the offense involves getting to the center line and dumping the puck down into the offensive zone and then chasing. That's a very difficult offense, especially when your opponent knows it's coming. They can play off the player and get ready to go into the zone and chase the puck if they know that's what's coming.

 

I'd love to see them let the forwards carry the puck over the blue line and set the offense up from there instead of getting it to center and then just dumping the puck in and chase it.

 

danzig6767 wrote:

---

BTW, i know there aren't many hockey fans on this board, but to those that are, what's your thoughts on Connelly?

Meh. He's average, nothing more, nothing less. We probably got spoiled after watching Elliott.

[danzig6767]

danzig6767 wrote:

This seems to be a yearly problem. Eaves sure can recruit top shelf defensemen, but bringing in and/or developing goal scorers is another story. I've loved Badger hockey since i was a kid, but the last few years since winning it all, it can get kinda frustrating and kinda boring watching them struggle so badly to score goals.

Ever since they won it all they have had their best forwards leave early. Turris almost left in the middle of the year last year. Kind of a two edged sword recruiting top players.

Yea we've lost some key guys to the NHL, but the Badgers certainly aren't alone in this among WCHA teams, kids have been leaving more quickly than in the past all over college hockey. Yet, other top programs have managed to still have more productive offenses.

 

Besides that, it's not as if guys like Turris or Skille were were points or goal scoring machines before leaving. They were talented and better than anything else we had offensively, but neither put up point totals that i had hoped they could.

 

I'm not a hockey coach so i don't want to throw out theories or critisisms that might be unwarrented, but how much of the prolonged offensive struggles are on Eaves? To my untrained eye, the Badgers seem to play a more conservative/defensive style of hockey under Eaves and i'm assuming that plays some role in the lack of goals since winning it all. That said, is there more to it than that? Forwards he's recruited either not living up to expectations or not being developed good enough? The style of play scaring away to many highly skilled offensive recruits, yet all the while attracting prized defensemen recruits?

[danzig6767]

I think it's more than that. The offensive system that has been implemented at Wisconsin makes it very difficult to consistently score goals. They have talented guys who can bring the puck up ice, they would be best served letting them work in the open ice to create odd man rushes and make the defense scramble. Instead the offense involves getting to the center line and dumping the puck down into the offensive zone and then chasing. That's a very difficult offense, especially when your opponent knows it's coming. They can play off the player and get ready to go into the zone and chase the puck if they know that's what's coming.

This is one thing i've wondered about. I only partially follow the recruiting process for Badgers hockey. When they sign highly prized kids and it makes the paper, i read that, but miss a lot of the lesser kids signed.

 

So while i knew guys like Turris and Skille were highly thought of forwards, i know little of the other guys. Was Eaves only able to attract mostly solid, but non-special recruits at forward, or were a lot of these kids highly thought of and they just are struggling to put pucks in the net from a mix of the offensive design and/or to many of them simply not developing as well as the coaches hoped for?

[logan82]

Could be Eaves not being comfortable with letting players work outside his system. I have always heard that Eaves used a pro style offense. I don't watch any NHL hockey so I wouldn't know. I admit I am not to fond of the dump and chase. Doesn't seem a proactive way to score goals. I don't mind waiting around for the other team to make mistakes early in games, but it makes it tough to win late in games when we are down.

 

I remember the year they won it all all the passes went stick to stick. The next year it seemed like the puck handling was not as good. Last year looked pretty good.

[trwi7]

Could be Eaves not being comfortable with letting players work outside his system. I have always heard that Eaves used a pro style offense. I don't watch any NHL hockey so I wouldn't know.

If that's a pro style offense, it's a pro style offense that's in another country. Ever since the rule changes in the NHL it's much more up and down and creating offense through one on one, putting pressure on the defense and creating odd man rushes.

 

Was Eaves only able to attract mostly solid, but non-special recruits at forward, or were a lot of these kids highly thought of and they just are struggling to put pucks in the net from a mix of the offensive design and/or to many of them simply not developing as well as the coaches hoped for?

I don't really follow recruiting much either. I just watch the games, but I know Kyle Turris and Blake Geoffrion were highly sought after and I believe Turris was the #1 ranked recruit in the country. I also know that Pat Johnson and Podge Turnbull were decent enough forward recruits and played well in the USHL. If I had to guess, I would think it's more of the system than the players not developing.

[tristarscoop]

My brother and I are going to the October 25th game. We are hoping that some of the BF.net people would like to meet somewhere before the game.

We're driving up to Madison and spending the whole day. Likely going to eat dinner at the Gritty, but plan on getting in fairly early to secure our table. Whole plan's up in the air, but plan on going up in the morning and doing the farmer's market and then spending the day enjoying fall in Madison (drinking beer)

 

____

Also, if anyone out there could explain the college hockey juniors/draft/college process to me, I'd be highly appreciative. It seems to be pretty much the opposite of baseball in terms of maintaining rights to a guy and being able to go to college.

 

I'm fairly new to hockey and there just aren't a lot of knowledgeable fans about, so I've never had anyone break it down for me. Are the leagues they play in like an advanced level of club competition? For example, our backup goalie, Scott Gudmandson, is from Canada. I spoke to him last year and he was telling us about playing for all these teams before he ever did the college thing and so he was a 20 year old freshman.

[PaulRigdon]

this is a pretty good way of breaking down the draft process...from collegehockeynews.com

 

Most players from North America are eligible to be drafted for three consecutive years at the ages of 18, 19, and 20. (Players that were born after September 15 are only eligible to be drafted in two years at the ages of 18 and 19).

A player's "draft age" is his age on September 15 of the year of the draft. This means that if a player is not drafted as an 18-year old, he still can be drafted the following year as a 19-year old. If he is again not drafted as a 19-year old, in most cases he is eligible as a 20-year old the following year. If a player goes through all of his draft eligible years without being selected, he then becomes an "undrafted free agent," enabling the player to negotiate with any of the 30 NHL teams, which in many cases can be a big advantage for the player.

A drafted player who is in college, or who will be going to college, in general has his NHL rights held by his drafting team for four years - or until August 15 after the player's senior year in college. During this time period, the player can only sign a National Hockey League contract with the team that drafted him (or holds his rights, as a player's rights can be traded to another team while he is still in college).

check out this wikipedia page to break down junior hockey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_ice_hockey

[tristarscoop]

Thanks!

[BraunROY]

Went and picked up my tickets today, and even after the tough weekend I am really excited for the home season to start. A couple things that I personally look forward to this season are:

1. The Fans-for those of you who have never had the chance to get to the Kohl Center to see a game in person, it is a MUST. Even the casual sports fan can appreciate the atmosphere. For my money I go to a Badger hockey game over a basketball or even football game any day.

2. My cousin Eric Springer will be playing for the badgers this upcoming year. I really doubt he sees a whole lot of ice time, but either way its exciting to see a family member out there.

3. I really think that some of these new kids, based on Junior Hockey results, and random scraps of info I have on them, have a bit more attitude and spunk than the last few classes to come through. I can see a lot more aggressive style of play, and we will shy away from the "dump and chase" style as start to be a lot more active in seeking one on one match ups. With this, don't be surprised to see everyone's favorite...more fights. I personally can't wait until the North Dakota series.

[logan82]

Our tentative plan is to stop and probably eat at the Great Dane. At the very least we have to stop and get my growlers filled. We could definitely stop at the Gritty on our way to the Kohl Center.

[owbc]

Got my student tickets for section 114 this year!!!

[tristarscoop]

The Boston College result was very uplifting, but the UNH game made us look like scrubs.

 

Anyone else feel a little weird playing Minnesota right out of the gate at the Kohl Center? Last year's MN series was in January and I can't believe we're hitting the ground running so quickly. Should make for a crazy first weekend.

 

Very excited that the Friday Denver game's on FSN!

[cwolf2012]

Bar none my biggest complaint with Eaves is his special teams. Even when they won the national championship and had one of the top penalty killing units in the nation, they still weren't running a good system.

 

His penalty kill and his power play are WAY too passive. We allow teams to set up shots and get rebounds because we don't challenge the puck on the penalty kill. On the power play, we take WAY too long looking for the perfect shot. Far more garbage goals are scored than by making a pretty play. Fire it to the net and crash. When we pass the puck around and waste time, we give up fast breaks the other way because they know we won't shoot unless it's perfect. When they know we won't shoot, they pressure us and we make mistakes.

 

We're also waaay too dependent on our goalie. Shane Connelly is decent, but he's not anything near Brian Elliott. Your defensive strategy has to be adjusted for your goalie's weaknesses. Eaves doesn't do that

 

On the good side for Eaves, though. He recruits extremely well, especially defensively.

 

Go Badger hockey!

[tristarscoop]

I'm no hockey expert and your avatar makes me assume you know way more, so I'm assuming I'm misunderstanding, but I feel like what you said was contradicting itself, so hopefully you can explain.

 

You say we're great at recruiting defensive players, implying our defense is strong, but you're saying defense is the problem? Are you saying it's the defense that we play that's bad? And if so, how does that work in terms of having great defensive players playing bad defense?

[trwi7]

He's saying that with the players we recruit we could have an awesome defense. The problem is that the coaching staff is so conservative on both offense and defense that it prevents them from reaching that potential.

 

On defense, you need to pressure the puck. Make the offense make good plays. Instead we just lay back and try to block shots. That's fine if you have a great goalie like Elliott was, but we don't have Elliott anymore and the defense needs to be adjusted accordingly.

 

Also, our offense, mainly our power play is terrible. It's always a bunch of passes and usually a shot from straight on. No movement towards the net. Defenses realize that and play up on our defensemen. If they steal the puck, they're going to get a 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 break the other way creating oppurtunities for themselves.

[Paulus88]

I think the disconnect between having good defensemen but an average defensive team comes down to the forwards as well. When UW has been good under Eaves they have had a great forecheck to suffocate the puck before it even reached the defensive end. This made it easier for the defensemen to clean up the trash. Last year I thought their transition defense and forecheck was weak.

 

However I have yet to see them this year so maybe they've improved

[tristarscoop]

Oh, no, I totally understand how awful we are on power play. A blind guy at his first game would be able to figure that out. I haven't seen a hardcore fan at the Kohl Center not ready to jump out of their seat by the time we're a minute into the power play because everyone's just DYING for the team to take a darn shot, already!

 

Thanks for the defense explanation. I'm still new to hockey fandom and I grew up playing and watching indoor and outdoor soccer, so I have to try very hard to not relate everything back that way. I'm trying to learn about it independently and understand. I had never thought about the tentative power play being something that teams know us for and therefore allows them to push us and leads to the short-handed goals against us.

 

See, Brewerfan, making me a smarter fan in every aspect of sports....