In my hastiness, I realized I had ranted, but hadn't posted my predictions for this year
1. DU
2. SCSU
3. UMN
4. UND
5. UW
6. UMD
7. CC
8. MSUM
9. UAA
10. MTU
We'll see how right I am come March
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
People Are Nuts
Those of you that know me know I pay attention to college hockey and at one time was a poster on USCHO. What's funny now is my Fiance has decided to get in on that action and everyone on there thinks she's me. Heck, we do think alike and have a passion for hockey so I guess that's ok.
But, that said, this is why I think people there are crazy, well at least the WCHA fans.
No one on there thinks SCSU has a chance of being any good despite the fact that only they and UMD didn't lose anyone early.
Now, I will agree that UND, UMN, UW and DU all have more overall talent than the Huskies and the argument could be made that last year was a fluke and SCSU can't possibly be any better. But I don't buy that, for several reasons.
1. Every player improves somewhat from year to year, especially at this age, so its ridiculous to say they can't improve.
2. There is legit star talent on this team with Gordon and Goepfert and probably a star in the making in incoming freshman Andreas Nodl.
3. They finally have a decent coach in Bob Motzko who already seems to know how to get the most out of his players and maybe even a little more.
4. The loss of talent from every other team in this league is staggering.
Minnesota loses over 100 goals from last years squad due to graduation and defection early yet most posters think they still have so much they won't be stopped. How easily they forget the Final Five and Holy Cross.
UND has a lot of good talent returning but they still lost 5 guys early, not to mention the graduates so they will likely hurt as well
DU loses a Hobey Baker winner and a lot of scoring as well so they could struggle to start the season and a lot of pressure will be put on Dingle and their goaltending to start off strong.
UW loses their top five in scoring and I can't recall any goalie having a 2nd season like the one Elliott put up last year. For most college goalies, that is a once in a career type season. Elliott will be good and Wisconsin will have to count a lot on him. But they won last year largely because he put up the numbers he did and its ridiculous to say he can put up a GAA around 1.55 again. Not to mention that they lose a key defensive leader in Gilbert
The big thing that keeps being brought up is that SCSU doesn't have much depth in the way of talent and in a lot of ways that is true. These guys with the exception of Gordon and Goepfert, Borer and Fletcher are not very talented and none of them outside of those four have any kind of shot at making the NHL. But what they all are, are solid hard working college hockey players.
They work their butts off every shift and give it all they have and really I wouldn't ask any less of them.
The next knock is SCSU has scoring issues. Well they had scoring issues last year and managed to have their best offensive output since Hartigan last skated for SCSU. The bottom line is this team doesn't need to score a lot of goals. They rely on good goaltending and good defense to win and they have that. Goepfert returns as possibly the best goaltender in the nation and the defense lost one player who really wasn't all that important to the defense as a whole. So the two strengths from last years team return basically intact, and those two strengths really can also only get better.
The recruits coming in are the strongest class SCSU has had in years, led by Andreas Nodl who, if he puts up anything close to what his hero Vanek did for the Gophers, will be a force in this league and a major boost to the offense. The other recruits are likely role players but you need those on any good team. The darkhorse is Ryan Lasch. The knock on him is that he played in a weak league and this is true. In the hierarchy of junior A leagues in Canada, this one is likely near the bottom. But, Lasch dominated the CJHL. 146 points in the regular season, another 40 or so in exhibitions and the playoffs, those kinds of numbers can't be ignored. If he makes a decent adjustment to the speed and skill of the WCHA, he could have a tremendous freshman year.
The point to all this is that while I don't completely think SCSU WILL win the WCHA, I don't think its at all a stretch to say they won't be able to be competitive and at the very least, have a damn good shot at the top 3 and the first NCAA win in the program's history.
But, that said, this is why I think people there are crazy, well at least the WCHA fans.
No one on there thinks SCSU has a chance of being any good despite the fact that only they and UMD didn't lose anyone early.
Now, I will agree that UND, UMN, UW and DU all have more overall talent than the Huskies and the argument could be made that last year was a fluke and SCSU can't possibly be any better. But I don't buy that, for several reasons.
1. Every player improves somewhat from year to year, especially at this age, so its ridiculous to say they can't improve.
2. There is legit star talent on this team with Gordon and Goepfert and probably a star in the making in incoming freshman Andreas Nodl.
3. They finally have a decent coach in Bob Motzko who already seems to know how to get the most out of his players and maybe even a little more.
4. The loss of talent from every other team in this league is staggering.
Minnesota loses over 100 goals from last years squad due to graduation and defection early yet most posters think they still have so much they won't be stopped. How easily they forget the Final Five and Holy Cross.
UND has a lot of good talent returning but they still lost 5 guys early, not to mention the graduates so they will likely hurt as well
DU loses a Hobey Baker winner and a lot of scoring as well so they could struggle to start the season and a lot of pressure will be put on Dingle and their goaltending to start off strong.
UW loses their top five in scoring and I can't recall any goalie having a 2nd season like the one Elliott put up last year. For most college goalies, that is a once in a career type season. Elliott will be good and Wisconsin will have to count a lot on him. But they won last year largely because he put up the numbers he did and its ridiculous to say he can put up a GAA around 1.55 again. Not to mention that they lose a key defensive leader in Gilbert
The big thing that keeps being brought up is that SCSU doesn't have much depth in the way of talent and in a lot of ways that is true. These guys with the exception of Gordon and Goepfert, Borer and Fletcher are not very talented and none of them outside of those four have any kind of shot at making the NHL. But what they all are, are solid hard working college hockey players.
They work their butts off every shift and give it all they have and really I wouldn't ask any less of them.
The next knock is SCSU has scoring issues. Well they had scoring issues last year and managed to have their best offensive output since Hartigan last skated for SCSU. The bottom line is this team doesn't need to score a lot of goals. They rely on good goaltending and good defense to win and they have that. Goepfert returns as possibly the best goaltender in the nation and the defense lost one player who really wasn't all that important to the defense as a whole. So the two strengths from last years team return basically intact, and those two strengths really can also only get better.
The recruits coming in are the strongest class SCSU has had in years, led by Andreas Nodl who, if he puts up anything close to what his hero Vanek did for the Gophers, will be a force in this league and a major boost to the offense. The other recruits are likely role players but you need those on any good team. The darkhorse is Ryan Lasch. The knock on him is that he played in a weak league and this is true. In the hierarchy of junior A leagues in Canada, this one is likely near the bottom. But, Lasch dominated the CJHL. 146 points in the regular season, another 40 or so in exhibitions and the playoffs, those kinds of numbers can't be ignored. If he makes a decent adjustment to the speed and skill of the WCHA, he could have a tremendous freshman year.
The point to all this is that while I don't completely think SCSU WILL win the WCHA, I don't think its at all a stretch to say they won't be able to be competitive and at the very least, have a damn good shot at the top 3 and the first NCAA win in the program's history.
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