9. Lake Superior State University

Lake Superior State University

Key Losses: Bo Cheesman, F; Ryan Reid, D; Matt Violin, G
Key Returnees: Jon Booras, F; Nathan Ward, F; Kory Scoran, D, Dominic Osman, F
Key Newcomers: Troy Schwab, F; Jason Miller, F
Projected Leading Scorer: Dominic Osman

Grades:
Offense: D
Defense: C-
Goaltending: B +
Coaching: C-

Analysis:

I’ve got to be honest. Researching Lake Superior’s team is just plain painful. Granted, they’ve slowly improved over the past couple seasons after hitting rock bottom in 2002-2003 with what might have been the worst offensive team ever. Last year was the first time since 1999-2000 that they didn’t finish dead last in the league. Still, the Lakers remain one of the most offensively challenged teams in college hockey.

The biggest thing keeping Lake State out of the basement is the excellent goaltending of Jeff Jakaitis. Jakaitis was literally the last player to commit to a school in the class or 2003 and has turned out to be one of the best. He supplanted Matt Violin, a very good goalie in his own right, and managed to put up pretty good statistics despite an awful record. Jakaitis will see a ton of shots this year, and the Lakers will rely on him to keep them in the game long enough for their offense to put up a few goals.

On the offensive side of the ice, Jon Booras became the first Laker to score 20 points in a season since Jeremy Bachusz in the 01-02 season. Big forward Nathan Ward also developed a bit of a scoring touch. The Lakers were hurt by the loss of the Dominic Osman who led the team in scoring two years ago as a freshmen. Osman only played 12 games due to various injuries.

On defense, LSSU will rely on large defenseman to try and muscle out opponents. Every Laker defenseman is 6 feet tall or taller. While this type of size is a luxury, the Lakers often lack skating ability to play with faster teams. The Lakers tried to improve team speed in recruiting this year, but then again, who purposely goes out and recruits slow guys?

And then there’s their coach. Now I personally think Frank Anzalone is nuts, and wouldn’t have too much trouble finding people to back me up on that claim. Anzalone has tried various methods of getting through to his team, including some off the wall comments to the media and forcing his team to run laps after a bad game. I don’t think it’s clear yet whether or not this is working because he took over in such a terrible position. The team has made some slight improvements over the past couple of years, however, so I suppose he deserves credit for that. Right now, LSSU lacks the talent to be a serious contender, but if they play well this season, they could be in contention to host a first round playoff series and maybe advance to the second round or even the Joe.