Jess Myers from INCH previewed the WCHA. I just can't see Minnesota struggling that much because they only have *one* first round NHL pick on their blueline. They're young, but Fischer, Anderson, and Peltier all seemed poised for breakout years.
Kate Crandall had an interesting blog post on fighting in practice. More proof that you can never underestimate just how fun it is to punch somebody in the head.
Alaska got a commitment from well-traveled goalie Eric Babcook, who is originally from Colorado. He'll replace Wylie Rogers next season, though it sounds like he'll back up Chad Johnson next season, and then Alaska will bring in another goalie in 2009.
A Michigan Tech preview from former Michigan Daily writer Amber Colvin.
Elliot Olshansky previewed the Sioux.
Steve Wagner drew praise from head coach Andy Murray after making his NHL debut last night.
Former Michigan defenseman Danny Richmond is the first NHL player to have a blog at Yardbarker.
The USHL's regular season officially started today. Tyler Thompson, Bryce Aneloski, Matt Donovan, Justin Filzen, Matt Tomassoni, Andrew Conboy, Travis Novak, and Andy Taranto all had 2-point nights.
There's some early discussion of the '91s being a weak birth year in the OHL.
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10 comments:
As a Gopher fan, I could see some early struggles with three Freshmen D.
What makes less sense to me is picking Denver to finish second. Denver will have 12 Freshmen, four of them on Defense.
Both these teams have cause for concern on the blue-line.
I thought, as a Gophers fan, you should be remarking on how much an anti-gopher troll Chris is?
I disagree with the prediction of 7th in the WCHA for UW, they will be a surprise, and a team to watch out for!
The Badgers and Fake Huskies are the hardest contenders to predict because they have untested goalies. If Connelly and Weslosky have similar years to Elliot and Goepfert last year both teams could be more successful than predicted. Sconnie needs to find some scoring too.
Scoring isn't necessary for UW to find.
All they do is play a game so boring that the opposing goaltender and defenders will fall asleep. Then, they shoot it into the open net.
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I don't think SCSU needs Weslosky or Dunn or O'Brien to have a Goepfert type year.
Nodl and Lasch return as does Dey and they bring in a freshman class that has a lot of firepower potential, especially in Luca Cunti and Garrett Roe.
Are you sure it is "opposing goaltender and defenders will fall asleep", because I heard it was too many long island iced teas when Frazee lets in those length of the ice goals.
SCSU lost 45% of their goal scoring, Andrew Gordon, and three senior Dmen. While Weslosky was 5-1 (W-L) his numbers were a lot less impressive than Goepfert.
Weslosky 2.67 GAA .899 Save%
Goepfert 2.29 .924
Weslosky may not need Goepfert numbers , but he will have to be close for SCSU to make the NCAAs. His record, like Connelly's at Wisconsin, is misleading as he played sporadically against lesser competition. Both these untested goalies will have to shoulder the majority of playing time with little margin for error. Will they succeed or fail?
Everyone brings up the 3 senior d-men.
Well Clafton is no big loss.
Borer was bad most of last year
Fletcher was very inconsistent.
SCSU's 2 best defenseman last year were Raboin and Stephenson and they are both returning.
Yes Weslosky faced "weaker competetion" but up until the Sioux game, his numbers were excellent.
He will also be pushed hard by Dan Dunn and may end up splitting time if Dunn performs well.
The goaltending will be fine, the scoring will be fine, yes they lost Gordon and Kronick but people are seriously underestimating the freshman class and I expect Lasch and Nodl to improve on impresive rookie years (Don't forget Lasch was not a linemate of Gordon or Nodl and he was fine)
The question for me is can the D perform better and not leave the goalies out to dry like they did a lot last year, especially when Goepfert played.
And can the team play "mature" as there are 17 freshman and sophomores and they will have to lead the team.
But coaching will help that last one and SCSU has that.
I am not ripping Weslosky or Connelly for that matter, just pointing out they are both relatively untested.
Scoring is a funny thing because even good players often have trouble surpassing a very good year. Lasch and Nodl may buck that trend or they may not.
I think SCSU could be surprise a lot of people, but to do this they will have to get similar goalie play.
Motzko is a good coach, but as his team improves and his recruiting gets better, he will also run into the same things that plague all the top teams in the WCHA. Good players like Gordon leaving early. I don't follow SCSU close enough to know how much of that has happened to them in the past.
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