I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus here over the past month, but that’s what 2 crazy, hyper 22 month old kids will do to you, take all your time. Of course they have to get their loud, hyperness from their mother.
So here is what is in-store for the “mid-season” report.
1st I will review the team as a whole with grades (Forwards, Defence, Goalie, and Special Teams.)
2nd I will give out individual grades. Disclaimer: If you are a parent or friend who can’t handle 1 fans opinion, please by all means go away and don’t read this. I may not have played hockey in college, but I have a good grasp on what I’m watching and have had more than one D-1 coach tell me that I seem to get what I’m looking at. That said, it’s a DAMN OPINION, so sorry if you don’t like it.
3rd I will look at the 2nd half of the year and what is to come.
Team Grades
Forwards – B+, I would give this an A-, but the 4th line really hasn’t chipped in much until the past 2 weeks on the road. Our Top line with JCONN is doing great, but the funny part is I don’t think of them as the top line. I see the T.O. line as our #1, with JCONN’s line as #1b. Jack seems to have just started to get real comfortable with his line mates and is scoring outside of the PP. Most of his points early came on the PP with T.O and J.T. on his line. Herbert and Crandall have been shockingly better than I expected them to be. The only major shock has been Tardy. The word on the street was he came in a little complacent and out of shape. The past 2 weeks he seems to have gotten back to the level we expect him to be at. I expected Tardy to have Herbert’s spot this year on one of the top 2 lines, and we have yet to see that. With the way those lines are clicking, it would take an injury for him to jump to a top 6 forward. But if someone does get hurt, look for him to seize the moment.
Defense – B, I know it’s shocking to see a B here, and not higher compared to what we lost, anyone would have taken this. But our Top D pairing has had a couple of brain farts this year, and both those brain farts directly lead to 2 of our 3 loses. That said, we only have 3 loses and these guys are playing great right now. Surprises: Kishel and Casto. I had written Kishel off for dead, thought he would never see the ice again. He has seized the moment and isn’t looking back. We are finally seeing the QB on the PP that we expected from him as he came here his freshman year. What can you say about Casto? They don’t get much more rock solid than he is. I would like to see him improve his shot, as he has had some good chances this year, but seems tentative with his shot. Believe in yourself and let it rip kid. You don’t have to worry about it, because you have it naturally.
Goalie – A. I would give this an A+, but Kenny was shaky early in the season. Seriously, I have never seen someone gain more confidence from a NT win. Kenny believes in his self, and trusts every part of his game, and you can tell its natural, and he isn’t thinking or forcing it. He has been so freaking positionally sound that he is making saves when he doesn’t even see the shot. I don’t know what to say about Crandall, as I just can see him playing unless Kenny gets yanked.
Ranks – Offense ranks #3 in the nation, Defence ranks #15, Scoring margin ranks #2, Power Play ranks #18, and PK ranks #36
Individual Grades
I pulled these off of the scoring lead, so they aren’t by number or name, but stats order.
Jack Connolly – A+, to be the leading scorer in the nation with 2 brand new line mates who aren’t nearly as good as the 2 he had, well that should speak for itself.
J.T Brown – B, I am giving him a B because J.T. can be inconsistent and isn’t finishing as well as he should. J.T. gets behind the D like no player I have seen in years, but he only seems to convert about 1/3rd of those chances. He leads the team in assists, which a lot of people would wonder how when he shoots so much, but that’s why he leads. Players are burying his rebounds. Keep shooting kid, because it’s working for everybody.
Travis Oleksuk A – I’ll be honest, he has been one of my favorites bulldogs since he got here. T.O should change his name to O.T. because the guy is as clutch as they come. He leads the team in goals and I see this continuing. The guy knows how to finish.
Caleb Herbert – B +, I would give him an A, but he has cooled off a bit since he left Crandall’s line. But he is lights out and I expect a big 2nd half from him. #mancrush
Brady Lamb – B-, Scoring is great, but he still takes a bad penalty here and there that tends to hurt his team. As a captain this needs to change.
Mike Seidel – B, Well he is halfway to his 15 goals I put him on, but he has cooled off big time lately. Let’s hope we see more of what we saw against Bucky Saturday night
Scott Kishel – B+ He has been solid all-around and is scoring, which is great.
Wade Bergman – B, You don’t see a whole lot of him negative or positive, so that’s a good thing. Getting good assist numbers from him.
Justin Crandall – B-, Seems to have lost his way since losing Herbert and I’m not sure if he will find his way back until they are back together. But a serious freshman contributor.
Joe Basaraba – C, I don’t know what is going on here. He is with Connolly and should be scoring more. With all the upside out of high school I’m still holding my breath for what we saw at Shattuck.
Keegan Flaherty – B-, he does what he was brought here to do, hustle and dominate the PK.
Chris Casto – B, He has been solid defensively, just want to see a little more from his offensive game. He has the chances, just doesn’t seem confident with them.
Max Tardy – C-, I probably would have graded him worse, but he has come on the past 2 weeks. He was expected to be a top 6 forward this season. I do see the 2nd half being big for him
Jake Hendrickson – C, He has been a solid 2-way center. I am starting to wonder if he is being casted into the PK/Two-way role and we won’t ever see an offensive upside due to him not being put in a position to score those goals.
David Grun – B-, I don’t think we will ever see big goals from Grun, but he is starting to hit everything and play solid on the PK. He can eat a good 10 seconds off the clock holding a puck on the wall. Gritty.
Drew Olson – C, solid defensively, but his offense has taken a step back. Probably due to how well Kishel is playing on the PP.
Derik Johnson – C+, I would like to see him play more games, as he is very solid on their top line when he is out there, and has shown some sparks of offense.
Dan Delisle – C, I’m sure a lot of people went directly to this name as they were wondering what I was going to say about him. I have decided to stop looking at Dan as what I expected out of high school, and what I have come to expect. Positive, he works his tail off. He still seems awkward on skates and stick handling, as if he is still getting used to that 6’5” frame. It should serve notice to high school kids, swallow your pride and play 1 year
Adam Krause – C-, I expected him to be in the lineup more, but he is a freshman. Give him some time.
Kenny Reiter – A, it would be an A+, but he had an off couple of games against the gophers. We forgive you. Kenny Reiter, yes you can.
Luke McManus – C-, I expected him to be more of an everyday guy. He started great, but seemed to lose his confidence fast and now it’s hurting his play time. His injury did not help either, as it opened the door for Johnson.
Aaron Crandall – C-, it is what it is, he’s the backup and it will remain that way.
Tim Smith - C, to be quite frank I haven’t watched him much.
2nd half Prediction
I do feel, and this should feed the ego of Hammy and Cardinal well, that our schedule does set up well for us to take home the McNaughton cup for the 1st time since I have been following the program. The only thing that could stop us is an injury to Kenny or Jack. Even that I don’t see it stopping us, as we are 5-0-3, because remember, HOME GAMES DON’T COUNT. I decided I wasn’t going to back off these comments, since quite frankly we aren’t friends anymore I guess.
Due to the actions of my so called “friends” I have now reached a point where I officially hate the gophers more than SCSU again. Congrats to that. I promise you, when our 2 teams meet when it counts; the gophers will be the one’s golfing in March. I’m out.
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Friday, December 16th, 2011 7 comments Post your comment
Recaping last week, UMD performed as expected Friday night, getting the 5-3 win. Hey, I was off by a goal, I had 5-2, what do you do. The dogs played aggressively Friday night, controlled play, and won. Saturday was a different story as I was OK with a tie, but I felt as if Brady Lamb had a small brain fart in his checking from behind, which hurt us on the blueline. I could be wrong, but I believe most of Kishel's play time comes on the PP, so really this put us down to 4 defenseman with 2 full periods of play left, and I firmly feel this is where we went from a win, to a tie on Saturday. Just ran out of gas on the blue line. I am not ready to say it, but I can say Kenny Reiter is on the right track, lets see how this weekend goes and this will determine if he is back to where he should be.
BRING ON THE BEAVERS
Nothing better than when the bulldogs go on the Powerplay against Bemidji. I fully expect for a "sloppy beaver" chant from the student section when this happens. One of the few games where we don't chant "cheap ass ______," go that?
So lets take a look at Bemidji. They are coming off a sweep against Michigan Tech, who the week prior swept Wisconsin, and Wisconsin last week swept North Dakota. So by that logic, Michigan Tech is better than North Dakota, which makes Bemidji the best team in the league, right? Dohkay. So here are the lines on their top offensive players
Branee Orbin....are you serious, was your mom drunk or lose a bet when she named you? Well anyway, weirdo guy has 7 points on the season, 5 of which are assists.
Shea Walters - ah the pride of Owatonna and the NAHL, Montezuma will be drooling over this guy like RWD drooling over a Mike Curry gameworn all weekend (yes I read your article, so ha!) He will let us know all weekend what we are missing out on in him. I will then remind Montezuma that Mr. Walters is missing something, a national title ring. The argument will end with me as the victor. Well this guy is leading them in goals with a whopping 3.
Jordan "my mom decided to give me 3 first names" George. He is also tied with 3 goals.
In net it has been a split between bakala, (is this the guy from perfect strangers?) he has a record of 1-2-0 with a 3.79 GAA and a .846 SV%, so do the right thing Serratore, and start the senior, he deserves it. Reason I say this is their freshman, Walsh, is 2-0-0 with a 1.67 and .941 GAA.
BULLDOGS
Bulldog leaders
Travis Oleksuk, who is pacing the bulldogs with 8 points, is tied for 3rd in the nation with 6 goals. When it is clutch time, call on T.O., just not the silly receiver who feels the need to run routes with his shirt off.
J.T. Brown, listening to last weeks game it seems as if they have mentioned passing the puck more an he is. He is 2nd on the team with 2-4 for 6 points. I still think we will see him reunited with T.O in the next few weeks, and you will see Tardy go to the 1 line.
Jack Connolly, since we are on the subject, he is at 1-5 for 6 as well. Not on pace for the 60 I was hoping. Got to get this going.
Mike Seidel, did I say he was going to get 15 goals this year? Hmm, he has 5 right now, so 1/3rd of the way there. Making the most of playing with JT and Jack.
In net should be Reiter both nights, who at this point, may have found his stride in the biggest little state in the union last weekend. A home test will tell us where we are at this weekend. But I just don't see Crandall playing unless Reiter gets housed on Friday night.
So early on in the year I was very nervous about our freshman, and at this point Herbert and Crandall are reall stepping up. On the flip side, I can say where I was wrong, and right now Basaraba is not living up to the billing. I really would like to see him get a shot with Jack and see what he could do. He doesn't seem to be a guy who can create his own shot, which would tell me that he needs a great setup man, something Jack does well.
PREDICTIONS
The beavers have had our number in recent years.
Friday - Dogs come out strong again, and win 5-2. Kenny makes 30 saves.
Saturday - Dogs tie it late and take the tie through OT. 3-3 final. That is all. See you in Duluth.
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 1 comments Post your comment
Well that sucked! So much promise going into the gopher series, and such a let down. 5 on 5 I felt the bulldogs were the better team, but letting the other team score 6 goals on 9 powerplay chances is going to doom you every time. Before anyone goes off on a "reffing" tangent, lets all remember the dogs did have more PP's than the gophers. That said, I think what is fustrating dog fans is some platent none calls that lead directly to gopher goals, or Jack Connolly being beaten up cheaply like a step child all weekend. I though a Hobey Baker contender would get a little more ref respect. Guess not.
Glaring issues from last weekend.
1) Our freshman D looked like Freshman D. I feel bad for Casto, as he was in the wrong spot twice, but at the same time, you have to be aware of where you are positioned on the ice at all time. He will learn from this and be fine.
2) Our goaltending needs some work. We all know Kenny Reiter isn't an elite goalie, but he has the skills to be an average goalie and get hot at the right time, i.e. NCAA run. That said, Kenny is not average right now. Not sure if he has too much pressure on himself, but he needs to find a way to lighten up a bit. What you see from great goalies is when you give up a goal in OT, they usually jump up and skate off thinking screw them, I'll get them next time. Time to think about tomorrow. What I saw from Kenny Friday night scared me, and I'm concerned about where his game is between the ears. He stayed down on the ice, and seemed to mope of it. Kenny, its ok. We've all lost a game. Its the beginning of the season. You just need to shake it off and move along. But don't be so down on yourself, or you may carry this the entire year. I don't think it is Crandall time, as I believe the Kenny thing is mental, where as Crandall is physical ability.
3) JT, "Come on Man." You are a stud, flat out. But we need you to pass the puck a little bit more. Jack is a puck mover and is used to playing with folks like that. Up and down the roster, you are the best fit for Jack, but you got to pass the puck a little bit more. Trust me, Jack will pass it back and you will get your goal.
Last piece about the gophers, Rau is going to be good, and be here for at least 3 years. Sucks for opposing teams.
Providence Preview
Like beersong said on the board, I don't know what to think here. We have a huge target on our back. Not to mention, their coach was the Union coach we bounced last year. So that isn't helping things. I don't know a whole lot about Providence so lets just go over some numbers. Providence is 2-0 on the young season, beating BU and UMASS. They are no slouch as they were the last time we played them.
PROVIDENCE SCORERS
Miles Harvey - 3 goals in 2 games
Stefan Demopolus (Sounds like a suburb) 1-2 for 3 points
Derek "Be all you can be" Army - 2-1- for 3 points
Goalie, Alex Beuadry, 2-0 with a 3.5GAA and .865 save%. He can be scored on.
UMD SCORERS
Travis Oleksuk, 4-1 for 5 points
J.T. Brown 2-3 for 5 points
Jack Connolly 1-3 for 4 points.
Pleseant surprised - Herbert and Crandall. Each with 3 points on a line together.
Goaltending, Kenny Reiter 1-2-0 4.26 GAA and .831 SV%
Aaron Crandall 0-1 5.046 GAA and ,783 SV%
Like I said, Casto is -2 on the year, and probably would be worse but you don't get a - on the PK.
PREDICTIONS
Dogs come out angry Friday, win 5-3
Dogs come back a bit Saturday, lose 4-3.
Split is the call.
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 5 comments Post your comment
IRISH ARE PEOPLE, NOT MASCOTS!!
I mean serisously, who do these drunkards think they are? For those offended, please show me more sober Irish than drunk Irish and I will take it all back. So here we go, 1st series of the year, and who do we bring to town? Just the number 1 team in the nation filled with returning players who probably feel as if the refs and UMD stole the ring off their finger. My thoughts are don't clutch and grab and you won't have an issue. This will be a very tough series for UMD and a split would be a thing of beauty.
Notre Dame brings back double digit player, along with their 3 or their 4 leading scorers. We all know the 2 to watch are Tynan and Lee, both electric freshman scoring a combined 47 goals last year. Also, don't sleep on Maday, as he chipped in another 10 goals last year. The only offensive thread on the blue line from last year will come from something called Calabrese, with 18 points last year. On the blue line we should see Mike Johnson again, who I am thinking will have quite the chip on his shoulder after giving up 4 goals on 21 shots in the semifinal.
UMD brings back the middle "C" from the FCC line, and their leading scorer. Jack was number 3 in goals last year, losing our top 2 goal scorers. Look for JT Brown to get the 1st crack on the line with Connolly and Danberg. JT should florish in this role, but after this line, there are a lot of questions mark on who can put the puck in the net. I feel the new pairing, well I think they will be together, of Basaraba and T.O could be a sneaky line that no one sees coming. Obviously Reiter will get the start, and lets hope like hell Kenny from the Frozen 4 rolls in. Otherwise we could see 2 ugly games.
Predictions? I see a sloppy game from UMD friday night, as there are 4 new lines, where as Notre Dame won't have this problem.
Friday: Notre Dame 4 UMD 3 - yes, I see them crashing the party. I just feel they are going to come in a little more hungry, and familiar with each other and are going to come in very ready to play. We put it to 4-3 with an EAG, but can't close the deal.
Saturday: UMD 4 Notre Dame 2 - We get the split, but it is on the shoulders of Reiter making 30+ saves.
Not the best preview, but I really don't know much about Notre Dame other than they bring back a lot and they are going to be pissed when they see the spectical on display with the banner friday.
Please bulldogs, prove me wrong, get the sweep, shock the world!
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Thursday, October 6th, 2011 3 comments Post your comment
Well,
Time to try my hand at this thing they call writing. As I mentioned before, if you are reading this and are a grammar/spelling hound, you might just want to skip this. I'm a sales person, not an English major. Some things I promise you from this article. I'm not going to rank players by how "cute" or sexy they are. I am going to have some fun and make some jokes, but you will get a pretty serious feel as well. I'm not going to interview folks and ask questions that have nothing to do with the games. You may see some egg salad references. Some of you will get it.
Who Left?
UMD is not UND/BU/BC/UMTC. We don't "reload," we flat out don't have that kind of recruiting power. UMD comes into the season losing forwards Mike Connolly (professional,) Justin Fontaine, and Kyle Schmidt (local hero for life) to graduation. On the blue line UMD was hurt in my opinion even more. With the loss of Justin Faulk, (professional) Mike Montgomery, Trent Palm, and Chad Huettel to graduation. 3 of those guys were every game players. That is a lot to give up when you aren't bringing in blue chippers to replace them.
Who is back?
Goalies: Reiter, Aaron Crandall, and Gaffy.
Defense: Bergman, Kishel, Lamb, McManus, and Olson
Forwards: Basaraba, Brown, J Connolly, Danberg, Delisle, Flaherty, Grun, Hendrickson, Oleksuk, Seidel, and Tardy
New Comers: Casto (D), Justin Crandall (F), Herbert (F), Johnson (D), Krause (F), Smith (D).
Tonight UMD played Lake head, here are what the lines were to start the game, courtesy of Bruce Ciskie.
Forwards:Danberg-Connolly-Seidel
Delisle-Oleksuk-Basaraba
Herbert-Hendrickson-Grun
Crandal-Krause-Flaherty
Defense:Bergman-Lamb
Kishel-Casto
Olson-Johnson
McManus-Smith
Brown was out, suspension for being a bone head. Seriously, everyone that went to UMD knows there is 1 bar on this planet you don't walk into with a fake ID, and that is Grandma's Sports Garden. DUDE, a cop works the door. Not to mention you are a well known figure in Duluth. Seriously Brown, stupid, and you're lucky coach didn't do what he probably should have done and that is suspend you for the 1st regular season game.
Tardy was out with an injury but it sounded precautionary.
So what do I think the lines will look like game 1? Glad you asked. And if you didn't ask, I don't care.
1st Line:Danberg-Connolly-Brown ( I like Seidel here, only because Brown doesn't need Jack's help scoring goals and I like Brown with T.O. But after a conversation with Bruce, sounds like Brown is going to get 1st crack)
2nd line:Seidel-Oleksuk-Basaraba
3rd line:Herbert-Hendrickson-Grun
4th line:Delise-Tardy-Flaherty
I believe Krause and Crandall will rotate in with Flaherty and Delisle for Saturday nights to start.
D-1:Lamb-Bergman - no questions here
D-2:Olson-Johnson - Olson for sure, and they like how Johnson is a stay at home guy, let Olson pinch a bit.
D-3:McManus-Casto - This one is a shot in the dark. McManus is an old Defenseman, and Casto is the best of the rest. I just don't trust Kishel. Don't know anything about Smith. This very well could be Kishel-Smith.
Goalies:Reiter will start about 75% of the games the 1st 3/4 of the year, with Crandall getting the other 25%. After that, they will ride their horse, Reiter.
Some top questions:
1. Will Delise ever live up to his thought of potential? My opinion is the guy can't skate, and this is a skaters league. He just looks akward being that big and skates funny. If he fixed this during the off season, and he starts to take his big body to the net, he could have a huge year, but I just don't see it happens. Rumors were he was on the verge of being cut, but with the lose of Mike Connolly early, they kept him. Once again, just speculations. I'm a show me guy, so prove me wrong Delisle, as I really want to see it.
2. Will Basaraba have the sophmore year we expected from him his freshman year? My thoughts are yes. In fact, I am going to go as far to say he will be with Jack Connolly by the end of the season. I really like the way this kid plays hockey.
3. What happened to Kishel? He came in here with some good hype, but he just doesn't live up to the bill.
4. Who is going to replace Faulk as the QB of the powerplay? Before UMD won the national title, this would have been Mike Connolly, but he is gone too. So my thought is we are going to see it start out with Lamb, but Lamb is a hammer shooter, not really a see the ice guy. This most likely will be Bergman by the end of the year. But don't sleep on Olson here either.
5. Which Kenny Reiter will show up? When we went into the post season, I was actually on the Reiter bandwagon, where most of you know me as Mr. Negative. But take a look at Reiter in ever big game he has played in during the post season. When we needed to win a game at the Final 5 two years ago to make the NCAA's, Reiter kept UMD in the game against UND, losing 2-1. Then when we thought we were going down the same road last year with SCSU coming to town for the playoffs, Reiter shut them down. Yeah, brain fart in the Final 5, but that was a team brain fart. Then we saw what he did in the NCAA's. If Reiter keeps focused, he will have a big year, but I think the old regular season Reiter shows up and we get some brilliant games, and some brain fart games.
6. Where is my ring? Seriously coach, I got the $400, where is my order form?
Some Predictions:
1. Seidel has a big year. I see Seidel with 15 goals this year. He is old, gritty, and should be a top 6 forward.
2. Basaraba also gets 15 goals, and a 30 point season. Yep, I just like this kid.
3. Lamb finally gets the double goal plateau. The guy has a howitzer for a shot, if he starts getting it through traffic, watch out.
4. Hendrickson has a 15+ assist year. I think he is ready for the next step.
5. Delisle continues to disappoint. Unless he fixed his skating and grew a pair in the offseason, same old Delisle. Once again, please prove me wrong. I want to see you succeed.
6. JT goes for 50 points this year and in the process else boosts Connolly to my next prediction.
7. If the UMD marketing department gets their head out of their ass and starts day 1 with the promotion of Jack Connolly, Mr. Connolly will make the Hobey Hatrick this year, and win it with another near 60 point year.
So where will we finish? Well, I see us as a 5th place team. Like I said we lost too much. It will go DU, CC, UND, Gophers (puke) and UMD. UNO is right there, in fact UNO, UMD and the gophers will fight out those 4-6 spots.
So this is my piece for now, I will post a 1st series preview by Thursday.
Some final thoughts on 2010-2011. To my good friends on this site, beersong, heiz, Boody26, sando, and the rest of the tPB founding members, WHAT A YEAR! We finally got to crack the bottle of crown we should have drank in 2004. I can tell you, that outside of the birth of my twins and my wife being foolish enough to say "I DO," there is nothing that compares to last season. I still get goosbumps, I still watch the OT goal before bed 5 times a week. This is as good as it gets, and I hate to say this, but with the changing of college hockey, it will probably be 20 more years before we get to celebrate this again. So dog fans, as a former Vikings head coach once said "ENJOY THE SEASON." Because until April 7th, your squad is still the national champions. Everytime a Sioux fan says "7", a bucky fan says "6" and a gopher fan says "5," just say "hey, I'm sorry what was that, this giant national championship banner was plugging my ear, while a ring was in the other." Bottom line is we are the champions, it wasn't a fluke. UMD had 10 loses last year. Only 3 teams had less loses. UMD belonged there, UMD deserved to be there, and UMD seized the moment. So, one last time "ENJOY THE SEASON." Because god knows, the Vikings/Twins/T-wolves/gopher football aren't letting us enjoy the season.
I would also appreciate some good feedback on this article. Feel free to post your feedback, or PM me if you feel that is your route.
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 19 comments Post your comment
I will be doing a weekly column soon, starting with a season preview I hope. I am not an English major, I am in sales. So if you're looking for grammar and correct spelling, look elsewhere.
Posted by: DrunkHockeyGuy on Saturday, October 1st, 2011 2 comments Post your comment
Schmidt's Goal Puts Bulldogs Into Title Club
There are a number of ways you could break down the game tonight. Power play, faceoff percentage, or even defensive zone coverage. But simply put, Duluth was the stronger team tonight, and it showed in OT. The line that Michigan had out in said overtime just couldn't get off the ice, and it cost them dearly. Kyle Schmidt tapped home a pass from Travis Oleksuk and the party started on the ice and in Duluth, a 3 - 2 win for the Bulldogs, giving them their first ever NCAA mens hockey title.
Posted by: Jupiter on Saturday, October 1st, 2011 0 comments Post your comment