Awesome news...thanks for the link, Oilers Chick! Yeah, the D for the Badgers has potential for greatness next year if they gel. On paper this is one of the deepest bluelines in a long time. Gardiner is projected to be 1st rounder in this year's draft, which would make 3 1st rounders patrolling the blueline. Not too shabby. Offense from the blueline shouldn't be a problem.
I was more worried about McBain bailing than McDonagh. Habs scout Trevor Timmons said he likes to see guys dominate at the level they are in before they call them up. McD had a good year on a team that never really found it's stride, but not a standout year. Plus Mtl has guys like Subban, Cote, and O'Byrne in the pipeline on the backline so there is no real urgency to get him to Hamilton.
Man, it's going to be a long wait to see the puck drop.
Thanks, O-Chick. Your dilligence in reporting all things NCAA hockey are always appreciated AND congratulations to Montreal for being the 100th poster on the prestigious Badgers Board. For your dubious achievment you will recieve a Badgerland care package of 1 pound of garlic dill cheese curds, a 6 pack of PBR (it won a blue ribbon 115 years ago!) and a bottle of Tums...enjoy!
Hickkey will be a nice addition, but it does make somewhat of a logjam for players vying for ice time. I hope the inter-squad competition stokes the players' competitive streak this year.
I'm stoked to get the season under way after seeing 5 Badgers go in the first 2 rounds of the draft...4 of them defensemen! The Badger backline is going to be a nightmare for opposing teams for years to come. 113 more days to Badger Hockey!
Last edited by RabidBadger: 06-21-2008 at 11:24 AM.
What's up with Patrick Wiercioch? I've heard rumors both ways...him going to Wisconsin, him going back to Omaha for another year of juniors.
USCHO and CHN have him listed as incoming, so I'm assuming that's the case. If he opted for another year of juniors I wouldn't blame him since UW is carrying 3 or 4 players over the usual roster size and the defense is stacked.
Allright, I'm tired of waiting for the preseason team reports so I'm taKING the Badgers report into my own hands. Gird your loins and here we go....
WHO LEFT: Davis Drewiske, Kyle Turris, Matt Ford, Kyle Klubertantz and sentimental favorite Josh Engel. Thanks to the seniors who had a great career and best of luck to Turris in the bigs. Losing Turris hurts but the losses are not insurmountable.
WHO'S COMING IN : Jake Gardiner (Bob McKenzie thought he was the fastest skater in this year's draft), Derek Stepan, Pat Wiercioch, Jordy Murray, Matt Thurber, Ryan Little and Eric Springer. The 1st 4 have the potential to be impact players their 1st year.
OFFENSE: The Badger offense is not going to strike fear into anyone. There are no stars, but solid depth with Ben Street, Blake Geoffrion, M. Davies and Patrick Johnson. John Mitchell should be a solid contributor and Jordy Murray should approximate what P. Johnson did last year. Derek Stapan has potential to be an offensive catylist. The offense will be good enough to win but not a powerhouse.
DEFENSE: Gardiner, McDonagh and Brendan Smith are 1st round draft choices. Goloubef, McBain and Wiercioch are second rounders. There is no guarantee this crew will gel, but you are probably deluding yourself if you think your teams defense will be better than this. Craig Johnson is a solid compliment to a stellar core. The only knock on this crew is their youth. McBain got all the kudos last year but Brendan Smith is the real star of the bunch. He was on pace to match McBain last year in points until he went down with an injury. Points from the blueline shouldn't be a problem next year.
GOALTENDING: Shane Connelly has quietly put together a good career at UW. He kept the team afloat his frosh year when the mighty Brian Elliot went down with injury, was stellar as a backup his soph year, and played fairly steadily in front of a young defense and a team that never gelled last year. He has a better supporting cast in front of him this year. He's not stellar but he's solid enough to steal a couple games. Gudmandson needs more starts this year; he should make a capable backup. Connelly won't screw the team with weak goals, he usually makes the saves he needs to.
X-FACTORS: 1) Blake Geoffrion can do it all when he's motivated...score, kill penalties, win critical faceoffs and be a nightmare defensively. He needs to be consistent. He looked like he was floating half the games last year and nearly 20% of his point production came during the Bob Morris series. He was entrusted as a co-captain this year so he needs to be all-out every game. 2) We'll see if Brendan Smith has recovered from his injury to lead the D. 3) Special teams need to be better. The PP was caca and worse, the penalty kill, a hallmark of Badger hockey, was abyssmal. It's one thing the PP couldn't score but they let Chad Rau cement his legend as a short handed threat last year. 4) Eaves needs to have confidence in his team. He went into some bizarre sit-on-the-lead tactic against NoDak in the playoffs and it cost them. This year there will be more depth and experience so hopefully they are coached to their abilities.
OUTLOOK: This is a solid team that has the potential to beat anyone. The schedule will be brutal but they should make the tourney again. League play will be tough since the WCHA teams should be more resolute after last years epic collapse in the playoffs. UW won't be a prohibitive favorite to win a championship but they could do some damage in the playoffs.
My wish list for the year (and it's a long one): get the best of The Goofs and those thugs from Grand Forks, punk out Michigan in The Showcase, and put the uppity Huskies and Tigers back in their place as patsies. Oh yeah, beating BC at Chestnut Hill to start the year would be pretty okay, too.
Wisconsin has received committment from Madison native, late '93 born, Defenseman Jordan Schmaltz for Chicago Mission mm's. Tall Defenseman who skates extremely well, has perfected passing and seeing the ice for a Defenseman, can lead an attack and powerplay. Very good decision maker. Great pick-up for Badgers in 4 years.
What will the defensive depth chart and pairings look like this year? PP units? PK Units?
For any team it is nice to play the pairing game. But with a coach like Eaves, the best players at that time will play in key spots. Chemistry is huge in the NCAA. Some guys while not always big names have great chemistry with one another and play better as a unit than two guys with more talent. For Eaves, Nigel Williams is a great example. He was more talented, just did not work hard and fit in quite right.
NCAA teams do not have the luxury of a pre season. So the first few non-conference games, maybe a exibition game vs a CIS team or national team and thats it. So no one knows right off the bat who will play where. So right around Christmas break is usually when lines settle in. So even after its on paper for week one. Most of the time it does not stick.
What will the defensive depth chart and pairings look like this year? PP units? PK Units?
My best guess with depth and pairings on the D are:
1) McBaIN and 2) McDonagh together
3) Gouloubef and 4) Smith
5) Gardiner and a rotation of Springer and Craig Johnson in the 6th spot. I'm assuming everyone knows Wiercioch bailed on his verbal commitment to UW and will play for the Pioneers.
It depends on how well Smith healed and trained in the offseason. It wouldn't be improbable for Gardiner to find his way to the 2nd line, McDonagh started out in the top pairing last year.
As for the PK and PP, which were both terrible lst year, MN_Gopher said it best about it being too early to tell. I would figure Smith and Gardiner to figure in on the PP with Springer and Gouloubef and Johnson on the PK. The top pairing can do it all.
Bill Howard is stepping down as goalie coach for the Badgers. This is A) a bummer, the guy is a king-maker having had 8 all-american goalies during his tenure. Now Bucky may have to worry about goaltending for the first time since most of us have been alive. And this is B) bad timing with the season starting in 48 days.
Best of luck to Howie. He was responsible as anyone for UWs rise as a hockey power and he was on staff for all 6 championships. I hope he has a protege he is turning the reins over to or that Rollie Melanson wants to relocate to the balmy climes of Madison from Montreal.
Looking forward to following the Badgers this year. It's been ... 40 years since I saw them play live. Bob Poffenroth, Murray Heatly, Wayne Thomas are still names I fondly remember seeing from behind the fence at Dane County Coleseum. I was back this summer for a family reunion and had a tour of the Kohl, an awesome facility!
Anyway, I don't suppose there's any live feeds, so please talk it up for me
Welcome aboard, xMenace. It should be a good season for Bucky despite one of the best defensive prospects bailing for Denver and the departure of the best goalie coach in NCAA hockey. 3rd place in the WCHA is realistic for the team. I'd put the team in the lower half of the top ten teams talent-wise. The defense is peerless. They could go on a deep run if they make the tournament this year.
Any word on whether or not Stepan cracks the top 6?
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"Here we can see the agression of american people. They love fighting and guns. when they wont win they try to kill us all." -HalfOfFame
Any word on whether or not Stepan cracks the top 6?
Just a note - Stepan got one vote in the medias poll for potential rookie of the year candidates:
Rookie Of The Year
Player (votes)
Joe Colborne, Denver (7)
Aaron Ness, Minnesota (5)
Jordan Schroeder, Minnesota (5)
Jake Gardiner, Wisconsin (2)
Jason Gregoire, North Dakota (1)
Derek Stepan, Wisconsin (1)
David Toews, North Dakota (1)
Any word on whether or not Stepan cracks the top 6?
Here are the lines Eaves rolled the 1st practice, I don't have an update beyond this:
Turnbull-Street-Stepan
P. Johnson-Geoffrion-Davies
Mitchell-Dolan-Murray
Thurber-Bendickson-Grotting
Bohmbach-Gorowsky-Hickey/Bardis
McDonagh-McBain
Gardiner-Goloubef
Little-Smith
C. Johnson-Springer
Thanks for the post, Bluenote. I think Stepan has a better shot at Rookie honors than Gardiner. It's harder for a D-man to make the adjustment to college and Gards is a converted forward. Stepan and David Toews have been somewhat flying under the radar in the WCHA
Well, what a disastrous start! Hockey East pretty well had their way with the 2 WCHA teams, but it wasn't all bad:
The good: The offense did what it needed to do. They were pretty well stymied by UNHs goalie last night but generated plenty of quality chances. The new kids looked good. Jordy Murray had a good weekend and Springer and Little did well but made some freshaman mistakes. Not bad for your 1st game being against the #1 team. Connelly was outstanding on Friday in goal considering he was pretty much left on his own by the D. Gudmandson made some key saves but I think he lost his edge by being similarly abandoned by his team.
The bad: The defense didn't realize you shut down opponents by reputation alone. They were sloppy and careless both games.
The downright nasty: the powerplay flat out sucked posting a big goose egg for the weekend. Not only that, they fell into last seasons bad habits of giving up short handed breakaways. The penalty kill was equally atrocious.
I'll be happy if the team manages to break even in October. They'll need a much better effort next week or DU will flog them.
Well, what a disastrous start! Hockey East pretty well had their way with the 2 WCHA teams, but it wasn't all bad:
The good: The offense did what it needed to do. They were pretty well stymied by UNHs goalie last night but generated plenty of quality chances. The new kids looked good. Jordy Murray had a good weekend and Springer and Little did well but made some freshaman mistakes. Not bad for your 1st game being against the #1 team. Connelly was outstanding on Friday in goal considering he was pretty much left on his own by the D. Gudmandson made some key saves but I think he lost his edge by being similarly abandoned by his team.
The bad: The defense didn't realize you shut down opponents by reputation alone. They were sloppy and careless both games.
The downright nasty: the powerplay flat out sucked posting a big goose egg for the weekend. Not only that, they fell into last seasons bad habits of giving up short handed breakaways. The penalty kill was equally atrocious.
I'll be happy if the team manages to break even in October. They'll need a much better effort next week or DU will flog them.
I can see being beaten by BC, but UNH??? No disrespect to the Wildcats fans here but, I thought Bucky would win the back end of this road trip.
Looking forward to catching DU & UW this coming weekend. It should be a good one.
Well, it was certainly interesting, but a heartbreaking loss for the Badgers.
First off a few words on DU: I like this team's balance up front. I knew that they would be coming into the season. And I think Wisconsin may regret letting Wiercioch go to DU. He was fantastic tonight!
Now some Bucky observations: It was very clear that all the rule changes wreaked havoc on both teams, but especially on Wisconsin.
I thought Connelly played great tonight, especially in the opening two periods. This one could've been much worse than just a 6-5 loss if it weren't for Connelly.
Jake has been everything I'd hoped for so far and he hasn't disappointed me. He still has a few things to work on, but I'm loving what I'm seeing out of him already. [Note to all the Gardiner-bashing Ducks fans here at HF: He's REALLY, REALLY good! Just open your eyes and watch him!!!]
I'd liked what I saw out of Cody from a physicality standpoint, but I'd like to see him be a bit more disciplined. I think (or hoping) that it'll come as the season goes along. If he can find a balance between being physical and being disciplined, then that'll add a whole new dimension to his and Bucky's defense.
I thought the Wisconsin PK for the most part looked very good. Again, some kinks need to be worked out, but it looks good in the early going.
Right now, the thing that is concerning me is that against both DU and BC last week was the Badgers have to find a way to win these close games. Tonight, they had DU on the ropes for a time, but DU found a way to get back into it, even with Testwuide's ejection. If Wisconsin expects to be able to compete with the big boys of D-I, they have to be able to play to win, not play to not lose. I think as the team, particularly the defense tightens up more, I think it'll be better. At least that's what I'm hoping for. I saw many good things tonight out of the Badgers, but I also some things that they REALLY need to work on too.
AND congratulations to Montreal for being the 100th poster on the prestigious Badgers Board. For your dubious achievment you will recieve a Badgerland care package of 1 pound of garlic dill cheese curds, a 6 pack of PBR (it won a blue ribbon 115 years ago!) and a bottle of Tums...enjoy!
The Badger backline is going to be a nightmare for opposing teams for years to come. 113 more days to Badger Hockey!
