Monday, January 08, 2007

If You've Got Nothing Good To Say

Then you ought to say nothing. So that's what I did. Why clutter this space with my disappointment? Since the end of the game Saturday night until now I've purposely and successfully avoided thinking about hockey by avoiding every source. I haven't read the paper or looked at a hockey related website. I haven't looked at my email. How disappointed was I? Too disappointed. Why was I so disappointed? Because I had unrealistic expectations. Expectations that I promulgated here. I was pretty damn sure the Seawolves would come out of St. Cloud with some points. How did I get so sure? I let myself forget some of the inconsistent play we've seen this year. But the team clearly played hard. There were bright spots.

I have no objective analysis to offer as to why the team lost. So I've decided I'm going to forego the overly optimistic crap and redouble my efforts toward not getting so emotionally involved in the outcome of games. The players have accomplished lots of their goals this season. And the work they're putting in whether they win or lose will have it's benefits later in the season. The reality is there are only 24 points left available to the team. And the Seawolves might have to snag as many as three quarters of them to bag a home ice spot in the playoffs. It's a tall order when half of those are on the road and they've gone 2-6 in the last eight WCHA games. The WCHA mantra of "Win at Home and Split on the Road" is entirely applicable now to the goal of a home ice playoff series. Like I said ... It's a tall order. The next two weekends will be telling as they play two teams that are also hungry for points in MTU and UND. Then they get to follow those tough series with a visit from the Gophers? It never gets any easier does it?

Now I'll go read all the stuff I didn't read before.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did virtually the same thing after the 4-1 loss on Sat. I did watch the MSU-M / UM game yesterday but that was it. I felt we would get some points this weekend. We played well enough but couldn't finish it. What I got from this weekend is that we can skate with anybody in the WCHA, but can we beat everybody? I dunno. What we could use is some better goalie play at times. We need to have our goalies "steal" a game from time to time. You know, that stellar performance where they stand on their head and shut out the opponent or give up just a lone goal. We really haven't seen that kind of play for the last two years. We could sure use that kin of play sometime in the next month or two.

Anonymous said...

dude, I believe only one game has been stolen by a UAA goalie this year, and that was when Olthuis stopped 44 of 48 shots at CC.

Anonymous said...

Seawolve fans had to be disappointed that the guys didn't win and get any points for the weekend. Friday night was the game they should have won but no sense dwelling on what should have been. I still believe this team can play with any team in the WCHA and can still have a good season and show a big improvement over last season. They lost two games but I didn't see a team that gave up although the intensity wasn't what was needed to come back saturday night. Wins this weekend against ND will tell if the team can climb into the top five. I think they can.

Jeff said...

One thing that would help us out on the road games, would be to get to the other teams home town earlier. I was at the airport in anchorage thursday morning checking in to get my ticket home, and i turned around and saw the whole uaa team checking in their gear for their flight. I was dissapointed because i knew they needed to get their earlier than the night before their game. I heard they didnt fly back up after the st cloud series, so they should be ready to face an angry UND team

Donald Dunlop said...

I'm never fond of the travel excuse. There were a lot of excuses for the two losses. Some of the excuses were actually no-excuse excuses. Next weekend there'll be no excuses. And if the team plays up to its potential then (even if Todd Anderson referees) they'll win.

Anonymous said...

UAA is getting excellent production from the freshmen, who have tallied for a combined 12 goals and 28 assists this year. They still need some upperclassmen to step up. Tarkir and Waldrop have one goal, Lowe has 2, and Lovdahl has 0. Lovdahl has a rocket of a shot from the blueline and the players need to get him the puck more often. He was the highest scoring defenseman in the USHL two years in a row.

The leadership from the seniors has been outstanding, but I wish they could contribute a little more in scoring. Bourne has been fantastic, having a Martin Stuchlik kind of senior year.

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