Sunday Potpourri: Cart Before The Horse

There should be enough tangible positives in the Seawolves early season to satisfy even the most jaded fan. The record is 5-2-1. 5 of the top 13 individual scoring statistic positions in the WCHA belong to Seawolves (Lunden, Bales, Clark, Crowder and Grant). The power play is 1st in the WCHA; if you eliminate the ECAC teams (they've mostly all played only one game), UAA's power play is 4th in the nation. Guys are scoring who should be scoring. Goaltending is improved. And guys we had no idea could contribute are contributing. After 4 league games the Seawolves are in the upper half of the league table. All good. No complaints here about any of that or any of the other positives associated with this nice start. And here comes the but; the Seawolves haven't played "anyone" yet.

Anyone is a damn tough opponent. Who'd have thought they'd be having the season they are having? So let's not put the cart before the horse eh? Talk to me after UAA beats them. Who the hell is anyone? Um ... Minnesota is anyone. Denver is anyone. Colorado College is anyone. North Dakota might not be anyone but they're working on it. Mankato isn't quite anyone. Wisconsin is a perennial anyone that can't be overlooked. St. Cloud isn't anyone but they are nobody. The point should be clear. Every upcoming contest is going to be a harder test than anyone UAA has played thus far.

There are lessons from this latest weekend of hockey to be learned. The most obvious is that the Seawolves have to find a way to reduce the number of penalties they are taking. They must do this while not changing anything about the way they are competing though. I thought the biggest positive from the first 4 league games has been the consistent effort and consistent competition that the Seawolves have brought to the ice. There hasn't been any evidence of quit in the team. Getting to a puck early in the 1st period has been just as important as getting to one late in the 3rd. The WCHA demands 100% effort every night and so far the Seawolves have come damn close to that.

Some might argue that some of the penalties we've seen called were "lazy" penalties but I see them as extra-effort penalties; especially the so-called "stick" fouls. The hooking, slashing and cross-checking all seemed to occur when a Seawolf player was simply going that extra mile to make a play. One can't always be in a perfect position to deal with an opponent, so sometimes an individual Seawolf or another has "stretched" themselves to make a play. This year such efforts are frowned upon by the referees. So I say the focus should be on trying to make sure UAA players are in a good enough position that committing an infraction isn't an option. Sure the guys have to have the discipline to realize that if they're caught behind an opponent to not put their stick on the guy. But let's just not get out of position in the first place eh?

I think the penalty killing has been brilliant. The numbers aren't anything spectacular but I blame that on depending on it too often. A regular shift last about 40 seconds and there are 5 skaters on the ice. A penalty kill shift can easily last 60 seconds and there are 20% fewer teammates to help out. The back-to-back pk's and the multiple 5-on-3's in a period can tend to take a lot of energy. It's forced Shyiak et al .. to rotate in players that don't get a lot of pk practice time. I view it as excellent experience. As the season rolls along the Seawolves will take fewer penalties and will benefit from this early onslaught of shorthandedness. I'm certain we fans will see more shorties than past years as a result. Rested penalty killers are definitely more dangerous than tired ones.

Shyaik and company deserve credit for a smart coaching job this weekend. They went to Houghton determined to play a tight defensive series and they accomplished that in spades. The backchecking was great. The defenseman did a stellar job clearing loose pucks out of their end. Neither Michigan Tech nor Duluth could manage a real 5-on-5 goal against the Seawolves (Duluth scored one 5 seconds after a penalty and MTU scored one 1 second after a penalty). That is an impressive accomplishment. Yes, it isn't an "official" accomplishment. So what? Unofficially not allowing two WCHA opponents over 4 games to score 5-on-5 is something to toot the horn about. It is stellar. Meanwhile 6 of UAA's 9 goals over the past two weekends have come 5-on-5. The Seawolves have straight up outplayed and outchanced both of their early WCHA foes in 5-on-5 hockey. There is no denying it.

One question this week will be whether or not Bryce Christianson has separated himself enough to warrant calling him the #1 goaltender. There hasn't really been anything negative in Jonny O's play. I think he was out of position slightly in one instance against UMD. Other than that he has been very solid. The question then is ... has Bryce been a cut above very solid? I wouldn't begin to argue with anyone that says Bryce's performance on Saturday was the difference for the Seawolves. Did he "steal the game"? Perhaps so. It's difficult to argue with his success. Bryce is 3-0-1 and Jonny O is 2-2. But Friday games and Saturday games are often vastly different animals. In my mind, I can see justification for continuing a rotation but I couldn't object with the concept of Bryce getting both starts this weekend. I'm not guessing what Shyiak will do in this case. At this point, I think the team can win with either guy in the crease.

There was a crapload of college hockey on the TV this weekend. DU couldn't get a win versus CC in their first series of the year. I wasn't impressed with the "team" effort by either squad from what I saw this weekend. It looked like two games of individuals (I have to say I didn't see either game in full). There is more than a fair amount of talent on both of those teams. I think the Gophers blew it big time on Friday night versus Mankato. They apparently forgot they were going up against Chuck Wepner and fancy dipsy-do-da ain't gonna get it down against a junkyard dog. They corrected that on Saturday night and dominated by spreading the game out somewhat even though it was on a smaller surface than the Friday game (Friday was on the big sheet at Mariucci and Saturday was on an NHL rink). Someone needs to give Mazzaco and Woog (and FSN) some tissue paper eh? They need to wipe their mouths off from all the oral pleasuring they gave to rookie Jordan Schroeder this weekend. The whole broadcast should have been rated XXX. I thought the whole Larry Craig incident put an end to such depravity in Minneapolis. Seriously, could they have blown the kid any more than they did?

I think North Dakota and Wisconsin both showed their weaknesses this weekend. Neither team "earned" the split so much as ceded a game to the other. I didn't see any of that action but rink reports were fairly clear. North Dakota's goaltending isn't up to snuff and Wisconsin's offense needs a lot of work. Duluth pounded St. Cloud. Not that I'm a Duluth-backer in any sense but any team giving St. Cloud a dose of humility is a team I'm going to compliment. Of course, Motzko couldn't have enough class to give credit to his opponent; instead he called his own team a yo-yo. He is such a pure wanker; he says stupider stuff than Craig Dahl.

So let us not get ahead of ourselves. We can enjoy the early success but we have to temper that with the knowledge that every succeeding weekend in the WCHA usually brings a tougher challenge than the week before. Mankato is next and they are always a difficult opponent to play against; particularly for the Seawolves. They'll be hungry for some WCHA points.