Is this thing on?
The 2nd half of the season is here. I'm spurred to write since I'm watching the Gophers versus Brown (the Gophs just scored their 1st) on the tube. I guess it makes me feel like the long long break is nearly over. It has been 39 days since the Seawolves last played in the Sullivan Arena and there's another week to go in the break. NCAA hockey is unique. It is the only league where any good hockey player over the age of 16 plays less than 40 games in a season. The season is just about as long as any other league (October to April) but a kid's got to get an education eh? I mention all this because it occurs to me that such few games and the oft occurring long breaks between seeing games live greatly contibutes to hugely inflated anticipation. I doubt there's a College Hockey fan that hasn't felt like they were "dying to" see their team play at some point.
But yeah ... UAA's break has been remarkable even with the already unique NCAA scheduling circumstances. More than 5 weeks between games isn't a new thing for the Seawolves. Over the years we've seen schedules more similar to this than dissimilar. As the 2nd most travelled D1 hockey school I think it is smart to have the long break. A couple of days of hard workouts (on and off the ice) ought to bring everyone's fitness back so that shouldn't be an issue. Rink rust? Maybe a period's worth I say. Having the time for all the nicks to heal? That's a big positive in favor of the long break. The Seawolves haven't had a dearth of injuries but just the same it helps to start the 2nd half just about as fresh as you started the season. I'm saying that just as we are "dying to" see them play ... that the guys will be "dying" to play. Should be bad news for the BADgers. But no reason to start previewing that series yet.
End of the 1st in the Gopher/Brown game. Brown hanging in nicely ... down just 1-0. It hasn't been a happy holiday season for a lot of WCHA teams. Mankato leads the list having dropped 6 straight games including non-conference losses to Princeton and Ylae. St. Cloud is on a 4 game winless streak including a loss to Cornell and a tie with Maine in non-conference action. The Sioux embarrassed the WCHA with a loss to Michigan State. Michigan Tech is 3-1 in it's last 4 beating hated rival Northern Michigan twice and the aforementioned Susies in a rare non-conference meeting. CC continued to fuck up the WCHA's PWR numbers adding a tie with Sacred Heart to add to two earlier ties with Clarkson along with getting PWND by Air Force. The freaking EZAC looks like they could get more NCAA bids than the WCHA this year?
Anyway, UAA is among 4 WCHA teams that have only played 12 conference games. The standings show the Seawolves tied for 8th place. But that is only 6 points away from being tied for 3rd place. The Seawolves have their fate in their own hands and the opportunity for success is within their grasp. It is necessary to mention the recent history of 2nd halves in order to expose the opportunity. Past Seawolf teams have dramatically faltered during the 2nd half and those performances have been the season downfall. I'm sure the staff wants the team to focus on the game at hand and not concern themselves with such things but just the same ... every player on this team needs to be aware so that anything less than 100% effort doesn't happen. Every guy lacing them up quite honestly needs to perform better in the 2nd half than they have in the 1st half. Don't get me wrong. The 1st half has been decent. But I won't go further up the adjective chain from the word decent. It hasn't been great. There are NO laurels to rest on. From here on out there is a tough series EVERY weekend until the WCHA playoffs. Each one will be more important than the one preceeding it.
4-0 now for the Gophs. The shoulders of every Brown player just slumped substantially. Even if the Gopher just float the rest of the way they'll win this game. Brown has barely created an offensive chance. Sigh. I don't ever want the Gophers to win but at least they're taking care of non-conference business. I've contemplated the purpose of the Doug Woog's "thousand yard stare" into the TV camera. I'm convinced he thinks the camera is stealing his soul. Either that or he is secretly communicating telepathically with his home planet. Hey FSN ... less face time for Doug and Rug between periods eh?
4-2 now with about 15 minutes left in the third. Hillers said between periods that he told the team to "respect" the game and play just like they would play if it was a Frozen Four game versus BC. No doubt BC fans are loving this example. Credit though to Brown who've seemed at least to have found some heart. About 3 minutes to go and it's been 5-2 for about 7 minutes or so. Brown tried to sneak their goalie out ... lol. Why? Now they've taken him off again? Pointless. Except it's always fun to watch Stoa miss on a fairly easy open net chance.
So that's that. Expect the usual posting frequency.
The 2nd half of the season is here. I'm spurred to write since I'm watching the Gophers versus Brown (the Gophs just scored their 1st) on the tube. I guess it makes me feel like the long long break is nearly over. It has been 39 days since the Seawolves last played in the Sullivan Arena and there's another week to go in the break. NCAA hockey is unique. It is the only league where any good hockey player over the age of 16 plays less than 40 games in a season. The season is just about as long as any other league (October to April) but a kid's got to get an education eh? I mention all this because it occurs to me that such few games and the oft occurring long breaks between seeing games live greatly contibutes to hugely inflated anticipation. I doubt there's a College Hockey fan that hasn't felt like they were "dying to" see their team play at some point.
But yeah ... UAA's break has been remarkable even with the already unique NCAA scheduling circumstances. More than 5 weeks between games isn't a new thing for the Seawolves. Over the years we've seen schedules more similar to this than dissimilar. As the 2nd most travelled D1 hockey school I think it is smart to have the long break. A couple of days of hard workouts (on and off the ice) ought to bring everyone's fitness back so that shouldn't be an issue. Rink rust? Maybe a period's worth I say. Having the time for all the nicks to heal? That's a big positive in favor of the long break. The Seawolves haven't had a dearth of injuries but just the same it helps to start the 2nd half just about as fresh as you started the season. I'm saying that just as we are "dying to" see them play ... that the guys will be "dying" to play. Should be bad news for the BADgers. But no reason to start previewing that series yet.
End of the 1st in the Gopher/Brown game. Brown hanging in nicely ... down just 1-0. It hasn't been a happy holiday season for a lot of WCHA teams. Mankato leads the list having dropped 6 straight games including non-conference losses to Princeton and Ylae. St. Cloud is on a 4 game winless streak including a loss to Cornell and a tie with Maine in non-conference action. The Sioux embarrassed the WCHA with a loss to Michigan State. Michigan Tech is 3-1 in it's last 4 beating hated rival Northern Michigan twice and the aforementioned Susies in a rare non-conference meeting. CC continued to fuck up the WCHA's PWR numbers adding a tie with Sacred Heart to add to two earlier ties with Clarkson along with getting PWND by Air Force. The freaking EZAC looks like they could get more NCAA bids than the WCHA this year?
Anyway, UAA is among 4 WCHA teams that have only played 12 conference games. The standings show the Seawolves tied for 8th place. But that is only 6 points away from being tied for 3rd place. The Seawolves have their fate in their own hands and the opportunity for success is within their grasp. It is necessary to mention the recent history of 2nd halves in order to expose the opportunity. Past Seawolf teams have dramatically faltered during the 2nd half and those performances have been the season downfall. I'm sure the staff wants the team to focus on the game at hand and not concern themselves with such things but just the same ... every player on this team needs to be aware so that anything less than 100% effort doesn't happen. Every guy lacing them up quite honestly needs to perform better in the 2nd half than they have in the 1st half. Don't get me wrong. The 1st half has been decent. But I won't go further up the adjective chain from the word decent. It hasn't been great. There are NO laurels to rest on. From here on out there is a tough series EVERY weekend until the WCHA playoffs. Each one will be more important than the one preceeding it.
4-0 now for the Gophs. The shoulders of every Brown player just slumped substantially. Even if the Gopher just float the rest of the way they'll win this game. Brown has barely created an offensive chance. Sigh. I don't ever want the Gophers to win but at least they're taking care of non-conference business. I've contemplated the purpose of the Doug Woog's "thousand yard stare" into the TV camera. I'm convinced he thinks the camera is stealing his soul. Either that or he is secretly communicating telepathically with his home planet. Hey FSN ... less face time for Doug and Rug between periods eh?
4-2 now with about 15 minutes left in the third. Hillers said between periods that he told the team to "respect" the game and play just like they would play if it was a Frozen Four game versus BC. No doubt BC fans are loving this example. Credit though to Brown who've seemed at least to have found some heart. About 3 minutes to go and it's been 5-2 for about 7 minutes or so. Brown tried to sneak their goalie out ... lol. Why? Now they've taken him off again? Pointless. Except it's always fun to watch Stoa miss on a fairly easy open net chance.
So that's that. Expect the usual posting frequency.
3 comments:
It's been way too long since we've seen the Seawolves play. Hopefully they'll take care of business against the Badgers, who lost to last place Northern Michigan tonight.
Nothing like a little Monty Python clip to lighten my day.
Monty Python is as awesome as the Seawolves. GO SEAWOLVES!!!! ! Good luck in the second half. Happy New Year everyone.
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