Blog vacation over. Bummer sorta for me. But hockey this weekend against MTU should get me back into the required mode. There is more to touch on than I hoped there would be. Mickey Spencer is no longer on the team. Everyone always wants to know the background when one of these departures occurs. I'm not privy to any details. Nor should I be. Here's a fact about college hockey; players leave their teams sometimes. And it's for a variety of reasons.
There are any number of things we fans can suppose as to the circumstances. It doesn't really matter to me. I would like to see Mickey on the ice. But he won't be there. Someone else will. That's an opportunity for whoever that might be. There's still 15 forwards on the roster ... just sayin.
The Seawolves are 7 points out of a tie for 6th place. So there's lots of work to be done. Nobody else is going to just sit in their spot in the standings and wait for UAA to pass them so I should have capitalized the word "lots" in that last sentence.
I also heard that an unspecified number of players got back from xmas break late. I don't know who or any of those circumstances either but I'm suspecting that it means that whoever it was might sit out a game as a penalty for that. Hopefully it wasn't a high number of players. I think we all remember the getting back to the hotel late debacle in Denver a couple of years ago and the impact that had. I'm suspecting this situation isn't nearly as widespread or problematic as that event.
So it's off to Houghton this weekend and then Madison next weekend. Since these are the only back to back road weekends then we can assume the team will be staying down in the states after the MTU series. Both of these series present good opportunities for the Seawolves to pick up some ground. The Huskies are certainly improved and getting the majority of the 4 points down there is no sure thing.
Wisconsin doesn't appear to be the powerhouse it often is and so there's some hope there to pick up some much needed points also. Then it's the back-to-back-to-back home weekends against DU, UMD and Mankato. That will be a fun three weeks for us fans for sure. Especially since it will be something like 100 days since we saw our boys on home ice. Ok ok ... it's really only 55 days between the last home game and the next one.
UAA's geography is always a challenge for the team and often the schedule can make it seem like two seasons. It sure feels that way this year to me.
15 comments:
Glad to have you back Donald! I will miss watching Wes McLeod in a Sealwolf sweater, a big smooth skating Defenseman with great hands and a Big shot. Good luck to Wes in all his future endeavors and I for one am glad he picked UAA even if it was only for a short period. As for Mickey, I still hold out hope that something can be worked out and we will see him in a Seawolf sweater so he can finish his college eligibility and make that next step. - Fan
McLeod left because Shyiak is a dick and didn't let him play. Spencer left because Shyiak is a dick and told him he would not be getting ice time. Gunderson,Kwas and Pickering all got back late from break, non of which are going on the road trip because Shyiak is a dick. There are players leaving left and right because lets face it, Shyiak is no good. His coaching style is awful and lets be honest, he doesn't understand his own players. He needs to go.
ANON 1:52 wow that's quite the scathing take on Shyiak. Hope you can back those assertions up.
ANON 2:33 back up what? These are facts, I have not said anything that anyone of those players would not say. I don't need you to "hope" that I back those assertions up, these "assertions" are what the players directly have told me. The bottom line is that you have GOOD players not playing. We'll see how the Seawolves do under his direction the rest of the year. My "assertion" is that he won't be staying much longer.
who won't be staying much longer? Shyiak? or your source?
Anon 152, So you are saying that Guys who come back on time and shouldn't be given a chance to play, while guys who come back late (being late is being late) be given preferred treatment and allowed to play?
Yikes, nothing like a bit o' drama to start the new year off, right? Suffice it to say, I think it is true that the Seawolves have seen better days, but then again they have seen worse days as well.
Just remember: Winning cures all, so lets hope we get some.
If Kwas and Gunderson don't go on trip it's not because they were late in getting back it's a academic issue. Players on team have indicated they are ineligible and hoping that some grades might still be changed to render them eligible again.
I guess Donald has instituted the Politburo to monitor all the posts here. Earlier there was 22 posts now it's down to 8, WOW!!
There's 20 something comments in the previous post. This is a new post and I haven't deleted any comments.
So there's that.
Well you just move on and get the best out of who you have remaining. In order for success we are going to need some improved scoring, naturally everyone can agree on that. But more importantly we are going to need stronger D and great goaltending for 2nd half. o h yeah stay the hell out of the box. Good luck Mickey Spencer.
I've heard the past two weeks on the ice have been spirited to say the least. That always bodes well. -30-
If you have the means, please think about making a donation to The Jack Jablonski Fund. Jack is the Benidle-St. Margaret's (Minnesota) high school player who was hit from behind and paralyzed wo weeeks ago.
For a link to Jack's Fund and for more information about Jack and the reverberations his injury is causing, please see http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/Jack-Jablonksi-News-Summary.html
Both a former Benilde student and current Benilde student have each written songs in honor of Jack. They can be found here and also have links to The Jack jablonski Fund:
http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2012/January/In-Our-Hearts-song-by-Willie-Falk-For-Jack-Jablonski-video.html
http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2012/January/-We-ll-Watch-Over-You-by-Rob-Shaver-Ryan-Etten-Lyrics--video.html
From 1st hand experience.... if your top end player leaves a div 1 school, where he has a scholarship, leading in scoring, has more years of eligibility and while saying he's not sure if hes going to pursue hockey or go to school you have to know theres some other inside issue. That issue is undoubtably a coaching-player disagreement. No one leaves the opportunity they've been working towards the last 3 years to give it up to "maybe pursue hockey or maybe go to school" if its not something related to his relation with the players of staff. Mickeys an honest person and good team guy so that cancels out one of the possibilities. The ship is sinking, its time to replace the captain of that ship or players will keep jumping off. Go seawolves, you have a great core group of guys w/ unbelievable talent but who's leading the charge? This is Custar's Last Stand.
a beautifull,
just it on http://www.2inc.net/Costumes-cid-216/Mascot-Costumes-cid-218/Bear-Mascot-cid-270
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