Friday, February 06, 2015

#42 UAA Faces #1 Mankato

Man, I honestly don't even know what to say. I deftly avoided talking about the two losses to Northern (honestly ... no BS here; those were embarrassing) by just not posting. It's doing a disservice to Chris Lawrence who submitted a nicely written "intro to UAA hockey" which I will post here soon because it's better than anything I have to add to the Seawolves hockey discussion right now.

It was sorrowful that our guys couldn't manage any point's in Marquette. I honestly (swear to god) think they deserved more than they got but at this point in the season with the current record THAT MEANS SQUAT

There were points there to be had ... wunder-goalie Dahlstrom wasn't in the crease and still the Seawolves couldn't bag the necessary totals to earn anything more than the two L's they rolled out of town with.

I didn't see this past weekend's games, but between listening to Kurt (as much as I could) and analyzing the box score ... it's clear we didn't keep 3 guys on the defensive side of the puck as we did against UAF last weekend. I can say nothing less at this point than that is on the coach. The Seawolves beat Fairbanks with a defense first effort by capitalizing on their opportunities. Such an effort was not in evidence in Marquette.

In college hockey, it's generally ineffective to play other than tactically unless you have talent out the wazoo. I love the Seawolves as much as anyone ... we don't however have talent out the wazoo. There's more than a couple of guys amongst our guys who can flat out play the game but to succeed our team has to play a smart game and do it effectively. The only way that happens is if the coach designs a game plan that utilizes his team's strengths versus the opposition's weakness. 

In this long season, there's been lots of opportunities for the Seawolves' staff and players to learn lessons and I'm not impressed with the results. Once again, we are seeing our three most experienced/talented forwards (Allen, Tatchell and Cameron) on a single line that an opposition team can focus on in their game plan. Is that a lesson learned?

The Seawolves have some nice talent in the underclassmen and those guys have shown they can contribute offensively but their experience at this level doesn't equate to overcoming a shutdown of Allen, Tatchell and Cameron. Unless those three guys account for 4 points (some combination of goals and assists) the Seawolves arenm't likely to win. I haven't looked at any stats to reach that conclusion.

I don't want to say this but I'm gonna: I've been wondering if Coach Thomas might be playing for the future instead of for this season. At this point, I couldn't really blame him. Nothing came together this season like anyone hoped it would. Hell, I heard the word "championship" as a pre/early season hope more than a few times. But, it's a delicate thing for a transitioning coach (transition doesn't happen in a year) to develop "his" players while respecting/supporting players recruited by his predecessor. 

This isn't the first time we've seen a "sophomore slump" following a coaching change. The first year gets a bump from the enthusiasm of veterans responding to the opportunity to play for a new coach after a TERRIBLE last season. Then, this year .... again. The worst season ever came in John Hill's second year after a first year that was as exciting as it could be. Last year we saw a relatively equivalent situation to Hill's Final Five season ... by the way, in Hill's 2nd season we won ONE game.

Soooooo .... I don't expect anything good this weekend but I won't be surprised with a win against the #1 ranked team in college hockey on either Friday or saturday night. It wouldn't be unheard of for the #1 team to overlook the NUMBER FORTY-TWO team.

I wish I didn't have to write such things.

13 comments:

Suze said...

The one-win season under Hill wasn't even a league win, was it? Wasn't UA_ the only team they beat that season? I seem to remember us having a lot of ties though.

Anonymous said...

Turn out the lights,the party's over :(

AlaskaAl said...

No way do I give up that easy.
How many 1 goal losses have we had this season 5? 6?
The puck bounces the other way and the W/L record looks a lot different.
The guys haven't quit on me and I'm not quitting on them!.
Go Seawolves!

Anonymous said...

Seawolf hockey can use a spell to make them a better hockey team.lol

jjack said...

Mantha sure is great. With him in goal they might win some if they could keep the puck down at the other end of the ice for a while and put a few on net.

Anonymous said...

Bust out the chicken bones put them in a purple crown royal bag. tie it around your neck..... you are good to go. Life is good....... AH

Anonymous said...

Mantha is a great goalie,too bad he is on this team. Poor kid needs to move on to a team that will support his skills.

AlaskaAl said...

An asinine comment like anon at 9:45 is typical of someone with nothing worthwhile to contribute so hides behind the anon thing.
Must be a real standup type person doncha think?

Anonymous said...

You could put 2 Mantha's in goal tandem and it would not help the Badddddddgers. He will move on with a nice signing bonus. A.H.

AlaskaAl said...

Coach's Corner radio program this evening was once again an informative and lively time.
Host Kurt Haider on radio 650 AM from 6 to 7 pm put on another program giving us the "inside view" of UAA Seawolve Hockey.
Musician/Hockey player Austin Sevalrud was the guest player and put forth an entertaining segment.
Coach Thomas as always gave us an insight into what's going on with the team.
it should be a another great weekend of Seawolf hockey.
It's a great day to be a Seawolf!

Anonymous said...

To AlaskaAl, Not hiding al, just a shame a good goalie in a shit program like UAA, This program can be cut and save the University system lots of money. Never had a winning season , never will.

Donald Dunlop said...

Never had a winning season? You're a noob.

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