goblue_jb

January 12th, 2013 at 9:47 PM ^

i havent had many opportunities to watch this years team play (they arent on tv too often in my area) but after watching tonight im torn between dissapointment and disgust. goaltending is atrocious, passes are sloppy, missed goals on open nets, the list can go on for awhile. its an embarrasment to see these guys sporting the block m right now. really miss hunwick out there, but its not just goaltending thats a problem. really hope something/someone lights a fire under them and they start living up to the great tradition of hockey at yost.

Joined: 05/27/2011

MGoPoints: 208

JustGoBlue

January 13th, 2013 at 12:31 AM ^

knows a guy on the team.  I talked to him today and we ended up talking about hockey's disappointing year.  He said his friend just said that nobody knows what's wrong.  I mean, you watch the game and everything is going wrong, obviously, but there's just nobody with any answers, in the locker room.  They know they're all playing poorly, they just don't know how to explain it or fix it.  I actually thought the team played fairly hard tonight.  It felt like they were expending a lot of effort, at least, just nothing happened right, they still weren't winning enough battles or races or doing much of anything right.  It's just sad all around.

As for the goalies...  I just feel especially bad for them.  Rutlege was suppposed to be the guy and just wasn't getting it done.  Given his time and numbers on the NTDP, he's probably the most talented of the group, but obviously something is way wrong, confidence or whatever, so they're trying to start a guy who was recruited as a last minute stop-gap back-up or a walk-on third string goalie and it's going predictably badly.  Hunwick doesn't come along every day, that's why he's such a good story.  These guys are getting a lot of heat and probably  feel horrible and their performances aren't great for the most part, but they're being thrust into a role that they were never really supposed to be in.  A portion of the blame rests with them, but it's hard to be upset, becuase they're just overmatched.

The only comfort is that knowing Red, next season will probably be his best coaching job ever.  It's hard to wait and this season is hard to watch, but sometimes things just don't go well.

Joined: 06/15/2009

MGoPoints: 895

JustGoBlue

January 13th, 2013 at 7:19 PM ^

The only thing that's actually new is the recruiting class, which is probably the most talente since at least Patches' class. They lack a goalie, unfortunately, and the two new D-men won't be as good as Merrill or Trouba, but the forwards are pretty top-notch and the defenseman are still fairly well-regarded. Assuming of course that massive defections don't take place, which is always a fear. But mostly, I'm just talking about Red. I promise he's not a bad coach and I also promise he's more upset with this whole losing thing than the rest of us put together. Red isn't one to go out on the bottom, or without a fight. I'm sure he's coaching as hard as he can this season, but I'm also sure that next season he will be better. It's not like they need to rebuild, just soul-search a lot. New player-leadership next year may make all the difference. I'm looking at Copp and Hyman, because they're the ones doing work, consistently, this season, though I suppose we'll see. Beyond that, the players likely aren't overly fond of losing either and will likely put in a little extra effort in the summer. Really the only thing is that we need either a miracle goalie recruit or one of GE current goalie to make a miracle turn-around. But a good team playing in front of them will help that quite a bit. Bad years happen. Notre Dame has had a few under Jeff Jackson, even Jerry York has had them at BC. Not this bad, but I suppose we're overdue. One bad, even one historically bad season, isn't cause for wailing and gnashing of teeth for the next decade. Maybe next year will suck too, I can't see the future, but I think it will be more of what we're used to. We're also playing in the Big Ten, which, if it existed this year would be ridiculously weak, with Minnesota having wrapped up the title by thanksgiving. That kind of schedule probably won't hurt our record.

Joined: 06/15/2009

MGoPoints: 895

Doc Brown

January 13th, 2013 at 9:26 AM ^

I need a thunder buddy to get through this season. Every time I see the team break out the puck into the offensive zone, I get afraid they are going to turn the puck over and lead to a odd man rush the opposite direction. 

Joined: 11/20/2011

MGoPoints: 5713

mgoblue99

January 14th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^

From the Daily:

"Yost was Alaska’s last frontier. John Zarling, a former professor at Alaska and Fairbanks resident, flew down to Chicago then drove to Ann Arbor. It was the third time he has made the trip. But this one felt a little different.

To him, the arena has lost its vicious bite. He described the atmosphere as less hostile than on either of his two other trips to Ann Arbor. But that didn’t make the history-making sweep of the Wolverines any less sweet to the Michigan Tech graduate."

http://michigandaily.com/sports/matt-slovin-1-hockey-column-13

 

Granted, this year's team is just not that good.  But how can we get Yost to be as intimidating of a venue to play in as it was 10-15 years ago?  Any suggestions (purely atmospheric; not related to putting a better team on the ice)?

Joined: 03/23/2011

MGoPoints: 318