Is PSU vs Princeton hockey in State College TV?
- Thread starter Alphalion75
- Start date
It's damn hard to win, no matter what sport. You have to have stars at every position to win championships and even those kinds of teams lose.
Team had a 5 on 3 for 2 minutes and couldn't score after Princeton tied it at 4-4. They looked uninspired tonight. Too bad as there were over 15,000 fans watching at the arena.
Fell from 3 to 5 in the Pairwise. Next three weeks seem pretty critical - 4 against Minnesota (how's that for scheduling?) and 2 at Wisconsin. I would hope for no worse than a split in each (maybe steal two from Bucky).
I read an article a few weeks ago on CHN, when PSU was 1 in the Pairwise, that opined that PSU could lose every remaining game and still place 16 or better and make the tourney. I hope the Lions don't test that theory, lol!
Alumni event at McFadden's was fun. The Nittany Lion and Coach Gadowsky made an appearance. And my kid won a cowbell door prize (long ride home lol!). While Penn State wore road blues, both teams were "home," at least w.r.t. the horn celebrating goals!
Go State!
I read an article a few weeks ago on CHN, when PSU was 1 in the Pairwise, that opined that PSU could lose every remaining game and still place 16 or better and make the tourney. I hope the Lions don't test that theory, lol!
Alumni event at McFadden's was fun. The Nittany Lion and Coach Gadowsky made an appearance. And my kid won a cowbell door prize (long ride home lol!). While Penn State wore road blues, both teams were "home," at least w.r.t. the horn celebrating goals!
Go State!
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16 in the Pairwise likely won't make it because of automatic bids. Typically 14 would be safe, 13 would almost be a lock.
Exactly UncleLar. A lot of top teams has major exodus of players leaving early last year, so this is a tough season to read. Penn St is a good, not great, team. They should make the tourney and then anything could happen. With potential upsets, your want to sit at 11 or 12.
We've got six weeks and 12 regular season games left. Win 6 and we are pretty much guaranteed to make the tournament. Even just five and we'd probably make it but couldn't be sure (might depend on upsets in conference tournaments)
Lar interested in your thoughts. I am extremely, extremely concerned.
For starters we have 4 on the road against first-place Minny and Wiscy, then 2 back home with Minny. That is a rough stretch and we MUST split them at worst. After getting blown away on our own ice by Ohio State, let alone a rancid non-con loss to Princeton, that seems to be a tall order. We still have 4 left with rotten Michigan and Michigan State but all 4 are on the road. It's hard to win on the road - I don't think you can bank on 12 points and take them for granted, even as bad as they are.
The non-con schedule was awful. Instead of testing ourselves against teams with some talent, we feasted on some of the worst teams in D1 hockey (Anchorage, Ariz State, Niagara). You don't need to play Denver - we already played two series against very good teams in St. Lawrence and Notre Dame - but get some live opponents and then understand where your weaknesses are.
I don't get dropping out of the Three Rivers Classic. You get Bobby Mo (fringe top-20) and two good non-con. And if we had to leave Pittsburgh for some reason, where is the replacement?
Our puck handling is atrocious. We turn it over in our own end at a terrible rate. I thought we had that under control, but Ohio State murdered us with our own mistakes. Jones is not good enough at this stage to cover for all the mistakes.
We're coming down to the finish with six weeks to go. It's time to shorten the bench and roll out the best guys on four lines and three defense pairings. There are some guys who in my eyes have played themselves out of ice time - whether they are NHL draftees or not.
I don't want to sound like I'm down on Guy, but this is a golden opportunity to get to the NCAA tournament and I'm going to be beside myself if we let it go by the boards.
I'm not ready to give up on either the team or Guy. Almost every team in the country has had at least three game stretch like ours, i.e. just one point in three games. There are just two that haven't - Union is one (they do have two consecutive losses though), Minnesota is another (Minnesota did have one five game stretch with just one win, which is at least as bad as our three game stretch). The other top teams managed to right their ships, now it's time for us to.
As far as the non-conference schedule goes, I agree that it was exceptionally weak, but nobody, I repeat NOBODY, expected us to be in contention for an NCAA bid this year. We were, and maybe still are, way too young. Next year was going to be the year, not this one. So I don't fault him for the schedule. Maybe it didn't prepare us for the top teams in the Big Ten, but it certainly did put us into contention for an NCAA bid. It's actually quite possible that the schedule was brilliant. If we do get into the tournament, it could be that we will do so only because we were able to fatten up on those non-conference foes.
I'm also not ready to say that we must split those three series. If we do, we are in great shape. As long as we get 4-5 points, we'll be on pace to get in.
That said, if we go into Minnesota and get swept, then maybe we need to start worrying a bit.
And I agree on Pavlychev. He's been a bit of a disappointment.
We have 11 new players on the team this year. Feasting on the early non conference schedule may have been a good thing just to get these guys used to skating with each other. Against Princeton, it just looked like a lack of hustle. Was the team on a 4 hour bus ride that morning? They just seemed a step slow to the puck all night, the passes were lazy, and we often got beat in in the corners. Smirnoff, who is usually one of our best playmakers seemed to be rarely on the ice, and Saar was scratched from the game, so we lost his physical presence. All that said, we took a 2 goal lead into the 3rd period, so the game was in our hands.
I would be surprised if PSU did not get into the NCAA's at this point. The teams just outside the bubble have a lot of losses and will probably lose more games.
UMD and DU will probably hang onto the top two seeds and host out west. Finishing 7-10 will send those teams West. Finishing 11-14 will mean heading to Providence or Manchester.
Lots of hockey left, enjoy it and don't get down on Guy in what is just PSU's 4th season in D1?
UMD and DU will probably hang onto the top two seeds and host out west. Finishing 7-10 will send those teams West. Finishing 11-14 will mean heading to Providence or Manchester.
Lots of hockey left, enjoy it and don't get down on Guy in what is just PSU's 4th season in D1?
Hey BC thanks for stopping in again. I remember you from last year or the year before.
You make some good points and God knows I can be an excitable boy.
I love Guy. I just get frustrated with the same players taking bonehead penalties and coughing up the biscuit in our own end. OTOH he has put together an incredible collection of offensive firepower, a Fr goaltender with very high-end potential and some superior two-way D men. But - he's behind the bench and I'm in Section 113, so what do I know.
One of the things that makes this game so great is, it can turn on a dime. One period you just get swamped, the other guys are cycling for five minutes at a time, you can't get it out of your end, your power play looks like hell - then all of a sudden out of nowhere BOOM you're the one steamrolling people and you get two goals in 40 seconds. You never know.
Good luck! Stop in again - don't be a stranger.
