Another rough season

[dannyk]

Wins have been tough to come by for the last 10 years. Next year may see some players leave early. Goaltending will again be a big question mark. Have a good off season

[Falcon Fanatic]

Wins have been tough to come by for the last 10 years. Next year may see some players leave early. Goaltending will again be a big question mark. Have a good off season

I don't think goaltending will be as big of a question mark as some think. Jimmy showed tremendous improvement by the end of the season. With the off season conditioning he will do, he will be ready to go. I also don't see players leaving early. Many of them have something to prove after finishing in last place in the league. I know that I see things through orange colored glasses, but I really do believe we will do MUCH better next year. I honestly believe that!!!

[rc_ziggy84]

Earlier in the season, I probably would have been the first to say a couple players would be leaving early, but now I don't think so. As FalconFanatic put it, they have something to prove after finishing last in the league. Mats probably has the raw talent to leave now if he wanted to, but Foster I don't think it's quite there yet. He's a solid player with more hustle than anyone on the team not named Svendsen, but I think one more year would suit him well. Of course I'm just guessing here, but I have a feeling we'll see these guys back for one hell of a league run next year.

[Falcon Fanatic]

Earlier in the season, I probably would have been the first to say a couple players would be leaving early, but now I don't think so. As FalconFanatic put it, they have something to prove after finishing last in the league. Mats probably has the raw talent to leave now if he wanted to, but Foster I don't think it's quite there yet. He's a solid player with more hustle than anyone on the team not named Svendsen, but I think one more year would suit him well. Of course I'm just guessing here, but I have a feeling we'll see these guys back for one hell of a league run next year.

While I do think both Foster and Matsumoto have the talent to leave now, they both really need the time and experience that this level of hockey and conditiioning gives them. Mastumoto is only 19 and Foster is 21. Looking at their ages, I could see Foster leaving sooner than Matsumoto, but I honestly don't see either of them going anywhere soon. Foster's dad played in the NHL for 10 seasons, so he knows what a brutal road it is to get there. I am sure he wants his son to enjoy the college life while he can!!

[FrozenOrange]

New to this forum but long time Falcons fan. Like BG fans everywhere I'm bitterly dissapointed that the season ended for us last night. My view is that this team could have, and should have gotten as far as the Joe and probably the NCAA regionals. They didn't and I don't expect the 2006/07 team will either
.

I really do believe we will do MUCH better next year.

Here are some of the reasons why I think you're wrong;

Offense:(1) We are losing 3 of our top 6 point scorers to graduation. (2) We will probably lose either Foster (very likely)or Matso (somewhat likely) or both to the pros. (3) Matso will still be eligible to play Major Junior in Canada. Depending on where he goes in the draft and what advise he gets from his agent will determine whether or not he goes that route if he doesn't go pro.

This group accounted for 187 out of the 334 points the team scored and no other player reached 20 on the season.

Defense:(1) We lose Morrison and Sitko. (2) The talent may be there but the coaching is not. 147 (15 with the man advantage) goals against in 38 games speaks for itself.

Goaltending:(1) We lose Horrell. (2) Spratt did nothing to show that he is capable of being a solid #1 goalie in the CCHA. Of all goaltenders in D1 hockey he has the worst numbers in terms of both GAA or Save %. (3) The new recruit, Greer has a 4.10 GAA and a .878 Save % in the NAHL. That's good for 23rd out of 26 goalies in that league who have played in 19 games or more and he is 52nd out of 67 overall.

As for the coaching, well, if you don't have anything good to say about somebody ..................

[Rightupinthere]

UH-OH!

*runs and grabs some popcorn. Runs back, stubs toe on coffee table.*

[Falcon Fanatic]

UH-OH!

*runs and grabs some popcorn. Runs back, stubs toe on coffee table.*

You might be waiting awhile....must get some work done around the house today....(spent too much time at the mall yesterday)......then will do some DEEP thinking about how to respond to this.... A quick response would have been too loud and emotional.... .... cooler heads must prevail....(*taking a deep breath*)..... Still trying to believe that hockey is over for the season...

[turtle]

New to this forum but long time Falcons fan. Like BG fans everywhere I'm bitterly dissapointed that the season ended for us last night. My view is that this team could have, and should have gotten as far as the Joe and probably the NCAA regionals. They didn't and I don't expect the 2006/07 team will either
.

I really do believe we will do MUCH better next year.

Here are some of the reasons why I think you're wrong;

Offense:(1) We are losing 3 of our top 6 point scorers to graduation. (2) We will probably lose either Foster (very likely)or Matso (somewhat likely) or both to the pros. (3) Matso will still be eligible to play Major Junior in Canada. Depending on where he goes in the draft and what advise he gets from his agent will determine whether or not he goes that route if he doesn't go pro.

This group accounted for 187 out of the 334 points the team scored and no other player reached 20 on the season.

Defense:(1) We lose Morrison and Sitko. (2) The talent may be there but the coaching is not. 147 (15 with the man advantage) goals against in 38 games speaks for itself.

Goaltending:(1) We lose Horrell. (2) Spratt did nothing to show that he is capable of being a solid #1 goalie in the CCHA. Of all goaltenders in D1 hockey he has the worst numbers in terms of both GAA or Save %. (3) The new recruit, Greer has a 4.10 GAA and a .878 Save % in the NAHL. That's good for 23rd out of 26 goalies in that league who have played in 19 games or more and he is 52nd out of 67 overall.

As for the coaching, well, if you don't have anything good to say about somebody ..................

Now i have no idea who is leaving early or not b/c i don't know any of the players. so worst case you could be right about the offense, but i don't think so.
defense- Morrison was our captin, i woud say this could hurt a lot, but you need more out of your leader than we got. Sitko is my favorite player. i love to watch the big hits he makes, but he does get in trouble sometimes going for the big hit. and it seems like he only played in half of the games this year anyway. while it hurts me to say this, i don't think these two leaving will hurt too much.
Goaltending- "Spratt did NOTHING to show that he is capable of being a solid #1 goalie in the CCHA". Did you even watch the second half of the year. I think we are fine here.

[TG1996]

Cool.
We can use the money we're going to save from not bothering with playing the hockey or men's basketball seasons next year and buy out DD and Pooch's contracts!!!

On the other hand, welcome to the board, FrozenOrange, and thank you for using a well structured argument to back up your thoughts.

[dannyk]

I agree with falcon orange on most points. The big question is if having a last place finish motivates players to come back and do better or exit to the minors or major junior.

If both Foster and Matsumoto leave I would think another last place finish might be certain.

If they both return this team "should" challenge for home ice, but we thought that this year as well.

I dont think we lose to much on offense with pilkington and falk. Neither of them really seemed to make progress or have a big senior year. I think replacing them will not be much to ask. Neither were very aware in the d zone either.

As for the goaltending recruit, its tough to say. yes the nahl is very watered down with teams losing to junior b teams in the preseason but. goaltenders can progress quicker up the ladder than any position player and make an impact. I dont think the stats mean too much, horrell didnt even win one a game for us in '04-'05 and he had a decent senior year.

[Dublin Falcon]

Having been a season ticket holder for the past 15 years but not this season (I have a 2 years old and live 2 hours away) and a huge supporter of BGSU hockey, let me offer the following observations.

Nathan commented in a post this week that much of the discussions recently echo when Buddy was around and in both cases many would agree that the program was not where it should be based on history, tradition and potential. I do agree with this analysis and in the end whether it's coaching, poor recruiting or some combiniation in all cases the responsibility lies with the coaches and IMO in only rare cases would I deviate from looking at the record is the indicator of the success of the coaches.

Having not been to many game the past 1 1/2 years actually may have been good because I think I am a bit more objective in my views. I thought BG had the talent to be about 8th place - many you thought higher so I am probably not as upset as they did not fare much worse than I expected. Just think if you were an OSU fan - picked as high as 5th in the country and finished 10th in the CCHA. Wow. It happens and I hope that next year will prove this was an aberation. If not we are in serious trouble. Part of the issue was that I belive that our FR class was a tad bit overrated. Paul Sheehan objectively rated it #15 which I disagreed. In fairness to him, he rated to include McIlrath who was the highest fwd coming in. As it turned out only 1 of the 3 fwds played and seeing were Liut was rated on Chesenber (Last in the NAHL), we really only had 2 fwds coming in who would play. Bales for some reason has not and may not work out. Spratt was a dissapointment but he was a 7th round pick of Colorado so on paper, great job Scott and Ron. The trick IMO is to get him to focus and work his tail off to prove this year was a fluke and not to ruin his career. At D, Schmidt was a very low CSB rate and Sinko was not rated so I could not give a reason why I objectively thought this was a great class. Plus losing Siggy JR - I know some of you weren't that concerned but my thought wasn't replacing what he did as a soph was hard it was replacing what he could have done as a JR that was tough and it showed.

The SR class had some talent but I don't see any NHLers here. Matso and Foster are interesting - I do not believe Foster is draft eligible (too old) but I could be wrong. Somebody please say so if you think I'm wrong, but CSB did not rate him in there top 50 and if he was eligible... Bottom line if that is right he'd be a free agent but he (IMO) would play in the AHL not NHL and I'm not sure what deal he'd get, probably a two-way with maybe 75K to play in the minors. I hope his loyalty and desire to develop and/or finish school would keep him here. Matso has been eligible for the OHL (16 is the limit although some at 15 try to get in) but I do not know who owns his rights and how much interest there is. Even if he gets drafted high, say 2nd round, I would not think that a team would sign to anything much different than Foster, meaning not much to play at the AHL. Absent anything funny (not liking BG, coaching issues, concerned about team direction) i would THINK they would be back.

What has me objectively excited is next year's class including Maxwell. Scott recruited him heavily and he went to a top program in Maine and only because he was too offensive is why BG now gets him. I would expect him to be in top 6 D rotation every nught. Moore is not rated high in NAHL (middle of the road JR program compared to Ontario leagues, USHL and BCHL) so I couldn't say alot. But there are still 6 returning guys plus maybe another recruit so we should be OK here. I like the fwds at least 4 odf them - Kantola is big and CSB rated and Cepis, Perkin and McIlrath are all rated high the the top USHL by Chesenber. The latest 2 guys aren't rated reeally high on Chesenber but I'm not saying any more than that as I just don't know. What needs to happen is to get scoring from more then MAtso and Foster next year and these FR should help alot arguably better and more in number than who left - that is one way that we can get better. This year we were known as a two team show and guys like Unger, Meloche, Mazzei really need to step it up.

I'm not going to touch the arena issue otehr than to say look what it has done overall for OSU and Miamai and the reason why Michigan doesn't need a total top flight arena is because historically they are an amazing prorgam, they are top academically and they have been on fire sine the ealty 90's.

Just a few rambling thoughts.

Next year is huge for BGSU I am taking an optimistic attitude and puting this year behind me really fast!

[FrozenOrange]

Some thoughts on the comments my remarks have generated.

TG1966:Thanks for the welcome. 'No' to the first part of your comment on next year.

Turtle:Morrison was more than our captain. He was 6th on the team in points scored. He scored more goals (6) than all the other defensemen combined (5). He had as many total points as Hodgson and Nesdill combined. You'll get the leadership you expect from your captain when the head coach doesn't undermine his position the same day he appoints him.

Yes I did watch games in the second half and I stand by what I said earlier. Spratt did not live up to his reputation coming in and he doesn't look to be in the same class as some of the other freshmen goalies - Kaufman, Lerg, O'Keefe and Zatkoff. Was he made to look worse than he probably is by defensive lapses? Absolutely. Will he be better? Probably. Will he be a solid #1 in the CCHA? I don't think so.

dannykPilkington was our 3rd leeading scorer and Falk was 2nd in goals scored. Between them they had 55 points. How can we not miss them?

On the goaltending - Agreed, the stats don't tell you everything but Greer has played a lot of games and its a big jump from the NAHL to the CCHA.

[dannyk]

I think that other players given the powerplay time that falk and pilkington had will be able to put up similar numbers or better. pilkington had 2 PP goals in 36 games that is not really too much to ask of someone to replace.


memo to underclassman replacement for pilkington

get a goal of your shin pad in the first 20 games and a backdoor tap in in the last 15 games and theres your 2 pp goals right there

[BGSU Crazy Fan 58]

This season was a major disappointment. They had the talent to finish better than last place but something was missing all year and I think it may have been leadership. I would expect a break out year next fall but I thought for the 05-06 campaign.

[TG1996]

TG1966:Thanks for the welcome. 'No' to the first part of your comment on next year.

No problem! It's good to have "thinkers" aboard.

(And the first part of the comment was mostly sarcasm, I looked back and figured a would probably have been a better choice than a ... but you know what they say about hindsight!)