Predictions!

[jbakerifm]

1 more month? How are we feeling? Anyone got some predictions?

I'm feeling optimistic. Feel like alot of the issues last year were due to some leadership/effort problems and I have a lot of confidence in this year's group even if the star power has somewhat diminished. I like the way alot of our returner play, hard and with an edge. Big question obviously in the net, can Bednard play to his potential and what are the guys behind him going to look like. Other question for me, will we see a big step up from some other guys, Baylis scoring, Reichert becoming a regular.

[rood]

How dare you question Bernard's abilities?

[jbakerifm]

How dare you question Bernard's abilities?

Fing autocorrect. Nice meme tho

[BGFan]

Bednard covers a lot of net due to his size. Assuming he learned a lot last year I believe that he'll be much improved and ready to play. Given that he's already drafted, someone sees a large amount of potential in him. Dop comes in with a lot of hype, also. The local kid is a pure third goalie.

[mbenecke]

I feel like we may be in for a hot start, and I am hoping we are able to keep it afloat during the tough road stretch after the first of the year, with something like 5 of 7 series coming on the road.

Here's to hosting the WCHA championship game this year!

[BGDrew]

To be honest replacing Walker and Friedman on the blue line is probably the tipping point for the team. If McDonald and Smith can slot into leadership roles, and if Letourneau can take a step in his consistency it could be a fun season.

[AZIce]

The issue with this team the last two seasons has not been goaltending (I'm willing to look past Nell's start last year, I mean his father died unexpectedly) or defense.

It's offense.

We have no legit goal scorers. We play a ton of 2-2 and 3-3 games because we have nobody we can count on to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis.

It's actually the entire WCHA's issue, no real goal scorers. Thus we get the plethora of regulation/NCAA ties and clutch and grab games every week.

We have some forwards that really work hard, McLain, Spezia, Letourneau but none of those guys are natural gifted goal scorers, not like Hills, McPhee, Emerson, Wansborough, Ysebaert. Until we can get a few legit goal scorers, every year is going to be the same.......clawing and fighting for a point in OT or trying to make 2 or 3 goals per game standup for a win.

Knowing Berg's system, I'm sure we will be fine on the back end and in net. Where do the goals come from though? Maybe I'm wrong....maybe Cameron Wright or Max Johnson will come in and wow us, maybe Linkenheld breaks through, maybe Baylis finally lives up to his hype.....but I doubt it.

I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but I'm prepared for another year of low scoring, fight through the neutral zone WCHA games. Hopefully, just like the last two seasons, we come out on the good side more often than not.

[BGFan]

McLain made a huge jump last year in scoring which isn't as surprising as one might think. There is a transition that takes place between your sophomore and junior years when you're going from a lower to upper class-man. Suddenly you're leading instead of following and you're shouldering more responsibility. Some make the adjustment, some don't and they sit more than they play. I'm hoping that the same thing happens with Baylis that happened with McLain. He definitely has the skating skills and he's shown flashes of his abilities. I think, sometimes, it takes time for some of these guys to adjust to the speed of the college game. Especially those that don't come out of the USHL. We'll see...

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I agree with AZIce, our problem isn't in net or on the blue line. Berge and crew have a very solid track record of bringing in AHL/NHL caliber netminders. I think Bednard may struggle at first carrying the #1 load but it would surprise me if he didn't figure it out. Losing Friedman and Walker hurt but we have good experience on the blue line this year. Last year's freshmen stepped in nicely (Dalton and Rauhauser in particular) and I think there's a lot of upside to Smith.

Scoring. Ugh. McLain did improve his game, but even if you went out on a limb and called him a real sniper his assist numbers show there wasn't anyone else on the team in that category. I think Wright's our brightest prospect numbers wise but the OJHL game doesn't always carry over well. I'm looking forward to seeing him play. Not much in the way of solid scoring numbers from the rest of the incoming forwards. If Baylis is going to ever have a breakout season, now would be the time. Though I like seeing him check an opponent through the glass, I'd rather see him light the lamp 20 times. Not sure anyone else on the team is anywhere close to 15 goals this year. And I think that's the real concern going into this season.

The good news is that our powerplay can't be any worse this year than it was last year. At least I hope so.

OOC is critical for us. We have to split with WMU and sweep Miami State at home (3-1 with the Nachos would be REALLY nice). No worse than a split with Michigan State and we gotta beat Mel in the GLI. We are a key contributor to the PWR rankings for our WCHA brethren and we haven't delivered the past couple of years. OOC record of 5-2 puts the league in the hunt for an at large (assuming Mankato and Tech also take care of business and the bottom of the league posts slightly better than the gawd awful records of the past couple seasons).

League wise I think we're looking at third again. Mankato didn't lose much and they were pretty solid last year (and we play 2 series with them). They're the team to beat. Tech is once again in search of a goalie and even with a new coach they're still very solid. Thank god Meyhew is gone. Too bad Bitzer isn't.

[BGFan]

Even with our horrid start last year we ended the season ranked 16th in the nation in scoring defense @ 2.49 gpg. Scoring offense, on the other hand, we were ranked 27th @ 2.93 gpg. Yes, we need to widen that gap. Personally, I don't care how that gap is widened. Either by lowering our goals against or increasing our goals for because the result is the same. We win more games. Scoring is down nationwide compared to what it was back in the good old days. Improvements in gear and goalie training has accounted for that. As I recall, back in the 80's we averaged 5+ goals per game. No team did that this past year, not even close. While it was fun to watch, it just doesn't happen any more. If we can get our scoring above 3 goals per game we will be fine.

I also agree that our OOC must improve, not only for us but for the conference as a whole. Hopefully we can...

[BG84]

4th, again. My expectations were sky-high last season, so I'm aiming a little low.

Baylis - Too few goals, too many penalties, including 3 majors. I don't know why he plays every game.
D'Andrea - Had 9 more points than the previous season. I'm hoping for more goals.
L. Craggs - Keep up the good work!
Schilling - I've been a fan, dude. Light it up.
Meier - Be healthy and score.
Rauhauser - Keep it up and add a few goals.

[pdt1081]

Bednard covers a lot of net due to his size. Assuming he learned a lot last year I believe that he'll be much improved and ready to play. Given that he's already drafted, someone sees a large amount of potential in him. Dop comes in with a lot of hype, also. The local kid is a pure third goalie.

I actually thought Bendard was/is a better goaltender than Nell. With the situation at the start of the year, I'm not sure he was given a fair shot at adjusting to the college game and the players in front of him. Nell is a good goaltender if he's scrambling. Get him one on one or stationary, and it's going in. Bendard was the better positional goaltender and actually tried to control his rebounds to a spot. If he gels with the players in front of him, you're going to see one heck of a transitional game. The back checking by the forwards to get those rebounds going the other way will make or break Bernard's year.

[unfalconbelievable]

I agree with AZIce, our problem isn't in net or on the blue line. Berge and crew have a very solid track record of bringing in AHL/NHL caliber netminders. I think Bednard may struggle at first carrying the #1 load but it would surprise me if he didn't figure it out. Losing Friedman and Walker hurt but we have good experience on the blue line this year. Last year's freshmen stepped in nicely (Dalton and Rauhauser in particular) and I think there's a lot of upside to Smith.

Scoring. Ugh. McLain did improve his game, but even if you went out on a limb and called him a real sniper his assist numbers show there wasn't anyone else on the team in that category. I think Wright's our brightest prospect numbers wise but the OJHL game doesn't always carry over well. I'm looking forward to seeing him play. Not much in the way of solid scoring numbers from the rest of the incoming forwards. If Baylis is going to ever have a breakout season, now would be the time. Though I like seeing him check an opponent through the glass, I'd rather see him light the lamp 20 times. Not sure anyone else on the team is anywhere close to 15 goals this year. And I think that's the real concern going into this season.

The good news is that our powerplay can't be any worse this year than it was last year. At least I hope so.

OOC is critical for us. We have to split with WMU and sweep Miami State at home (3-1 with the Nachos would be REALLY nice). No worse than a split with Michigan State and we gotta beat Mel in the GLI. We are a key contributor to the PWR rankings for our WCHA brethren and we haven't delivered the past couple of years. OOC record of 5-2 puts the league in the hunt for an at large (assuming Mankato and Tech also take care of business and the bottom of the league posts slightly better than the gawd awful records of the past couple seasons).

League wise I think we're looking at third again. Mankato didn't lose much and they were pretty solid last year (and we play 2 series with them). They're the team to beat. Tech is once again in search of a goalie and even with a new coach they're still very solid. Thank god Meyhew is gone. Too bad Bitzer isn't.

100 % agree

Even the legit scorers we've had in recent years sometimes aren't even here all four years. Carpenter, maybe the last legit scorer, had a couple freak injuries which shortened his BG career. Sexton if you want to go back a few more years. There is not a lot of these guys around and enjoy them while they are here and hopefully we can surround them with some talent while they are here. The whole league is like this not just BG. The days of 80 point years may be behind us but I'd settle for a couple 50 point guys this year.

OOC games are critical, given that only question I'd have is that why are we scheduling 3 of the games that are so important to our conference power ranking in the first four days of the season. Then followed by an important league series. First 11 days of the season @ Western, home and home with Sparty and then at Minny State. Berg puts the schedule together so he has to deal with it and I'm sure he knows his guys, but wow, we are going to know right away about this team.....no ifs, ands, or buts.

[Critical Thinker]

I think Tech is still the team to beat. They just picked up a transfer goalie from Denver with immediate eligibility. Their net was the only real weak point imo, and bringing an older transfer in to help push their underclassmen pretty much shores up that position.

Mankato and Bemidji should be good again (in conference play, anyway, they'll **** the bed in ooc like they always do).

If Bednard is anything like Nell, our net will be safe. Nell had a decent, but at times shakey, freshman season, before stepping up and earning the starting role. I expect Bednard to do the same. Our defense should do well. Friedman and Walker will be difficult to replace, but our current guys are up to the challenge. It's all going to come down to whether or not we can score. Honestly, my expectations are low here. "Scoring by committee" only works if a bunch of guys have better than a point per weekend. I just don't think we have enough of those to get it done.

I'll say we finish third, within a few points on either side of MSU and Bemidji, while Tech runs away with it.

[BGFan]

IMO, Friedman, while a great skater, was not as big of an asset on the ice as most people think. He had a score first mentality and was caught out of position a lot as a result. This required the forwards to keep track of him so that they could cover the point when he took the puck in (hard to score as a forward when you have to keep track of a d-man who thinks he's a forward). Also, Walker saved his a$$ a lot. There were a large number of odd man rushes against us as a result. Rauhauser, on the other hand, nearly matched Friedman in scoring last year as a Freshman but was rarely ever caught out of position. Our biggest loss on the blue line, by far, is Walker but with Rauhauser, Smith, etc. back there we'll be fine.