We Need a Shakeup

Quick rant after an embarassing 8-1 outing

After a dominating, overachieving first semester, our team has fallen to earth the past few weeks. And that is putting it lightly. Last week, Yale outskated us. It was a good hockey game, for the most part, from both sides. Our guys did not lay down and die. But Scrivens let in a few weak ones, and it cost us the game. Brown was a big win on the scoreboard, but their team is awful. I still think 1-for-9 on the powerplay against the single worst penalty kill I have ever seen in my life is embarassing. But I thought, embarassed by yale, and then carrying momentum from the 3rd period vs brown, we would have a good game tonight

That brings us to tonight. I won't even comment on how awful the officiating was. It was awful. I won't comment on how Petizan is an actor, lying "unmoving" for 5 minutes and then getting up, taking a sip of water, and making his best saves of the night. I won't comment on the SLU fans, heckling and jeering when their own goalie was on the ice injured.

Our team was slow. We were sloppy with our passing, we were holding onto the puck for too long in the offensive zone, we were not connecting on breakout passes, we were not skating. The yale game was a good game to watch; both teams were playing well, and at an equal level. This game was not. St. Lawrence was not playing particularly well. Scrivens was shaken up. He was left out to dry by his defense, but he was also shaken up. The first goal was one he would have gotten earlier this year. After that, he wasn't controlling rebounds as well, he wasn't as calm and composed as he's recently been. True, the team in front of him left him out to dry. True, the referees were not helping us at all. But...Scrivens was mortal, has been for a few games in a row, and the team played sloppy in front of him.

5-on-5, SLU outskated us. Our breakout passes were sloppy. Countless of their goals [literally countless, I stopped keeping track, didn't want to count it] were off of turnovers in our own zone, where we were just unable to even clear the puck, let alone transition into an offensive attack. Our powerplay is slow. Not just with skating, but with passing and decision-making. This goes back to the brown game, goes back a few games before tat. The score vs brown could easily have been 8-1, 9-1, but the PP has a tendency to hold on too long, to wait instead of taking the shot. I understand setting up the PP, but part of that is recognizing when you do have that shooting lane. The pp is intended to set up something, not just to set up and prove that you can pass the puck for 2 minutes. Especially not when you are losing. That aside, the power play unit regularly turns over the puck in the offensive zone because they just didn't give a pass enough "oomph". Lazy lazy passes that don't reach their target. Usually Riley Nash is a culprit of this; tonight I saw it a lot from Gallagher, which surprised me. Brendan Nash always has 1 or 2 per game, and his [lack of] speed means that it ends up a shorthanded breakaway for the other guys. Play like this, forget about the NCAA, a trip to Albany isn't even in the cards for us.

Our team had 2 particularr bursts of effort. Once when Garman first entered the game. As if the guys were like "oh crap, this is serious now, we better play". The second was at the start of the 3rd, when they were late getting back to the ice from the locker room. they must have been hearing it from Schaefer. Things got better when Coach shook things up.

WE NEED A SHAKE-UP IN A MAJOR WAY

If I were the coach of this team, Tomorrow night at Clarkson would feature a shuffled lineup. Garman gets the start. Riley Nash centers M. Kennedy and Collins. Greening plays with Barlow and Mugford. M. Devin, Jillson, and Roeszler are the 3rd line. P. Kennedy, Punches and Scali on the 4th line. That's just if it were me, I know coach will probably not do that, but something needs to be done. The team responded when Scrivens was pulled tonight, they will respond to a major shake-up.

The only good thing I can say about this team is that it made them mad. They got fired up, they got their blood flowing, they got frustrated. Good. They should be frustrated. Its good to see Riley getting into shoving matches, even if he was coasting through the 1st when we still could have come back. Good to see Greening playing like a real captain, leading by example, and putting everything he has into it, even when we are down by 6 in the 3rd. Good to see M. Kennedy get kicked out for driving to the net and trying to start something. Hell, it was great to see Schaefer on the edge of the boards giving the refs an earful (he got a too many men penalty completely wiped out and forgotten about, I didn't even know that's possible). Emotion is good, its what drives a hockey team.

We need a shakeup. We need something. Because all of a sudden, Yale beat Princeton tonight and is only 1 point back on us. We are sliding nationally, we are sliding in the ECAC, and Coach needs to do something about it.