I guess it's only appropriate that my first 'real' post here reflects upon our team's accomplishments this season.
After going 7-25-6 in the '05-'06 campaign, the Huskies got their shit together this year and earned their first winning season since '92-'93, going 18-17-5 overall. The biggest change that allowed them to achieve this crucial first step in the direction of a rebuild is the defense. I don't know what Coach Russell did with the defense during the off-season, but whatever it was, the Huskies went from allowing 148 goals last season, to just 86 this year. This made the majority of our games much closer - in fact, many of our losses this season were by just a single goal. So while the defense is good, our offense is mediocre at best. We have a couple of consistent playmakers in Peter Rouleau and Tyler Shelast, and everyone else just seems to contribute when they can.
I witnessed several offensive plays this season that were very well-executed, but the pass was fired just a bit too high or too fast, and bounced right over the stick of the player sitting in front of the net, waiting to bury it.
In summary...
The Good
*Shot-blocking, puck-stealing defense
*Penalty kill (87.3% - among the nation's top 10)
*Goaltending (Teslak - 2.00 GAA, Nolan - 2.26 GAA)
The Bad
*Anemic offense (prone to little mistakes that add up)
The Ugly
*Pitful power play (9.3% - we really need snipers)
Moving forward, I'll take a more in-depth look at recruits another time, but this year's class looks promising.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Up & Running!
My new hockey blog is now rolling, off-season updates will follow as I deem them necessary.
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