In response to Larry Barbian's and Steve Christopher's comments about the
"non-call" in the NMU-UW game:
 
I wasn't at the game, but I have seen many replays of incident.  It seems to me,
what happened was somewhere between the two extremes.  It looked like Harding
was pushed towards Carey and fell on top of him.  Harding's effort to get off of
Carey was similar to what happens in the last minute of many football games.
The defensive players slowly remove themselves from the pile, burning precious
seconds from the clock.  In both cases, the player on top has little incentive
to quickly jump up and free the buried player.  As long as the top-most player
exhibits some effort to get up, the referee will never call a violation.  While
Harding's effort in the Badger Showdown is probably not of the highest
sportsman-like quality, every coach wants his/her players to do the same.  This
play adversely affected my favorite team, but I think it was a smart play by
Harding.  Maybe the Badger defenseman should have tried to pull Harding off of
Carey.
 
 
On another note:  Larry Barbian criticized the Badger power play as being
ineffective.  Well, Badger fans in Madison have been 'treated' to this for many
years (1990 excepted).  Since Jeff Sauer became coach, there have been few good
Badger power play units.  Many fans refer to the power play as the Sauer play.
The fans in my section of the arena have even gotten to the point where we wish
the Badgers would decline penalties against the opponent.  The power play unit
rarely passes crisply.  They act over-confident and casual.  This is in sharp
contrast to the penalty kill unit.  More quality Badger scoring opportunities
are created short-handed than with the man-advantage.  Penalty killers show
aggression.  Members of the power play act like they have been given a 2 minute
break.  I was at the Badgers game against St. Pete's Red Army last night(3-3).
Here are the differences between the Badgers and the Russians:
 
The Badger's power play consisted of one or two players holding the puck waiting
for something to happen.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Badgers found a comfy spot
and watched the action.  The Russian's power play show crisp puck movement that
kept the Badgers chasing where the puck was, not where it is.  2 of the Russian
players without the puck were always moving, trying to create a hole in the
Badgers box.
 
Only backup goaltender Kirk Daubenspeck kept the Russians from turning the game
into a rout.  The Badgers played a very physical game and tempers flared as the
game progressed.  There were more penalties than I would have anticipated from
an exhibition game.  Most were on the Badgers and deservedly so.  The Russians
seemed tired by the end of the game.  Whether this was due to the physical style
of the game or the fatigue from riding 11 hours in a bus from Grand Forks, I'm
not sure.
 
A question:  did any of the other teams that played the Russians play a physical
game?  The Russians are very small except at defense.  Many players were listed
as 5'-7" to 5'-9".
 
The game program was completely inaccurate with respect to names and numbers of
the Russian players.  Also, some of the Russian jerseys sold before the game had
names stitched to the back.  Again, these were not accurate with respect to the
players jerseys on the ice.  Does anyone know if the Russians have a habit of
rotating numbers?
 
Sorry for rambling.
 
Bob Mayville
Madison