Some thoughts and observations about this year's Wisconsin team:
 
1) They sure do take a lot of penalties. In fact, they lead the
   WCHA in penalties. An unusual number of these have been [10-minute]
   misconducts, double-minors and majors. Of course, a lot of their
   penalties are matching penalties, which can distort the numbers, but
   it is still a bad sign.
 
   Coach Sauer has attempted some discipline. Last week (before the
   games at CC) he announced that anyone getting a misconduct would be
   benched for a game. Macdonald (first-line center) got one Friday
   night.  According to one of the papers, the linesman told Sauer he
   shouldn't have gotten the penalty ("he swore, but not *at* the
   ref").  According to the other paper, Sauer checked with the WCHA
   supervisor of officials (whose name I forget) who was at the game,
   and he agreed that Macdonald didn't deserve the penalty. So
   Macdonald was only benched for the first five minutes saturday
   night, and Sean Hill (defense, Wisconsin's leading scorer) opened at
   center. They haven't taken one since, although they did get the
   bench minor Saturday against North Dakota.
 
2) They take a lot of stupid penalties -- which (of course) aren't
   matched up (nor should they be).
 
3) Sean Hill sure does take a lot of penalties, about equally divided
   between "good" penalties, stupid penalties, and figments of
   the refs' imagination. He also has a very short temper, which has
   resulted in a few misconducts. [He leads the league, with 72
   minutes or so, and is on a pace to set a new league record].
 
4) They have a tendancy to try and make perfect plays, and don't shoot
   the puck enough. Sure, you need to take "smart" shots, but you
   still have to take shots....
 
5) It sure seems like they try the just-inside-the-blue-line drop
   pass a hell of a lot. It doesn't seem to work very often.
 
6) At least once a game, the defense does something *REALLY STUPID* in
   their own end -- a really bad breakout pass, or getting too tricky
   carrying it out, or something. Usually this results in a goal for
   the other guys.
 
7) When they play well, they really play well (for example, the
   second game against North Dakota).
 
	--david
 
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david parter					[log in to unmask]
university of wisconsin -- madison		computer sciences department