Spartans 5, Badgers 4, OT: Quick wrapup and three stars from the Wisconsin men's hockey loss at Michigan State

Not sure what Granato is trying to get done. Lots of young, highly ranked recruits, but not much to show for it. Another year, maybe two to see if he can get a more mature group to play together, but right now they are completely underwhelming. If he can't figure out a better formula - time to move on.
 
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Not my kids, but just to show everybody... that kid in the middle is a top 15 NHL draft pick, one of the leading scorers in the NCAA, and part of one of the most prestigious recruiting classes Wisconsin has ever had. And he'll be gone as soon as the season's over.


57packer said:
Another year, maybe two
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This is the middle of season 4 of the TG era. If he doesn't right the ship this year, or put it together next year (Holloway is here for at least one more year (maybe) and the incoming class should be pretty good) that seat is going to get awfully warm. It doesn't look good on Barry that his hand-picked and highly paid hockey coach hasn't been anything more than below average in his tenure so far.
 
The picture made me think how young these players are. Just kids. Why can't Granato reach them with his program? I'm going to make a guess that it's not a lack of ability getting recruits, but a lack of being able to get the right type of players in harness. There's only room for so many super stars on a team, and tiers of support players that make the whole thing work, because they lack the ego of a super star.

It's kind of like chess. The guys who are just glad to be there, and willing to work their tails off for just some recognition are soldiers who pave the way for the super stars to shine.

We see the same thing in college football quite often. Teams with a lot of top level talent that just never gets traction, while some of the lesser programs have the right blend of players, and they end up competing with the best.

Maybe Granato lacks the ability to find kids that fit those niches? Maybe he needs assistant coaches who understand that, and help him find those kids that fit into those roles?
 
Full disclosure..I dont follow UW hockey as I do football of hoops so a bit of an outsiders perspective.

Back in the WCHA days not only was Wisconsin a dominate national force, the WCHA might have been the most dominate conference along with Hockey East and not much else. Other schools did not invest time and resources in the sport the way UW did along with Minnesota and some others. And now the sport has grown, The B1G is now a power, with schools like OSU, Penn State ranked in the top 10, Arizona State, yes the Sun Devils are ranked 20th one below UW, other power schools such as Minnesota, Maine are now in the "others" receiving votes category. In other words the landscape has changed.

Like TV has changed the football landscape it may be having the same impact on hockey. Recruiting is now national not regional, schools like PSU and OSU have not resources ($$$) to invest in the sport. Look at how TV has changed collage hoops? Just this year Evansville beat Kentucky at home, Duke lost at home to Stevan F Austin and look at March Madness with Mid Majors advancing.

And with the NCAA / NHL rules hockey has become more one and done again like hoops, which one and done can be debated as the biggest reason the landscape has changed and the tournament each and every year becomes more wide open. I am sure there are more issues at UW but how close is say UW hockey to Nebraska football? 17-18 year old kids dont even know who, for the most part who Tom Osburne or Tommy Frazier or even who Eric Crouch or Mike Rozier was. Is it the same in hockey? Do kids even associate Chelios to UW or even Pavelski. Again maybe there are other issues but has the sport outpaced UW?
 
Good points Pack.

Unfortunately we may be the Nebraska Football of hockey. And, if Bucky has allowed that it's a travesty. Other schools have had down years, but we've become irrelevant
 
I don't quite think it's at that level, I mean we played for a Natty in 2010, won the inaugural B1G tourney in 2013-14 season, and Pavelski was the US Captain as recent as the last Olympics. Something happened to Eaves around 2012-13 where he started losing recruiting battles over guys like Brock Boeser (North Dakota), or, even worse, kids from Madison/Sun Prairie like Jordan Schmaltz (Verona, went to NoDak), Nick Schmaltz (Madison, also went to North Dakota) and Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, went to Denver), when in the past he had gotten those guys in the fold (the list goes on, McCormick, Bjork, Fasching, Appleton).

Granato is getting things in line as far as getting premier recruits in the door and keeping them here. Like I said before, Turcotte was a top ten pick in this last NHL draft, Caufield is top 15, two other guys are first rounds, Holloway is likely to go in the top five next year, and several of the members of the incoming class are first round picks or likely to go in the first or second round of their draft eligible year.

Maybe this team is just too young, the few seniors on the squad are Eaves era holdovers, the initial recruiting class by Granato wasn't all that good, and the next group was only slightly better. Last year's recruits were the first that really made people look at Wisconsin and say "hey, what do you know about that? Maybe kids do want to go play there" but the on-ice results have been absolutely underwhelming, and it's unlikely that that many NHL scouts and GMs are wrong as to the talen these players possess.
 
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Crease Creature said:
I don't quite think it's at that level, I mean we played for a Natty in 2010, won the inaugural B1G tourney in 2013-14 season, and Pavelski was the US Captain as recent as the last Olympics. Something happened to Eaves around 2012-13 where he started losing recruiting battles over guys like Brock Boeser (North Dakota), or, even worse, kids from Madison/Sun Prairie like Jordan Schmaltz (Verona, went to NoDak), Nick Schmaltz (Madison, also went to North Dakota) and Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, went to Denver), when in the past he had gotten those guys in the fold (the list goes on, McCormick, Bjork, Fasching, Appleton).

Granato is getting things in line as far as getting premier recruits in the door and keeping them here. Like I said before, Turcotte was a top ten pick in this last NHL draft, Caufield is top 15, two other guys are first rounds, Holloway is likely to go in the top five next year, and several of the members of the incoming class are first round picks or likely to go in the first or second round of their draft eligible year.

Maybe this team is just too young, the few seniors on the squad are Eaves era holdovers, the initial recruiting class by Granato wasn't all that good, and the next group was only slightly better. Last year's recruits were the first that really made people look at Wisconsin and say "hey, what do you know about that? Maybe kids do want to go play there" but the on-ice results have been absolutely underwhelming, and it's unlikely that that many NHL scouts and GMs are wrong as to the talen these players possess.
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Thanks Crease

I hope its youth and as you mentioned in another thread some grinders. When I look at see Arizona State in the top 20 you take notices. Also the B1G is what caught my eye. I get we won the tournament in 2013-14 but when you look at the polls, MSU, OSU, PSU are all top 25, hell Minny is not even in the "others receiving votes"anymore. Did everyone catch up? Reality is those B1G schools have resources ($$$) to compete and they are brand names.

Thanks again for the input
 
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