Wisconsin Hockey: Gear up for 2012!

So here we are, nearly a month removed from the college hockey season and I am already stoked. This year presents a couple of new styles for me. First off, I no longer have season tickets to CC and second I no longer am a fan of CC.
The first and second are interrelated so I'll address them here. Last season I decided to reach out into the CC fan base and find people as like minded as myself and my friend who I attend games with. At first the introduction was fun and smooth. I met quite a few people who enjoyed the game, but were quite older than me. They came off as the casual fan and less of what I was looking for. However all of them had deep roots to the school, so I thought why not try it? Well I was no worse for the ware after introducing my family to this group of people at a local restaurant. But things slowly changed. After about a month into the season, Joe Howe stumbled in net and things were looking down. I saw his obvious dragging in net, but I knew something had to be wrong. After all, Joe had spent many hours of every day training over the past summer. I even had the opportunity to train were Joe trains and found that his trainers were baffled by his performance. But none the less, I proceeded to write a blog about the situation in net after a disasterous outing against Nebraska-Omaha. I called upon Scott Owens to replace Howe with Thorny and to rework the defense. What I got was cold hearted reviews and heated rants to the point where I deleted the blog. However, that did not stop people in the CC group from making comment after comment just to play devils advocate to anything I said. Eventually I made enough of them mad that they just stopped talking to me altogether. It was at that moment that I realized many of the CC fans outside of the student section were not typical fans you would find at UND, WI, MN or any other school for that matter. Most were older who had solid jobs, grown up children and made significant contributions to the CC family. I realized why there is such a disconnect between Denver and CC beyond the location rivalry. CC is founded by fans who give more to the school, take less and love the school more than the sport. I find no passion in this atmosphere because I was there for hockey.
So during the playoffs last year I purchased DU tickets to watch my old badgers play. They lost in 3, but I realized how much I missed a team with fans who identified with me.
So now that the past is behind me, I move forward with Wisconsin as my team of choice. With that comes my first review of the season which is a long awaited debut.

First I have to address the obvious: Justin Schultz is gone. To put this into perspective, Schultz was a great defenseman. He ate ice time like I eat twinkies. His contributions were not as present if you attended one or two games, but viewed his work from a whole. This throws people off into thinking that Schultz was just a cog in the wheel. To put this to rest, Schultz was the wheel. But with every new season comes the chance for new recruits to headline the system.

Bucky's fifth quarter does a good job of breaking down the player positions so I wanted to focus on the evolving goalie situation. Peterson and Rumpel are back for round 2. If experience has anything to do with the goalie situation then expect Peterson to meander over the the bench at the opening practice. But even with that, something has to be addressed with Rumpel. Although he is talented, and a possible future NHLer, he lacks the upper body movement of a Richard Bachman or Sam Brittain. This guy is all lower body and keeps his upper body generally rigid. He needs to be more fluid in his motions or the badger red light behind him will light up. That's never a good thing.
With Schultz gone, Rumpel is going to get the opportunity to remake himself. He's going to have to prove to himself and everyone else that he can dominate the net.

Peterson will need to be strong in his no doubt low amount of minutes. His best attributes need to be on display as their is room in the Wisconsin locker room for a goalie controversy.

All in all Wisconsin looks good this year. They have a bit more experience in their net minders, but lack a power defenseman. I wouldn't project Wisconsin to take the league championship but then again UND, UMD, UM, and SCST will all have new netminders. These were three of the powerhouses last season and if any one of them slips, a team like Wisconsin surely can take over.

From what I saw last season, Denver looks to be a favorite from a goal tending standpoint. The loss of Schwartz at CC and Shore in Denver are going to raise big question marks.

Here is the questions that I want to ask for 2012-13:
St Cloud State: Will Mike Lee's departure actually mean anything to the huskies?
Duluth: With Reiter and Connolly both gone, who is going to make this team dance?
North Dakota: A logo change, Dell and Nelson gone could probably mean the end of the broadmoor trophy landing in Grand Forks.
Denver: How big of a loss is shore anyways?
Colorado College: For 2 years the QB of this team has been Jaden Schwartz. Now that he is gone, does this team have anyone who can control?
Wisconsin: A team without offense last year now presents itself as a team without anything this year. Could this be the end of the line for coach Mike Eaves?

We will see.....