National Champs!

It doesn't get any better than winning the Frozen Four. It does help to have a history of reaching the Frozen Four in years prior, ask North Dakota.

This wasn't a typical game for Denver, they didn't control all aspects of the game. The "proscess" was falling apart. If you were watching the game, you could see the Duluth was gaining momentum and fast. For the first time all season, Denver was truly out matched. They did the only thing an outmatched team can do: pin the game on the goaltender and hope for the best. Jailett held strong and Denver has 8 national championships.

So where does Denver go from here? Well the first question is the bench boss. In 4 years, Jim Montgomery has established himself as a very good coach. He may be even, dare I say, overqualified. That last part is interesting. Many openings exist in the NHL, and it could be time to jump ship. So for the sake of the Pioneers I'm hoping he stays.

Next are the seniors. Two of which will really hurt: Will Butcher and Evan Cowley. Butcher was an every game performer. He played and worked extremely hard. It's why he won the Hobey Baker. Cowley was a clutch backup goalie. He provided the step needed to get the team back to even.

The next weeks will decide if one or both of our two prized forwards will depart: Troy Terry and Henrik Borgstrom. Both are reliable forwards, but Borgstrom showed his inexperience in the Frozen Four. He nearly disappeared from the stat sheet. He was not the go to forward that we expected.

So going forward Denver has quite a few questions. Next season will be tough no matter what. Denver has a target on their back, just and North Dakota did all this season.

The Pinnacle: FROZEN FOUR

This year, the frozen four has everything except North Dakota. People may read that, and be like who cares? Well, UND can fill and entire bowl by itself in the United Center. DU, Harvard, Duluth, nor Notre Dame can claim that. If this frozen four isn't full, I wouldn't be surprised.

Here are my thoughts:

First, I'm a DU fan. So if I show any bias, you know why.

Going into the regional final, I was worried about Penn State. DU has a lot of fire power from front to back that I clearly didn't see. I think Union was far over rated, which is why Penn State put 10 on them. To see DU keep up their 4 goals per game was great. But now we are onto a different kind of beast.

DU vs Notre Dame: I loved Notre Dame during the playoffs. I was so excited to see Minnesota knocked out, and very surprised to see Lowell knocked out. This is a big concern to me. Last year, DU and ND faced off in Denver where DU swept the series. This year, Notre Dame has been a ground and pound team. They have stayed consistent and never compromised. It helped them through the playoffs.

Denver on the other hand, has been the EXACT SAME. Never really biting into a problem, but constantly moving the puck. The move the puck from the D to the forwards. They do it well. This has proved to be a problem for the best offensive teams. Controlling the puck has always favored DU, and I don't think that is about to change at the Frozen Four. I wish that I wasn't reviewing DU so that this match up could be more even keeled, but ND lacks the back end where Denver thrives. They exploited St. Cloud with a similar match up. The Irish won't be lucky enough to win this. DU 4-2.

Harvard vs Duluth. The ECAC has proven to be a fraud this year. Every team this year has been beat, and been beat badly. The lone exception has been Harvard. This entire season, Harvard has relied on a 2-2-1 system. They have excellent forwards, a decent D, and good goaltending. The problem is, they have not faced a team like Duluth. UMD will force Harvard out of their comfort zone and push them. UMD plays the game wide. They put their wings at the boards and make their center go up the middle. This will leave Harvard on a constant 2 on 1 that won't do well. After a quick adjustment, Harvard's D will find itself quickly outnumbered and unable to play against a physical team. Harvard will likely try multiple times to go back to the 2-2-1 system, but will be beat multiple times. I don't have a score in mind, but UMD is going to send Harvard back to the books.

UMD vs DU. It's the matchup everyone not named Harvard or Notre Dame wants. It's the juggernauts. DU is far too skilled. UMD is far too methodical. The goaltending in this will make the difference. Jailett is not the best back in the net, but he has a far superior D corps than UMD has. This will be a barn burner that will end with DU strolling down University Avenue with their 8th title.

What Joe Sakic Did Wrong

Joe Sakic should never, ever be mistaken for John Elway. That would be difficult to do, but even their job performance. Joe hasn't done a very good job.

Let's start with overall performance. I am limiting this to Joe's GM time which starts on May 10th, 2013.
Coaches: Joe picked a wild card in Patrick Roy. Roy only had experience at the junior level where talent would leave guaranteed every 4 years. Molding someone for short terms is difficult, but dealing with long term effects is harder. You can hold a grudge against someone in Juniors and be happy when they leave 1-3 years later. Patrick had no real experience and needed to work his way up. He didn't become a hall of famer just because he played awesome at the junior and high school level. He became a hall of famer because he worked his way up.

Next and current coach Jared Bednar is the same thing. Bednar was an AHL coach. No winning teams to speak of at the NHL level. I get it that he is somehow excused because of the short timing. I can tell you for sure I don't give sakic a pass on this one. He had Kevin Dineen ready to go. Kevin helped Chicago, who's coach we fired, win cups.

Drafting: The first year. I guess you can call this good but I don't. The Avs need defense. Not centers. MacKinnon is a solid forward. But Sakic had Seth Jones ready at D and passed. This is a near failure.

The next year he did another terrible job in Bleakly. The guy was drafted in the first round but never even signed a contract. He was a total bust.


//short

Big 10: Big Losers

What a year.


Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all caught big rankings and big year end bowls. All 3 caught the darling eye of everyone watching. Michigan because the powerhouse at the big house was back. Ohio State because they are the Alabama of the Big 10 and Penn State because they are the once scandal ridden team which was set to come out of the ashes and settle the score.

The problem: None of these teams did. The big reason comes in many forms. 1. Ohio State is a year away from competing. Yet some how pre season recruiting gave them the upper edge over better playing teams.
Michigan is not quite dynamic yet. They are talent driven. This will be displayed come the NFL draft when most of their defensive unit get's paid by the NFL.
Penn State was a victim of circumstance. They showed their true colors against Michigan but somehow won against Ohio State.

This should have been a forecast. This should have been a note of what was to come. But it wasn't. Not even this low level Wisconsin fan saw this coming. Hell Wisconsin should have been playing in mid December had the media picked it right. But instead the media picked LSU as the favorite. Then when WI beat a top 5 team in Michigan State they gave the badger a pass. When they lost by a combined score of 13 to Michigan and Ohio State in the next 2 weeks the media was salivating. When WI beat Nebraska, the badgers were locked in as a Cinderella.

Then comes the result: A Wisconsin team that wasn't ready to play at this level was thrust into the big 10 championship against a team that didn't belong their. Somebody was going to win and that team was not ready for the CFP or the Rose bowl. I'm not being salty towards Penn State.

My point is the Big 10 is about a year away from this season as being elite. That's going to show when Penn State  and Ohio State do finally show up. The question becomes how does Michigan respond?

The next question is who will respond in the Big 10 west. The forgotten part of the conference.

My prediction is simple: OSU grows. This is a given under Urban Meyer. The guy lives for recruiting. Michigan is going to get a year off. That certainly doesn't mean a losing year, it just means a year off from this year. Penn state is going to play on, and they are going to play on until they get that rematch with Ohio State. At that point, everyone will know that OSU is far superior to PSU.

The west is going to get dicey, and weak. WI and their awesome year is going to fade to memory. The realization that the QB is no better than the fans at throwing comes to fruition. No running game spells a disaster for WI. I don't think this helps Minnesota in winning the Axe, but it does help Nebraska and Iowa.

Iowa will regain ground lost during this year. They will compete. Nebraska will do the same. The hiccup will come when they play each other. I don't think either will make it to the title game, but that game will decide who was closer to it. Nebraska will likely win and be the "we should be in the CFP" team. But they will in all likely hood face a better Big 10 East team that won't relent. I'm guessing that will be Ohio State. This win will put OSU in the same position they were this year: the CFP.

Where do other teams stand?

Let's look:

Michigan State had a very off year. You can learn from a loss, but this kind of season does nobody good. All that gain from the last 2 years is gone. Diantio needs to start fresh.

Illinois isn't going anywhere. Lovie Smith might have been a bears head coach, but he still has work to do.

Purdue is a Drew Brees away from competing. They only have had 1 of those in the last 25 years so here's hoping for number 2.

Northwestern can be competitive, but the structure of this season didn't help them. My best guess is next year will not either.

Indiana was the most under achieving team this year in the big 10. Curiosity compels me to not count them out, but then realize they cannot recruit.

Rutgers will probably win a game or 2. But let's not hope it's against anyone in the big 10.

Maryland is going to have real trouble in football. Here's to the basketball team!

Now let's show the forces in the big 10 west:

Nebraska: they can recruit and will. But most likely won't be enough to win what they want.
Iowa: They will return to the status quo in the next 3 years.
Wisconsin: Gary Anderson brought tough tests, and good recruits. Those tests are now over, will the recruits be as well?
Minnesota: They can win, but just not at the national level. Where will they fit?

Then the East:

Penn State: No signature wins in the last 6 years. Nothing to really remove them of their past that they so want to put behind them.

Michigan: 2 years of Jim Harbaugh and no big wins. Not a coach firing position but a kind of WTF kind of position.

Ohio State: No points after the Michigan win. Who shows up next year?