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Message: [QUOTE="DoctahLexus, post: 3856831, member: 6798"] Did not get a chance to see this game entirely until yesterday so thought I would post some thoughts. Giving up 10 goals in a half will never be celebrated, but that does not tell the entire story. Only 2 of those goals were in standard settled 6 v 6 situations. The rest were either man up, or an unsettled fast break off of a clear or faceoff. I'm not letting us off the hook by pointing that out. In particular I think our man down defense has been atrocious this season. Staats has never impressed me mainly due to lack of quickness, and Horan has not met the standards we should have for IQ/off ball awareness at the close D position, despite being solid 1 v 1. We even had Murphy out there on man up with a short stick when Dearth got a penalty, which shows the lack of confidence in the offball play of our younger reserve short sticks. However this was not a game like UNC or ND where the D looked helpless even in 6 v 6 sets. We were able to hold them off at a solid clip when we could slow the ball down on that end. The two settled O goals they had were both tip-your-cap plays from Ryan Smith. Second half we did a better job of limiting unsettled looks. Seebold is a really nice fit at attack. Bobby Mo had a poor defense plain and simple, but Seebold makes plays happen in a way that Scanlan would not, no matter who the opponent is. Twice he made big intimidating dodges that caused the adjacent slide to panic and go, leaving him an easy feed for a goal that he executed perfectly. If its Scanlan dodging on that inferior Bobby Mo defender, maybe he leans in and scores through the heavy contact, maybe he makes a crazy skip pass that Seebold could not without even dodging, but the way Scanlan would dodge would not lead to drawing a slide like Seebold. When he gets a full head of steam it intimidates and draws the attention of the D. On top of that (and this goes against my love of the Canadian/Native Am style of play) it is nice to have an attack down low who actually has and uses both hands. He had a nice goal with the left coming around GLE as well as a finish with the left hand, something we would probably not see from Scanlan. His skill set is a better compliment to Hiltz and Rehfuss than Scanlan's was, even if he is less talented in some areas. A couple less long-winded things: - Hiltz is already one of the most talented shooters in the nation, but is also a serious athlete. He has plenty of room to grow as a dodger/QB and I think he will excel in that role in the future, along with his already elite off ball shooting and facilitating passes. -Olexo has the body/athletecism to be a long time contributor for us. Would not surprise me if he goes the Landon Clary rout and switches to a long pole next year. I think he is sneaky tall but hides it by doing the Joe Fletcher crazy arched back stance. A nice high-ceiling recruit by the staff. [/QUOTE]

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