2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

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massalsa
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2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by massalsa » Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:19 pm

https://teamusa.usahockey.com/news_article/show/977407

Yikes...not a lot of MN girls...what is up with that?

2 2001 - Shearon of WBH and Uihlein of Edina
2 2002 - Nicholson of Tonka and Wethington of Blake/Edina
1 2003 - Vetter of Lakeville (Bantams?)

6 Shattuck but none from MN.

This appears to be the smallest amount of MN girls I can recollect...

bodyup88
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Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by bodyup88 » Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:55 pm

That is a very surprising roster. Makes one wonder how the teams are selected. For example, the Shearen selection is extremely puzzling if current season has any bearing on the selection. 4 goals and 16 penalty minutes in 12 games to date. Obviously the selections were based on previous factors. BTW, the penalties/lack of discipline may help partially explain the record for WBL so far, last night's win notwithstanding. Their 2 D1 commits combine for 6 goals and 40 penalty minutes in their first 12 games

massalsa
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Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by massalsa » Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:53 pm


Hansonbrother
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Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by Hansonbrother » Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:38 am

Better re-check your facts....WBL has 4 D-1 commits. And if you really wanna know why Shearen's numbers are down, it's because teams just key on her and she has to go 200 feet every shift through 5 players...that's a lot to ask for one player.... especially when that's not the type of player that she is. Bad systems and little support from the rest of the players make WBL a very vulnerable squad. At least they have goaltending to keep them in every game!!
We

Hansonbrother
Posts: 342
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:28 pm

Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by Hansonbrother » Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:42 pm

Hansonbrother wrote:
Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:38 am
Better re-check your facts....WBL has 4 D-1 commits. And if you really wanna know why Shearen's numbers are down, it's because teams just key on her and she has to go 200 feet every shift through 5 players...that's a lot to ask for one player.... especially when that's not the type of player that she is. Bad systems and little support from the rest of the players make WBL a very vulnerable squad. At least they have goaltending to keep them in every game!!

highgloveside
Posts: 110
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Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by highgloveside » Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:57 am

bodyup88 wrote:
Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:55 pm
That is a very surprising roster. Makes one wonder how the teams are selected. For example, the Shearen selection is extremely puzzling if current season has any bearing on the selection. 4 goals and 16 penalty minutes in 12 games to date. Obviously the selections were based on previous factors. BTW, the penalties/lack of discipline may help partially explain the record for WBL so far, last night's win notwithstanding. Their 2 D1 commits combine for 6 goals and 40 penalty minutes in their first 12 games
Bodyup88, I'm sure you make it out to all the games so you can make an informed post about certain players? Or maybe you just sit there and look at kids stats and assume you know everything that's going on in girls high school hockey. You don't seem to know much because basing who should be on a US National team doesn't have anything to do with MN girls HS hockey season. I don't think they are in the business of taking bad players. Maybe the US should load up on MN girls that have a ton of points playing against terrible teams during the High School season? Don't post about things you you know nothing about. My kid had the privilege of playing with her two years ago and she is a good kid on and off the ice. The 4 key players on that team are all good kids and players and shouldn't be a target of anything negative.

WBLPuck99
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:46 am

Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by WBLPuck99 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:53 pm

highgloveside wrote:
Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:57 am
bodyup88 wrote:
Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:55 pm
That is a very surprising roster. Makes one wonder how the teams are selected. For example, the Shearen selection is extremely puzzling if current season has any bearing on the selection. 4 goals and 16 penalty minutes in 12 games to date. Obviously the selections were based on previous factors. BTW, the penalties/lack of discipline may help partially explain the record for WBL so far, last night's win notwithstanding. Their 2 D1 commits combine for 6 goals and 40 penalty minutes in their first 12 games
Bodyup88, I'm sure you make it out to all the games so you can make an informed post about certain players? Or maybe you just sit there and look at kids stats and assume you know everything that's going on in girls high school hockey. You don't seem to know much because basing who should be on a US National team doesn't have anything to do with MN girls HS hockey season. I don't think they are in the business of taking bad players. Maybe the US should load up on MN girls that have a ton of points playing against terrible teams during the High School season? Don't post about things you you know nothing about. My kid had the privilege of playing with her two years ago and she is a good kid on and off the ice. The 4 key players on that team are all good kids and players and shouldn't be a target of anything negative.
As a person who has been to a lot of the games (not all), I think the real reason for Shearan's lower productivity and WBLs struggles are not tied to systems, but come down to one main thing, depth.

There is a vacuum for the 8th-11th grade level at WBL for girls hockey. It's not that they don't have some talent, but all the talent is either in their senior class or in the 7th/8th grade group that is being forced up to varsity. There are a couple skaters that crack the top 6 forwards on other teams but WBL is really relying on about 8 skaters (and the goalie) to do 95+% of the scoring and when some of the other skaters are out there everyone is just holding their breaths.

One other factor is that they have been moving lines around constantly, just trying to find a most stable line up. The most recent change, starting with the Breck game was moving shearan to defense. They were 3-7 going into that game and are 5-1-2 since that time, with the only loss being to FL with shearan out of the country. This approach has allowed them to solidify the back end with their goalie and top 4 D all being on the upper echelon, and also allows them to keep their top players on the ice more during games.

This has stemmed the tide of some huge shot discrepancies earlier in the season, even in winnig efforts.

To the earlier comment, shearan is definitely not the type of player that is an end to end player with the puck on her stick. That's not her game. She is very skilled, but works a lot better in a team environment where she has other players to work off of. To judge her based on point production is ridiculous.

I'm interested to see how it looks when she gets back, as the early results when they changed things up looked really positive. It also allowed some of their 5th/6th/7th Defense that played forward growing up to move back to forward where they looked much more comfortable.

It seems the coaches are trying to find the right formula, and it looks like there has already been a very drastic improvement since the outset of the season.

bodyup88
Posts: 261
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2018 11:58 am

Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by bodyup88 » Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:59 pm

Tough loss for the American 18s in OT Sat/Sunday in Japan. It'll be interesting to see how the 4 Minnesota skaters respond to the experience and to the tough trip back to MN. I've talked to a few people who have taken the trip back here from Japan and it seems like they all agree that it takes a few days to get back on MN time. I see 3 of the 4 skaters' high school teams are slated to play tomorrow night ( Edina @ Wayzata, Blake vs Farmington and WBL vs Eastview) and we'll see how they integrate back into their teams. Nicholson has a few extra days to recover as Mtka doesn't play until Friday.
It looks Nicholson probably had the biggest impact of the 4 Minnesota skaters with a couple of assists - including one in the gold medal game - and a +5 rating for the 5 game tourney. Uihlein and Wethington were both scoreless for the tourney and + 1's while Shearen had one goal in the opener vs Russia and was a -1 for the tourney.
Skylar Vetter was the go to goalie and logged all the minutes for the Americans, allowing only 7 regulation goals in 5 games as a double-ager. It will be fun to watch her progress the next few years.

massalsa
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Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by massalsa » Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:44 pm

Great recap Body. Absolutely brutal times for watching the games online here. Every game but 1 at 2:00 am local time with one at 11:00 pm. I watched the entire final vs Canada and similar to some of the elite league that i saw was that SSM line of F's. They are insanely skilled and absolutely relentless both offensively and defensively.

Most notable in the games that I watched and scores that I saw was how it appears that the other nations are closing the gap vs the US and CA. Only a couple of blowouts where it feels like every game with US/CA vs RUS/FIN/SWE/others in the past several years was a 5+ goal win. Definitely not the same for me watching with the lack of MN girls. Nicholson & Vetter really the only contributors from MN with Shearon/Wethington/Uehlein getting very little meaningful ice in the final.

I keep hearing about the 04 class from MN...hopefully we will see more MN representation in future years.

BTW Shattuck Prep team record to this point in season is 31-0-2 with the ties vs MN Elite Black and Red.

http://ssmathletics.org/sports/hockey/g ... 9/Schedule

bodyup88
Posts: 261
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2018 11:58 am

Re: 2019 USA U18 Womens National Team

Post by bodyup88 » Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:29 am

Good information, massalsa. BTW, for those interested, there is a great synopsis of the U18WWC on the SotaGirlsHockey.com blog . Unlike me, this writer watched most of the USA games and had some very good insight on their lines, special teams play and strong suits, trouble spots, etc. Well worth the read in my estimation.

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