HShockeywatcher wrote:Mailman wrote: That is the most uninformed post I've seen on this board, pertaining to public schools.
You obviously have spent very, very little time out of the metro area.
The *vast* majority of public schools throughout the state don't have anything close to the pool to "pull from", nor is there much they can do about it.
Believe it or not, Minnesota is composed of areas besides the TC and Duluth metro areas.
The spin you private schoolers put on to justify things is amazing.
My point isn't that a TC school doesn't pull from a "bigger pool" than an outstate school. That would be silly.
My point is simply that any given school, public or private, wherever it is located, has the same rules to follow. Schools like Denfeld and Marshall or Cathedral and Apollo
should, given the rules as they are now, be on a similarly level playing field.
I am
not saying that a school in the metro doesn't pull from a bigger pool than those outstate. Since discussion about classes started years ago, because of the breakdown of size of hockey schools, I suggested the bottom 64 be in Class A, not the top 64 in AA. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would take out many of the current 5A and 4A football schools.
Anyway,
that is my point. Not at all what you are trying to spin it as.
PuckRanger wrote:HShockeywatcher wrote:Similar to my rankings; multiple people each week make broad statements about them with no explanation. So I'm asking for an explanation as I do every week with opinions on teams and rarely get them.
I (and others) give you opinions quite often, and they are NOT broad statements and I ALWAYS back it up with some data to lay out my case (as have others). All we ever get back is that we are wrong and you are right (usually in some twisted, round-about way) and/or that your just being picked on.
The truth is you choose to ignore what other people say when you are not in agreement (which seems to be most of the time) and then claim nobody is saying anything! Then you wonder why people are actually not saying anything anymore. If you're as smart as you think you are, you should know why that is by now.
Some of us (I am one of them) have actually seen many of these teams play (in fact the only one I haven't seen that you have ranked this week is Totino-Grace) and are not just randomly blurting stuff out based on records, scores, and forum poll results.
I respect your opinion, I always have. That doesn't mean I have to agree with it, just like you don't have to agree with mine.
I'm still not seeing the evidence from their
schedule, what I based my rankings on, that they are the #3 team in state.
They have beaten a team last week was said to not be a top 5 team pretty badly early in the season. They have lost and won against the #8 team. They have won by 1 goal to the #12 team and shut out a team Mahtomedi recently beat. When you throw on top of that the loss to Cathedral to start their current win streak, I don't see "tied for second with Breck" as someone pointed out. Maybe I'm missing something...
Yes, last week many people said they thought Hermantown should be ahead of Thief River Falls. The only comment as to
why was that Hermantown won the head to head match up by a lot. I listened. Hermantown is now ahead of Thief River Falls and I am put down again.
I don't understand the logic that I use the 4th game of the season to put team A above team B, but I then ignore team C's win over team A? Team D also had a win over team C the 4th game of the season, so it all fell into place quite easily I thought.
I was doing something terrible wrong, so I listened and did
exactly what was suggested, then I'm doing something terribly wrong again.
I believe you have many teams play. Many of the people I get comments from also claim to have seen many of the teams play. I have always ranked mostly based on the results of games. Recently I have listened to what people are saying a little more. Guess I should stop that?
I think I just figured out why you want to have “early games to carry more weight”
It makes sense to me that games early in the season should carry more weight, really it does.
Earlier games, when teams are developing lines, testing goalies, skaters, etc are clearly a better indicator of the team that will show up in section playoffs.
STAA vs TARTAN
Jan - 5 7 - 2 Win
Feb - 7 4 - 4 Tie
STAA vs HILL
Dec - 15 2-1 Win
Jan - 24 1 - 3 Loss
HERM vs Denfeld
Dec - 20 5 - 4 Loss
Feb - 5 7 - 1 Win
HERM vs. Superior
Jan - 15 4 - 5 Loss
Feb - 7 5 - 2 Win
By the way, if Superior was in MN it would be a AA school.
Hermantown has avenged it 2 losses to Denfeld and Superior earlier in the season.
In neither game was Hermantown outplayed as goaltending was the issue.
There are only 2 teams on Herm’s schedule that they have not beaten.
Herm has 1 Tie.
See Below:
5-4 OT loss to AA-Grand Rapids.
Shots in the game were 29-28 Rapids.
Herm received 17 penalty minutes to GR 2 minutes.
Hermantown played almost the entire 2nd period short.
5-4 OT away loss to SCC.
Hermantown outshot SCC
Shots were 44-30
OT Loss, SCC was on the PP.
5-5 Tie with AA-#7 Eagan
Championship game, X-Mass tourney.
Shots were 49-38 Hermantown.
Shots in OT - Even at 6 each.
All three of these games could have easily gone the other way at the time they were played.
Hermantown has never been outplayed in any game.
Since then Herm has solidified its goaltending and put a greater focus on team defense as written about on the Hub.
An analysis of comparable games between Herm, SCC, TRF, Breck, Lourdes, Denfeld, etc. shows that
Hermantown has won by a much higher margin and had significantly more shots on goal than any of the other teams in almost every game.
Here is a comparison of common games between HERM, TRF AND BRECK.
HT & BR vs. THIEF RIVER
HT: 7 - 1 : 54-25 : +29
BR: 3 - 2 : 36-15 OT + 21
HT beats TRF by 6 goals, TRF biggest loss of the season.
Breck wins 3-2 in OT.
vs. BEMIDJI
HT: 8 - 1 : 42-12 : +30
BR: 7 - 1 : 36-16: +20
TR: 2 - 1 : 29-19 : +10
HT beats Bemidji by 7, Bemidji’s biggest loss of the season.
TRF 2-1.
vs. MARSHALL
HT: 4 - 3 : 42 - 21 : +21
TR: 4 - 2 : 36 - 26 : +10
BR: 2 - 1 ; 33 - 35 : -2
ST: 4 - 1
HT more SOG that both, Breck and Herm win by 1 goal.
Marshall has more SOG than Breck.
vs. TOTINO (ranked #3 by you at that time)
HT: 4 - 0 : 38-20 : +18
BR: 5 - 3 : 40-23 : +17
TR: 2 - 4 : 38-24 : -14 LOSS
HT wins by 4 goals and shutouts Totino.
No other team this year has done this, not even the mighty STAA.
TRF 4-2 Loss and outshot by 14.
vs. DENFELD (latest Game, ranked #4 by you at that time)
HT: 7 - 1 : 54 - 15 : +39:
TR: 5 - 2 : 39 - 24 : +15
HT wins by 5 and puts 15 more SOG that TRF.
vs. I-FALLS (not even ranked!)
HT: 8 - 1 : 63-18 : +45
TR: 2 - 3 : 27-20 : -7 LOSS
HT hands I-Falls its biggest loss of the season, out shooting them by 45.
TRF outshot by 7 and Loses!!!
TRF just lost to BRECK 2-1 in OT, and had its second loss to ROSEAU 2-1 in its first game
and 4-2 just the other day.
Roseau lost to Bemidji 2-4 on 1-31 and GR 2-5.
HT beat Bemidji 8-1 and lost to #9 GR AA in OT 5-4.
Hermantown has a tie with #7 AA Eagan and a 4-1 victory over #16 AA Cloquet.
Cloquet just played #3 AA EAST to a 3-2 loss.
Herm has:
-not been outshot or outplayed in any game
-outscored its opponents 155-49
-outshot its opponents 1023-446
-one of the best power plays in the state at 39.5%
-one of the best penalty kills at 82.5%
-solid goaltending in Smith with a save ratio of 92%
I could go on but what is the point.
There is a reason that every legitimate poll has Herm back at #3.
Organizations/people that compile the ranking objectively analyze every teams entire season’s body of work.
With 95% of the season over, in my opinion, Hermantown takes #3 and is close to #2.
I don’t see another team below STAA and Breck that can match what Hermantown has done.
The polls agree.