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how good are they? how far will they go?

Real good.

All the way.

In as deep of a section that they in, they have shown that they have had the ability to compete with the best in the state.

their losses have been strange ones because of how severely they have out played most of their opponents (with the exception of HM) and they handle the tempo of most games, their real problem is to find somebody on the team who can be a leader, though this week they have looked extremely solid with wins over denfeld, rapids and brainerd. theyve been able to spread the puck around and a lot of different guys are getting chances. there was only one game this week where one player had more than 1 goal (boese on sat. vs. brainerd), but this shows the real depth of this team and they definitely have numerous players that can finish, they showed that this week.

if the hounds play the rest of the season like they have over the past 3 games, they are going to be tough to stop if they continue to play to their full potential through february and hopefully a little bit of march

this second half of the season for the hounds looks to be very promising, its a good section and its going to be a photo finish.

houndshockey11 wrote:In as deep of a section that they in, they have shown that they have had the ability to compete with the best in the state.

their losses have been strange ones because of how severely they have out played most of their opponents (with the exception of HM) and they handle the tempo of most games, their real problem is to find somebody on the team who can be a leader, though this week they have looked extremely solid with wins over denfeld, rapids and brainerd. theyve been able to spread the puck around and a lot of different guys are getting chances. there was only one game this week where one player had more than 1 goal (boese on sat. vs. brainerd), but this shows the real depth of this team and they definitely have numerous players that can finish, they showed that this week.

if the hounds play the rest of the season like they have over the past 3 games, they are going to be tough to stop if they continue to play to their full potential through february and hopefully a little bit of march

this second half of the season for the hounds looks to be very promising, its a good section and its going to be a photo finish.

actually the first line of rob johnson, jake boese and max tardy are equal in points with like 25 each, after that it drops off considerably

mike renier is a good player.. if he was bigger he could play college.. he still might.

Duluth 4 wrote:mike renier is a good player.. if he was bigger he could play college.. he still might.

he's tough as nails, been abit unlucky in the goals department, but they will come soon enough I'm sure

there are also players like lutzka, renier (as said above), joe nelson and defensemen like arbour, williams and friday that have been spreading some points around. the points are deceiving, they are lower because a lot of guys have points and east plays a very tough schedule.

In comparison to say denfelds first line of johnson, stafne and hotckin, easts first line scoring is significantly lower, this is greatly due to the strength of the schedule. denfelds first line has around 100 points combined already because of an extremely weak schedule with such teams as proctor, ashland and others where denfeld wins by between 6-10 goals per game (with a few exceptions) and the guys on their first line all average about 4 points per game. the hunters schedule is much weaker than easts, giving them the ability to extremely pad their points.

In conclusion, the points don't prove everything. if you watch enough of easts games (i have attended every home game and quite a few away), you will see that they spread the puck around quite a bit between the forwards and defense and they have a very well balanced attack

if anyone cares the actual point differential between east and denfelds first lines are:

denfeld's jake johnson: 47
chris stafne: 42
cody hotchkin:23
total: 112

east's rob johnson: 24
max tardy: 23
jake boese: 21
total: 68

as you can see, denfeld's points almost double east's, but then go look at the schedules and compare.

im no expert but i think east beat denfeld, im also 100% positive that 6 different players scored in the 6-2 victory. i know this has been said but it's definitely true that paper does not win hockey games.

(also, i know denfeld has nothing to do with east winning the section, but i think i gave plenty of proof that east is plenty deep of a team, the points may not show it, though 15 players besides that top line have points for east, but the players not scoring are playing the forecheck well and keeping the opponents off the puck. all of east's lines do a great job and the first line is the FIRST LINE for reason, they are supposed to lead in scoring.)

Though some of the other lines may not score that much, it's not as if they're liabilities. East's 2nd and 3rd lines can go out and compete with almost any other team's in the state, it's just that most of the scoring comes from that first line. And considering the teams East plays, you have to be a very good player to pile up a lot of points on them. Randolph has also used his fourth line more this year than in the past. There's no shortage of quality hockey players, it's more of a shortage of people who can just bury the puck. Hence the high shot and low goal counts East has tallied this year. But their recent play leads me to believe they're only getting better and will be a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.

thanks for the support karl

houndshockey11 wrote:thanks for the support karl

karl and houndhockey, you both are very correct in your assessment
I really like this team more than teams in the past. The first line is as
skilled as any in the state, the other 3 lines are also very skilled hockey players. East has one of the deepest teams I think randolph has ever had, and because they don't have any selfish kids like they have had in the past, I believe they will go very deep into the playoffs, and should come out as section champs!

ColdasIce wrote:

houndshockey11 wrote:thanks for the support karl

karl and houndhockey, you both are very correct in your assessment
I really like this team more than teams in the past. The first line is as
skilled as any in the state, the other 3 lines are also very skilled hockey players. East has one of the deepest teams I think randolph has ever had, and because they don't have any selfish kids like they have had in the past, I believe they will go very deep into the playoffs, and should come out as section champs!

I would have to disagree. The Hounds have been horribly inconsistent this year and have shown that on any night they can beat anybody or lose to them. That is not a good thing to have going into the deepest section in state. They are going to have to win 3 games against some really high quality teams to earn a birth to the state tourney. I just don't think this is their year. They certainly have the talent to go, but their section is going to be too tough.

Sparlimb wrote:

ColdasIce wrote:

houndshockey11 wrote:thanks for the support karl

karl and houndhockey, you both are very correct in your assessment
I really like this team more than teams in the past. The first line is as
skilled as any in the state, the other 3 lines are also very skilled hockey players. East has one of the deepest teams I think randolph has ever had, and because they don't have any selfish kids like they have had in the past, I believe they will go very deep into the playoffs, and should come out as section champs!

I would have to disagree. The Hounds have been horribly inconsistent this year and have shown that on any night they can beat anybody or lose to them. That is not a good thing to have going into the deepest section in state. They are going to have to win 3 games against some really high quality teams to earn a birth to the state tourney. I just don't think this is their year. They certainly have the talent to go, but their section is going to be too tough.

Have you actually seen them play??? except for one game in which they were outplayed terribly, they could easily have that one loss...now that they have the goalie situation resolved watch out for the hounds. inconsistency was due to goaltending more than anything else.

Exactly...I think their play over the last week has shown they're really getting things together and no longer have any, um, issues. They've actually been quite consistent...a lot of shots, not a lot of goals, mediocre goaltending. But the recent improvement is obvious.

That was an excellently thorough article on East hockey history. Great history lesson for those of us too young to remember most of that.

karl(east) wrote:That was an excellently thorough article on East hockey history. Great history lesson for those of us too young to remember most of that.

You should see the long version of that article.

Lee

east hockey wrote:

karl(east) wrote:That was an excellently thorough article on East hockey history. Great history lesson for those of us too young to remember most of that.

You should see the long version of that article.

Lee

lee, why does it say terry johnson wrote it, didn't you

ColdasIce wrote:

east hockey wrote:

karl(east) wrote:That was an excellently thorough article on East hockey history. Great history lesson for those of us too young to remember most of that.

You should see the long version of that article.

Lee

lee, why does it say terry johnson wrote it, didn't you

The online version has been changed. No idea what the print version says.

Lee