Badger Men news and notes

Andy Baggot talks about how the Badgers are loaded w/ dmen.

Unless you live under a rock, Wisconsin does have one of the most talented blue liners anywhere. It didn't show in the first 7 games of the season (at least defensively), but the turn around has been excellent. Only the Florida Panthers boast as many 1st and 2nd round NHL picks. Baggot points out that the blue line is at the top of many stats this season. McBain leads in points and assists (Smith and Gardiner right behind) and Springer is tops in +/-.

We already covered that Ryan McDonagh is headed to the WJC, but there is a chance he'll be joined by Brendan Smith and Cody Goloubef, who have been selected to attend Team Canada's WJC camp. They have some very steep competition, but I think there is a chance one of them could make it. If by chance both do, Wiscosnin would be down to 5 dmen for the Showdown and against N. Michigan.

In other news, Todd Milewski talks about the balance of the UW forwards. Its not so much that the Badgers score by commitee that they have a lot of good talent on all the lines. While Blake Geoffrion and Tom Gorowsky pace the team in goal scoring, a lot of other guys have chipped in, especially during the run in November. UW doesn't have a dominate line, but they can role out 3 or 4 lines each night that can score goals. Even last week's 4th line of Davies/Bendickson/Turnbull definately has some scoring ability. The one thing I will disagree w/ Todd on is that Kyle Turris was not a top scorer for the Badgers. Sure he was the top scorer (points) last season, but down the list a little in goals. He never really dominated the game either, like a top scorer (Joe Pavelski or Nathan Gerbe) does.

Lastly, Wisconsin was named College Hockey News team of the week for turning things around after the horrible start.