Now that we’re a month into the season, it’s evident the Big Ten conference is one of the weakest. Penn State, idle last week, has the second-best overall record in the conference with five wins. Minnesota is already cruising through its schedule, and will more than likely have an easy time taking down other Big Ten teams.

Of the four schools in action last week, Michigan State was the only team besides Minnesota to earn a win. The Spartans split its series with UNH, but Wisconsin and Ohio State were both swept by North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha, respectively.

The Buckeyes dropped their first game 4-1. On Saturday, the Buckeyes had a 3-1 lead against Nebraska-Omaha before allowing three unanswered goals in the 4-3 loss. Tanner Fritz leads Ohio State’s offense with nine points, while Matt Tomkins and Christian Frey have continued splitting starts.

Michigan State defeated UNH 4-3 on Friday, winning its second game in a row and scoring four goals for the second night in a row. On Saturday, the Spartans lost 5-2. Matt Berry and Mackenzie MacEachern each have eight points this season, and the Spartans seem to be lowering their block total by week and now average 15.25 blocked shots per game.

The Gophers defeated Notre Dame 5-0 and 4-2 over the weekend, despite playing without Travis Boyd and Brady Skjei. So far, the Gophers have swept through almost all of their opponents, and should find conference play very easy.

(After the jump: What’s up with Wisconsin, the goalkeeping dilemma and Big Ten woes)

The Badgers might not be as bad as their 0-6-0 record shows

Before the season started, I submitted a preseason poll and picked the Badgers to finish third. I knew they’d lost 170 points in scoring, but trusted Joel Rumpel enough that he’d provide stability for a very young team.

But that hasn’t happened.

On the heels of a sweep against rival North Dakota, the Badgers are off to an 0-6-0 start, its worst in a very long time. As expected, the offense has struggled, and Chase Drake and Grant Besse lead the team with three points each. And, Chase Drake scored in his own net on Saturday.

But Wisconsin might not be as bad as we think they are. The Badgers lost 4-3 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday, but my CHN colleague Tony Jovenitti said Wisconsin looked fairly good on Friday. And after Saturday’s loss, Badger coach Mike Eaves said he saw improvement.

“We were a better team tonight,” Eaves told the media. “We did more things, we were were close to earning that victory through two and a half periods.”

Badger goalkeeper Joel Rumpel echoed his coach.

“We took a lot of big steps this weekend,” goalkeeper Joel Rumpel said.

“You can tell we’re getting better so I won’t call it discouragement, more like improvement.”

The Badgers also faced North Dakota after sitting idle for two weeks, and that’s a tough way to jump back into competition. We also have no way of knowing what the Badgers will look like when they face other Big Ten teams. So that No. 3 spot in the conference could still be theirs.

 The goaltending dilemma

Before the season started, some of us — myself included — thought the Big Ten would feature some stellar goalkeeping match ups with Adam Wilcox, Joel Rumpel, Jake Hildebrand and Matthew Skoff. And Zach Nagelvoort and Christian Frey both looked good in the Big Ten tournament.

The first four goalkeepers have continued manning the nets for their respective programs. With a .932 save percentage, Penn State’s Skoff actually has the highest save percentage amongst the goalkeepers.

Wilcox has played well, but Rumpel has struggled for the Badgers, and he has a .883 save percentage this season. Nagelvoort and Frey haven’t started every game, and their programs have used a goalkeeping rotation for this season. Michigan’s goalkeepers have the worst save percentage, and Nagelvoort’s save percentage is .889.

The goaltending has really hurt the Big Ten this season. The Badgers were hoping they could find their identity as a young team if Rumpel was steady in net, much like Minnesota did last season. Goaltending has been the issue for an otherwise strong Michigan team with high expectations, and Ohio State could have benefitted from a good last line of defense considering its offensive woes.

The Big Ten isn’t good

The conference this season has really struggled, and the only positive is Minnesota. The Gophers are playing like one of the best teams in the country, and aren’t letting injuries stop them from owning their home ice. Behind the Gophers, Penn State has the conference’s best overall record at 5-1-2.

After the Nittany Lions and the Gophers, the Spartans have three wins, Michigan and Ohio State have two, and the Badgers are winless. Some of the non-conference games have been difficult, but none of these teams have really played against some of the country’s best.

Records, statistics and any other numbers aside, none of the conference teams behind Minnesota and maybe Michigan and Penn State seem steady enough to win consistently. And Michigan is still a big inconsistent question mark.

Don’t forget the conference lost its top scorers after last season, and the Badgers and Buckeyes are suffering from the offensive losses.

Monday, November 10th, 2014 - 8:22 pm | Big Ten, Blogs, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings