St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

[Got 6, Want More]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

I'm going to have to disagree with you SLUfan........big time !
Firstly, In my opinion, the only game we seemed to play defensively was the first Vermont game when Parks got the start. The other 19 games our D generally seems to be more concerned with trying to score goals rather than not to concede them. They seem to gamble way too much for my liking, which has caused all kind of problems for Hayton and cost us a number of games. Maybe they feel like Hayton will bail them out if they turn the puck over, and he has many times. It must be creating enormous pressure on Hayton, cos if the doesn't stand on his head, we lose. The D needs to start bailing him out.
Don't get me wrong, I think we have some good players that could develop to be great D players, but there are just so many mistakes, especially in our own zone and I disagree with you about the scoring chances, many of them are in the slot and are big chances. In any sport, you usually win championships with defense, and to go to the next level our D has to really improve.
As for Hayton, as a former goalie, I'm going to have to disagree with you here too. I don't understand how you can say he's been OK ! Whereas most D1 goalies are scrambling to go post to post and if they make the save it looks awesome, Hayton is so quick and flexible, especially low, and reads the play so well he consistently makes a lot of huge saves look easy. What's an average game for him is a very good game for most other goalies. He has brought the goaltendering at SLU up another 3 or 4 levels. Yes, I feel he needs to work some more on his game, especially glove side high. I don't think he goes down too quick at all, I actually think he's very patient when it comes to that, rather he seems to have a habit of having his glove a little low and a little close to his body in his stance. I think the problem is that.
At the beginning of the season he was getting 40/50 shots a game, now it's mostly in the 30's, this is why he doesn't look like he's going as much. He's still making lots of bigs saves, unfortunately, most from excellent scoring positions. The first ten games he's let in about the same amount of goals as the second ten (20-22).
It's snowing and miserable outside, so I spent ten minutes going inside the numbers. To date, Hayton leads the nation in shutouts (tied with several others), is 7th for minutes played, 7th for save %, and 3rd for # of saves. He also has the highest GAA in the country amongst freshmen who have played more than 7 games. At present he has tied the all time school shutout recond, and if the season ended today would beat Gusto's all time GAA record and is a 100th of a point from tieing Gusto's all time save % record. Most other top freshmen have only played 7-10 games, while Hayton has played 20 already. Pretty remarkable for a freshman who's starting on a team that was picked to finish 11th out of 12 in the ECAC, and generally has a D that's average at best, to this point. Imagine what kind of sick numbers he would be racking up playing with a D like Cornell, Vermont or Miami.
In my opinion he might well be the best goalie to play here, better than Gusto, Heffler or McKenna. We will just have to see, especially come the tournament. The great goalies play their best when the $$$ is on the table. I give enormous credit to the coaching staff for finding a blue chip player like this and convincing him to play here. Imagine what our record would be if we had had the goaltending we've had here recently. We'd probably be exactly where everyone picked us to be !!!

Well, I'm going to have to disagree with you on several points. Our defense is not that bad. They are fast, mobile, great skaters and very active from the blueline. Do you have any idea how ****ing bad our offense would be without their offensive contributions? They are coached to use their speed, pinch at times, and create chances. You make it sound like Hayton is the only one that matters from the blueline back. That is BS. A very talented Colgate team came with some offensive firepower and we outchanced them 12-5. Limiting Colgate to 5 scoring chances is not bad defense. They had 30 shots, but most of them were from the outside. And on many of our 12 best chances, it was D-men in the mix. Hayton has been good, but Finn was one better than him. He came to SLU because the coaches told he would start as a Freshmen. I am thrilled he is here and he keeps us in games but SLU has had some very good, tough goalies over the years - Yearwood, Cohen, Gusty, Kuntar, and a number of guys that were good enough to win us some huge games like Spagnoletti and Ackley who had huge wins almost singlehandedly at UNH and Wisconsin. Our team defense is a lot better than last year and that includes more guys than Hayton.

Any night we win, we win because of 19 guys on the ice and a few more on the bench and in the stands, and same thing goes for when we lose. We lost to Colgate not because of clueless defense but because of our inability to score. Period. Further, I think how well we do this season has more to do with our PP being productive and scoring on our chances. I don't care how we get goals whether it's crashing the net with reckless abandon or passing and shooting artistry. We played well enough as a team to win both games this past weekend, we just didn't score on our chances.

[slufan]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

I'm going to have to disagree with you SLUfan........big time !
Firstly, In my opinion, the only game we seemed to play defensively was the first Vermont game when Parks got the start. The other 19 games our D generally seems to be more concerned with trying to score goals rather than not to concede them. They seem to gamble way too much for my liking, which has caused all kind of problems for Hayton and cost us a number of games. Maybe they feel like Hayton will bail them out if they turn the puck over, and he has many times. It must be creating enormous pressure on Hayton, cos if the doesn't stand on his head, we lose. The D needs to start bailing him out.
Don't get me wrong, I think we have some good players that could develop to be great D players, but there are just so many mistakes, especially in our own zone and I disagree with you about the scoring chances, many of them are in the slot and are big chances. In any sport, you usually win championships with defense, and to go to the next level our D has to really improve.
As for Hayton, as a former goalie, I'm going to have to disagree with you here too. I don't understand how you can say he's been OK ! Whereas most D1 goalies are scrambling to go post to post and if they make the save it looks awesome, Hayton is so quick and flexible, especially low, and reads the play so well he consistently makes a lot of huge saves look easy. What's an average game for him is a very good game for most other goalies. He has brought the goaltendering at SLU up another 3 or 4 levels. Yes, I feel he needs to work some more on his game, especially glove side high. I don't think he goes down too quick at all, I actually think he's very patient when it comes to that, rather he seems to have a habit of having his glove a little low and a little close to his body in his stance. I think the problem is that.
At the beginning of the season he was getting 40/50 shots a game, now it's mostly in the 30's, this is why he doesn't look like he's going as much. He's still making lots of bigs saves, unfortunately, most from excellent scoring positions. The first ten games he's let in about the same amount of goals as the second ten (20-22).
It's snowing and miserable outside, so I spent ten minutes going inside the numbers. To date, Hayton leads the nation in shutouts (tied with several others), is 7th for minutes played, 7th for save %, and 3rd for # of saves. He also has the highest GAA in the country amongst freshmen who have played more than 7 games. At present he has tied the all time school shutout recond, and if the season ended today would beat Gusto's all time GAA record and is a 100th of a point from tieing Gusto's all time save % record. Most other top freshmen have only played 7-10 games, while Hayton has played 20 already. Pretty remarkable for a freshman who's starting on a team that was picked to finish 11th out of 12 in the ECAC, and generally has a D that's average at best, to this point. Imagine what kind of sick numbers he would be racking up playing with a D like Cornell, Vermont or Miami.
In my opinion he might well be the best goalie to play here, better than Gusto, Heffler or McKenna. We will just have to see, especially come the tournament. The great goalies play their best when the $$$ is on the table. I give enormous credit to the coaching staff for finding a blue chip player like this and convincing him to play here. Imagine what our record would be if we had had the goaltending we've had here recently. We'd probably be exactly where everyone picked us to be !!!

Hayton is a good goalie with great potential. But I've been at almost every game and lately he's been out goaltended by the opposing goalies for most of the losing streak. Our team defense, not just our defenseman, have been very good at limiting the scoring chances. Our centermen almost never leave the zone early to make sure we have good support in our own end. This takes away from our offense. We have very skilled forwards that have scored and put up points at every level that are being asked to play more defensively and that takes away from their offense obviously. If you notice Parks numbers aren't that different from Hayton's in the one game he got in. Our young D'men have made some mistakes to be sure and lately when they have the puck ends up in our net whereas early on he was making those big saves. If we are to go far this season we need Hayton to make those big saves.

[TimU]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

Hayton has been good, but Finn was one better than him. He came to SLU because the coaches told he would start as a Freshmen. I am thrilled he is here and he keeps us in games but SLU has had some very good, tough goalies over the years - Yearwood, Cohen, Gusty, Kuntar, and a number of guys that were good enough to win us some huge games like Spagnoletti and Ackley who had huge wins almost singlehandedly at UNH and Wisconsin.

Hayton is the best SLU goalie I've ever seen and I've been watching SLU Hockey since 1970.

I haven't seen a lot of Hayton, but from what I have seen . . .

He is really good - the best we've had in a long time and one of the best in D1. If he can keep getting better then SLU will be a team that can win any game it plays. But guys like Gustafson and Yearwood were really, really good, and Scott played in an era when the ECAC was STACKED with scorers like we haven't seen in a long time. And it's going to take more than a half season of tremendous play for any goalie to convince me he's better than Les Kuntar. That kid made your jaw drop every night.

[Got 6, Want More]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

I haven't seen a lot of Hayton, but from what I have seen . . .

He is really good - the best we've had in a long time and one of the best in D1. If he can keep getting better then SLU will be a team that can win any game it plays. But guys like Gustafson and Yearwood were really, really good, and Scott played in an era when the ECAC was STACKED with scorers like we haven't seen in a long time. And it's going to take more than a half season of tremendous play for any goalie to convince me he's better than Les Kuntar. That kid made your jaw drop every night.

That is an excellent point. The entire game has changed in 30 years. Lest I remind you that SLU had 200 goals in the 87-88 season. Even the best teams in D1 hockey don't go near that threshold. The entire game is more defensive oriented, more structured, more defensive with more parity. Making comparison's to a goalies numbers in this era versus that era is extremely unfair. Hayton is better than we have had in a while. I love that he is a Saint. However, I also agree he has been outplayed several times in the last 6 weeks and has looked a whole lot more human than the first 6 weeks of the season.

[Saints17]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

Hayton has been great but I would take Scottie Yearwood anytime at RPI.

[TimU]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

Hayton has been great but I would take Scottie Yearwood anytime at RPI.

One of the greatest single-game performances in school history.

Good trivia question that I'm sure quite a few people here will know the answer to:

Who was SLU's starting goalie that night?

[Saints17]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

If my memory recalls RPI changed their "Big Red Freakout" night because of Scottie.

[Got 6, Want More]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

If my memory recalls RPI changed their "Big Red Freakout" night because of Scottie.

Which time? We beat them at the BRF in 84-85 when RPI finished 36-2-1 as NCAA champs (5-3 I believe) and then again in 1985-86 by a score of 3-0 when they were no slouches either. Can't figure out why they stopped inviting us after that?

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

The good news, we are playing a good game so far and are up 3-0 towards the end of the 2nd period ... The bad news? Dartmouth has probably some of the biggest divers in the league and just drew a 5 minute major penalty on Gluchowski for it. I'm really regretting paying for the live video feed as these announcers are awful! Nobody better ever call Greg and Wally homers after listening to these two ... Yikes!!

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

St. Lawrence wins it 3-2 tonight against Dartmouth. Nice win tonight and they looked much better than they have recently. Nice win boys!

On another note ... Did anyone else watch the game on the Dartmouth feed? I have to tell you I don't think I have ever seen a more unprofessional bunch in my whole life! These two need to be reviewed by whoever can do that, Dartmouth University maybe? They were horrendous! A little homerish is one thing but some of the things he was saying I haven't even seen my 13 year old nephew say. He must have forgot to take his meds before heading to the arena tonight ... "Mark my words, this Dartmouth team will not lose to St. Lawrence later in the season at Appleton. 100% guarantee" "I am just ****ed off at the way this team is playing tonight. This is not my Dartmouth team I am watching tonight" "Everyone thought for sure that Dartmouth would win this one tonight against this team as we are the far superior team". What a joke this guy is! ... At one point he starting swearing and you could hear him having ripped his own headphones off and threw them on the ground. A complete 2 year old temper tantrum going on over there ...

Anywho, rant over, game over and thank god I don't have to watch/listen to that garbage anymore ... Tough one tomorrow night as Harvard has been playing great all season. If we keep it simple and play hard, shoot the puck and play sound defensively we can do it! Let's Go Saints!!

[Muskieman]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

St. Lawrence wins it 3-2 tonight against Dartmouth. Nice win tonight and they looked much better than they have recently. Nice win boys!

On another note ... Did anyone else watch the game on the Dartmouth feed? I have to tell you I don't think I have ever seen a more unprofessional bunch in my whole life! These two need to be reviewed by whoever can do that, Dartmouth University maybe? They were horrendous! A little homerish is one thing but some of the things he was saying I haven't even seen my 13 year old nephew say. He must have forgot to take his meds before heading to the arena tonight ... "Mark my words, this Dartmouth team will not lose to St. Lawrence later in the season at Appleton. 100% guarantee" "I am just ****ed off at the way this team is playing tonight. This is not my Dartmouth team I am watching tonight" "Everyone thought for sure that Dartmouth would win this one tonight against this team as we are the far superior team". What a joke this guy is! ... At one point he starting swearing and you could hear him having ripped his own headphones off and threw them on the ground. A complete 2 year old temper tantrum going on over there ...

Anywho, rant over, game over and thank god I don't have to watch/listen to that garbage anymore ... Tough one tomorrow night as Harvard has been playing great all season. If we keep it simple and play hard, shoot the puck and play sound defensively we can do it! Let's Go Saints!!

I listened to the Dartmouth audio, w/ the same announcers. Quotes you mentioned are spot on. Not once did either complement us. One of them also said, "the 2nd period was the worst Dartmouth had played in years." My brothers (both Dartmouth grads.) should/would be - if alive - embarrassed.

Nice two points on the road by the Saints. Should be a great game at Harvard.

[Muskieman]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

If my memory recalls RPI changed their "Big Red Freakout" night because of Scottie.

Not the case if it was the game in '84-'85 unless they had the BRF in November which I don't think happened. Please see this website: http://www.augenblick.org/rpi/h_05yr.html --- IIRC, Yearwood stopped 48 in that game.

[Red Hockey]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

The Dartmouth feed is quite bad. You're always better off just muting the audio and seeing video if you can. The same goes for the Brown guys.

[Got 6, Want More]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

St. Lawrence wins it 3-2 tonight against Dartmouth. Nice win tonight and they looked much better than they have recently. Nice win boys!

On another note ... Did anyone else watch the game on the Dartmouth feed? I have to tell you I don't think I have ever seen a more unprofessional bunch in my whole life! These two need to be reviewed by whoever can do that, Dartmouth University maybe? They were horrendous! A little homerish is one thing but some of the things he was saying I haven't even seen my 13 year old nephew say. He must have forgot to take his meds before heading to the arena tonight ... "Mark my words, this Dartmouth team will not lose to St. Lawrence later in the season at Appleton. 100% guarantee" "I am just ****ed off at the way this team is playing tonight. This is not my Dartmouth team I am watching tonight" "Everyone thought for sure that Dartmouth would win this one tonight against this team as we are the far superior team". What a joke this guy is! ... At one point he starting swearing and you could hear him having ripped his own headphones off and threw them on the ground. A complete 2 year old temper tantrum going on over there ...

Anywho, rant over, game over and thank god I don't have to watch/listen to that garbage anymore ... Tough one tomorrow night as Harvard has been playing great all season. If we keep it simple and play hard, shoot the puck and play sound defensively we can do it! Let's Go Saints!!

Funny they should whine, the refs gave them every opportunity to get back in it. It was an ugly win, the officiating was horrible, and I mean absolutely horrible. A combination of phantom calls against us and non calls against them. The takeaways:

Dartmouth's top line is good, very good, but the team is not as deep as SLU.
SLU is faster than Dartmouth.
That stretch in the second period when Dahl scored was SLU at its best, skating hard, winning every battle, and Martin was a warrior on the boards getting it back to Dahl who was covering his point. He deserved two apples for that.
Dartmouth players were a bunch of whiners. They paid for it with the top centerman getting a misconduct with 7 minutes to go.
Ward's goal was a laser. Glad to see him get a big goal after Dartmouth discarded him.
Patterson got the prettiest assist of the night on Gunnar Hughes' shorty. He skates it out in front of his net and Hughes just goes up and pokes in the net like a poker shot. That guy wouldn't be playing the point for me after that.
Really liked Bruckel tonight. He had his legs moving and played a hard but simple game of going to the net hard, keeping everything in front of him.
Marnell played well. Hughes played well and won a lot of physical battles.
Graham played well. So did Gluchowski until he got not only a phantom call but a major.
Hayton was excellent

The Dartmouth announcers can suck my ***. They dominated for stretches but so did we and our goalie was better than theirs by a lot. We won key battles. We were excellent on the PK. We had three nice goals. Maybe those Dartmouth announcers can look up and see us in the standings. Dartmouth has some good players, but there are at least three to four teams that are better than them.

[Ivan Lennon]

Re: St. Lawrence University: Big Time, Old Time Hockey 2014-15

Having followed Larry sports since 1960 I have always been most impressed by the sportsmanship and civility the coaches, players and fans have exhibited
The intemperate and juvenile language of "Got 6.." certainly does not fall within those parameters
Remember, no matter how important SLU ice hockey is to us "it is only a game"