UNH At The Starting Gate....

[Darius]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

You're definitely right, but unh fans have seen this movie before. There is no shame in losing to a better team, but if they don't start getting better, their ncaa tourney footing is going to get rocky, I'm afraid. I don't even care about hockey east...

Amen. Down to 9 in the PWR. If we win 3 of 4 from VT/NU, split with BC or maybe even lose 2 to BC, we should be in the tournament, but I suspect we NEED to win 3 of 4 before that?

[JB]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

You're definitely right, but unh fans have seen this movie before. There is no shame in losing to a better team, but if they don't start getting better, their ncaa tourney footing is going to get rocky, I'm afraid. I don't even care about hockey east...

Agreed. This is less to do with MC than UNH. I find it annoying when the team captain makes a comment about how UNH was unwilling to go to the hard areas all weekend. Well if it was a problem Friday and you knew it why was it again a problem on Saturday?

If you aren't willing to go to the hard areas you wont win post season games. UNH was far to happy to hang out and pass around the outside. Against solid defensive teams with good goalies this doesn't work.

[Darius]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

I find it annoying when the team captain makes a comment about how UNH was unwilling to go to the hard areas all weekend.

Also the quote about MC sacrificing their bodies to block shots. I am not going to invest the energy to find the exact quote or who said it, but yeah, duh, they block shots because they want to win games.

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

A much-needed, positive story - Bobby Butler scored his first NHL goal:
http://www.torontosun.com/sports/hoc.../17256661.html

[Warrior51]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

We sure do want to win games. I was at the Whit Friday and I have to say UNH has some classy fans (unlike BC). Great to get up there again and I sincerely wish you the best of luck the rest of the season.

[PSW]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Imagine it's October 1, 2010, the day before the St. Francis Xavier exhibition game.

The Hockey Gods offer the following deal:
On the second weekend in February, 2011, UNH will lose two close games to the hottest team in Hockey East.
In exchange, UNH will be tied for 1st place with the most points in Hockey East.

Do you take that deal?

Let me push back a bit……. On December 11th 2010 (the break) would you take the same “ Deal”….. now knowing…….UNH sat #2 in the country….. first place Hockey East with 2 games in hand….at that point we knew we didn’t have a goaltending issue…..got to see the freshman make contributions….Paul Thompson is looking Hobey like……

Would taken have taken the “deal” of where we sit now….

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Let me push back a bit... On December 11th 2010 (the break) would you take the same "Deal".. now knowing...UNH sat #2 in the country... first place Hockey East with 2 games in hand...at that point we knew we didn't have a goaltending issue...got to see the freshman make contributions...Paul Thompson is looking Hobey like..

Would taken have taken the "deal" of where we sit now...

Had to think about that one.
Since the December break, UNH has won 9 and lost 5. The five loses were by a combined 6 goals. Given that they swept Maine (a pleasant surprise), played a highly competitive game with BU, and the team is still healthy (except for Kessel's strongly suspected leg injury), I'm comfortable with the team's current position.

[ClOuD 9]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

I was at the Whit Friday and I have to say UNH has some classy fans (unlike BC).

It's hard to tell if this is sarcasm or not after all the complaining the Black and blue Bears did last weekend - apparently hearing "sucks" is worse than being physically assaulted or having trash dumped on you for 60 minutes each night.

[billb]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

UNH does have some classy fans.
One thing, however, has me puzzled. If BU just stunk out the joint this afternoon against a mediocre Harvard squad, then how good could BU be? And, if it's the same team that outmuscled and outhustled the Wildcats a few weeks back, how good can UNH be? Honestly, better than I thought in October, and that's a breakthrough. But they really needed to take advantage of the games-in-hand if they wanted to win the RS trophy. Post-season play can be written off right now.
My daughter, a UNH freshman, went to the first BU game of the season, said there was a drunk coed blowing a horn making an arse of herself. But she liked the game. I guess UNH has some fans who aren't so classy, too.

[WildShawn]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

UNH does have some classy fans.
One thing, however, has me puzzled. If BU just stunk out the joint this afternoon against a mediocre Harvard squad, then how good could BU be? And, if it's the same team that outmuscled and outhustled the Wildcats a few weeks back, how good can UNH be? Honestly, better than I thought in October, and that's a breakthrough. But they really needed to take advantage of the games-in-hand if they wanted to win the RS trophy. Post-season play can be written off right now.
My daughter, a UNH freshman, went to the first BU game of the season, said there was a drunk coed blowing a horn making an arse of herself. But she liked the game. I guess UNH has some fans who aren't so classy, too.

I was going to say that you're not one of the classy UNH fans, but then I forgot, you're not a UNH fan.
like clockwork, you chime in only after a loss... keep up the quality work.
UNH outplayed BU in that game, or at the very least were even with them, but you in all of your wisdom said they got embarassed by BU (in a 2-1* loss that if not for the incompetence and fear of the zebras would have been a 2-2 tie).
The Regular season trophy is meaningless... you, who is critical (and never positive) of everything UNH should know that..

[Yuppie Scum]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

UNH does have some classy fans.
One thing, however, has me puzzled. If BU just stunk out the joint this afternoon against a mediocre Harvard squad, then how good could BU be? And, if it's the same team that outmuscled and outhustled the Wildcats a few weeks back, how good can UNH be? Honestly, better than I thought in October, and that's a breakthrough. But they really needed to take advantage of the games-in-hand if they wanted to win the RS trophy. Post-season play can be written off right now.
My daughter, a UNH freshman, went to the first BU game of the season, said there was a drunk coed blowing a horn making an arse of herself. But she liked the game. I guess UNH has some fans who aren't so classy, too.

Does she have that coed's number?

[GoUNH]

UNH does have some classy fans.
One thing, however, has me puzzled. If BU just stunk out the joint this afternoon against a mediocre Harvard squad, then how good could BU be? And, if it's the same team that outmuscled and outhustled the Wildcats a few weeks back, how good can UNH be? Honestly, better than I thought in October, and that's a breakthrough. But they really needed to take advantage of the games-in-hand if they wanted to win the RS trophy. Post-season play can be written off right now.
My daughter, a UNH freshman, went to the first BU game of the season, said there was a drunk coed blowing a horn making an arse of herself. But she liked the game. I guess UNH has some fans who aren't so classy, too.

Was it a big horn?

[5IslandsWildcat]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

Amen. Down to 9 in the PWR. If we win 3 of 4 from VT/NU, split with BC or maybe even lose 2 to BC, we should be in the tournament, but I suspect we NEED to win 3 of 4 before that?

If UNH doesn't take 3 of 4 from VT/NU, should it be in the ncaa tourney? Even if they still made it, would they survive the regionals?

Much improvement needed. As pointed out elsewhere, UNH was #2 in US in December, but they need to be a better team now than then. Nearly all other teams are better in Feb and Mar than they were in Dec.

[JB]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

If UNH doesn't take 3 of 4 from VT/NU, should it be in the ncaa tourney? Even if they still made it, would they survive the regionals?

Much improvement needed. As pointed out elsewhere, UNH was #2 in US in December, but they need to be a better team now than then. Nearly all other teams are better in Feb and Mar than they were in Dec.

I would lean toward UNH having regressed since December as much as others improving. The real thing I see lacking is the commitment to hard work from the forwards. They were doing a better job of back checking and going to the hard areas of the ice earlier in the year. The lower lines were not scoring but I think they were working harder. It is particularly a problem with the 1st line that has been doing a nice job of playing one way hockey since the New Year, hustling only when going for points. Further evidence was Thompson’s idiotic lazy change causing a too many men penalty because he didn’t get his butt on the bench.

As a team they needed a solid kick in the pants, with any luck MC did a nice job of supplying that. It would be nice if the coach would cut the playing time of some of the one way players, nothing sinks in the point like ice time.

They “aren't good enough to win on talent alone.” However that #2 ranking apparently caused them to think they didn't need to work as hard.

I really don’t know if they will get it this year, bad habits are hard to break, and UNH has picked up a bunch of bad habits.

[C-H-C]

Re: UNH At The Starting Gate....

I would lean toward UNH having regressed since December as much as others improving. The real thing I see lacking is the commitment to hard work from the forwards. They were doing a better job of back checking and going to the hard areas of the ice earlier in the year. The lower lines were not scoring but I think they were working harder. It is particularly a problem with the 1st line that has been doing a nice job of playing one way hockey since the New Year, hustling only when going for points...

I really don’t know if they will get it this year, bad habits are hard to break, and UNH has picked up a bunch of bad habits.

That's the half-empty perspective - one in which I largely agree.
Here's the half-full perspective. The forwards, including the first line, performed all that hard work early in the season because the immediate goal was clear. The team was determined to not get off to a slow start, particularly in out-of-conference games, so that they would be in a decent position of making the NCAA tournament come March. They've demonstrated that they are capable of doing all the hard work (e.g., back checking; going to the hard areas in and around the goal; etc.). They are all still healthy. The freshman and sophomore forwards have gained a ton of experience. So now, it is simply a matter of increasing the intensity of play again.