SLU Hockey 2011-2012

[hockeyplayer1015]

I know that the performance of our Saints has been a little off so far in the early part of this season. But for posters here to say the lack of Joe is completely unfair to our coaching staff.

Last night Ferris beat RPI 4-0. I was at appletown for the Ferris games. While no real studs were in their roster, they were clones of one and other; big, skated well and had solid puck movement and overall, a very good team.

Thursday night, our goal tending had an off night. One in three shots went into the net. As one non-SLU poster put it...with 34 breakaways we could hope for about the same outcome. Wenny and Moss are certainly better than that, so let's chalk that up to an off-night.

This team is not a 20 win team but I'll bet they will be alright. In the meantime, I know the kids are really happy with the level of coaching they are getting and if you asked them if they need Joe or even BP to right the ship... (While they would be happy to have Joe back) they would say it has nothing to do with the guys behind the bench.

Just win baby!

This. We aren't losing to teams like AIC and UCONN, but rather some pretty good teams. Ferris may have been picked to finish 8th in the CCHA, but I'll guess they finish a little higher than that. RPI was picked by many to compete for a bye, and they just got beat in similar fashion to us.

I'm not standing on the edge of the bridge yet. It's quite possible we go 0-fer until the Princeton game or later. Obviously nobody hopes that happens, but we don't have a cupcake schedule leading up to the winter break. The fellas will be fine once things fall into place.

[Saints17]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Just a reminder to those living in New York State, Time Warner Sports will be televising the Saints vs RIT tonight.

[critsports]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

This. We aren't losing to teams like AIC and UCONN, but rather some pretty good teams. Ferris may have been picked to finish 8th in the CCHA, but I'll guess they finish a little higher than that. RPI was picked by many to compete for a bye, and they just got beat in similar fashion to us.

I'm not standing on the edge of the bridge yet. It's quite possible we go 0-fer until the Princeton game or later. Obviously nobody hopes that happens, but we don't have a cupcake schedule leading up to the winter break. The fellas will be fine once things fall into place.

While RPI got shut out by Ferris State last night; the disappointing thing about our two games was the fact they were at Appleton. This is the year of the home schedule as opposed to the road schedule of last year so in that regard it was disappointing to not get something out of that weekend.

I do think tonight will be a much better indicator. Granted we will be on the road playing in front of a very large crowd in a big arena and that will be working against us.....but.....as good as RIT may or may not be, and they have been good of late, I think we will finally be playing a team of our caliber (or at least I think of our caliber). Not trying to sell us short but I do think this will be a better litmus test than Michigan at Yost.

I'm curious to see how the boys react tonight. After all the coaches have had a little time to work on things (like the penalties) and we sorely need a little bit of momentum as we have quite a break after tonight before the ECAC schedule starts in earnest.

I too am not selling the coaching staff short. With or without Joe (and he certainly is missed)......this is our coaching staff of the future and with the three of them we have arguably one of the best staff's in the nation. Without Joe it is still an impressive couple of coaches with top notch experience in professional hockey.

Let's see how it goes.

[TimU]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Let's see how it goes.

Ummm, not good.

I don't want to overreact or anything, but it's WAY too early in the season to have found this many ways to lose games. This is a little scary.

[hockeyplayer1015]

Ummm, not good.

I don't want to overreact or anything, but it's WAY too early in the season to have found this many ways to lose games. This is a little scary.

Yep. Winning breeds winning, and...we're not winning. That was a game we should have won, but we didn't. Capital district at home in 3 weeks, I'm guessing the boys aren't gonna be seeing much rubber for atleast a week.

The good? Our PP is doing pretty well. And we didn't really parade to the box this weekend. That's about it. Giving up 6 goals a game is going to get us about 30 losses.

[Saints17]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Another loss, however RIT is an absolute disgrace to how they conduct themselves. They were flopping around like wounded seals tonight. Anytime a Saints player touched them they dove. Show a little pride in the game RIT. Its sad to win a game like this....watch out for those bluelines they raised them an inch this season.

[LtPowers]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Another loss, however RIT is an absolute disgrace to how they conduct themselves. They were flopping around like wounded seals tonight. Anytime a Saints player touched them they dove. Show a little pride in the game RIT. Its sad to win a game like this....watch out for those bluelines they raised them an inch this season.

I'll let that slide since you're understandably disappointed, but I hope you revisit this tomorrow and reconsider your insult. RIT doesn't flop.


Powers &8^]

[blazer777]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Another loss, however RIT is an absolute disgrace to how they conduct themselves. They were flopping around like wounded seals tonight. Anytime a Saints player touched them they dove. Show a little pride in the game RIT. Its sad to win a game like this....watch out for those bluelines they raised them an inch this season.

First beer aside, what game where you watching?

Your guys got called for four penalties, two for hooking, a holding call and an interference call. You'd think by your comment that you had a player in the penalty box the entire game!

For the rest of the Saints fans, your team played a very physical game and handled the puck well. I was pretty sure you had it with the 5-3 lead but the Tigers were able to come back with some big plays up front that found the net.

Good luck the rest of the season!

[critsports]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Yep. Winning breeds winning, and...we're not winning. That was a game we should have won, but we didn't. Capital district at home in 3 weeks, I'm guessing the boys aren't gonna be seeing much rubber for at least a week.

The good? Our PP is doing pretty well. And we didn't really parade to the box this weekend. That's about it. Giving up 6 goals a game is going to get us about 30 losses.

I think the other positive is our freshman are scoring some goals. Not watching a game live and only listening to one, it's hard to form an opinion on how good they are, or, if they are giving up as much as they are getting.......but each game a different new player seems to get on the scorecard. On the other hand reading the summary and listening and hearing phrases like... "got behind the defense", "all alone at the post" or, "split the defense". Sure sounds like defense and goal tending are very suspect at this point. The goal to win the game for RIT sounded just like the heartbreaking ending to the Ylae game in Albany a few years ago.

Ummm, not good.

I don't want to overreact or anything, but it's WAY too early in the season to have found this many ways to lose games. This is a little scary.

Well Tim it is that scary time of the year with Halloween right around the corner.

Don't know if he is getting shots but Carey has yet to tickle the twine. He is getting points though. I'm sure after last year teams are keying on him.

On another note a great game between the Bruins and Blackhawks tonight. Peverley had a beautiful shorthanded assist on Kelly's goal and he missed a breakaway, shooting a backhander wide that could have won the game in regulation. B's prevailed though in the shootout with Thomas stopping Toews, Kane and Sharp in succession with Seguin scoring for the B's.

[hockeyplayer1015]

I think the other positive is our freshman are scoring some goals. Not watching a game live and only listening to one, it's hard to form an opinion on how good they are, or, if they are giving up as much as they are getting.......but each game a different new player seems to get on the scorecard. On the other hand reading the summary and listening and hearing phrases like... "got behind the defense", "all alone at the post" or, "split the defense". Sure sounds like defense and goal tending are very suspect at this point. The goal to win the game for RIT sounded just like the heartbreaking ending to the Ylae game in Albany a few years ago.



Well Tim it is that scary time of the year with Halloween right around the corner.

Don't know if he is getting shots but Carey has yet to tickle the twine. He is getting points though. I'm sure after last year teams are keying on him.

On another note a great game between the Bruins and Blackhawks tonight. Peverley had a beautiful shorthanded assist on Kelly's goal and he missed a breakaway, shooting a backhander wide that could have won the game in regulation. B's prevailed though in the shootout with Thomas stopping Toews, Kane and Sharp in succession with Seguin scoring for the B's.

Another positive to go along with the freshmen scoring early, is Flanny now has 5 goals in 4 games. While Carey hasn't scored yet, Flanny has. Let's remember too that Carey didn't score until the 6th game last season and did alright

After letting the initial feelings pass, I hope we'll benefit from this game going forward. We still have what I feel are winnable games against RPI (they have been shutout 4 out of 5 games), Princeton, and Harvard in our next several weekends of play. Michigan Tech looks like they have righted the ship this season, Union will be a top 4 team for sure, Dartmouth should be good, and Q looks like they'll make some noise. We have a lot of work to do in these couple/few weeks off, but I sense we're going to see a different team against the Capital District (namely one that isn't giving up 6 goals a game).

[Saints#1]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Well things certainly didn't go our way tonight that is for sure. I would assume the addition of Carvel to our coaching staff, with his years of experience especially with special teams play, is starting to pay off early. We went 3-5 with the man advantage tonight and our PP has been mediocre at best the last couple years. Other than that for a possitive, there were several negatives. We need to find the goalie who is going to step up for us and start stealing some games. I don't care who it is, just as long as someone can get hot and stay that way. The defense has looked atrocious the few games that I have attended/watched from home. We need to shore that area up real quick as we start to head into the meat of the ECAC schedule. These few weeks off will help and similar to hockeyplayer1015 I am expecting a much different team to show up at Appleton Arena against the Capital District come early November.

On a side note, I was just checking my picks for this weeks ECAC Preseason Pickum and I realized that I was the only one to pick ties on both nights of the Western Michigan/Union series. I am starting to get pretty good at this prediction thing, go figure

[Muskieman]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

A lot of positives from last night's game except the result. The biggest negative is that my kid gets to bust my chops now,

FWIW, I'm quite certain that Joe went 0-7-0 to start his first season ('85-86). Better days are coming,

[SLUwriter]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Hey guys,

Here's kind of an odd thought I had recently. I don't believe SLU won any of the four games Joe missed last year, so it got me wondering when the last time the Saints won without Joe on the bench.

I haven't been covering the team all that long and am unsure of the history of Marsh's absences in his 26 years. But it's kind of an interesting idea to think perhaps the Saints haven't won a game without Joe since, like, 1983. Any thoughts?

[hockeyplayer1015]

Hey guys,

Here's kind of an odd thought I had recently. I don't believe SLU won any of the four games Joe missed last year, so it got me wondering when the last time the Saints won without Joe on the bench.

I haven't been covering the team all that long and am unsure of the history of Marsh's absences in his 26 years. But it's kind of an interesting idea to think perhaps the Saints haven't won a game without Joe since, like, 1983. Any thoughts?

I seem to remember going to a few games in the past where BP/somebody else had the reigns, assuming Joe was on a recruiting visit or had other obligations. I would guess they've won without him on the bench within the past 15 years, but I have no idea where to venture a guess.

[hockeymascot]

Re: SLU Hockey 2011-2012

Hey guys,

Here's kind of an odd thought I had recently. I don't believe SLU won any of the four games Joe missed last year, so it got me wondering when the last time the Saints won without Joe on the bench.

I haven't been covering the team all that long and am unsure of the history of Marsh's absences in his 26 years. But it's kind of an interesting idea to think perhaps the Saints haven't won a game without Joe since, like, 1983. Any thoughts?

It is pretty obvious after watching last night's loss at RIT, with the game in hand in the third winning by 2, SLU misses Coach Marsh behind the bench. Not to take anything away from RIT and how they fought back, but SLU caused their own problems and were not doing the little things that it takes in order to win. For example, on the tying goal with 9 seconds left in regulation, the SLU winger throws the puck from below his own goal line in the corner to the RIT defenseman who he should be covering. Then the winger proceeds to make a half-##sed attempt at blocking the shot from the point. Then the SLU d-man doesn't tie of the stick of the RIT forward on the rebound and it is a tie game.

The shot from the point should have been blocked!!!