Hockey East - The Off Season

[SteveF]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Perhaps it would be an act of strong character on your part to refrain from accusing someone before you have all the facts and before you have learned what it is that he may have done.

perhaps you should have this conversation with your AD then? and in regards to saying things to cronin's face; i mean, why would we want to? you see what he did to clendening after he mentioned it. the man is a barbarian!

[jcarter7669]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

While I believe it would be inappropriate to share the details with you, I can say unequivocally that the alleged texting violations had absolutely nothing to do with competitve recruiting and that texts were not made to any athlete that another school was recruiting. The violations would have been of a technical nature and are nothing that deserve to call acts of cheating.

Huh? So there were violations of the rules

The violations would have been of a technical nature

but

nothing that deserve to call acts of cheating

.


*****http://www.lifeshore.com/smiley/data/media/3/3D_emoticon_S113.gif******
Um, your honor look, I know I was technically over the legal BAC limit, but it was only by a little bit and doesn't deserve to be a DUI.


I like Cronin as a coach, but this is a pretty thin line of logic. And no, I wouldn't say anything to his face, I'm not sure I trust his emotional stability.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

You casually call the man a "cheater" on these boards. I doubt that you or anyone else here would have the cajones to do it to his face.

Do you actually know what he and Albie did that might have caused the sanctions that were imposed on them? The answer is NO, you don't. You know what was in the media or exaggerated in blogs. Great sources at times, but not this time! The University has not made the details public, although a few of us who are close to the coachs know the real story.

While I believe it would be inappropriate to share the details with you, I can say unequivocally that the alleged texting violations had absolutely nothing to do with competitve recruiting and that texts were not made to any athlete that another school was recruiting. The violations would have been of a technical nature and are nothing that deserve to call acts of cheating.

Perhaps it would be an act of strong character on your part to refrain from accusing someone before you have all the facts and before you have learned what it is that he may have done.

This whole thing is a nicely worded and cute rant caused by the horrible besmirching of your favorite program (and probably your buddies that coach it). That's great. Good for you.

At the end of the day, he broke a rule, he got caught, he was punished for it... yes, he's a freakin cheater. I'm sorry if this makes you cry or you feel the need to minimize their actions because of what you perceive wasn't a competitive advantage gained by the breaking of the rules. It is what it is.

[northeastern]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Cronin was careless.. no querstion about it. Anything beyond.. not much there.

Does make for good fodder on these boards though..
Much like the BC betting / gambling scandals from a 'previous era' .. fun times!

ps: Nick.. you're trying so hard.. much like Cronin

[claver2010]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

You casually call the man a "cheater" on these boards. I doubt that you or anyone else here would have the cajones to do it to his face.

Please, with his roid rage that would be like giving ol Jackie a fifth.

Just stay away.

[slurpees]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

You casually call the man a "cheater" on these boards. I doubt that you or anyone else here would have the cajones to do it to his face.

Do you actually know what he and Albie did that might have caused the sanctions that were imposed on them? The answer is NO, you don't. You know what was in the media or exaggerated in blogs. Great sources at times, but not this time! The University has not made the details public, although a few of us who are close to the coachs know the real story.

While I believe it would be inappropriate to share the details with you, I can say unequivocally that the alleged texting violations had absolutely nothing to do with competitve recruiting and that texts were not made to any athlete that another school was recruiting. The violations would have been of a technical nature and are nothing that deserve to call acts of cheating.

Perhaps it would be an act of strong character on your part to refrain from accusing someone before you have all the facts and before you have learned what it is that he may have done.

Wouldn't say it to his face? This is a message board you know, it's not designed to be a forum to speak directly with the coaches or players.

I find it very, very difficult to believe that a school would pre-emptively suspend their head coach and top assistant in the stretch run of the season because of some minute violation that was more of a technicality. The NCAA calls these types of these "minor violations" and they tend to amount to incredibly dumb things like overpaying meal money for a player by an insignificant amount, or arranging for an injured player who stayed after the team bus left for treatment to receive a ride from the arena back to the hotel while on the road with a team employee instead of getting one on his own. The penalties amount to repaying the sum of money to someone, usually very insignificant amounts, and the coaching staff pledges to attend some hour of NCAA rule re-education session or something dumb. Basically, it's all a load of BS, and most definitely does not warrant a pre-emptive suspension.

Suspensions are for major NCAA violations, which include excessive contact and things of that nature. I'm not sure how you can say the violations had nothing to do with competitive recruiting (that's a little redundant in this context) when NU's own press release on the suspension said this: "The possible violations relate to telephone and text message legislation and were revealed during the course of routine internal compliance monitoring." So clearly, it had to do with phone calls and text messages, which are only a violation in two ways, a player using athletic department phones for excessive personal use, which 99.9% of the time is not a major violation, or the coaching staff made excessive contact with recruits, which is frequently a major violation.

Sure, the press release says possible violations, but the only way they suspend him pre-emptively is if they already know they're violations. The NCAA is the body that definitively determines that they are violations, not the school.

You say the "violations would have been..." which is kind of confusing, but I think implies that there were no violations. The school would not dole out a lengthy pre-emptive suspension if there were no violations.

You make it seem like nothing happened and they just broke a series of rules in technicality only, and not in the spirit of the rule, meaning they didn't really break the rule. I too know someone who works directly in the AD there, specifically within the hockey program, and while he was 100% tight-lipped on what happened, it was made very clear from my conversations with him that something definitely happened, and it was not an irrelevant minor violation.

The only other semi-plausible explanation for this whole scenario would be if he really didn't do anything, and NU was just out to get him for some reason. This scenario makes little sense though because if they went this far to "get him" they likely would have fired him already in the offseason, and reinstating him just before the playoffs wouldn't be consistent with the "out to get him" mentality.

[Jacques "Rabbit" Poriveau]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

You casually call the man a "cheater" on these boards. I doubt that you or anyone else here would have the cajones to do it to his face.

So what you saying is cheeting eez actualy one of he betteur qualitys, compared to being a violent lunatic I meaning, eh?

A cheeting vilent sycopathe, dat sound like juste de guy you wants leeding young mens et represent you universitie.

[unh_hockey]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Sure, but "post season flops" has to include some rather pedestrian efforts in the HE tourney too. I still have to think that a bad/mediocre effort in the HE tourney followed by a Rd 1 win followed by a Rd 2 collapse is still going to net out to be a bad postseason performance IMO (2010).

So really, 2011 was clearly not a flop. 2009 was certainly not a flop either but not great. But 2010 and 2008... not pretty. And no FFs or even a trip to the HE finals in any of those years. 2 years out of the last 4 UNH didn't even make it to the Garden (with home ice). But maybe 2 of the last 3 being not that bad of a flop is an upward trend? One can hope!

Interestingly enough, the better UNH teams had the far worse falls back in the early 2000s. 2002 comes to mind more than 2003, since half the 2003 goofers are now staple players for their respective NHL clubs. Alas I digress. Looking at this years class, UNH had the one bad game against RIT, but managed to push BU ( who eventually won the title) and ND to close, hard faught 2-1 games. Notre dame in 2008 beat everyone except BC, so they weren’t too bad either, although UNH shouldn’t have let up as many goals as they did.

In closing, I don’t believe anyone is arguing UNH is a playoff powerhouse. You’d be stretching if you said otherwise. However, to say they are as much of a colossal failure as they were in the past would also be a lie too. They haven’t blown games by nearly as wide of margins, and were nearly FF contenders in a year they maybe shouldn’t have even made the playoffs. (2009). I hate to play “what if”, but maybe a few of these games wouldn’t have been so bad if they got even a few of the blue chip players they had gotten earlier commitments from? Smith leaves early, JVR leaves early, White never shows up, Yandle was a failure, Reid goes to SCSU…. Heck, could Esposito, trotter, or kolomatis made a difference? Probably. Despite this, the UNH system has show resilience in the regular season and kept games closer in the post season.

Its all how you look at it. If you are pessimistic enough, you can paint any program, or any person a failure.

[jcarter7669]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Gawd, this is horrendously slow even for the offseason.

How about a poll...

Next seasons most improved team ........ Vermont : Talented incoming class compliments a now vetern offense

Next seasons biggest fall .......... Merrimack : with huge losses including da costa MC takes a significant step back

Next seasons biggest surprise...... Saporni gets booted by Cronin after releasing another music video about 'roid rage

Next seasons take it to the bank .....Jack Parker dismisses one of BU's top 5 players

Next seasons HE finals Boston College v. UNH

BC...... Despite being the pre-season favorite, Milner rides the pine all season long.

BU..... The highly talented and skilled team once again finishes in the top 4 in HE and misses out on an NCAA bid

Maine ..... Timmay recruits 3 more goalies dismissing Sullivan

UMA...... continues to average an attendance 25% of capacity

UML ...... Start off slow before making a stretch run leading to absurd expectations heading into 2012-2013

MC ........ Cannata sets single season record for most saves as he gets shelled game in and game out

UNH ....... Umile keeps UNH at the top of the standing....somehow

NU .......... Cronin gets suspended ....again....

PC ......... Wins a game in February for the first time in 3? years.

UVM .........Returns to the NCAA tourney with an uncharacteristically consistent season

[mpereira]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Gawd, this is horrendously slow even for the offseason.

How about a poll...

Next seasons most improved team ........ Vermont : Talented incoming class compliments a now vetern offense

Next seasons biggest fall .......... Merrimack : with huge losses including da costa MC takes a significant step back

Next seasons biggest surprise...... Saporni gets booted by Cronin after releasing another music video about 'roid rage

Next seasons take it to the bank .....Jack Parker dismisses one of BU's top 5 players

Next seasons HE finals Boston College v. UNH

BC...... Despite being the pre-season favorite, Milner rides the pine all season long.

BU..... The highly talented and skilled team once again finishes in the top 4 in HE and misses out on an NCAA bid

UVM .........Returns to the NCAA tourney with an uncharacteristically consistent season

Your predictions seem a little biased don't they? Yeah yeah i know you never would make an unbiased opinion though. I can't pass down an opportunity to argue with you though. It will give you a little entertainment as apparently Vermont gets boring this time of the year.

Most improved- UVM - Can't believe I am agreeing with you here but it easier to improve more when you're in the bottom third of the league.

Biggest Fall- Maine- Whitehead is still the coach and Nyquist is gone. This team would shock me if they weren't 6 or worse in the league.

Biggest Surprise- Jcarter admits his love for Jack Parker and how much he idolizes him

Biggest Lock- Vermont's leading scorer quits the team...again.

HE finals- BU vs. BC

BC- scrape into the NCAA's as a four seed and proceed to beat a one seed to reverse the fortunes from this year. Then get killed in the regional final.

BU- beats UVM three times along with a beanpot and HE tournament win on the way to a FF appearance in Tampa

Maine- the fans kidnap Whitehead to prevent him from coaching the team any longer after another underachieveing season

UMA- Mike Pereira becomes an HE all conference performer but the Minutemen still remain in the bottom half of the conference

UML- Bring in Micky Ward on a nightly basis to give motivational speeches and they get out of the cellar because of it.

MC- Dennehy starts lining up other jobs after he discovers life without Da Costa. Tries to report more violation on Cronin so he can have his job

UNH- Umile starts throwing the fish on the ice himself and finds a way to get this team homeice in the HE tournament

NU- Saponari teaches the whole team how to party like a puckstar and drink the night before games...they "almost" win a Beanpot again

PC- Average an 50 fan increase per game on the season goes on and the team improves but still only have 1,500 in the seats at the end of the season

UVM- miss the NCAA tournament and home ice in HE as the team chooses to have hippy parties where they sit around smoke and eat cabot cheese

[Gainzo]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Pretty good showing in the NHL playoffs by former Hockey East players. If I'm not mistaken James van Riemsdyk (UNH) is leading playoff scorers with 7 goals, while Tim Thomas (UVM) and Dwayne Roloson (UML), are playing great in net.

Did I miss any other Hockey East guys who are playing well?

Edit: Totally forgot about Martin St. Louis (UVM). Hope jcarter isn't offended lol

[UVM Cat in Texas]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Pretty good showing in the NHL playoffs by former Hockey East players. If I'm not mistaken James van Riemsdyk (UNH) is leading playoff scorers with 7 goals, while Tim Thomas (UVM) and Dwayne Roloson (UML), are playing great in net.

Did I miss any other Hockey East guys who are playing well?

Edit: Totally forgot about Martin St. Louis (UVM). Hope jcarter isn't offended lol

Yeah, was just about to post Martin St. Louis--tied for 2nd in points with 11.

[Gainzo]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Yeah, was just about to post Martin St. Louis--tied for 2nd in points with 11.

I still can't believe how well van Riemsdyk is playing. When I saw him in Hockey East I couldn't believe he was such a high draft pick. He took a ton of stupid penalties and didn't seem like a sure fire NHL prospect.

[JB]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

I still can't believe how well van Riemsdyk is playing. When I saw him in Hockey East I couldn't believe he was such a high draft pick. He took a ton of stupid penalties and didn't seem like a sure fire NHL prospect.

Posted this in the UNH thread...

At UNH he was lazy. Rarely saw that sort of play out of him, in 2 years he is that good and grew that much as a pro? Nah he was lazy in college because he could be.

My guess is he knew (smart kid) he needed more time in the weight room to make the NHL. So he had 2 options:
1) go major junior play ~80 games in a more physical, looser ref'ed league and have less practice time
or
2) go to college play ~40 games in a less physical, tighter ref'ed league, and have more time for practice & weight room

I'd take #2 every time less chance of injury, simply just protect the investment (his body) which is also why he didn't play as hard (= lazy).

[Gainzo]

Re: Hockey East - The Off Season

Posted this in the UNH thread...

At UNH he was lazy. Rarely saw that sort of play out of him, in 2 years he is that good and grew that much as a pro? Nah he was lazy in college because he could be.

My guess is he knew (smart kid) he needed more time in the weight room to make the NHL. So he had 2 options:
1) go major junior play ~80 games in a more physical, looser ref'ed league and have less practice time
or
2) go to college play ~40 games in a less physical, tighter ref'ed league, and have more time for practice & weight room

I'd take #2 every time less chance of injury, simply just protect the investment (his body) which is also why he didn't play as hard (= lazy).

I didn't mean to disparage JVR in my post. I was simply trying to point out that he didn't give a crap when he played for UNH.