UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

[pokecheckguy]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

Wow is a coach's dad/brother/cousin really coming on here to pick fights and be a jerk? Ha might have seen it all now. Another day, another excuse from UVM hockey. Pathetic just win some games and yes fix the power play it sucks!

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

. I'd be more than happy to send you gentlemen my e-mail address so you can send me your collegiate hockey resumes.

You go ahead and post it on here.

Frankly, I agree with Martin St Louis Fan. The new AC's just got here, give them a chance to get some guys in here and have a full off season to work with players. That said, the power play sucks AND it is not because UVM just doesn't have the skill level. It's because it has been poorly coached.

Now PeterWallack, take the stick out of your ***, If you want to come on to this thread and make some enemies then many will be glad to oblige. If you would like to discuss hockey you may find that there is actually a fair amount of knowledge on here, especially concerning the players, the program, and yes even on possible improvements. Having a closed mind is the sign of having a weak mind.

[Martin St. Louis Fan]

interesting that Yale was brought into the conversation. All but two of the players on their championship team of this past season were personally recruited by Coach Wallack. Hopefully , you gentlemen will allow the coaching staff at UVM to do the same. I'm sure Coach Snedden had that in mind when they were hired. I'd be more than happy to send you gentlemen my e-mail address so you can send me your collegiate hockey resumes.

Geez, and u thought the off season thread was going to be boring!
Considering how close to to the season the new coaches were brought in, I thought things went about as we'll as possible. The thing that bothers me the most is how the coaches have to really play up the " All In" thing. What happened to playing for pride? Intensity can 't be coached. It should be there naturally. Hopefully this years recruits will have a different attitude and push the guys that need to be artificially pushed.

[catmandoo]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

The reality is it is a little bit of both, talent and coach. It is true you can't draw blood from a stone...if there is not talent then all the coaching in the world won't fix that. On the other hand, Division I college hockey in Hockey East is also above the level where you can just thrown the puck out there and assume that talent will carry the day. Coaches determine the best skills of their players and then develop schemes to maximize them. The staff, in my opinion, has done a great job of that defensively. Offensively, and on the power play, I don't think they've done well.

Agreed but I find it a little disingenuous for the brother or cousin of the assistant coach come on here and defend him and blame it on the recruited talent. Lets see what "his" recruits do first and by the way Pollesello was his player in juniors and did nothing on the point and in fact led the team in minus. Those are facts. Ironic that Yale finally did something in the National Tournament when he finally wasn't there. Just sayin..

[Catamount93]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

The reality is it is a little bit of both, talent and coach. It is true you can't draw blood from a stone...if there is not talent then all the coaching in the world won't fix that. On the other hand, Division I college hockey in Hockey East is also above the level where you can just thrown the puck out there and assume that talent will carry the day. Coaches determine the best skills of their players and then develop schemes to maximize them. The staff, in my opinion, has done a great job of that defensively. Offensively, and on the power play, I don't think they've done well.

[catmandoo]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

I always thought the power play was in direct correlation to the talent level of the players, not the ability of the coaches to teach it.

You thought wrong BTW.

[catmandoo]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

I always thought the power play was in direct correlation to the talent level of the players, not the ability of the coaches to teach it.

Are you related to Kyle Wallack? If so I can understand why you want to come on here and defend him. And if so, I have one other question. What exactly happened in Indiana? Very bizarre to get fired the week before playoffs. There has to be some dirt and since you like the forums lets air it out on here

I am assuming that means you like Pollesello on the point on the power play then too

[VTinNY]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

Yes and we always have our slowest and least dynamic and dangerous players on the point. That is coaching too.

That is a good point (no pun intended).. haven't had a good QB for the PP in a while. Is possible that Ryan and Muscoby can help with that, as they appear to have more offensive skills. Bruneteau should be able to fill that role too. Basically, you have to have really good puckhandlers on your PP and good coaching that puts the players in right positions/combos to use their skills. The freshmen should give the coaches more options on combos and maybe even a decent 2nd unit. Puskarich and Bradley are good puckhandlers and Shaw is a sniper. Will be interesting to see if the new AC's bring any new ideas to the PP and how they integrate the freshmen.

Have to say that I watched Sneddon's PP when he was at Union (I live in the area) and it hasn't progressed much at UVM. Granted Union didn't have the talent back then, but has been a BIG difference since Leaman/Bennett took over there. Color me skeptical that things will change much..

[catmandoo]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

Definitely not a "direct correlation." There are two aspects, one having the guys that can score on the power play and two having coaches who can teach them how to run an effective power play and "coach" them on the changes necessary to have an effective power play. Takes both parts, and one doesn't matter with out the other. There is also a an indirect correlation, in that coaches are recruiting these kids. If the assertion is that the players simply aren't talented enough to have an effective power play... well that's a coaching fault as well.

At UVM, there are a few finishers and there are enough talented players to have at least one good power play line. Yet we don't see that. What we have is a group of players that pass it around the perimeter until they either lose the puck or get pressed into a low quality shot. The coaches either need to help those guys to figure out how to get the defense moving (instead of allowing to stand in place and block the lanes) or change up the power play setup from say an overload to an umbrella style or some other variation. The power play for the Cats hasn't changed in a decade. It is ineffective and always has been. That's mainly a coaching issue. It's time to make it effective OR change styles.

Yes and we always have our slowest and least dynamic and dangerous players on the point. That is coaching too.

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

I always thought the power play was in direct correlation to the talent level of the players, not the ability of the coaches to teach it.

Definitely not a "direct correlation." There are two aspects, one having the guys that can score on the power play and two having coaches who can teach them how to run an effective power play and "coach" them on the changes necessary to have an effective power play. Takes both parts, and one doesn't matter with out the other. There is also a an indirect correlation, in that coaches are recruiting these kids. If the assertion is that the players simply aren't talented enough to have an effective power play... well that's a coaching fault as well.

At UVM, there are a few finishers and there are enough talented players to have at least one good power play line. Yet we don't see that. What we have is a group of players that pass it around the perimeter until they either lose the puck or get pressed into a low quality shot. The coaches either need to help those guys to figure out how to get the defense moving (instead of allowing to stand in place and block the lanes) or change up the power play setup from say an overload to an umbrella style or some other variation. The power play for the Cats hasn't changed in a decade. It is ineffective and always has been. That's mainly a coaching issue. It's time to make it effective OR change styles.

[Catamount93]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

Looking at jcarter's stats above is sobering. We have averaged more than 3 goals per game exactly one time in that stretch, the Frozen Four squad. That HAS to be a goal for this team, which will require a much more efficient power play to go along with more offensively successful recruits in 5X5 situations. I really don't beleive we will ever have the kind of success we need to have until we are scoring 3+ goals per game.

[snwbrdr]

They will certainly be deeper across the board this coming season. They have legit talent in McCarthy and Fallon.

They lost very little to graduation. They surely will be deeper offensively. The real question to me is whether Puskarich, Bradley, Shaw and Stenerson can bring some offense. If two of them are legit and there is any breakout among Lenz, reynolds, markinson, white, polesello,Turk then they should be considerably better

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

In Sneddon's first few years I was one of his biggest supporters. I had never been a huge Gilligan guy, and it seemed like Sneddon was really pushing the program forward. Now I'm really unsure.

I would echo this statement. I was a big Sneddon supporter, lets face it he came in and took a team that was struggling in the ECAC and made it a mid-pack HE team right away. That followed with back to back NCAA tourney berths. That was huge. I took a peek back at the overall records /scoring/ players to see what if anything stood out :

2005-2006 18-14-6 Overall - 97GF 82GA - HE Quarter Finals (Key Players : Mitchell, Fallon, Strong, Lenes, Liesenring)
2006-2007 18-16-5 Overall - 87GF 78GA - HE Quarter Finals (Key Players : Mitchell, Fallon, Strong, Lenes, Stalberg Vock)
2007-2008 17-15-7 Overall - 88GF 106 GA - HE Finals (Key Players :Fallon, Strong, Lenes, Stalberg Vock, Stacey, Roloff)
2008-2009 22-12-5 Overall - 121GF 102GA - Frozen Four (Key Players : Vock, Strong, Lenes, Stacey, Stalberg, Milo, Madore)
2009-2010 17-15-7 Overall - 113GF-112GA - NCAA Tourney (Key Players : Madore, Vock, Stalberg, Stacey, Roloff, McCarthy)
2010-2011 8-20-8 Overall - 82 GF - 116 GA - HE Quarter Finals (Key Players : Madore, Stalberg, McCarthy, Brickely,White, Lenz)
2011-2012 6-27-1 Overall - 73 GF -140GA - Basement (Key Players : Madore, Stalberg, Brickley, Reynolds, White, Bruneteau, Lenz)
2011-2013 11-19-6 Overall - 82 GF -110GA - HE Quarter Finals (Key Players : Hoffman, Brickley, Reynolds, White, Bruneteau, Fallon)

The program was pretty consistent in the beginning of it's HE tenure, peaking one season when everything came together. After that there was a huge drop off in many regards. First, Goaltending... Fallon was consistently awesome for the most part, winning games with little goal support. Offensively the numbers of late are not far off from where they were during that era, yet the GA are hideous. The defense and goaltending took a significant step down. Madore had a tremendous freshman season and never really got it going again after that. ANd where Strong set an example for playing good defensive hockey, blocking shots etc, I don't know that we have had a line that can be offensively productive AND shut down an opponents line like Dean Strong and his line mates did. That has hurt, IMO. The team has also been missing that Lenes type spark plug who can change the tempo of the game with a single shift, although I think Polesello may fill this role well.

Last year was an improvement and I think this year will be too. All in all Sneddon hasn't done so bad, he has had a slight dip after the Frozen Four appearance. Leaves me to wonder if the team and staff didn't have a little bit too much ego and forgot how to work at the game, tried to get to fancy and focus too much on offense... Madore's last two season were clearly rough for the team and their records and you can't win many games giving up over 4 gpg.


I think Hoffman/Santiguida are an improvement over Madore/Spillane and really would like to see Santiguida get a legit shot at the #1 spot. The BCHL guys have crazy offensive numbers, yet he has managed very good stats as a goalie in an offensive league.

Offensively, I think they are in good shape with McCarthy, Fallon, Reynolds, Polesello. White, Brickley, Markinson all need to step up offensively, and a few of the freshman need to produce. It appears that at least 2-3 of them can be goal scorers. Reynolds came in and scored 23pts as a freshman coming out of the same league with similar numbers.

Defensively, the team just needs to be better all around. They need to block shots, clear pucks, and do not let people skate in on Hoffman, especially from angles, because he just doesn't move well.

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

http://uvmathletics.com/news/2013/7/...710131745.aspx

List of Cats attending summer development camps. I find it surprising that we have a recruit in Brady Shaw headed to a camp.

[Catamount93]

Re: UVM Offseason Thread- Summer 2013

Clearly it is hard to predict how kids will do in college no matter what league they are coming from. We've had kids in the past who really came out of nowhere to be stars, and others who were highly touted that did nothing. That said, I'd always rather have the top performers from juniors, and it does seem that the pedigree is a little higher than what we've seen the last few years. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Regarding the power play, I think we had a good power play when we had good offensive talent. Sadly, that has not been true in a good long time.

In Sneddon's first few years I was one of his biggest supporters. I had never been a huge Gilligan guy, and it seemed like Sneddon was really pushing the program forward. Now I'm really unsure. Like many others have said, this is a big year. If we make clear progress towards again being a factor for Hockey East titles and returning to the NCAA tournament, then I'm still on the Sneddon bandwagon. If not, then I think the administration really needs to think about what success needs to be for the hockey program at UVM. It is our marquee (spectator) sport. We have to be putting the full weight of the university behind it. Given that basketball is #2, that's why I think a multi-use facility makes a ton of sense to boost those two sports to the levels (I think) they should be at.

I also agree on the points regarding the "defense only" style. Style matters. You become a factor nationally by having a high powered offense. Those kids down't want to come and play defensive style hockey. Sure, defense needs to be a focus for every team, but to recruit those kids you need to offer a little more freedom.

I'm optimistic overall on the upcoming year, and I think we'll finish around 6th.