Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

[lawdoggies]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Stupid question here that I'll admit I'm too lazy to look up... How are Tech and LSSU playing a game a day before the first official practices for many schools? Is Tech practicing this week?

I think Mel said in his interview that coaches are allowed on the ice with the team for 2 hours a week . . . so they spent 1/2 hour on the ice for 4 days this week.

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Stupid question here that I'll admit I'm too lazy to look up... How are Tech and LSSU playing a game a day before the first official practices for many schools? Is Tech practicing this week?

They aren't, the first game between LSSU and MTU is on the first day of official practice (Saturday). They are currently practicing under the same rules as every other school (except UAA and UA_), with basically Captain's practice with limited instruction from the coaches.

[Biddco]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Stupid question here that I'll admit I'm too lazy to look up... How are Tech and LSSU playing a game a day before the first official practices for many schools? Is Tech practicing this week?

[manurespreader]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Will Pietila play center or go back to left wing with the new guys in the fold.

What a lineup,

Heinonen Kero Petunia
Johnstone Pietila Sutras
Gillies. E. Anderson L'Esperance
Eick Neville Gould

Watson. Hanna
Auk Sweeney
Leibinger Birks

.Travelers
Vallis
Roy

I've been thinking about this for quite some time and I'm not as close to Houghton as many, so it's just my wild *** guess but..

Petan, Pietila, Sturos
Johnstone Kero L'esperance
Eick Neville Steman
Heinonen Anderson Baltus

Defense. Watson hanna
Sweeney Davis
Leibinger Hyland

travelers, roy, Heitala.

on the bubble. Vallis, Blacklock, Auk

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

T-minus

[mtu_huskies]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Dirk wasn't going to have the contract extension be a topic, but Mel did want to say thanks and point out the negative recruiting and how it'll help show recruits he'll be here into the future.

The Mel Pearson show summary for 9-29:

Players/coaches are excited
Due to NCAA rules, still at a stage we can have 2 hrs a week players/coaches on the ice at the same time, not a lot of time to evaluate players
We are making the best of it, have seen some real good things out of all players, we'll be deep up front, tough decisions this 1st week
Even on Defense we have depth, goalies have looked good too
We're only doing 30 mins 4 times a week, we're trying to do systems but watch and evaluate player too
We'll have 2 weeks after LSSU to see the guys more, will have to go off last year more
Scheduling quirk, only open weekend we both had was this weekend. Huge games. They're good, we split with them last year, they had more Ws. We're the underdog.

Shawhan is great. Having a guy to go out with goaltenders has been fantastic. Joe loves being around the rink, he's been there more than Mel. We've already seen a huge improvement from all goalies.
Anytime you're on the road you're at a disadvantage. With Damon they have some renewed excitement, we split there last year, hard fought games. They've got good returning players.

On the PP:
We'll see if it carries over. We had some guys step up 2nd half last year. Hanna struggled 1st part of year, but very comfortable in 2nd half.
D. Johnstone can shoot the puck, shooting it great right now. Reid was the same, 2nd half he found his way.
We have Petan, Pietila. Heinonen has looked good. We have options.
On Heinonen, he's a freshmen that's made great strides. He decided to stay in Houghton for summer and workout with Shelast. He looks good, done a good job shedding body fat, quicker on the ice. Playing with more edge too.

On PP units: If you can, you'd like two good units. Trying to establish that, setup some competitions between units.
You best players can sometimes draw the penalties, need to come back with another good unit if best players are getting rest. Should have 2 solid PP units.

Damon Whitten called in:
He talked about his 4 goalies on roster, captains, adjusting to head coaching etc.
Mel joked we changed all our systems this year, so throw away your scouting report
Damon's excited for Tech this year, hope they meet their goals, just not that first weekend

On rule changes:
If the attacking team shoots and that team redirects it out of play, the faceoff will stay in the zone. - Speed up the game, good rule. Might create more offense.

Can not win faceoff by using hand. - In NHL it's a penalty. Don't see it a lot anyway.

Goalie has freedom to come out of crease to make a save. Now even if goalie is out of blue, and if there's some contact it could be no goal.

Contact to the head is talked about a lot. Any contact to the head will be penalized. We want to be physical, but have to keep elbows, sticks shoulders away from heads.

5 min major for certain interference calls. More blind side hits. It'll be interesting to see how they call it. Taught as a player to keep your head up. It's a fine line how they call it.

On the standings:
Hard to say. Polls will be out at 1ET. MSU/Ferris will be up there. MSU will be favorite. Ferris wont slip much with Motte. BGSU, both Alaskas. BSU added recruits. NMU has a good goalie.
We hope to finish higher, expecting to.

Intrasquad game a week from Saturday. Good practice for our team. Give us an opportunity to stay sharp and fans can skate with the Huskies afterwards.

We'll have a few weeks on the ice as coaches to get ready for Ferris 10/24.
Are there more 5x3 advantages in hockey? Probably, it's not something we work on. We have a checklist of what we work on in our limited time with them as coaches. Tough to get to everything.

We have an 11:30 meeting to finalize travel roster and give players a feel for who they will play with.
Line combinations, usually a pair of guys and then mix in a 3rd player. Put a freshmen with 2 established players.
We have some tough decisions. Everyone has shown us something that they should be in the lineup. We'll have disappointed players not making the trip. We'll need everyone over course of year.

Blake/Tanner on same line? No, both playing center anchoring a line. Not giving anything else away at this point. Damon knows our team, he'll probably guess lines pretty close.

Dirk hearing Matt Roy is looking solid. Yes - he's calm solid, defends well. Like his mobility, good feet and sees ice. Real good future here.

Gillies is a skilled forward. Speed and vision. Needs a little more edge and get a little stronger.
Joel L'Esperance should be ready, he's a man. May not skate as well as Sturos. Good feel for game. Big body, need him to play hard, use physicality. He can score.

Freshman forwards, any Neville type player? Steman, put Eick/Steman in a race. Not sure Steman couldn't beat him. Bulky, good frame, good on faceoffs. Neville type player. We'll see Dylan in the lineup sooner than later. He's worked hard.
Hope to see Neville take a step. We can trust him in any situation.

Dirk mentioned contract. Mel wanted to say he's thrilled. Anxious to stay here at Tech. Had a great experience as a player, assistant coach and very happy to be coaching here.
It'll really help with recruiting. There's been a lot of negative recruiting as to how long Mel and his coaching staff will be at Tech. It really helps solidify that. We got a couple commitments recently because Mel will be here and the school is committed to Mel. Thanks to Suzanne and Mroz.
Sends a strong message to recruits. They know who the head coach will be.

Questions for Mel:
Do you go through rule changes with players?
We'll do it Wed of this week to make them aware.

Does Mel plan on going with 2 goalies to start the season.
Not sure yet. Goalies have look good. Will rely on Shawhan. Jamie has looked good. He played at LSSU last year. At this point Jamie will probably be our starter. Will take it game by game at this point.

At this time of year how many verbal offer does a team like MTU have out there, an average.
Most teams have quite a few. The way recruiting is. MN just got a sophomore in High School. We have a number of about 10 for the future. Excited about all of the young men.

How much do you rely on captains to run practice?
It's important for them to set the tone. We call it open hockey. They get together optional, informal to walk through things.

Can you go through your centermen?
Kero, Pietila, Neville others: Steman, Blacklock, Anderson can all play center.

No way to tell if it'll be 1 or 2 goalies this weekend. They've all looked good. Confident in whichever guy is in net. Want some more time with them on ice.

1st home weekend is against Michigan. Their forwards will be very good. Will see future NHLers on both teams.

Copley played the 1st two exhib games for Capitals. They're impressed with him. Brett Olson played with panthers, Jujhar getting looks too. We want kids that have NHL opportunities.
Jujhar is probably a year or two away. He sent a text congratulation on the contract extension. Good to see those players progressing. They're still interested in how Tech is doing. They're representing the Huskies well. Wish we could have Pheonix and JJ, but good for them.

[The Rube]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

This is true, and neither of those media are good for in-depth stuff.

GFM

I think the specific-team boards are growing, too. I know I spend more time on GPL than here for actual hockey these days.

[gfmorris]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

I've noticed that there are fewer new faces joining this forum. People joining Twitter and Facebook and are talking hockey on there it seems to me.

This is true, and neither of those media are good for in-depth stuff.

GFM

[Biddco]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

We need some enthusiastic students to join this forum.

I've noticed that there are fewer new faces joining this forum. People joining Twitter and Facebook and are talking hockey on there it seems to me.

[Huskiefan906]

It seem that at least on paper, four of the incoming freshman forwards are of similar caliber...Gillies, L'Esperance, Anderson and Blacklock all look like potential 20-30 point forwards. That said, Gould and Rix had similar PPGs to these recruits and never quite took off as scorers at Tech. I'll be surprised if all of them become major contributors, but unless they have issues in practice, I'd expect we might see all four of them get ice time against LSSU. Basically, our offense is stacked this year, our defense is solid but our goaltending is probably fair to good. If we get strong goaltending, I think we will beat Kato for the WCHA title, but I think we'll be in the top 3 regardless. Maybe Shawhan will help toughen us up between the pipes.

I expect Heinonen and Gould would contribute significantly more this year. Mel mentioned Baltus and Hietila in his interview.
They all cannot play and travel. It will make the lineup charts an interesting review prior to every game this year. My gut is go with the kids and play those with the most talent and let's compete for the league.

As for the D we have not had this kind of depth in a long time.

I think our no. 1 goalie will be just fine.

[geezer]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

We need some enthusiastic students to join this forum. I'd be curious to see a spreadsheet averaging players' production based on the highest junior league they played in (I've been thinking of USHL as a higher tier than BCHL). I would guess what league they came out of is a better indicator of future success than prior point production.

[UpNorthHockey]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

It seem that at least on paper, four of the incoming freshman forwards are of similar caliber...Gillies, L'Esperance, Anderson and Blacklock all look like potential 20-30 point forwards. That said, Gould and Rix had similar PPGs to these recruits and never quite took off as scorers at Tech. I'll be surprised if all of them become major contributors, but unless they have issues in practice, I'd expect we might see all four of them get ice time against LSSU. Basically, our offense is stacked this year, our defense is solid but our goaltending is probably fair to good. If we get strong goaltending, I think we will beat Kato for the WCHA title, but I think we'll be in the top 3 regardless. Maybe Shawhan will help toughen us up between the pipes.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

T-minus

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Yeah, the 'tending is the main thing holding me back from saying we'll contend for the MacNaughton. Assuming we don't run into a catastrophic injury bug, home ice and a trip to St. Paul are reasonable expectations.

[geezer]

Re: Michigan Tech Offseason 2014: Nothing To Say

Chris Dilks posted his votes for the WCHA Media Poll. He has us second. Some of his comments and Mel's statements in the last Mel Pearson show makes me think this could be a fun year! Less than a week!
http://www.sbncollegehockey.com/wcha...llot-2014-2015

It's interesting that he picks Blacklock for the all rookie team, where Mel singled out L'Esperance in his interview, it speaks well of the incoming forwards that everyone has their favorite. There is going to be some exciting hockey played this year, already got my tickets for Halloween night. I don't know much of anything about the other teams, but my feeling now is that weakish goaltending will cost Tech their shot at 2nd place and they will settle in at 3rd or 4th, a couple of points into home ice, while scoring more goals than anyone. If a goalie steps up big I don't see a reason not to win the league title and a slot in the tourney.