2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

[jcarter7669]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

To Scarlet,

update: with 18 inches of snow over the past two days, we in VT are getting a one day lull before Friday when another large storm is expected to hit. It will either rain or snow heavily. Your guess as to which is as good as any. Either way just drive carefully, give yourself a little extra time and you will be fine.

[snwbrdr]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

yup, got one awesome powder day yesterday. It was long overdue.

Unfortunately, it has been followed by rain and high temps today that largely ruined it. No cold weather expected until at least mid next week. I still think golf season starts early this year.

Road conditions will be fine Friday and all weekend with temps continuing to be WAY above normal (as they have been for six consecutive weeks).

It's snowing in Philly and NYC and raining in Stowe. Need I say more. Kind of like seeing Mack ahead of UVM in the standings, makes me feel sick to my stomach

[Federal League]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

yup, got one awesome powder day yesterday. It was long overdue.

Unfortunately, it has been followed by rain and high temps today that largely ruined it. No cold weather expected until at least mid next week. I still think golf season starts early this year.

Road conditions will be fine Friday and all weekend with temps continuing to be WAY above normal (as they have been for six consecutive weeks).

It's snowing in Philly and NYC and raining in Stowe. Need I say more. Kind of like seeing Mack ahead of UVM in the standings, makes me feel sick to my stomach

Well that's not good. I was planning on going to Stowe on Saturday. I don't want ice and slush, though.

[grantfan]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Heading into the weekend, nice to be reassured by the coach that the next 4 games have implications in both the league and on the national scene and, according to Johnathan Higgins, that the team is playing to get home ice in the playoffs.

I am more optimistic for this weekend than I was before I got pepped up.

Nice new team photo on the website. Mike Spillane could have moved about a foot to his left and left more room for all the guys in the front row to spread out. Very high percentage of non-players in the pic. Two players, Wahs Stacey and Spillane, who unfortunately may have put on their equipment for the last time this season to take the photo. Two others, Ben Albertson and Lance Herrington, who seem to have only a little more chance of playing than the coaches. This time, let's go with the serious looking team shot, no smiling.

[Ogilthorpe]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

This should feel like playoff hockey and I'm anticipating quite a battle for 6 plus periods. You know you've got to find that extra gear when playing BU, especially up against that group of defenseman. The two Av's draft picks Cohen and Shattenkirk have always been a handful and will probably be hooking up with Brandon Yip soon who's caught fire since being called up. Warsofski is just solid everywhere, passes great, creates opportunities, and makes the right decisions. The few times I've seen Gryba play this year he seems to have stepped his game up and is actually a contributor to the offense now while being a physical presence defensively. The Cats will have to be ready to play physical. Need to get shots on Millan too with traffic in front. It's a great time to avenge last season's semi final.

[GreenCat]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Wow!!! Great win. I thought I was watching UNH and not UVM with that offensive display. Need to stay aggessive again tomorrow night. I like this new look from the UNH series and carrying into the BU series with lots of offense and keeping the puck in the offensive zone and pressuring all game.

[hockeymascot]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Great win boys! Hey ratfan....er dilligaf, elynah misses you....and you have lost credibility here!

[Ogilthorpe]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Three games since the Milo situation and three solidly played, hard fought games by the cats. Maybe there wasn't much more to it.

Need to target Umass as the team to slip past and into the playoffs. Cats have a game in hand and that game is Sunday. I expect both teams to come out with a lot of hunger.

Burrows has now played three games up front and has looked great from shift one at unh. He looks to have approached it like now he can play his same game but now there are no restrictions, two guys have your back. He was an offensive minded defenseman to begin with. Like his net presence, seems to be in the right position and doesn't give up on the puck. Also think his effectiveness along the wall as a defenseman now is quite helpful down in the offensive end. Allows his line to control the puck for periods of time down low. Other guys have stepped up too in these last three games now given an opportunity to play more....Leonard, Higgins, Roos.

[UVM Cat in Texas]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Great dominating win! Despite all their troubles this year, they're still 13th in the Pairwise rankings and, in my opinion, playing about as well as they have all season. Who knows, maybe Milo and his attitude were a cancer on the team and, now that he's gone, they can focus on playing hockey. They've certainly played with a lot more focus and energy with him gone. Gotta keep it going Sunday--Go Cats, Go!

[bottomdweller]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Sneddon seems to know what he's doing by dismissing Milo. Granted UVM only got one point last weekend, they took it to UNH and then d*ck stomped BU last night... It's looking like a battle between UVM and UMass for the last playoff spot... should be an interesting last 3 games of the season.

[Cat lover]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Its not to commmon for a team to lose 2 top scorers and actually increase its scoring. The Cats have got 14 goals in the last 3 games doing it with balanced scoring from all of the lines.

What I have seen in the last 3 games is a team with one goal when they get the puck "Get to the net". Almost every goal in the last 3 games are on rebounds, wraparounds or a close in shot. When someone carries the puck up and hits the blue line the other guys on the rush are making a beeline to the net to either get a pass or rebound. We are even seeing d-men taking the puck on rushes and trying to get the the net, Medvec put a great move on that BU player last night.

Burrows has successfully filled Staceys spot scoring and penalty killing and several players have stepped up thier play.

It seems to me now that all of the "Leadership talk" we heard last month had less to do with leadership during the games but more about a single player problem off the ice. The change in this teams attitute since the Merrimack weekdn is night and day.

[Cat lover]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Sneddon seems to know what he's doing by dismissing Milo. Granted UVM only got one point last weekend, they took it to UNH and then d*ck stomped BU last night... It's looking like a battle between UVM and UMass for the last playoff spot... should be an interesting last 3 games of the season.

I know that team isnt looking at 8th place, 6 teams are seperated by only 2 points with 3 games(2 for UMass & BC)to go. The Cats are only 2 points out of 4th and can make a big run if they continue to play well.

A look at next weeks schedule

UNH vs BC - No effect on VT here as far as playoffs go

Merrimack vs Prov - You would guess Merrimack gets 3-4 points here which could actually get them home ice if they win today as well.

Umass at Maine - Umass is in freefall losing 6 in a row by a score of 24-6 so I cant see them getting any points at Maine. So Vt should be safe for top 8.

NE vs BU - A split would help Vermont move up if we keep winning while a sweep by either would help us more if we struggle.

VT at UML - The Cats control thier fate here to pass UML.

If Maine,UNH and Providence can give us some help tonight it would be a big boost for VT going into the last weekend.

[sterlippo1]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

you have a very tough final weekend, those guys are tough..........i just can't understand why they have underachieved so much

[WildShawn]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

they took it to UNH and then d*ck stomped BU last night

D*ck stomped? Really? I... don't even know what to say about that...

[observer85]

Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread : The Sequel

Three games since the Milo situation and three solidly played, hard fought games by the cats. Maybe there wasn't much more to it.

Who knows, maybe Milo and his attitude were a cancer on the team and, now that he's gone, they can focus on playing hockey. They've certainly played with a lot more focus and energy with him gone.

Sneddon seems to know what he's doing by dismissing Milo.

Its not to commmon for a team to lose 2 top scorers and actually increase its scoring. The Cats have got 14 goals in the last 3 games doing it with balanced scoring from all of the lines.

Burrows has successfully filled Staceys spot scoring and penalty killing and several players have stepped up thier play.

Lot of focus on the dismissal of a player from the team. Even Ted Ryan gets into the theory with his blog post today.

The Milo cause-and-effect: Is it real?
February 27, 2010 by Ted Ryan
The play of the University of Vermont men’s hockey team in its last three games certainly begs the question of whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship regarding the recent dismissal of forward Justin Milo from the team.

Maybe it is as simple as the seniors (the ones that are still playing - Roloff, Irwin, Vock and Higgins) finally woke up...realized for many of them that their hockey careers were pretty close to be finished...and decided to play with a little bit of passion versus just going through the motions...

I really thought the coaching staff would put the freshman line of Stalberg, McCarthy and Pacan back together. But they did not and it is working for now. As of now they are only together on the PP unit with Lawson and Medvec.

Any idea why the defense was playing with a 5 player rotation? Did Franzon get hurt? If so and he can't play, does Burrows go back to D (I hope not as he has some serious energy playing forward) or Herrington get inserted into the lineup?