Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

[northeastern]

now that the 2nd Notre Dame gm has been ruled a tie from the HE office.. with a win Fri (.500) team can get back to even.. go from there.

[northeastern]

Kloos.. fun to watch.

Ruck.. not as much (def not sharp this season).

[northeastern]

great to have John Stevens back tonight (especially on faceoff)..
but just generally good to have him back.

ZAR has got to watch the ridiculous penalties. Made it up with smart ENG at the end but still.

Sikura (NU) & Kloos (MN) very opportunistic tonight.. both with the hat-trick for their teams. Fun gm to watch.

Nice comeback NU. Never easy.

[northeastern]

Couple turning points tonight.. first..
ZAR with the ill timed (though weak) penalty with gm tied 2-2 (and, in my opinion, Huskies with the momentum).. gave the momentum to Minny with that powerplay & most of the 1st & beginning 2nd.

but.. killing off that 5×3 at the end of the 2nd down 2 goals.. put a jump in our step from that point on & all through the 3rd.. was all NU.

[NU_Husky]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Agree that the 5 on 3 kill was a turning point. I am at a loss to explain this team. Nearly all production from the top 6. Almost none from the bottom 6. Goaltender is subpar, Ruck saved 87% of shots again. In line with his normal game.

Sikura and Gaudette are fantastic together. They are really magic, two of the most talented forwards we've seen at NU in a long time.

This team is winning games in spite of its goaltending, in spite of having no scoring depth. It makes no sense. But hey, it's fun and winning is fun. Hopefully it can remain for the BC games.

[RossiRules]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

This team is winning games in spite of its goaltending, in spite of having no scoring depth. It makes no sense. But hey, it's fun and winning is fun. Hopefully it can remain for the BC games.[/QUOTE]

I agree there is no depth, and the team isn't that good in 2 of the major components of the game D is sub par, Goal tending is Avg. That said, I was looking back and I can't ever remember an NU team with 3 of the top 5 scoring leaders in the league at this point of any season. I was talking to an old NU goalie Ken Baum who rode a lot of pine behind Bruce in the 80's and he could not remember having 3 guys with 20 plus points at Thanksgiving either. Maybe at Christmas !

That said, they are fairly good in transition, and thus control the neutral zone play a lot. They also generally back check well on all lines , so they can win some games! I don't think the D will improve that much as they are taxed for ability and talent, not for lack of trying. However, if they had the net minding they would really have a shot at a deep run. Also, you never know, tending the net is such a mental game he could turn it around on a dime. Ruck's lapses look mental to me. Anyway, that was a nice win at home against a quality ranked team. If we can grab a point or two on Tuesday it will be a great week.

[NU_Husky]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I agree there is no depth, and the team isn't that good in 2 of the major components of the game D is sub par, Goal tending is Avg.

The quoted about is from Rossi Rules' post. Not sure why the quote feature is jumbled. But at this level league average goaltending is considered .910-.915. Ruck's SV% was 88.4% overall going into tonight, 86% in HEA play, and he saved 87% tonight. He is markedly below average.

[Thiessen'sBetter]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Huge comeback win tonight. As others have said, 8 and 9 are special, they single-handedly won that game tonight. Pretty crazy how Sikura had a hat trick and his pass on Gaudette's goal was the best play of the night.

Ruck is starting to become Rawlings-level scary. He is extremely slow post-to-post, flops around more than Tim Thomas and can't seem to locate the puck half the time. The d-men certainly don't do him any favors when they have as many bad turnovers as this group seems too.

Getting Stevens back has been critical from a faceoff and puck possession perspective. When your defense and goaltending is struggling the best thing you can do is possess the puck and more often than not when 18 is on the ice, NU has the puck. BC will be a similar challenge as Minnesota was, but if they play like they did the first 10 minutes and the last 20 minutes tonight, they can certainly get the 2 points.

One last thing: The #9 in white tonight > the #9 in maroon. Hope Mikey enjoyed his return tonight

[northeastern]

Sikura.. his pass on Gaudette's goal was the best play of the night.

Good read by Gaudette to get open, great patience by Sikura.

Also, in fairness to Ruck (only as it pertains to the 3rd).. he did make 2-3 good saves finally, to keep us in it & eventually bury some opportunities.

[RossiRules]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

The quoted about is from Rossi Rules' post. Not sure why the quote feature is jumbled. But at this level league average goaltending is considered .910-.915. Ruck's SV% was 88.4% overall going into tonight, 86% in HEA play, and he saved 87% tonight. He is markedly below average.

I don't disagree, I was being nice. He makes good saves on the hard shots but his lapses have been on the easy stuff, aka _hitters. That indicates a sign of a mental lapse. Although, on some shots he has faltered on the basics, not squaring up, not addressing the shooter at the top of the crease, and not keeping his stick on the ice. Those blips alone bring you to <.900 on most nights.

[Tilldog40]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I agree that Ruck has been a disappointment, but as somebody said the D isn't doing him any favors. From what I see they really need to work on breaking out of the zone, and who is gonna carry the puck up
Ice. The win tonight was a great example of hard work and character.

[sterlippo1]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

well done!

[northeastern]

well done!

..and g'luck to your team tomorrow.. bit less so on Tues.

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

ZAR with the ill timed (though weak) penalty with gm tied 2-2

100 out of 98 times you hit a guy with only his number facing you, that's going to get called. It was just plain dumb - especially for a guy who seems to have a bullseye on his back this year. Frankly, I put that PC loss as much on him as I do Ruck - even though ZAR did play hard in that game to try to atone for it. We all love ZAR because he plays with an edge that we've rarely seen at Matthews. But, there is the edge and then there's going over the edge.

As for Ruck, whatever that goaltending coach is doing, he needs to scrap it and start all over. Ruck is not a positional goalie and he is at his best when he's using his reflexes. The rebounds disappear and he swallows the puck.

AS for the D, you go to war with the army you have. This is the army we have and, as I have stated ad infinitum, that corp has no general. I liked that the forwards played deeper and what we gave up on the breakout we made up for by protecting the front of the net.

All in all, it was a good win. We had Schierhorn off balance all night and their D is just as bad as ours.

[JoeGopher]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

It was a great third period by the Huskies and the team exploited the weakness of Schierhorn. He has been up and down this entire year, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him hang a shutout in BC tomorrow.

And after being 0-2 on trips to Matthews, I am beginning to think you folks aren't very hospitable!