Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

[NU_Husky]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

As posters mentioned - most coaches arent adequate recruiters nor proper evaluators of goaltenders. Most coaches werent goalies and arent certain what to look for - and to be honest its a hard position to project. It appears that Primeau coming in next year is the solution. Coaches know they cant screw up the goalie slot on their team - they usually only carry 2 with the 3rd being a non-scholarship player. You cant afford to miss on a goalie like you can on a forward or dman. The young blue chip goalies are few and far between but are scooped up early in the recruiting process the rest of the goalies is a huge waiting game as the pool gets cloudy. Primeau should be the answer - maybe a year too late though.

Which makes me wonder why they have two options that they brought in, clearly thinking they can play at the D1 level, but can't sniff the starting gig. Why bring in players onto the roster if you do not think they can play, and when the player in front of them ****s the bed like Ruck has been doing, why don't the backups get a run? we've seen Maine, BU, UNH, Merrimack, to name a few locally, that had goalie rotations and backups get serious minutes during a year. It's not like it's a novel idea

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Primeau should be the answer - maybe a year too late though.

Someone, may have been you, stated that Filipe came in a year too early. That could be correct but then I see him over the last couple of few games and wonder when the "Breakout" is going to happen...I really believe that he's less than a 1/4 beat away from a 3-4 point game...

Back to last night...

Gaudette -4
Schule -3
Griffin -3
Gaudette -4
Davies -5

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Which makes me wonder why they have two options that they brought in, clearly thinking they can play at the D1 level, but can't sniff the starting gig. Why bring in players onto the roster if you do not think they can play, and when the player in front of them ****s the bed like Ruck has been doing, why don't the backups get a run? we've seen Maine, BU, UNH, Merrimack, to name a few locally, that had goalie rotations and backups get serious minutes during a year. It's not like it's a novel idea

BTW, all three NU goalies are on scholarship of varying degrees.

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Which makes me wonder why they have two options that they brought in, clearly thinking they can play at the D1 level, but can't sniff the starting gig. Why bring in players onto the roster if you do not think they can play, and when the player in front of them ****s the bed like Ruck has been doing, why don't the backups get a run? we've seen Maine, BU, UNH, Merrimack, to name a few locally, that had goalie rotations and backups get serious minutes during a year. It's not like it's a novel idea

BTW, now that he's healthy Frye was hurt for a good snick of the season and really was not part of any competition...then again, he flunked out of NDTP...

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Just watched the replay of goal #1 to see if I missed something re: Gaudette on that play. After seeing this several times, I still put the onus on Ruck. What I didn't notice live was that Cockerill played it poorly also. As the puck carrier comes over the line with a player trailing to possibly drop the puck to, Davies and Gaudette are in position covering those two. The wing on the far side drives to the net and Cockerill has a choice: go to the that third man or wait and cherry pick the cross ice pass. (Schule is coming back hard to cover the front of the net if Cockerill pursues the far wing.) Cockerill decides to try to pick off the pass and is slow/late in doing so. Ruck, following the play, is late/slow tracking the puck across ice. (Perhaps Ruck thought Cockerill would intercept the pass easily?) When Cockerill fails to stop the pass, Ruck is not in position and the goal is scored from a pretty weak angle. Just my take on it.

Maybe we see the game differently, which is fine, but imho Gaudette, as centre, has the puck carrier as his assignment coming back into the zone...and while the "stick on hips" might have been a bit of hyperbole, he did nothing to disrupt that puck carrier or that pass...that was my point...someone has to make the puck carrier see less of the ice...

[beanstalk]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Someone, may have been you, stated that Filipe came in a year too early. That could be correct but then I see him over the last couple of few games and wonder when the "Breakout" is going to happen...I really believe that he's less than a 1/4 beat away from a 3-4 point game...

Back to last night...

Gaudette -4
Schule -3
Griffin -3
Gaudette -4
Davies -5

You have a typo in there with Gaudette appearing twice. Davies was actually a -4 and the big winner, with a statistically improbable -5, was Cockerill. Would likely have to go back pretty far to find the last -5 posted at NU. But, hey, everybody's blaming it all on Ruck, so I guess it was just pure coincidence that there was a Dman on the ice for all 5 even strength goals scored by the other team and neither of the two even strength goals scored by his own team. Ruck has been bad and should sit for a while, but 17 straight games with the same D corps during a horrible stretch of goals against makes no sense, either. Not saying that the guys sitting in the stands are better, but results matter and if there is no competition for spots in practice, then the compete level in the games will suffer.

[Lemonade]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

Which makes me wonder why they have two options that they brought in, clearly thinking they can play at the D1 level, but can't sniff the starting gig. Why bring in players onto the roster if you do not think they can play, and when the player in front of them ****s the bed like Ruck has been doing, why don't the backups get a run? we've seen Maine, BU, UNH, Merrimack, to name a few locally, that had goalie rotations and backups get serious minutes during a year. It's not like it's a novel idea

1000% absolutely valid question. At this point why not give another a goalie a try.

[Drew S.]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

It's going to be interesting when Maine and Northeastern play at the end of the regular season. It might take 10 goals to win!

[NU_Husky]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

1000% absolutely valid question. At this point why not give another a goalie a try.

If GSM is right and all 3 goalies are on some form of scholarship then JM lost his only excuse, which would have been "play the scholarship guy." Which is a poor excuse when you realize scholarship =/= performance. So I'm officially out of reasons/excuses/logic/anything.

[TheRevengeance]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I didn't mind Theut and Frye not playing when I thought they were just walk on bodies. It would still be a failure of recruiting, but at least you could understand and accept the narrative that they aren't very good. The fact that their both on scholarship just wiped away any excuse the staff had.

[Lemonade]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

I didn't mind Theut and Frye not playing when I thought they were just walk on bodies. It would still be a failure of recruiting, but at least you could understand and accept the narrative that they aren't very good. The fact that their both on scholarship just wiped away any excuse the staff had.

I am not saying that the poster who said they are all on scholarship but it may be the case that Ruck is on a full, and Theut and Frye are splitting a scholarship. Teams get 18 so its almost unheard of to have 3 goalies all on scholarship. Most schools have two goalie scholarships to divy up among 3 spots. Most have two full and then a walk on.

[Gr8Sk8M8]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

You have a typo in there

I blame the drugs...

...with Gaudette appearing twice. Davies was actually a -4 and the big winner, with a statistically improbable -5, was Cockerill.

It wasn't good effort by any of them...

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

In Jim We Trust

Believe in Madigan

But he lucked into a HE title last year! After that happened, I quickly changed my mind and I was like, "Ya know, that Coach Forrest Gump Madigan really might work out for them!"

How could this be?!

[northeastern]

But he lucked into a HE title last year! After that happened, I quickly changed my mind and I was like, "Ya know, that Coach Forrest Gump Madigan really might work out for them!"

How could this be?!

Hey if true.. Forrest Gump lucked into more than just one thing.. JM has a ways to go..

[HHound]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2016-17 -- Great Expectations

BTW, all three NU goalies are on scholarship of varying degrees.

Not sure that all three have $, but Theut came in without any and Frye cannot have much.

Cockerill has replaced Saucerman as the whipping boy on D. Like "Sauce" Cockerill offers an offensive side to offset his occasional, often memorable, defensive boner. There is the occasional brilliant defensive play that is usually necessitated after he has been out of position and is recovering. OTOH, Davies is an outstanding skater with more offensive skills than any D we have had possibly since Jim Fahey. My question here is: why are these two offensive D's paired up? And are Davies +/- figures tainted by Cockerill's poor play or by his own?

As for Ruck: He reminds me of a decent starting pitcher who can give his team 5 or 6 good innings before needing to be relieved. The solution is obvious. Let him play the first two periods. Unless he is playing an outstanding game (it happens), play one of the backups in the third.

We have some terrific forwards and if Nolan, Jozefek and Pecararo had worked out, we would have three potent lines. If they had been healthy or eligible, our 4th line would never see the ice. The forwards would be even better if they gave their D the some additional help. I won't start on the modest contributions of Collier, Kurker et al - other than to say that it's a good thing that Kurker is a good student getting an excellent education.