UNH 2020 Off-Season Thread: That Rinky-Shrinky Thang And Other Lively Banter :D

[Dan]

Crookshank dominant again. Two goals to show for it so far tonight. He's getting any puck he wants, getting wherever he wants and showing an ability to do this all on his own with his speed and shiftiness. An all-HE type of year seems possible for #9...

[Dan]

Impressive unassisted, first-career goal by Cam Gendron...

(edit: call stands - maybe some face to face inadvertent contact. This review and the call on Verrier is what happens when the conference publicly oversteps your authority the morning of the game)

And now Maine with a clear retaliatory run. Maybe a subtle turn by Eriksson, but thats the worst hit of the weekend.

[Drew S.]

Impressive unassisted, first-career goal by Cam Gendron...

(edit: call stands - maybe some face to face inadvertent contact. This review and the call on Verrier is what happens when the conference publicly oversteps your authority the morning of the game)

And now Maine with a clear retaliatory run. Maybe a subtle turn by Eriksson, but thats the worst hit of the weekend.

Turn being the key bit. Hockey East refs completley losing the plot not much of a shock. If you’re being fair both plays are probably two minute penalties and you don’t call one and call the other one a major.

[Fishman'81]

15 years ago I would have agreed with you, it would have been exciting. I caught the BC-UConn 3 on 3 and it was. But I thought the ME-NH version just exposed the lack of talent on both teams. After the first couple shifts in OT it was like they were playing for the shootout. Now that very well could have been because players on each team didn't want to make a mistake that cost them the game. But I worry that in the bigger picture the guarantee of a point will create more ties, not less. The law of unintended consequences.

Shhhh..!!! There are delusional people on both sides of the equation who'll you'll upset via stating the facts.


:-)

[Dan]

Turn being the key bit. Hockey East refs completley losing the plot not much of a shock. If you’re being fair both plays are probably two minute penalties and you don’t call one and call the other one a major.

No, I don't see that as a turn significant enough to excuse the run and hitting from behind like that is always an auto five. His numbers are staring Poisson in the face and he has to be hoping he'll turn sideways, instead Eriksson fumbled the puck and looked back simple exposing more. It was very subtle, Poisson is hitting him in the back either way and he lined up that hit without any real concern for what the skater might do in the meantime. I'll give him the benefit of simply wanting to lay a big hit, but that's always the call on a play like that. Just like Reid's last night should have been a five, with no need for a suspension - but was nothing more than an attempt to screen an opponent gone wrong.

Gendron's hit was face to face and all body and their facemasks accidentally knocked. Wouldn't have been surprised by a call, in this day and age, but think it was the right choice not to overturn. It's the type of hit that isn't even noticed a few years ago - but gets reviewed because of a desire to prevent more significant hits and because it could potentially nullify a goal.

They should also be able to review hits like Verrier's and remove any penalty, because that was text book.

[HockeyRef]

Ok so I feel much better now lol. Nice game boys! Congrats to the goal scorers and rookie Gendron who pots his first NCAA goal!

[Chuck Murray]

Time will tell if UNH's 3 point weekend is a sign of strength, OR perhaps UMaine is just a weaker team overall? I can't ever remember a slower UMaine team. UNH probably should have swept, but my guess is both teams will be middle of the pack teams this season, with UMaine sans Swayman taking a deeper hit in the standings than UNH sans Gildon (and Dan. I agree 100% that his absence out there is very noticeable). Nice to see a couple of the 'Cats' D-men getting on the scoresheet this weekend, though. And surprised to not see Ty Taylor getting the start tonight.

No problem at all with the Reid call and suspension, although others were close calls for similar treatment yet apparently did not result in forced time off.

One thing I will respectfully disagree with Dan on is getting video involved in reviewing routine calls in the flow of play. Yes, I agree the Verrier hit was clean and should never have been called. But once we open Pandora's Box on stuff like that, it's only going to go in one direction afterwards, and it's more stoppages, more video reviews, and less spontaneous flow of play. It's been horrendous with football, ditto with VAR in soccer, and I don't even want to watch basketball anymore.

Hockey hasn't ruined itself (yet) with video. Goal line calls when things aren't clear, count me in. Post-game reviews for supplemental discipline (like with Reid), I don't have an issue there either. Offsides and penalties? Trust the officials to get them right, video arguably can be used internally after the fact with league supervisors and the officials to get officials to call things more consistently. If the officials can't cut it ... get new (better) officials.

Video is not helping make these games - hockey or otherwise - more exciting to watch. YouTube allows you to go back and watch games in their entirety before the video review era. I watched an NFL game from 1978 in its entirety the other day, and the game took all of 2 hours, 45 minutes to play, including commercials. If there were borderline calls, it seemed like officials got most (if not all) of them right. There were not 8 different slow motion replays to determine if the receiver kept control of the ball with two feet inbounds to constantly slow things down. Pick your sport, pick your era, and try the same experiment with an older pre-video full-length game, and honestly ask yourself, "Is anything missing from them video-wise which would've made watching the game more enjoyable?" I've done this a few times, and every time my answer was "no".

[Fishman'81]

[QUOTE=Chuck Murray] Time will tell if UNH's 3 point weekend is a sign of strength, OR perhaps UMaine is just a weaker team overall? I can't ever remember a slower UMaine team.

Weak and slow... Business as usual under Gendron.

[Dan]

One thing I will respectfully disagree with Dan on is getting video involved in reviewing routine calls in the flow of play. Yes, I agree the Verrier hit was clean and should never have been called. But once we open Pandora's Box on stuff like that, it's only going to go in one direction afterwards, and it's more stoppages, more video reviews, and less spontaneous flow of play. It's been horrendous with football, ditto with VAR in soccer, and I don't even want to watch basketball anymore.

Its not about adding stoppages (I'm not asking for coaches to be able to challenge every penalty) - the officials were already reviewing the Verrier hit to see if it warranted more than a two-minute penalty. They correctly determined it was not a major penalty and I'd imagine if they were being honest they realized that they should not have made a call to begin with. If they're reviewing for supplemental discipline then they should also be allowed and willing to recognize an initial mistake, but they're not. Its about flexibility with existing reviews and the current system...

The penalty was called for CTH, and reviewed for violent CTH, but instead the review for CTH clearly showed zero CTH. Thus the officials were forced, by rule, to stick to the original call of CTH despite now knowing there was no CTH. Its not an argument about the merit of replay, its a statement that if they're going to use replay then they should at least get the calls right...

[bakchk20]

Impressive unassisted, first-career goal by Cam Gendron...

(edit: call stands - maybe some face to face inadvertent contact. This review and the call on Verrier is what happens when the conference publicly oversteps your authority the morning of the game)

And now Maine with a clear retaliatory run. Maybe a subtle turn by Eriksson, but thats the worst hit of the weekend.

Agree with both these takes. The Poison hit was borderline "intent to injure". He recoiled his arms to give surplus impact. If they find he also jumped into the hit, would not be surprised to see a multi-game suspension. The kid is an idiot who was making runs all weekend. He'll cost Maine more than he'll contribute.

[Chuck Murray]

Its not about adding stoppages (I'm not asking for coaches to be able to challenge every penalty) - the officials were already reviewing the Verrier hit to see if it warranted more than a two-minute penalty. They correctly determined it was not a major penalty and I'd imagine if they were being honest they realized that they should not have made a call to begin with. If they're reviewing for supplemental discipline then they should also be allowed and willing to recognize an initial mistake, but they're not. Its about flexibility with existing reviews and the current system...

The penalty was called for CTH, and reviewed for violent CTH, but instead the review for CTH clearly showed zero CTH. Thus the officials were forced, by rule, to stick to the original call of CTH despite now knowing there was no CTH. Its not an argument about the merit of replay, its a statement that if they're going to use replay then they should at least get the calls right...

Fair point Dan. I don't recall there being a quick "make-up" call afterwards - IIRC UMaine scored their second goal during the resulting PP. But if ever there's a point in a game where a make-up call would have been justified, it would've been then.

Sorry for the OTT response on video. It's a personal pet peeve, I haven't had a chance to vent on it for almost a year now, just pleading guilty to premature pontification ... ;-)

[e.cat]

6-2 is a pretty good beat down no matter the opponent. Happy for the good guys

[Chuck Murray]

Went to the HEA webpage on the USCHO site this morning ... first, I want to extend congratulations to Steve Metcalf, who at long last has been tabbed as the new Hockey East Commissioner. Until late last week, according to the HEA USCHO page, it was still Joey Buttons. Better late than never.

Also the points calculations do not look correct. And the W-L-T-SO-OW-OL format they're trying to use (emphasis on "trying") isn't at all cumbersome, no siree Bob ...

Hockey East | Men's Hockey Conference Page | College Hockey | USCHO.com

[e.cat]

Yeah, I don’t get the point totals either. They must be using Dominion machines

[Whalers]

They must be using Dominion machines

Ummm, we are not allowed to talk politics here. That can only be done with the basement dwellers in the cafe. :-)