Friar Hockey 21-22 - Reach for the top

[Jon]

Rough stretch for Hockey East in general as UMASS gets swept at Yost, Northeastern gets clobbered by AU at home, and UCONN continue to torment their fanbase by losing at AIC.
Those 2 wins against AIC are looking better and better. Not optimistic that we actually get to play against Merrimack this weekend the way Omicron is going.

[The Zlax45]

Rough stretch for Hockey East in general as UMASS gets swept at Yost, Northeastern gets clobbered by AU at home, and UCONN continue to torment their fanbase by losing at AIC.
Those 2 wins against AIC are looking better and better. Not optimistic that we actually get to play against Merrimack this weekend the way Omicron is going.

Women's hockey between the two schools was canceled already....

[73PCFriar]

Friars may have wished they didn't play last night...looked like they hadn't played in weeks...wonder what they did in practices because what I saw on the ice last night was uninspiring...

Must win tonight.

Oh, Harding ended up playing last night, some in the first and some in the third, don't believe I saw him out there in the second. He's a big kid. And speaking of big, that Merrimack goalie at 6'8" is rather imposing in front of the goal. Has there ever been a goalie that big?

[theprofromdover]

Friars may have wished they didn't play last night...looked like they hadn't played in weeks...wonder what they did in practices because what I saw on the ice last night was uninspiring...

Must win tonight.

Oh, Harding ended up playing last night, some in the first and some in the third, don't believe I saw him out there in the second. He's a big kid. And speaking of big, that Merrimack goalie at 6'8" is rather imposing in front of the goal. Has there ever been a goalie that big?

I believe Ben Bishop from Maine was 6’7”.

[73PCFriar]

What a disgusting weekend...swept by Merrimack....third no point weekend in HE play that's a death knell for sure...Merrimack now only one point behind them and others are closing in quickly...with the schedule they have left doubt top four is in order now...most likely second year in a row no NCAA tourney (don't count 2020 since there was none), unless they have a bug turnaround in the last 11 games but I don't see it

[uncle_cliff]

...most likely second year in a row no NCAA tourney (don't count 2020 since there was none), unless they have a bug turnaround in the last 11 games but I don't see it

I agree. Also the second year in a row Leaman was head coach for the USJHT. Coincidence? Maybe, and maybe coaching for the USA does attract potential recruits to PC. But I can't help to wonder at this point if PC would have been better off having Leaman's full attention.

[The Zlax45]

What a disgusting weekend...swept by Merrimack....third no point weekend in HE play that's a death knell for sure...Merrimack now only one point behind them and others are closing in quickly...with the schedule they have left doubt top four is in order now...most likely second year in a row no NCAA tourney (don't count 2020 since there was none), unless they have a bug turnaround in the last 11 games but I don't see it

Well, they were not going to make the 2020 tournament anyways as the eight seed (seventh place tie with NU) in the conference tournament. So I think we should count that as a miss.

Nate's focus lately has been on Nate getting a NHL job. He isn't focusing on this team and program anymore. PC under Nate has a bad reputation of not developing draft picks see Jankowski, Jay O'Brien, Mirages, etc.

[NEW Friar]

Actually Nate has a great body of work overall and that is what makes me concerned about an NHL job move. You don't get the invitation to be the head coach of the US team at the World Juniors by not developing players and he has done that well. Then winning the gold medal by beating a top flight Canadian team in Canada - pretty darn impressive addition to his resume. Was looking forward to seeing how well the US team would do this year, it must have been a huge let down to have that event cancelled.

But as usual Zlax comes in with off the wall commentary with unrepresentative, biased and largely untrue assertions. Case in point includes bringing up Myles Harvey a few posts back as someone who couldn't skate in Nate's system when in fact he had by far his best two years at PC after Nate was hired. He became an assistant captain for a reason. My guess is that this off the wall comment was to deflect from a prior post from another poster regarding how much Vinny Desharnaes improved during his time at PC and how well his is doing now in pro hockey. Remember how many times Zlax criticized 6'7" Vinny as "traffic cone"? Yet his improvement is just one example of how much the majority of PC skaters benefit from Nate's systems and get better and better during their time at PC.

Taige Harding did very well on Saturday I thought, could be a big factor in the future based on his showing this weekend. Can't wait to see the development of another 6'7" hockey player.

[The Zlax45]

Actually Nate has a great body of work overall and that is what makes me concerned about an NHL job move. You don't get the invitation to be the head coach of the US team at the World Juniors by not developing players and he has done that well. Then winning the gold medal by beating a top flight Canadian team in Canada - pretty darn impressive addition to his resume. Was looking forward to seeing how well the US team would do this year, it must have been a huge let down to have that event cancelled.

But as usual Zlax comes in with off the wall commentary with unrepresentative, biased and largely untrue assertions. Case in point includes bringing up Myles Harvey a few posts back as someone who couldn't skate in Nate's system when in fact he had by far his best two years at PC after Nate was hired. He became an assistant captain for a reason. My guess is that this off the wall comment was to deflect from a prior post from another poster regarding how much Vinny Desharnaes improved during his time at PC and how well his is doing now in pro hockey. Remember how many times Zlax criticized 6'7" Vinny as "traffic cone"? Yet his improvement is just one example of how much the majority of PC skaters benefit from Nate's systems and get better and better during their time at PC.

Taige Harding did very well on Saturday I thought, could be a big factor in the future based on his showing this weekend. Can't wait to see the development of another 6'7" hockey player.

So Nate is 1 for 2 on big d-men. For every Vinnie, I can come up with a Ryczek who is having a similar career after quitting at PC.

Harvey was horrible as a senior (even if he had his best 2 years after Nate was hired but an upper classman SHOULD GET BETTER) if you actually watched the games. He was clearly their sixth d-man. Shamanski, Gilmour, Parisi, Velischek, and Hart were better. Only Gilmour out of that group had a lower plus/minus than Harvey.

Has PC gotten better since their last Frozen Four appearance or worse? Which way are they trending? It isn't going up but actually heading the other way.

Why? It starts and ends with Leaman!

[Lemonade]

Leaman is probably the best coach in college hockey - you guys are spoiled.

[The Zlax45]

Leaman is probably the best coach in college hockey - you guys are spoiled.

You would think THE BEST COACH in College Hockey would do better than seventh place in 2019-2020, fifth place in 2020-2021, and currently in a three way tie for fourth place with two teams in seventh place a point back with games in hand on them. But my expectations are just too high for the BEST COACH in college hockey I guess.

[Jon]

BC just got slaughtered by Notre Dame 8-2 earlier this week. That's either good news because it means they aren't doing much better or terrible news because Jerry York will have them hyper focused to take out their frustration on another struggling team.
It seems like it should be a split so PC either sweeps or loses two one goal games like last weekend.

[Jon]

Up 3 -0 over BC. PC has blown similar leads this year and BC is BC, regardless of their record.

[The Freds]

You would think THE BEST COACH in College Hockey would do better than seventh place in 2019-2020, fifth place in 2020-2021, and currently in a three way tie for fourth place with two teams in seventh place a point back with games in hand on them. But my expectations are just too high for the BEST COACH in college hockey I guess.

Just dropped in to see if you still hate Nate. Yup, I'm not surprised. Nothing has changed. See you next year.

[Jon]

Just dropped in to see if you still hate Nate. Yup, I'm not surprised. Nothing has changed. See you next year.

Good to hear from you!
I did not see that coming at all, but that’s a great bounce back from the Merrimack debacles. The Warriors just beat Lowell so they are on a roll right now.
I have to figure that Jerry will have BC play better tonight so I doubt there will be another 7-0 or 8-2 score. PC needs more of last night, all the way around.