UNH Wildcats 2021/2022 - Return of the Champions of October?

[Chuck Murray]

Inspired by Sinvely65 at the end of the offseason/preseason thread ... no one else has stepped up to start the new season thread (unless I missed something?) so here goes.

UNH has started off the season with two wins over Union, which will now be followed up by the program's trip to the desert and The Oceanside (!) for two games against the ASU Sun Devils. It certainly creates the opportunity to generate some of the old-fashioned buzz from the Umile Era, where the team would usually rocket out of the starting gates and cruise into the polls in the first half of the season. "Champions of October/November/December" was a taunt thrown at UNH early and often when such seasons started out, and more often than not, the label would prove somewhat accurate, as UNH would finish somewhat less spectacularly than they'd started the season.

In more recent seasons, the quick starts have also vanished (or at least have been few and far between), so maybe this year, the strong first weekend can give Coach Mike "MS7" Souza and his charges a shot at re-establishing the program as relevant in the upper half of the league. Mind you, my preseason prediction has pegged them in the bottom third of Hockey East, but I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong. The next several months will tell that tale, and whether the quick start proves to be just a mirage OR the start of something exciting, we'll find out soon enough. GO UNH!!!

[d.gerry]

The excitement here is palpable! I’ve been optimistic early in the season a couple of times in the past few years. Definitely not getting my hopes up after two wins against what appears to be a bottom feeder, at home. I’ll take the wins but will reserve judgment until after they face a little bit stiffer competition. The complete turn in play from Friday night’s domination (second and third periods anyway), to Saturday night’s squeaker is a bit concerning, granted it was only game two of the season.

[phb]

A little sad to watch the highlights from the Whittemore Mausoleum — camera angles can only do so much to hide the empty seats. I didn’t realize ASU was on the schedule next or I would have made the trip down from Sedona to gain some firsthand impressions (prior plans now). I wish the team good fortune — a return to some Hockey East relevancy would be a big deal at this point.

[Chuck Murray]

Yes, things have changed a lot, and not for the best. I recognize both of you as frequent contributors on here back from the good ol' days, and I know there are dozens like you who check back in even less frequently (if al all). If you told us 20 years ago that this would be where things stood in Year 2021 AD for UNH Hockey, I'd never ever have believed it. Incredibly sad ...

[d.gerry]

It is sad Chuck, and I so wish it was equally unacceptable, yet somehow the powers that be allow current “leadership” to remain in place continuing on as if nothing is wrong. How they let it become this bad escapes me, but I guess it’s not for me to understand. The hardest part is, I doubt we will ever see a perennial championship caliber team again, and if we are so lucky it is probably years and years away. My only hope (and I know it is a dream) is they stumble across an overlooked Jason Krog type recruit who can almost single handedly bring the program back to life.

[NCAA watcher]

Luke Reid is a very good player. Thank you North Dakota. (And thank Wisco for Max Gildon).

My main take away against a bad Union squad is that UNH will be competitive in all games. There was no glaring "OMG, they can't skate, or have no skills" like there was a couple of years ago in the early going against Clarkson.

We can reconvene the talk about who is to blame once we conclude the season and see if there is progress/neturality/regression.

[Scott]

Attended the Saturday night game with my wife. It was her first time out of the house since June, as she spent more than half the summer at Maine Medical Center (two seperate three-week stints) so we were looking forward to seeing the 'Cats, especially since we missed their dominating performance on Friday night.

A few thoughts on the game and the Whitt in general:

1. Other than injury (and I don't know if this was the case) why would Souza change up the first line?? I have nothing against Cafarelli being in the lineup, but cannot for the love of God understand why Souza took Cronin off the line after his performance on Friday night.

2. Meanwhile Rick Bennett adjusted while Souza fidgeted with his lines....and it showed through the majority of the game.

3. It's clear to see the current financial toll on UNH athletics. Where were the ushers? A group of noisy non-mask wearing coeds helped themselves to the seats directly behind us and showed little interest in the game. They obviously can't find or pay ushers now to enforce the seating rules (and wearing masks, of course). Trust me, I don't like masks either. But out of respect for my severely immune-compromised spouse who absolutely must wear one, I'm going to wear one if that is the expectation for all spectators. I just wish the UNH administration would find a way to be consistent in their enforcement of the rules.

4. Concessions - OK, just one minor gripe here. For years, the concession area near the entrance to the Whitt served personal pizzas. And that's what I thought that I was buying on Saturday night. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my seat, opened the box, and found ONE normal slice of pizza. ONE. At a cost of $5.00 for that ONE slice of pizza. No thanks, UNH Dining Services....sorry that your budget constraints forced you to re-evaluate and cut costs, but this season ticket holder is going to bid adieu to your concessions until hopefully numbers improve in the future.

A final note...we decided to leave with 10 minutes left in the 3rd period. Between my wife being tired and myself not overly impressed with the way the 'Cats were playing, "yep, here we ago again, yada, yada, yada......" Imagine our shock when we tuned the game in on the car radio just in time to hear Cippolone's GWG. Lesson learned!! :-)

[d.gerry]

Attended the Saturday night game with my wife. It was her first time out of the house since June, as she spent more than half the summer at Maine Medical Center (two seperate three-week stints) so we were looking forward to seeing the 'Cats, especially since we missed their dominating performance on Friday night.

A few thoughts on the game and the Whitt in general:

1. Other than injury (and I don't know if this was the case) why would Souza change up the first line?? I have nothing against Cafarelli being in the lineup, but cannot for the love of God understand why Souza took Cronin off the line after his performance on Friday night.

2. Meanwhile Rick Bennett adjusted while Souza fidgeted with his lines....and it showed through the majority of the game.

3. It's clear to see the current financial toll on UNH athletics. Where were the ushers? A group of noisy non-mask wearing coeds helped themselves to the seats directly behind us and showed little interest in the game. They obviously can't find or pay ushers now to enforce the seating rules (and wearing masks, of course). Trust me, I don't like masks either. But out of respect for my severely immune-compromised spouse who absolutely must wear one, I'm going to wear one if that is the expectation for all spectators. I just wish the UNH administration would find a way to be consistent in their enforcement of the rules.

4. Concessions - OK, just one minor gripe here. For years, the concession area near the entrance to the Whitt served personal pizzas. And that's what I thought that I was buying on Saturday night. Imagine my surprise when I returned to my seat, opened the box, and found ONE normal slice of pizza. ONE. At a cost of $5.00 for that ONE slice of pizza. No thanks, UNH Dining Services....sorry that your budget constraints forced you to re-evaluate and cut costs, but this season ticket holder is going to bid adieu to your concessions until hopefully numbers improve in the future.

A final note...we decided to leave with 10 minutes left in the 3rd period. Between my wife being tired and myself not overly impressed with the way the 'Cats were playing, "yep, here we ago again, yada, yada, yada......" Imagine our shock when we tuned the game in on the car radio just in time to hear Cippolone's GWG. Lesson learned!! :-)

My take on the lineup is its early and why not try a few different combinations? Also, do we know there wasn't an injury with Cronin, as his absence from the lineup surprised me as well.

You are right, Union made adjustments Saturday night, as for UNH it was a tale of two teams. Friday night (excluding the first few minutes) passing was good, nice physical play with a number of good, hard, clean hits, carried the puck into the zone, nice movement on the power play, and defense limited Union to just a handful of decent chances. Saturday night looked like UNH of recent years past with poor passing, dump and chase, no real physical play, and a lack luster power play.

I did see ushers on Friday and Saturday night, with most people in our section wearing masks. I agree they are not enforcing policy, but that's fine with me, if it were an issue or concern plenty of empty areas in the arena that allow for social distancing.

Concessions are always a rip off, but you are right, more so this year. I gave my daughter $20, she got a pizza, soda and cookie. When I asked for the change I think I got 4 bucks back! Ugh.

[HockeyRef]

UNH picked up a commitment today from 17 year old Sam Court .... Dman who will play for Avon Old Farms this season. Would imagine CHC will have something on him soon!

[Snively65]

My apologies, Chuck, for not taking a crack at your mask-less goalie quiz near the end of the off-season thread, especially given that my earlier comment had triggered it. I could have answered the fifth part on Eddie Johnston, as I saw him play several times during the 1960s. My grandfather had a large room in the old Hotel Madison at North Station that he used during the week for his job Downtown. Sometimes on weekends, when my grandfather was back in Durham, my parents would take me and my brother from Durham into Boston on the old B&M Budd Liner (single diesel-electric railroad car) for basketball and hockey games in the old Boston Garden.

Thanks for the link to the ESPN 2015 interview with Eddie Johnston (EJ). Funny that the article mentions EJ's other nickname "Downtown" in the article, along with Bobby Orr being EJ's chauffeur during evenings when the team was home in Boston; Bobby also lived with EJ until he turned 21. I never visited EJ's bar in Rowley, but had heard about it.

Mostly I listened to Bruins games on WHDH radio in the 1960s, initially with Fred Cusick before he moved over to WHDH-TV, then with Bill Harrington, then Fred Cusick again in the 1967/68-1970/71 seasons, the latter year after the move to WBZ radio, after which Bob Wilson began his long radio career as the Bruins radio play-by-play guy (commuted from Laconia, NH!), assisted by Glenn Ordway for a couple of years, then The Chief (Johnny Bucyk) up until the 1993/94 season on WEEI, before the lockout the following season.

[Sol Diablo]

Friday night game is on livestream. Saturday night on PAC 12 network

https://thesundevils.com/sports/mens...hedule/2021-22

AZ is on Mountain Standard time, we don't want to save daylight! So we are 3 hours behind Eastern Daylight.

[HockeyRef]

Friday night game is on livestream. Saturday night on PAC 12 network

https://thesundevils.com/sports/mens...hedule/2021-22

AZ is on Mountain Standard time, we don't want to save daylight! So we are 3 hours behind Eastern Daylight.

Thanks so much!!! Was looking at going out...flights were alittle tricky. Appreciate the link....and I wish we didn't do the daylight savings time stuff here...

[Sol Diablo]

Thanks so much!!! Was looking at going out...flights were alittle tricky. Appreciate the link....and I wish we didn't do the daylight savings time stuff here...

Tough to get tix for Oceanside, only holds 700. Next year the new arena will be open, 5000 seats

[HockeyRef]

Tough to get tix for Oceanside, only holds 700. Next year the new arena will be open, 5000 seats

I see. So what kind of team are your Sun Devils if I may ask? You certainly have an esteemed coach!

[Sol Diablo]

I see. So what kind of team are your Sun Devils if I may ask? You certainly have an esteemed coach!

They have 4-5 new forwards & same for defense. But all of them are seasoned, they are just new to the team. I think they are still learning how to play together as a team.
In the first 2 series, 1 win - 3 losses, they had great power play offense and defense. They struggled with the 5 on 5.

I'm listening to Coach Powers livestream as I'm writing this. He and the team sound kind of ****ed off that they didn't win more of those four games.
I guess stay tuned, hard to say what the W/L record will be at the end of the season.