Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

[redhawkman10]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

INCH has ranked the recruiting classes and the top players for the upcoming season.

Curtis McKenzie was the 16th ranked forward, ahead of reily smith.

and that is it, their class wasn't in the top 15 either....while Notre Dame was the top class.

[redeagle]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

Not much respect again for Miami's incoming class. Miami must have some pretty good coaches considering how their classes are ranked. They are either coaching them up or seeing things others are not. This year's junior class was #7 a few years ago, but other than that, not much mention over the last six years. Amazing Miami has won all those games over that period.

rhm, McKenzie may be a little more ready right now for the next level, but both those guys are young. Should be interesting, or at least I hope it is.

[redhawkman10]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

Not much respect again for Miami's incoming class. Miami must have some pretty good coaches considering how their classes are ranked. They are either coaching them up or seeing things others are not. This year's junior class was #7 a few years ago, but other than that, not much mention over the last six years. Amazing Miami has won all those games over that period.

rhm, McKenzie may be a little more ready right now for the next level, but both those guys are young. Should be interesting, or at least I hope it is.

I think it's more of the fact this coaching staff does a great job of finding those guys with tremendous potential and then they get it out of them. Not to mention they have a great system and everyone buys into it.

[redhawk95]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

As Kurt Russell said as Herb Brooks in "Miracle," "I'm not looking for the best players, Craig, I'm looking for the right ones."

Young men of character, skill, heart and who are interested in being student-athletes that will embrace "The Brotherhood." That seems to be the Miami way. Really, that's the case in all sports at Mother Miami.

[redhawkman10]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

As Kurt Russell said as Herb Brooks in "Miracle," "I'm not looking for the best players, Craig, I'm looking for the right ones."

Young men of character, skill, heart and who are interested in being student-athletes that will embrace "The Brotherhood." That seems to be the Miami way. Really, that's the case in all sports at Mother Miami.

It may be the way in other sports as well, but hockey gets all that and really good players lol.

Thing that amazes me is that Miami isn't getting just a bunch of role players but they're not getting the top junior players. They seem to get the bottom of the top tier talent. Guys that are really good players but not players people are drooling over. These guys come in and buy into the system and this coaching staff is able to get everything out of these players and over their time here they turn into great players.

For example, not many teams were going after Pat Cannone because they had questions about him. Miami wanted him, brought him in and he was an after thought in that class. Now, IMO, he is the best all around player in that junior class and will be a highly sought after undrafted free agent when his time at Miami is done. Same with Tommy Wingles, not a lot of teams going after him hard and he came to Miami progressed and has turned into a wonderful player. There are countless players you can say this about, but it is what makes this a great program because now more of the top tier players are noticing this and saying they want to be a part of it as well.

[redeagle]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

Nice post rhm.

[mcfarljd]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

ok I will play devils advocate. If last year's team played uninspired last year during those games, with 85% of the team back why will they not play uninspired in some games this year?

That's the thing, we aren't young like we were last year. The astonishing thing about hockey is, the more experience you get at a level, the better you tend to become at playing at that level. If you honestly don't think that this team will be better than last years how much faith do you necessarily have in our coaching staff to teach them?

[RedhawkBandMan]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

48 HOURS until puck drop against Windsor!

Love & Honor!

[muredhawks2008]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

My Washington Capitals are acting as a good primer for the Miami's season opener. They are currently abusing Boston 4-1.

I love this time of year!!!!

[redhawkman10]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

That's the thing, we aren't young like we were last year. The astonishing thing about hockey is, the more experience you get at a level, the better you tend to become at playing at that level. If you honestly don't think that this team will be better than last years how much faith do you necessarily have in our coaching staff to teach them?

jd- read my last posts carefully. And choose your words carefully, some aren't children and have been around longer.

I will repeat myself for you so you can understand what I am saying. There is a reason it is called underclassmen and upperclassmen. There are still 6 of 7 players playing on the back line that are underclassmen which would mean they are still young. They will have more experience than last year and won't be shelled shocked in big games but there is still a lot of improving for them to do. There is a reason the coaches around the league picked them 3rd. They need to play more consistantly when they do that you can remove the youth lable. They played inconsistant last year, we dont know what they will do this year. I said I believe they will be better than last year but I still think there will be some stumbles along the way because they still are young. It's a fact, 4 sophmores on D, 1 freshman on D, and a sophmore goaltender. They are still young no matter how you look at it.

I may be a fan of this program but I can be objective and take the blinders off to call a spade a spade. Im not saying they won't be good, I believe they will be. But for some reason because they made a great run and its a year later you want to tout this team as developed and prime to make a run. And maybe they will, but when you look at the whole body of work last year there were just as many down points as there were good points. The fact Miami was able to bounce back in the tournament and make the run they did shows a lot of character but you expect a team coached by Rico to have character.

So before you put words in my mouth, read carefully. I have said all along I think they will be better, but im not ready to put them on a pedistool like you and crown them champs. You said it yourself that they played uninspired at times so until we see that change what other body of work do we have to go off of?

[mcfarljd]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

jd- read my last posts carefully. And choose your words carefully, some aren't children and have been around longer.

So before you put words in my mouth, read carefully. I have said all along I think they will be better, but im not ready to put them on a pedistool like you and crown them champs. You said it yourself that they played uninspired at times so until we see that change what other body of work do we have to go off of?

The only time a single championship was mentioned was when you said that about the CCHA tourney, other than that at no point did I ever mention winning a trophy of any sort. In fact, if you again look back, as you so kindly suggest, you'll see that the only success I mention is that of winning the first game in the NCAA tourney, and at least having a close game in the second round. Hell, even Blasi agrees that this team learned a hell of a lot last year, I find it surprising that of you're such elderly age as you proclaim, that you can't figure out that experience typically correlates with success.

Here's what Blasi has to say;

"Overall, we like what we have in the locker room," Head Coach Rico Blasi said. "Up front, we have good chemistry and we have the right guys in the right spots. This is a good veteran group and we added some quality freshmen. It is just a matter of getting the right line combinations and getting everyone working together.

"As far as the defense goes, we have almost everybody back," Blasi continued. "We had a very young group last year and they gained some valuable experience last year. The new guys are gonna fight and have the talent to play at this level."

[redeagle]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

Looks like Alec Martinez has stuck with the LA Kings.

http://kings.nhl.com/club/roster.htm

Congrats to Alec. Hope he stays in the show.

[redhawk95]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

Looks like Alec Martinez has stuck with the LA Kings.

http://kings.nhl.com/club/roster.htm

Congrats to Alec. Hope he stays in the show.

I saw that. I just hope that for Alec's sake when O'Donnell (I believe) comes off his 2-game suspension that he won't be relegated to the 7th defenseman. It would probably be better for his development to be playing regularly than practicing and being scratched on a consistent basis. But, who knows? Maybe he's solidly in the top 6. Either way, to be on an NHL opening night roster has to be a thrill for him.

In other Kings news, Zatkoff seems to be buried on their depth chart behind Quick, Ersberg and maybe even Bernier. However, I do believe he'll start the year at Manchester and apparently Bernier is a basket case. Z could get the majority of games, especially if he gets off to a good start.

[mcfarljd]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

INCH did their little preseason poll action yesterday, no surprise 3 CCHA top 5.

http://www.insidecollegehockey.com/5...eat58_0801.htm

[redhawkman10]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Miami Season Thread

The only time a single championship was mentioned was when you said that about the CCHA tourney, other than that at no point did I ever mention winning a trophy of any sort. In fact, if you again look back, as you so kindly suggest, you'll see that the only success I mention is that of winning the first game in the NCAA tourney, and at least having a close game in the second round. Hell, even Blasi agrees that this team learned a hell of a lot last year, I find it surprising that of you're such elderly age as you proclaim, that you can't figure out that experience typically correlates with success.

Here's what Blasi has to say;

And what he said is true, they did gain valuable experience and are better than they were last year. But they are still young and have room for improvement. The fact that they made the run and got a ton more practice time was huge for this team this year and they have a leg up on other teams. With that said, it doesn't meant they don't have a lot to prove because they do. They played great in the first half of the season and then bottomed out and played great in the NCAA's, so they were a rollercoaster ride.

I think they will be a good team, I think they have a chance to make a deep run. All I am saying is lets be realistic here and not get over optimistic. I think we need to be cautiously optimistic and see what happens on the ice before we go nuts over this team.

Of course coach Blasi is going to say those things in the media but if you got him behind closed doors I gurantee you he would tell you there is a lot of room for improvement and that they aren't there yet.