Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Sigh...At least my son, who is 4 years old and autistic, paid more attention to the hockey than any of the baseball or basketball games we've taken him to. And he LOVES the Zamboni.

Do you think he'd like to ride the jump seat with daddy?

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Nice touch Douglas.

Hope an extended stay at home and some quality practice time benefit the guys as they prepare for trips to RPI Tourney and Cornell.

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

So far I've made two road trips with the team as well as all home games and here are some stats and an observation or two about this year's version of the Chargers...

First the stats: Goals
UAH
Total Goals For: == 24 ===> 2.00 goals per game
Even Strength: === 9 ===> 0.75 goals per game
Power Play Goals: = 15 ==> 1.25 goals per game
Short Handed: ==== 0
Empty Net Goals: == 0

Opponents
Total Goals For: === 51 ==> 4.25 goals per game
Even Strength: === 32 ===> 2.67 goals per game
Power Play Goals: = 16 ===> 1.33 goals per game
Short Handed: ==== 1
Empty Net Goals: == 2

Observation: One of the things I've always noticed about playing good teams is that when you make a mistake, they almost always make you pay for it. From the eight games I've seen so far this year, most of the even strength goals scored against us came on our mistakes. In other words, we paid for those mistakes with goals scored against us. Unfortunately, the reverse isn't true with this team when it comes to high quality scoring opportunities. We just don't seem to be able to "make them pay" when we have those odd-man opportunities. Several come to mind from just this weekend... especially the 3 on 1 where we didn't even pass the puck one time to make the goalie work for the save. Not that that isn't always a good thing but a steep angle shot from the far left attacker with two more on his right was a low percentage shot, especially when the goalie didn't give up a rebound. Others come to mind also. So far we've been outscored over 2 to 1 which makes it hard to win. Until this team begins to make the other team pay for their mistakes, we face more of the same.

More Stats: Shots on Goal
UAH
Total Shots on Goal: 258 in 12 games
Avg SOG per game: 21.5
Highest SOG game: 32
Lowest SOG game: 12
Outshot Opponent: 1 time (25-24)
Allowed > 40 SOG: 4 times

Opponents
Total Shots on Goal: 429 in 12 games
Avg SOG per game: 35.75
Highest SOG game: 49
Lowest SOG game: 24
Outshot Chargers: 11 times

Observation: First let me say that SOG's are not nearly as important as goals scored and that a team that only takes high quality SOG's will usually have fewer SOG's than teams that shoot at anything from anywhere on the ice. With that said, SOG's can be used as an indicator of how a team plays in the offensive zone and generally. As a total, we take 40% fewer SOG's than our combined opponents 258 vs 429. Combining goals per shots leads to an interesting stat: We score 1 goal for every 10.75 shots we take. Our opponents score 1 goal for every 8.41 shots taken. Comparing goals and shots by percentage gives us this stat: Our 40% fewer shots taken gives us 53% fewer goals scored.

What can you draw from this? Well, we need to put more shots on goal for one... you know the old saying: "shoot at the goal and good things will happen". And we need to "make-em pay" for their mistakes. Something we haven't done yet. Two quite obvious statements, I know. We also need to shut down the opponents shooting opportunities more effectively. How the coaches will accomplish this is above my pay grade. Maybe it's just a "chemistry" thing or maybe they haven't found the line combinations yet that gel and can get it done. I don't know, but I know it hurts to watch a team put out a great deal of effort and get so little reward for those efforts. The morale seems to be holding so there's always hope.

Comments anyone???

Go Big Blue!!!

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

UAH plays fine when they're in their sets. We get killed in transition. If the boys can stop the transition and get set defensively, they make it harder to score. Will shots get taken? Obviously yes, given the SOG marks we've seen. But the goalies seem up to stopping ~88-90% of them, which is really all I can expect out of kids in their first year in D-I.

I see a lot of individual play. There are too many bad shifts in a row. The players are frustrated, and the coaches are frustrated. I knew that this would be a hard season, but I was hoping for three or four wins by this point in the year.

GFM

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

I'm coming over in the morning. I should have done so today when I got out of the Subaru dealership in under an hour, but it slipped my mind.

GFM

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

Are the assistant coaches taking turns on the recruiting trail ?

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Are the assistant coaches taking turns on the recruiting trail ?

Mike Warde is the primary recruiter so he does the most traveling to watch and talk to prospects but all are involved in the process...

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Mike Warde is the primary recruiter so he does the most traveling to watch and talk to prospects but all are involved in the process...

Indeed. They typically try to only have one of them gone at a time. I think Mike told me he was going out west this week. I know Gavin has also gone out on the trail and met up with the team at game sites at least once this season. I know UAH, like most schools, really try to take advantage of off weekends to do their recruiting, but an independent schedule makes that tough as the schedule ends up front-loaded to allow for conference play.

GFM

[UAHStatman]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Do you think he'd like to ride the jump seat with daddy?

He might, if it's not too loud...but I figure it couldn't be any louder than the speaker system...

[UAHStatman]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Observation: First let me say that SOG's are not nearly as important as goals scored and that a team that only takes high quality SOG's will usually have fewer SOG's than teams that shoot at anything from anywhere on the ice. With that said, SOG's can be used as an indicator of how a team plays in the offensive zone and generally. As a total, we take 40% fewer SOG's than our combined opponents 258 vs 429. Combining goals per shots leads to an interesting stat: We score 1 goal for every 10.75 shots we take. Our opponents score 1 goal for every 8.41 shots taken. Comparing goals and shots by percentage gives us this stat: Our 40% fewer shots taken gives us 53% fewer goals scored.

I was wondering if the SOG differential could be partly attributed to how often the Chargers are short-handed compared to opponents, but then I found that UAH has had 83 penalties compared to 82 for the opponents, resulting in the opponents having 3 more power plays -- about a wash. Still, I wonder just how much of a typical game the Chargers are actually IN the offensive zone, let alone how well they play in it.

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

even strength uah tends to end up with 3 guys below the goal line too many times resulting in easier transitions for the opp...harder for def to step up at blue line when facing odd man rush situations...also tend to look for "perfect" shot instead of getting shots toward net, creating traffic in front and getting rebound/"ugly" goals - something their opponents have been doing...heard they were better about this vs. pc, but area that needs work...

That's absolutely a fair criticism, especially guys playing behind the net a bit too much for my taste. Transition is where the guys are getting slaughtered right now.

GFM

[jyoung]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

My wife and I wouldn't mind joining you and Geof some morning for a view. Might be a nice chance to improve our knowledge of play development.

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

I didn't make it this morning. I'm guessing maybe next week, or this weekend if they're skating then.

GFM

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

With only two juniors on the roster it looks like UAH will be more busy in their recruiting efforts this year (six seniors), as opposed to next. 4 forwards graduating, 2 defencemen. One forward recruit for next year so far. Will the team look at increasing roster size as well? Only 13 forwards and 8 d-men this year.