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UNH Hockey 2023 Off Season Thread Turn and Face the Strange

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Snively65 said:
Woodcock has improved UVM’s record each of the past two years and beat UNH in the MBPBEGAM game this year, so I cannot imagine that he would get the boot after only three years before he has even had a chance to fill out the roster with his own recruits. In contrast, MS7 has had eight years of recruiting to fill out his roster, such as it is.
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Woodcroft has Cats moving in right direction. While not happy with last season's place in standings, it did reflect a 4.5-win improvement over previous year. I would be very surprised if the administration is ready to move on at the current time. This year he will have his recruits in the Fresh-Soph-Jr class of the roster with only 2 seniors left from previous regime. Cupboard was worse than bare when the last coaching change was made. Recruiting street cred was not good (we had Levi then lost him) and being used against us as recruits were asked = "why do you want to go there?".

Recent coaching noise appears to have been confusion over one of Woodcroft's brothers. One brother Jay is Edmonton's NHL Coach. Another brother Craig is currently head coach in the KHL and was recently linked to pro team in Germany's league where he previously played and did some coaching. Now interestingly Craig Woodcroft was a very successful player at Colgate amazing 168 points. Wonder if he wants to return to his alma Mater.

Good luck with your coaching situation. I don't have to tell you how hard it is to climb the ladder back after being knocked down.
 
Snively65 said:
Woodcock has improved UVM’s record each of the past two years and beat UNH in the MBPBEGAM game this year, so I cannot imagine that he would get the boot after only three years before he has even had a chance to fill out the roster with his own recruits. In contrast, MS7 has had eight years of recruiting to fill out his roster, such as it is.
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They did? Thought we lost to PC...if you mean that UVM won THEIR play in game, they did, right? Anyway, one thing for sure is we lost to them 3 times, which as everyone knows, is very hard to do (haha just yanking on that a bit).
 
Snively65 said:
Woodcock has improved UVM’s record each of the past two years and beat UNH in the MBPBEGAM game this year, so I cannot imagine that he would get the boot after only three years before he has even had a chance to fill out the roster with his own recruits. In contrast, MS7 has had eight years of recruiting to fill out his roster, such as it is.
Click to expand...

I know it's difficult sometimes to keep track of all the losses when they continue to pile up so rapidly, Snives ... but UNH's loss in the MBPBEGAM round was to Providence in OT. The three (3) straight losses to a last place UVM squad should have its own special place in UNH infamy, though. You'd have to think the frequency of a last place team in ANY D-1 league to sweep a 3 game (or more) season series over another league rival has to be maybe a once-in-a-decade occurrence - if even that often?? Just to underline the nature of the *accomplishment* ...

UVM vs. UNH ('22/'23 regular season): 3-0-0
UVM vs. HEA ('22/'23 regular season): 2-16-3

Once again, revisiting the WIS "Divine Law of Cupcakes":

"If thou cannot spot the cupcake(s) on thine schedule, then thou art the cupcake"
 
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Yikes, multuple snafus on my part. But, HR and Chuck, you did not point out that I misspelled UVM HC Woodcroft’s last name (I blame my auto-correct software), which was not my intention; sorry, Catfantoo. Yup, we got swept by UVM 3-0 on the season and lost our MBPBEGAM game against PC, but UVM won their MBPBEGAM game, and played better than our Cats in the end, even if we did avoid the basement by two points, which I predict we will secure by a wide margin next season.
 
One thing I think we're learning over the course of the first few portal experiences is that, while there are multiple reasons for someone to enter the portal, the better players are searching for better coaching, better development and better teammates. The lesser players are looking for playing opportunities that aren't currently available to them. That's not a good equation for a program like where UNH is right now, as there are no Beanpot games to play in, no recent history/expectation of success, and no track record of developing talent for the next level.

Therefore, whilst we wring our hands over signing up the hand-me-downs from strong programs or lower-echelon guys like Fessenden and Black, we will constantly be at risk from losing the Carfagnas and Dunlaps, and from having decent Year 5 players looking to finish up elsewhere. I think perhaps the original fortuitous development of snaring 3 years of Max Gildon created an unrealistic expectation that there were reams of unfulfilled potential guys willing to come here for more ice time. Turns out, quality matters. Opportunities have been squandered by UNH, leaving most of us here begging for AD Rich to put an end to the incompetence. Please please PLEASE ...
 
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Snively65 said:
Yikes, multuple snafus on my part. But, HR and Chuck, you did not point out that I misspelled UVM HC Woodcroft’s last name (I blame my auto-correct software), which was not my intention; sorry, Catfantoo.
Click to expand...

Snives' "Blame Tree" for messing up Woody's last name: (1) software; (2) HR and Chuck; and a distant (3) Snives. ;-)

Snively65 said:
Yup, we got swept by UVM 3-0 on the season and lost our MBPBEGAM game against PC, but UVM won their MBPBEGAM game, and played better than our Cats in the end, even if we did avoid the basement by two points, which I predict we will secure by a wide margin next season.
Click to expand...

I suspect there will be widespread consensus on this outcome between now and September, WAY beyond you and me.

Cue the predictable and endless "Us against the world" bleating from MS7 & Company next October ...
 
Chuck Murray said:
The only guy currently on the roster who I'd even give a slim chance to would be Huard. He's got NHL pedigree, and oftentimes that ends up counting for a lot. Most of those NHL draftees you listed Snives are probably destined for the Coast. None of those guys even approaches the likes of Poturalski, Gildon or Crookshank. Sad but true. JMHO.
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Huard? He is tooooooo slow. It looks like he is skating on a pond as it is thawing. There might be a guy on this roster that might surprise you in the NHL but there is no "that guy" can be good.

The interesting thing will be Muse this year. He played better with the change in pads, it will depend on what defense he has in front of him.
 
HockeyRef said:
Where did you see/hear about this? Am looking at transfer portals and I don't see anything? Maybe I missed it...
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The gopherslive portal page did not have it but I saw it on another and also from a twitter page. Just what we need, another 23 year old sophomore with terrible stats. .875% save percentage is putrid, but when you need a goalie you grab whatever is available.

My guess is Muse plays most/all of the season with a few breaks early to see if this young man can play.

These are reasons I did not renew early.
 
Robert Balin said:
Thought he might follow his old coach who is the new head coach at Mankato. Their in a complete rebuild maybe that's his reason. Will Dunlap join his brother and Carfagna?
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There were two that went to OSU for a tour last weekend, and my guess is Dunlap will follow. In looking at the OSU roster, VSS's brother Michael Gildon goes to OSU. Guess we could not keep the trend of brothers coming to UNH
 
norbert said:
There were two that went to OSU for a tour last weekend, and my guess is Dunlap will follow. In looking at the OSU roster, VSS's brother Michael Gildon goes to OSU. Guess we could not keep the trend of brothers coming to UNH
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Two UNH players?
 
Chuck Murray said:
One thing I think we're learning over the course of the first few portal experiences is that, while there are multiple reasons for someone to enter the portal, the better players are searching for better coaching, better development and better teammates. The lesser players are looking for playing opportunities that aren't currently available to them. That's not a good equation for a program like where UNH is right now, as there are no Beanpot games to play in, no recent history/expectation of success, and no track record of developing talent for the next level.

Therefore, whilst we wring our hands over signing up the hand-me-downs from strong programs or lower-echelon guys like Fessenden and Black, we will constantly be at risk from losing the Carfagnas and Dunlaps, and from having decent Year 5 players looking to finish up elsewhere. I think perhaps the original fortuitous development of snaring 3 years of Max Gildon created an unrealistic expectation that there were reams of unfulfilled potential guys willing to come here for more ice time. Turns out, quality matters. Opportunities have been squandered by UNH, leaving most of us here begging for AD Rich to put an end to the incompetence. Please please PLEASE ...
Click to expand...
So...UNH is still recruiting "better players " then? :-)
 
I believe he's suggesting Carfagna and Dunlap.
Will Margel is now at Mercyhurst.

Jr.Devlin-----------So.Leclerc-----------Sr.Cafarelli
So.Sardarian-----Fr.Ring---------------Fr.Comny
So.Skarskins------Gr.Blaisdell---------Jr.Cronin
Jr.Sweeney-------So.Winters--------Fr.Sieden
Jr.Lovett----------Sr.Gendron--------Fr.Turner
------------Fr.Walsh

Jr.Gagne--------------[[transfer or Kalle Eriksson]]
Jr.Huard--------------Sr.Jenson
Fr.Fitzgerald-----------Sr.Reid
Jr.Babbage-----------[[transfer]]

So.Muszelik--------------Jr.Hellsten------------Jr.Forman

My comment on Woodcroft was coaches who might be on the hot seat for replacement after 2023-24, and therefore competing for HCs. Woodcroft may have increased the UVM record the past, but the pipeline is not the same as say U.Maine, and therefore any improvement has been incremental (and a function of beating UNH :smiley:)) so I'm not seeing a lot of potential to go beyond 8th/9th.

Not that its a race to secure Dumais, who is one of several qualified candidates, but over on the Colgate thread they've identified Dumais as a candidate for their opening.

d Slappaahs replied
Today, 09:00 AM
Certainly Dumais has to be near the top of the list. I think Pecknold recently heaped a ton of praise on him recently and even I think mentioned him as being ready to be a head coach...

Also, you have to at least give Riley a call to gauge his interest. He's done a ton of work getting LIU off the ground and has now started two programs from scratch... so he certainly understands the level of effort being the HC takes.
Click to expand...

I guess I'd add Yale as a possible opening in 2024, and a slight possibility Schafer retiring at Cornell? Other than that, UNH still looks to be the only opening in the East, and Dumais and Muse are eastern natives.
 
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Snively65 said:
Our prime cellar dweller competitor UVM just picked up Ryan Miotto who scored 35 points at Canisius his senior year.
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So now, instead of finishing 6 points clear in last place next year, UNH will be finishing 8 points clear in last place.

Can we stop this ride now, please? I wanna get off, it's making me sick to my stomach ...
 
I keep coming to this page hoping, praying that this UNH hockey nightmare will finally come to an end. So many great comments and ideas on here, but nonetheless, we dont hold the keys to making this happen.

Maybe let us think a little differently. If UNH and AD Rich dont want to (or cant) pony up the money, then why not take a drastic step to force MS7's hand? Tell him privately that you will pay him his head coach salary, but demote him to assistant coach. Elevate Stewie to interim coach, or heck, hire the soccer coach for 1 year. How much worse could he be, and he has proven he can recruit AND win. Still paying the same amount of money but showing that at least change is coming. If MS7 had any pride, he would leave or take a smaller buyout. Continuing on with this travesty just makes the rebuild that much worse and keeps more STH and fans walking out the door.
 
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