UNH- How Far West Do We Go?

[Darius]

Like the shoulder patch on the alternate jerseys. Yes, reminds me of the vintage football helmets but also the old baseball jerseys and hats if my memory can be trusted.

Didn't see Saturday's game but went to the game on Friday and thought UNH had active sticks on D and got in BU's passing lanes to force and deflect passes consistently all night. I hadn't noticed as much of that in other games this season.

 

[JB]

To me this weekend seemed like a team playing to win vs. playing not to lose.

I had heard there was a players meeting and then the captains meeting with the coach. I wonder if that was the discussion. If we are going to lose we want to do it on our toes not our heals

 

[FlagUp17]

You forgot the "and drive in movies" part of that quote, Flag. Another casualty of our woke culture these days ...


Overall, I have to say I was not impressed with BU this weekend ... and obviously the Beanpot Final was not a good start to their week either. There's a huge talent gap between the two programs right now - and at least the last decade - it makes me wonder how good a coach Pandolfo actually is? This year's team seems to be drastically underachieving, and they still have a losing record, which is why my prediction of a UNH win this weekend wasn't the stretch some of you thought it was. Some of us were chatting off-board about the "How good is Pandolfo really?" question, and as an outsider who used to have affection for Coach Parker's teams back in the day (as Scarlet can verify), I think it's a fair question to ask - even if I might not be the most qualified person to answer ...

... which finally brings me to today's "what p!$$ed me off most about last night" point. I had other commitments that prevented me from watching the game live, but had heard some interesting feedback from friends who mentioned that the BU announcing team (Corbett and Lenihan, I believe?) were pumping up MS7's tires at the early stages of the broadcast. So when I came home and watched the game, start to finish, I was amazed to hear the duo - not once, but twice - remark only minutes apart that (1) BU had enjoyed a 19W-1L-2T run against UNH in recent years (i.e. the Souza Era) ... BUT (2) Mike Souza is a great coach, but he is catching undeserved heat with his program's fans, and those people don't know hockey if they think he's not a good coach.

I mean, think about that for a second ... BU had lost one (1) - now two (2) - games to UNH over the last decade ... UNH has been in or around the cellar of HEA over that same decade. Yet before the advent of MS7, there was this guy named Umile who beat BU a LOT more often than his successor, and had his teams usually in or around the Top Four of the same league for his quarter century-plus in charge, all against superior opposing coaches as well.

Where did this "expertise" come from? Sounds to me like the "good ol' boy network" is springing to life once again to try to keep Souza in a job, and beyond being annoying AND patronizing as he11, the BU announce team comes across as clueless. Are they trying to manufacture excuses for Pandolfo losing a game to the bottom-dwellers?? Lenihan cited his bona fides as being a UNH grad. Congrats, but your take is clueless. If this was targeted to a BU audience only ... listen, I get it, red meat for the true believers ... but they knew it was going out to a broader audience including UNH fans who watch this program WAY more often than Bernie and his bobo Mark do. Who the f*@k do they think they are, preaching to us how mistaken we are as UNH fans disapproving of the decade of losing that Souza has foisted upon us?!? How would he (and any BU fans) feel if it was a UNH announce team commenting on Pandolfo's abject lack of postseason success, a segment of the BU fanbase wanting him out, and then telling a split audience of BU/UNH fans they "don't know hockey"?!?!?

Maybe Bernie's lofty achievement of getting his own bobblehead night went to his head?? Regardless, their take on Souza/UNH was obnoxious, stick to BU, gents ...

Never heard that final part of that quote actually - perhaps I’m too young. Where does the full phrase come from?

Agree even with their subpar results, there remains a huge talent gap between BU and UNH. BU has consistently got high draft pick guys over the years, but in the post-Parker days ive felt they have had issues “gelling” because so may of their guys leave after 1-2 years, making it difficult to build comraderie because of the high turnover year over year. Even before the advent of the portal I felt this has influenced BU to a high degree, while other top teams like BC have managed to perform at a higher level.

I’m not as familiar with Pandolfo as I am with some of the other HEA coaches, but I agree with the sentiment he seems to be underachieving with the talent he has. I was traveling last night and could only watxh the broadcast mostly on mute, so I can’t speak to the commentators chatter too much, but I did hear him speak to how Umile was one of his favorite coaches besides Parker. If indeed they were pumping up MS7 perhaps it was for the sake of trying to “protect one of their own” while also enjoying the almost yearly sweep of UNH giving the recent record.

Saying Souza is catching a bit of underserved heat from the fans is a bit mind blowing to me given his results the last 7-8 years… As they say you are what your record is, and how can you conclude from his record that it is “great” by any means??? I agree it is a bit insulting to us as fans to say that. Is 1 winning season in 7-8 seasons asking for too much?!

The two benefits I will give MS7 recently is that 1.) he appears to still be recruiting well, and 2.) the guys always seem to play hard for him, despite the continued lack of results. Again… I don’t think this makes a coach “great” — you can look at so many statistics (negative goal differential, poor PP results, low goal scoring in conference) that all point to mediocre or even poor…

A thought for BU fans. If your team had our record over the last decade plus with the same leadership, wouldn’t you be asking for a new regime? And perhaps do you think the school at large would have already made a decision/moved on?

 

[TheGrouchyCat]

The two benefits I will give MS7 recently is that 1.) he appears to still be recruiting well, and 2.) the guys always seem to play hard for him, despite the continued lack of results. Again… I don’t think this makes a coach “great” — you can look at so many statistics (negative goal differential, poor PP results, low goal scoring in conference) that all point to mediocre or even poor…

If he's such a recruiter, why do draft pics leave, thinking specifically about Sidarian with 41 points at Michigan Tech and Conmy at BC?

Identifying talent is easy. The problem that MS7 has is keeping said talent and helping them develop accordingly. If anything, players seems to regress under his leadership.

 

[HockeyRef]

If he's such a recruiter, why do draft pics leave, thinking specifically about Sidarian with 41 points at Michigan Tech and Conmy at BC?

Identifying talent is easy. The problem that MS7 has is keeping said talent and helping them develop accordingly. If anything, players seems to regress under his leadership.

Man we could use those two guys...

 

[TheGrouchyCat]

2.) the guys always seem to play hard for him, despite the continued lack of results

Are you watching the same team as the rest of us? Over the course of MS7's tenure, I can think of at least two dozen games where the team simply gave up and just went through the motions.

That's a failure of leadership, both from the coaching staff and the captains, who may or may not be voted on by the team, under the weighted thumb of MS7.

 

[FlagUp17]

Are you watching the same team as the rest of us? Over the course of MS7's tenure, I can think of at least two dozen games where the team simply gave up and just went through the motions.

That's a failure of leadership, both from the coaching staff and the captains, who may or may not be voted on by the team, under the weighted thumb of MS7.

That’s fair. I guess I shouldn’t have used “always” as I too can think of some instances where they looked like they weren’t giving 100% effort. The one earlier this year comes to mind is the game at Merrimack a few weeks ago but some people on this board said that many of the guys were sick/not feeling well? I’ll give them a pass for what appeared to be a lackadaisical effort in that game…

Even still, they have spurts thst come out of nowhere, where they look like a completely different team. Take Friday for example, they had looked mostly uncompetitive for a few weeks/month, then have a great game on Friday leading to victory. Even last night they made it interesting at the end, even down 4-1. The Merrimack game where they tied it near the end after being up 2-0 as well, etc.

I also look to the portal, where (albeit it hasn’t been around for that long, and some of the guys we have lost have been fairly high impact) we haven’t seen a “mass exodus” year, mostly just 2-3 players a year, which is likely typical for most teams. This year could change things (based on what I’ve been hearing from some on this board) but that is yet to be seen. If guys didn’t like playing for MS7, I presume you would see a lot more turnover year over year in the portal.

Again, I don’t wholly disagree with you, but I may lean more towards “undisciplined” in some instances, instead of “lack of effort”. But these 2 can likely be interchangeable in some scenarios, and both speak to a significant lack of leadership at the top.

Perhaps I am pretty far off base though, what do others think?

 

[FlagUp17]

If he's such a recruiter, why do draft pics leave, thinking specifically about Sidarian with 41 points at Michigan Tech and Conmy at BC?

Identifying talent is easy. The problem that MS7 has is keeping said talent and helping them develop accordingly. If anything, players seems to regress under his leadership.

I agree identifying talent isn’t too hard, but somehow convincing them to join a team that has been floundering for 10+ years… I don’t know what the “pitch” is, outside of maybe “you will get a lot of playing time as a freshmen” but we are still getting a healthy number of 3.75-4 star recruits each year.

Again… I would say they largely aren’t getting “coached” up well, as you mentioned. 100% agree with this. There are instances where a guy may pop for a year or two as a freshmen/sophomore, but there have been many instances where they slowly lose effectiveness as time wears on. Albeit there have been a few seniors who have a stellar year out of nowhere (Blaisdell, Cronin, etc). Likely guys really fighting for a post college career in the ECHL or Europe.

 

[TheGrouchyCat]

That’s fair. I guess I shouldn’t have used “always” as I too can think of some instances where they looked like they weren’t giving 100% effort. The one earlier this year comes to mind is the game at Merrimack a few weeks ago but some people on this board said that many of the guys were sick/not feeling well? I’ll give them a pass for what appeared to be a lackadaisical effort in that game…

Even still, they have spurts thst come out of nowhere, where they look like a completely different team. Take Friday for example, they had looked mostly uncompetitive for a few weeks/month, then have a great game on Friday leading to victory. Even last night they made it interesting at the end, even down 4-1. The Merrimack game where they tied it near the end after being up 2-0 as well, etc.

I also look to the portal, where (albeit it hasn’t been around for that long, and some of the guys we have lost have been fairly high impact) we haven’t seen a “mass exodus” year, mostly just 2-3 players a year, which is likely typical for most teams. This year could change things (based on what I’ve been hearing from some on this board) but that is yet to be seen. If guys didn’t like playing for MS7, I presume you would see a lot more turnover year over year in the portal.

Again, I don’t wholly disagree with you, but I may lean more towards “undisciplined” in some instances, instead of “lack of effort”. But these 2 can likely be interchangeable in some scenarios, and both speak to a significant lack of leadership at the top.

Perhaps I am pretty far off base though, what do others think?

A few years ago, there was a post game event for STHs and this question was asked, "Why did you come to UNH?"

The answers were not surprising. "They wanted me." "It was the only school that offered a scholarship in D1"

Like it or not, one of the reasons why we haven't seen a mass exodus in the portal is that many, if not most, don't have a lot of other options to play in D1.

 

[FlagUp17]

A few years ago, there was a post game event for STHs and this question was asked, "Why did you come to UNH?"

The answers were not surprising. "They wanted me." "It was the only school that offered a scholarship in D1"

Like it or not, one of the reasons why we haven't seen a mass exodus in the portal is that many, if not most, don't have a lot of other options to play in D1.

I’d be curious if it was perhaps the amount associated with the scholarship (full scholarship vs partial etc). Perhaps some of the kids got scholarships from other schools, but UNH was the only that gave a full one? It makes me wonder about guys who we have poached from other programs (Lavins from SCS, Gildon from UW, Romeo from UML). Obviously these guys had deals in place with other schools, but were they full rides or not? And is that why they chose to flip to UNH?

Some of the CHL guys UNH got this year were former draft picks as well (I believe Plandowski and McDonald?) UNH tried to get out in front of the Canadian league movement. With early indications across the league showing positive results with these new recruits, I wonder how it changes UNHs strategy moving forward? Now that I imagine more of the big schools will want to pursue these recruits more heavily?

Also, the Tournas kid looks pretty legit, I think they’re estimating 3rd-4th round pick for him? They recruited him pretty young and he has developed pretty well. Maybe UNH needs to do more recruiting of “raw” 15-16 year olds and hope they blossom and they can convince them to stay even if they get drafted high etc. This strategy probably has a lot more room for error though, and also the potential for kids to jump ship if the results for the big team don’t pan out (like we saw with Commesso, Stutzle, etc.)

 

[HockeyRef]

Three home games left...hard to believe! Not to rush it but it would be nice to not finish in the basement. If the tournament
started today, who would we play in the 'whateverChuckcallsthefirstround'. Have forgotten the basic format...top 5 get a bye?
If that's true we would head to Merrimack where we always play sooooo well. Things are going to shift for sure going down the stretch.

Wonder too how competitive we are going to be with UMass...here's a team that just won a slew of games (9-10 in a row) Do we
have any games in hand on the bunch down there with us? Snively usually knows this. But the remainder is formidable, games with
Providence, BC remain as well as UMass, and of course UConn. Noone wants to lose to the Wildcats for playoff position particularly
those hanging on to NPI's good graces.

Speaking to your point Grouch about the portal, UNH will most likely fetch a goalie out of there for next year, I think..and I know we have
to replace 4 graduating Seniors. Doubt seriously that the older players like Sam O will return (I hope he does) , will be interesting to see how many of the CHL
players leave (if any). Too early to speculate on all of this of course. I know already we've recruited at least 3 CHL players for next season, if I read that
right.

Regardless of all of this UNH has 'nothing to lose' and should just play their game as best they can going forward. They've got it in them to upset the
apple cart to any team thinking they can take the night off...bwahahaha! FWIW I was in a diner in White River Jct last weekend. They had
one of those 8 balls that tell the future. I asked it if UNH would run the table to win the NC...'most likely' was the answer! YES!!

Just wasting valuable time needed to clean out a room to get ready for a carpet install....sigh. Have a good week everyone!

 

[FlagUp17]

Three home games left...hard to believe! Not to rush it but it would be nice to not finish in the basement. If the tournament
started today, who would we play in the 'whateverChuckcallsthefirstround'. Have forgotten the basic format...top 5 get a bye?
If that's true we would head to Merrimack where we always play sooooo well. Things are going to shift for sure going down the stretch.

Wonder too how competitive we are going to be with UMass...here's a team that just won a slew of games (9-10 in a row) Do we
have any games in hand on the bunch down there with us? Snively usually knows this. But the remainder is formidable, games with
Providence, BC remain as well as UMass, and of course UConn. Noone wants to lose to the Wildcats for playoff position particularly
those hanging on to NPI's good graces.

Speaking to your point Grouch about the portal, UNH will most likely fetch a goalie out of there for next year, I think..and I know we have
to replace 4 graduating Seniors. Doubt seriously that the older players like Sam O will return (I hope he does) , will be interesting to see how many of the CHL
players leave (if any). Too early to speculate on all of this of course. I know already we've recruited at least 3 CHL players for next season, if I read that
right.

Regardless of all of this UNH has 'nothing to lose' and should just play their game as best they can going forward. They've got it in them to upset the
apple cart to any team thinking they can take the night off...bwahahaha! FWIW I was in a diner in White River Jct last weekend. They had
one of those 8 balls that tell the future. I asked it if UNH would run the table to win the NC...'most likely' was the answer! YES!!

Just wasting valuable time needed to clean out a room to get ready for a carpet install....sigh. Have a good week everyone!

If I remember correctly 6-11 play the first round - so 6 hosts 11, 7 hosts 10 etc. etc. 1-5 get a bye.

2nd round it does not re-seed (I believe?) so I believe 4 hosts 5, 3 hosts winner of 6v11 etc. etc.

Not 100% sure on the re-seeding or not. Someone else can probably speak to that better than I can.

Wonder how they would change things up if we ever went back to 12 teams since the departure of ND. Wonder if Holy Cross would ever think of joining, as the women’s team is already in HEA? I would selfishly love this as I live closer to Worcester and it would be great to get to an away game each year!