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Norwich Hockey - Time to Regroup

fancy was in the lineup last night and was on the power play multiple times-played quite well-got an assist as well
 
overall the team played fast -physical- and were relentless on the puck all night---thet scored a bunch of goals right around the crease and kept the puck in the offensive zone quite often-
 
dwb said:
overall the team played fast -physical- and were relentless on the puck all night---thet scored a bunch of goals right around the crease and kept the puck in the offensive zone quite often-
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Physical was something that I believe Coach Ellsworth's teams shied away from because of generally the only thing that resulted from them was penalties in his my IIRC.

I could have that wrong, but I thought I remember that being a common theme or philosophy was to always be in the right position on defense, rather than looking for the big hit.
 
Got to go back and watch. Definitely going to be more like the McShane days of trying to out-score people (which it appears they have the talent to do). Aggressive on the attack, which is probably going to lead to some odd-man rushes the other way. Mike once told me he didn't worry too much about giving up goals as long as they could score a bunch of them. Obviously worked out well for a long time. They pummeled a bad team and will skate against a D1 this weekend. I don't think we'll have the full picture until Nov. 1st when Curry comes to town but I am definitely excited and optimistic.
 
There’s risk of injury in any game. Does that risk increase when playing against a larger, stronger, faster, more skilled team? Not sure I see the wisdom of playing against a D1 team one week before the start of the regular season. Flint?
 
Bog Hockey said:
There’s risk of injury in any game. Does that risk increase when playing against a larger, stronger, faster, more skilled team? Not sure I see the wisdom of playing against a D1 team one week before the start of the regular season. Flint?
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They did it more than once under McShane and it went ok. I don't know. Your point has some validity, but I guess we just hope for the best!
 
Mike’s theory, which I agree with, was you get better by playing better teams. Competing against a Dartmouth team helps you compete against almost any other D3 team
 
Did anyone go? I couldn't make it, but I got a recap from someone who was in attendance. Curious to see if it tracks with what anyone else thought.
 
jerrynu26 said:
I believe the game was closed to almost all
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Gotcha. Here is the report I got:

"We appeared a little intimidated and on our heels to start. Took some penalties that were kind of lazy/not moving our feet. By the third period we looked a lot more evenly matched, though they still outplayed us. I think today showed who will probably not be in the lineup once we get going. At times, we looked much faster in transition and moved the puck really well but tended to fall back into previous habits at times."

IMO, the "negatives" are what you might expect when facing a D1 team. As I said before, I think we'll have a better idea of our starting point on Saturday night. I'm puzzled by Curry's result against NEC, but that's why they play the games!
 
Dartmouth was not only fast but really quick-beat us to many pucks and their passing was strong and accurate--their defense was just outstanding-very clever with their stickhandling always moving closer to the net either to shoot or set up others-Norwich got better as the game progressed and had some great scoring chances but couldn't find the back of the net---all in all a really good experience for our players-oh-quite a few Norwich fans made the trip ---
 
dwb said:
Dartmouth was not only fast but really quick-beat us to many pucks and their passing was strong and accurate--their defense was just outstanding-very clever with their stickhandling always moving closer to the net either to shoot or set up others-Norwich got better as the game progressed and had some great scoring chances but couldn't find the back of the net---all in all a really good experience for our players-oh-quite a few Norwich fans made the trip ---
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That tended to be the case when Norwich went back to back years in 2011 and 2012 I think?

The first year there had to be close to 500 or more Norwich fans there and it was easily double the amount of Dartmouth fans.
 
PrezdeJohnson09 said:
I didn’t see a second of it. It’s one game. But yeah tough start to get blown out at home. Curry has been no slouch last few years though so let’s not put curtains on the 2025-26 season yet.
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Instead of just the new players learning the system, all the players are learning a new system under a new .(to them) coach.
They are definitely more physical, although a little out of control.
But I am more hopeful this year than I have been in a few years.
 
Bog Hockey said:
Well folks, and there’s your answer…
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There is a few ways to look at this...

1. If Ellsworth's recruiting was as bad as this board believes, Dawes is not working with "his guys" yet. I would argue it isn't a "rebuild" but, nonetheless, the improvement - if it comes - isn't going to happen overnight.
2. The new reality that this board doesn't seem to want to accept is that with the addition of so many programs, Norwich will never again have the same kind of pull for the really good players that they enjoyed under McShane. It's my belief that some of the best players EVER at Norwich don't attend Norwich in today's climate due to the options available now
3. When the VP of Enrollment said to the head coaches, "you just have to accept you might not win for a while", she meant it. This really only affects hockey, football, and wrestling. The GNAC sports can survive with the available pool but hockey is expected to compete nationally, football is stuck in a conference they don't remotely have the resources to compete in, and wrestling is forced to compete against a much higher level of opponent than the GNAC sports.

Despite all this, as Prez said, I don't think it's panic button time. Yes, we probably saw that Norwich is not ready to be a national contender again yet, but they should 100% contend for the Little East title. Get back to winning 20+ games a year and recruiting will improve as much as it can.

*all opinion; I'm no expert
 
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