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Vermont Catamounts Season Thread 2025-2026: Go Cats Go or No Cats No?
- Thread starter Catamount93
- Start date
Go easy on us tonight! Rumor has it that Simpson will get the start in net tonight for PC.
UVM Cat in Texas
Now UVM Cat in Georgia
Yeah, for sure. We still can’t beat Lowell, which says a lot!
UVM Cat in Texas
Now UVM Cat in Georgia
25 goals against in the last 5 games. Not gonna win many (or any) giving up 5 goals a game.
Ok the order of goals was different but we still were down 4-2 again.
5 straight games being down 4-2. The Gut was a morgue last weekend. We had 3-win seasons that drew better crowds. I sit at center Ice and have a whole row of Providence fans sitting in front of me. I'm not gonna blame the coach as it's not his fault the top players won't come to Vermont. The program lost to many of its diehard base after covid as many either didn't want to go into a big crowd or have gotten tired of coming to a rink permantly under construction or just no longer wanted to watch a team lose all the time. In the past Vermont usually would have a few good years every decade that made the bad years livable.
Catlover my only question is whether with a proven coach we could get a few top players to Vermont. For example, how on earth does any program get a kid to move to Orono Maine (unless they are from Nova Scotia, which has served Maine well lately?) Is it all about the Gut being old? All about staying so close to Boston? If it's simply about our losing record for the last decade, then it IS about the coach. Hire a real coach with a record and not just whomever might be convenient.
ericredaxe
Veteran
BU guy, but with a son at UVM so UVM had become my "2nd favorite" team - if that makes sense.
Would love to see UVM more competitive again - i bet the Gut was wild when St Louis was there and for some of their very competitive years.
Guessing the challenge is not one thing by itself - Older facilities don't help (I don't know what the player areas are like underneath, but from a fan's perspective, the Gut desperately needs an overhaul (any nostalgia aside), I'm sure location is challenging - even just from a travel perspective as compared to schools in the Boston area.
I know nothing about Wiedler as a coach, but from the fewtimes I've seen them play UVM seems to be putting in the effort and competing (which would reflect positively on the coaching staff) - as an example, by my observation UVM outplayed BU last night for much / most of the 2nd period but just didn't quite have the same talent level overall.
Not sure what the best recruiting strategy would be - I'd think UVM could get a handful of kids from the Quebec area who might want to stay closeish to home? Mabye they are already doing that.
Anyway - hope to see good things to come for the cats in the coming years.
Long time UVM season ticket holder who is considering not renewing our tickets next year because the experience at the Gut is so bad. We used to have seats 1 row off the glass prior to the renovation. The 'temporary' walkway means we have people walking in front of us the entire game. I also don't like that there are no longer printed line up sheets available at the game.
We missed a couple games this year because of weather and watched them on ESPN+. Already have the subscription for NHL games and the UVM broadcast is good. I fell like a lot of people are staying home and watching ojn TV instead of attending the games. It was kind of nice not having clueless people walking back in forth in front of me the entire game.
It's sad because I feel like the team has turned a corner offensively (finally). I really enjoy the speed of their play and getting to see future NHL players on a regular basis. Happy that this is probably Hrabel's last season in Hockey East.
UVM Cat in Texas
Now UVM Cat in Georgia
I was there. It was!
ericredaxe
Veteran
I remember seeing them at BU during that era.... they were VERY good.
VermontfaninNY
Member
I was very excited for this team at the start of the season, it seemed like they had recruited the sort of talent that we have not had on this team for a long time. The other team I thought did really well in recruiting CHL players was Clarkson. And while comparing an ECAC team to a Hockey team isn't perfect comparison because Hockey East is generally a much stronger conference, ECAC currently has 3 teams ranked in the top 11, Hockey East has 1. Enough said.
For UVM, Burroughs had his best year in Juniors with 76 points, Guindon had 86, Filak had 48 (by far the most on his team). Burroughs was good enough to play a couple games in the "AA" league, the ECHL.
Guindon had 13 points this year, Burroughs had 9, Filak had 4.
Over at Clarkson, Owen Van Steensel's best year in the OHL was also 86 points. He had a second place lead on the team in points with 25. Rémi Gélinas had 21 points at D1 after putting up 42 points in 32 games in the Q (89 point pace).
To me, these are as close to pretty exact comparables as you will ever find. Two groups of two guys with identical numbers in the same league going to two college teams. The only real difference is coaching, not talent, and if Burroughs and Guindon both hit 20-25 points, it probably translates to another pretty good season, and not the disastrous one we had to live through this year.
With Aegerter being much better than I expected and the year Strand and Kessler had last year, it was unacceptable and the coaching staff needs to go.
For UVM, Burroughs had his best year in Juniors with 76 points, Guindon had 86, Filak had 48 (by far the most on his team). Burroughs was good enough to play a couple games in the "AA" league, the ECHL.
Guindon had 13 points this year, Burroughs had 9, Filak had 4.
Over at Clarkson, Owen Van Steensel's best year in the OHL was also 86 points. He had a second place lead on the team in points with 25. Rémi Gélinas had 21 points at D1 after putting up 42 points in 32 games in the Q (89 point pace).
To me, these are as close to pretty exact comparables as you will ever find. Two groups of two guys with identical numbers in the same league going to two college teams. The only real difference is coaching, not talent, and if Burroughs and Guindon both hit 20-25 points, it probably translates to another pretty good season, and not the disastrous one we had to live through this year.
With Aegerter being much better than I expected and the year Strand and Kessler had last year, it was unacceptable and the coaching staff needs to go.
ericredaxe
Veteran
For sake of argument though… the ECAC also has 4 teams currently in the bottom 10 of the NPI rankings while hockey east has none.
Traditionally speaking yes Hockey East has been the stronger conference. However ECAC has closed the gap in the past 15 years. For example in the past 15 years ECAC has 3 national championships and Hockey East has 3. I would argue Cornell was on pace to win the national championship the shortened Covid season. Making 4 for ECAC. Cornell was an absolute wagon that year. To your point the player comparisons are spot on but the programs are on completely different trajectories. Clarkson is the better program compared to Vermont. More investment and better coaching. What’s the status with weidler? When is his contract up? I wonder if he’s gonna be back next year.