UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Speaking of UNH goal tenders, how did Joe Lazarro do in his electrical engineering major this past fall semester? He slipped to a 3.93 GPA for his junior season, I think.

Let me tell you having had a son go through that very same program....Joe Lazarro received an award for his GPA last Spring (was on the NCAA honor roll) that is ONE TOUGH major as you might be aware! Liam Blackburn is majoring in genetics. Usually the hockey players tend to major in business; at least that seemed to be the trend. Personally, jr. year in both high school and college were always difficult it seemed. Good for Joe; lots of great jobs out there. After a few hits and misses, my son is doing very well in his current gig but it was a very tough major. Awards for Joe include:

https://unhwildcats.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6211&path=

[Scott]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Let me tell you having had a son go through that very same program....Joe Lazarro received an award for his GPA last Spring (was on the NCAA honor roll) that is ONE TOUGH major as you might be aware! Liam Blackburn is majoring in genetics. Usually the hockey players tend to major in business; at least that seemed to be the trend. Personally, jr. year in both high school and college were always difficult it seemed. Good for Joe; lots of great jobs out there. After a few hits and misses, my son is doing very well in his current gig but it was a very tough major. Awards for Joe include:

https://unhwildcats.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6211&path=

I had heard on a fairly recent radio interview with Souza (early Dec. ?) that Lazzaro has an offer from Raytheon. If that's true, more power to him! He is earned it with his many academic awards!

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Any idea how many games CK will miss?

On pace for 88 regular season goals, so will need to do better in the second half, and/or score a bunch in the playoffs to reach triple digits.

I would like to see the FOW% improve from 46.1 % and the PP improve from 21.2 %, which could help boost the goal total. Only Crookshank, Gildon, and CK on pace to score double digit goals (8, 5, and 5), assuming CK does not miss any games.

Only one 5-minute major, one game misconduct, and average 8.8 minutes in the box per game, so that is pretty good discipline, if not the SMT levels of the past.

Really need all 4 points this weekend. Rally at Libby's 5 pm before Brown Bears game?

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Any idea how many games CK will miss?

On pace for 88 regular season goals, so will need to do better in the second half, and/or score a bunch in the playoffs to reach triple digits.

I would like to see the FOW% improve from 46.1 % and the PP improve from 21.2 %, which could help boost the goal total. Only Crookshank, Gildon, and CK on pace to score double digit goals (8, 5, and 5), assuming CK does not miss any games.

Only one 5-minute major, one game misconduct, and average 8.8 minutes in the box per game, so that is pretty good discipline, if not the SMT levels of the past.

Really need all 4 points this weekend. Rally at Libby's 5 pm before Brown Bears game?

Totally down for the 'rally at Libby's' will be there by 5 ish. Sounds like all doable things. No word on ChKell as of yet (did read on a facebook fan page that he did not practice with the team today which is expected) and being New Year's day doubt there will be any presser coming from Durham. Saw the Yale v Maine game awhile back; think that they (the Bulldogs) will be up for this one as they are riding a 4 game win streak. Remembering last season where we came back from way behind to tie it. Brown not sure on what they've got going this season. Predicting the 'Cats get the sweep; would be a great way to head into the HE schedule following. Go 'Cats!

[Snively65]

Totally down for the 'rally at Libby's' will be there by 5 ish. Sounds like all doable things. No word on ChKell as of yet (did read on a facebook fan page that he did not practice with the team today which is expected) and being New Year's day doubt there will be any presser coming from Durham. Saw the Yale v Maine game awhile back; think that they (the Bulldogs) will be up for this one as they are riding a 4 game win streak. Remembering last season where we came back from way behind to tie it. Brown not sure on what they've got going this season. Predicting the 'Cats get the sweep; would be a great way to head into the HE schedule following. Go 'Cats!

Vlae and Brown = EZAC cupcakes. Even Bentley beat Brown, 1-0, eatlier this season. Oh, wait .....

[Dan]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

I'd be very much surprised if UNH added another goalie for next season, outside of a non-scholarship netminder to fill Lazzaro's role. Robinson's bump in the road notwithstanding, I'd imagine they still view him as very capable of being a #1 and Taylor as a goalie with a lot of potential. The next scholarship goaltender is probably coming in the fall of 2022 to replace Robinson when he graduates.

It would be one thing if the team was a goalie away from being extremely competitive, but they remain a team with room for improvement all over the line-up. And even moreso after this season when they'll need to replace their top two defensemen and Blackburn (at least). I'd rather see any available scholarship money given to recruits who could make an immediate impact as skaters (specifically goal scoring!) than used to force existing scholarship dollars to the bench anyway...

[Snively65]

I'd be very much surprised if UNH added another goalie for next season, outside of a non-scholarship netminder to fill Lazzaro's role. Robinson's bump in the road notwithstanding, I'd imagine they still view him as very capable of being a #1 and Taylor as a goalie with a lot of potential. The next scholarship goaltender is probably coming in the fall of 2022 to replace Robinson when he graduates.

It would be one thing if the team was a goalie away from being extremely competitive, but they remain a team with room for improvement all over the line-up. And even moreso after this season when they'll need to replace their top two defensemen and Blackburn (at least). I'd rather see any available scholarship money given to recruits who could make an immediate impact as skaters (specifically goal scoring!) than used to force existing scholarship dollars to the bench anyway...

Agree entirely; cannot have three full schollie goaltenders on team the same year. Will need to get by with what they have, for better or for worse. Also, I am thinking that a couple of the junior d-men will be back for their senior season.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Vlae and Brown = EZAC cupcakes. Even Bentley beat Brown, 1-0, eatlier this season. Oh, wait .....

Ok already! We know we lost to Bentley..... Go 'Cats! Beat the team that lost to Bentley please....

[Snively65]

Ok already! We know we lost to Bentley..... Go 'Cats! Beat the team that lost to Bentley please....

And, Army. AHA teams tough. EZAC teams not so much. Need to go 4-0 this season against EZAC teams.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Agree entirely; cannot have three full schollie goaltenders on team the same year. Will need to get by with what they have, for better or for worse. Also, I am thinking that a couple of the junior d-men will be back for their senior season.

I like your optimism on the last part, Snively65 - presumably you're holding out hope that both Gildon and Maass will be 4 year players at UNH, and the only loss we'll see from this year's D group is Wyse. Some of the younger blueliners are making bits of progress out there this year. Another year of Gildon would be a pleasant surprise … but even me being the eternal optimist, I'm guessing that won't happen. It would be nice if the team's growing on-ice success gave him more of a reason to stick around, though, as another .500 season that stops short of Boston probably isn't going to give him a lot of optimism to counter pressures he'll be feeling "time's a wasting" to get his pro career underway. I suspect we'll have to be content with Maass only next season.

Although I completely understand the cons against carrying 3 full scholarship goalies … if your first two goalies aren't playing like full scholarship top dog goalies, then I'm not sure you can afford to bypass the potential availability of another top notch goalie if the performance levels of both Robinson and Taylor do not improve. With Robinson, we at least have seen him playing at a level last season of a solid-if-unspectacular D-1 starting goalie, and can probably expect his performance in the second half this season should see his numbers bouncing back to at least .910 (he'll have to finish above .930 over the rest of the season to get him up to his .915 number from last season). Dan's point - which I interpret as Robinson pretty much matching the decent-but-not-great talent level surrounding him right now - is a fair one. If it gets UNH to a middle-of-the-pack HE finish around or (hopefully) over .500, and/or making some postseason progress, maybe that is the realistic ceiling for what we can expect this season. But …

… as of right now, Taylor is a year-and-a-half into his UNH career, and I think it's fair to say that he has not lived up to projections YET. I think we need to get some additional insight into what he can do, or perhaps most importantly, what he can't do. And I'm a little concerned that we don't have anyone apparently lined up for after Taylor. You look at 'Watcher's incoming recruiting charts, and those slots for the skating positions are lined up (provisionally) for years to come. We've known for well over a year now, possibly close to two years, that Commesso isn't coming. What's been done since to get the next prospect(s) in line post-Taylor?

Worst-case scenario … what if Robinson's performance doesn't rebound over the next 3 months? Or, what if Robinson gets injured down the stretch, or decides to turn pro after this season (he was drafted)? And Taylor is the only guy left, and we find out he's not up to the job? Where is the "next Danny Tirone" - not necessarily ability-wise, but someone waiting in line who can quickly accelerate and jump in midway into a season, if Taylor never becomes anything other than the "next Adam Clark"?

And perhaps most importantly, what does that do to the UNH program in the long run? MS7 can point to some progress last year, and hopefully he can do the same after this season too. But if things go wrong, and there is no Plan B (or Plan C) to cope with a deficiency in a key position like goalie … it's not a stretch to see UNH falling out of the playoff slots (again), and then by the time you finish playing the "slow game", you're four (4) years into the MS7 era (or 7 years if counting his prominence with recruiting), and what do you have to show for it?

That's a scary scenario. I'm not sure it's all that unrealistic. It's why we need answers on Taylor, and soon.

Beggars can't be choosers. Ideally, I understand why you don't want three scholarships committed to goalie. But I don't think we can afford to dismiss a top prospect in the position coming early, just to get him in here. We've seen UNH make that mistake a few too many times elsewhere, and we have to learn from that. And if it forces a kid like Taylor to either step up his game, or to return to Canada, or seek a transfer in the US, so be it. If the choice boils down to (finally) bringing in a top-notch goalie capable of taking the program up a level or two … OR just making do with a guy who's not up to the job, and could keep UNH in rebuild mode for the foreseeable future … IMO it's not really a difficult choice.

[HockeyRef]

And, Army. AHA teams tough. EZAC teams not so much. Need to go 4-0 this season against EZAC teams.

Yep Army too...HR's prediction for the weekend:

UnH 3 Yale 1
UNH 4 Brown 2

Go 'Cats!!

[e.cat]

Yep Army too...HR's prediction for the weekend:

UnH 3 Yale 1
UNH 4 Brown 2

Go 'Cats!!

I'm rapidly losing interest in this season. Two wins this weekend would go a long way in restoring my faith. Hope you're right!

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

I'm rapidly losing interest in this season. Two wins this weekend would go a long way in restoring my faith. Hope you're right!

Me too. Interested, yes. Losing faith … not so much as losing some of my early optimism.

Part of that might be what happened two years ago around this time, when the bottom finally fell out. Another bad weekend like that one could dredge up some not-so-old but plenty painful memories. Hopefully the poor performance at Army will provide MS7 the ammunition he needed this past week to get the team's attention and focus back onto playing team-first winning hockey.

Late change of plans might allow me to catch tonight's game in person, which would be nice.

[e.cat]

Me too. Interested, yes. Losing faith … not so much as losing some of my early optimism.

Part of that might be what happened two years ago around this time, when the bottom finally fell out. Another bad weekend like that one could dredge up some not-so-old but plenty painful memories. Hopefully the poor performance at Army will provide MS7 the ammunition he needed this past week to get the team's attention and focus back onto playing team-first winning hockey.

Late change of plans might allow me to catch tonight's game in person, which would be nice.

I'll be watching on NESN. Last time I saw a UNH/Yale game at the Whit, Yale took it to 'em. My friend from Conn. with me was pleasantly surprised!
Hope the "I Believe in UNH" banner doesn't get stomped on tonight!

[Scott]

Re: UNH Hockey: Treading Water or Trending Upward

Good news! Both Kelleher and Pierson will be in the lineup for both games this weekend.

https://unhwildcats.com/news/2020/1/...x?path=mhockey