Re: 2009-2010 Official Vermont Season Thread
For the performance the team put on last nigt, I thought the crowd, other than the student section, was pretty quiet for long periods of time. Against BC, the team created the excitement in the Gutt, not the crowd, which really is as it should be. I hope the complaints about the student section stop because they were great last night.
People are going to start realizing this Cats team is pretty darn good. With Madore in net, I'm sure the players just don't think pucks are going to go in the net. He's a fantastic goalie. I expect to see Spillane in one of the next 2 games, and the team will need him to be ready to play, too, but in Madore, UVM seems to have a special goalie. And at his size, I really do not think he's a flight risk.
Irwin is playing great, Vock is playing great. Downing is playing great. Roloff is fantastic. Higgins is playing terrific. Stacey is playing great. The freshman line is tremendous, the puck is always moving in the right direction when they're on the ice. McCarthy was great last night. Those 4 freshman are very sound players who seem to really know how the game is played.
The defense is battling and moving the puck much better, I think, than they did last year, but they're doing some strange things, too. Cullity's between the legs drop pass set up Vock's goal but I couldn't figure out what he was doing down below the goal line and I really couldn't figure out his chasing down an icing at the BC end! If coach Sneddon benched Burrows for defensive play, we saw a little of what he saw last night. Josh is far better with the puck on offense than without it on defense. Great rush up the ice by Medvec that led to Stacey's goal, just wonder why the big guy doesn't get on his horse like that a couple more times a game and why he doesn't let the big shot from the point go more often.
The main thing is, the defense is battling hard and they'll be fine in front of Madore.
After last night's game, if BC is a contender at the end of the season, Jerry York will be the Coach of the Year. Muse does not look healthy, so if the recommended treatment following hip surgery is playing goalie, he'll be fine. In case it's not, he could hurt BC this year. Maybe all of the defensemen will be better pros than college players, but I didn't think they were good last night. I thought BC's point men on the powerplay were awful. Their powerplay became a joke as the game wore on. So much so, that I loved Lawson's pop of that little BC guy in the third period. Lawson got his 2 minutes worth and then we had little to worry about a man down. Kreider may be a fast skater, like our Matt Marshall, but he can skate it over the blue line and throw a wrist shot at the net all he wants. If he's not going to use his speed to try to beat the defenseman, like he did easily and often in prep school, have fun out there, big boy.
My favorite BC thing last night, though, was when S. Whitney carried the puck all the way around UVM's offensive zone in the 3rd period before throwing the puck away and sending the Cats up ice. Boy is he skilled. Boy is he fast. Boy does that look good in shinny. Boy did he look like a little boy doing that in a game.
After watching last night's game, I think UVM is capable of going down to Boston in November and taking 3 or 4 points from this BC team. BC will get great coaching, to be sure, but they looked mighty soft to me last night. So they're young. All of Vermont's kids are college age, too.
Vermont looked great once they found their form in the second half of the first period. And how about giving up a not-good goal early and just forgetting about it and going about their business? I thought the Cats were mighty impressive last night.
And I hope it will always be the team that creates the buzz in the building rather than hoping for the crowd to get them going. I think this team is going to play most nights with a real passion and it's going to be fun to watch. Last night was great to witness.
