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2021-22 UVM Catamounts: Cats Gone Global

Gabe with another shutout! Nice home win for the guys. I know UNH isn't the best team, but what I want to see down this stretch run is just positive momentum we can carry into next season.
 
They played a full 60 minutes tonight. They best UNH to the puck almost every time and took more shots sooner. The first two goals were long shots that happened to go in. The more you shoot the more something might happen. And lo and behold it did. I do wish that shoot quicker. A quick snap shot can catch a goalie off guard. Hopefully they can play on this momentum and finish the season strong and surprise people come playoffs. Good job tonight men.
 
Solid 60 minutes. In post game presser Todd W. had a grin ear to ear. Great job closing out the win in the last 10 minutes as UNH didn't get much of a sniff at the net. These are steps along the way to learning how to win.

Need to come up with a process for Senior Night as post game had maybe a 100-150 people left in the stands. Know its hard prior to game for alot of reasons. Always nice moment for players and parents.
 
Last night seemed like another case of "decent performance but just lacking that little extra jolt to get you over the hump." I'm choosing to continue trusting the process, the team is doing a lot of the right things, and when you develop good habits early it *will* pay off eventually.

Side note, but the women came from 2-0 down in the third today to beat BC 4-2. They've won 21 games this season, and finished second in Hockey East, with a bucketload of program records falling. If they can win their first two playoff rounds (which would both be at Gutterson), they'll have the most wins of ANY UVM varsity hockey team since the MSL/Perrin/Thomas/Gilligan years.
 
You can’t play 55 minutes and expect to win. Leading 2-0 with five minutes left and lose in OT. The holding penalty (called by a Vermonter) was questionable but the slash was dumb. Carriere was spectacular. So frustrating to watch. We have had so many close games. My only hope is we end up on the other side of one goal games when playoffs start. We could surprise a few teams. They have the ability, just need the heart.
 
Yeah, tonight was a case of just shooting yourself in the foot. Silly penalties. Can't imagine the coaches are thrilled with not just the blown lead but the fact that it was so, so very preventable.
 
Ugly game by Cat's, ranks up there with the stinker against Alaska earlier this year. Credit to UMASS as very skilled and balanced team. But UVM didn't show up and let UMASS control the game.

Nice for Phil L. to get a goal against his old team and Yes Hudson played some good minutes. Looking for bounce back tonight, more disciplined effort and some fight - will be real disappointed if they roll over.

UVM women at noon today. For fans who have not taken in a game you should see this team play. Good brand of hockey. Most enjoyable moments at Gut this year have been the handful of women's games I've taken in.
 
UVM Cat in Texas said:
I get to some extent why we're picked dead last -- a bunch of really bad seasons, stacked one on top of the other; new coach; new goalie; etc. -- but I agree, there's no effin way we're finishing last. Just not gonna happen. I'd bet my left pinky finger on it. Go Cats.
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Preparing to have my left pinky lopped off! Didn’t watch any of the game last night, but it looks like we were absolutely annihilated! I don’t know, too early for concern? Do the Woodcroft Cats seem to play better on the road? Rebuilding takes time, but was honestly hoping for a little more by this point.
 
UVM Cat in Texas said:
Preparing to have my left pinky lopped off! Didn’t watch any of the game last night, but it looks like we were absolutely annihilated! I don’t know, too early for concern? Do the Woodcroft Cats seem to play better on the road? Rebuilding takes time, but was honestly hoping for a little more by this point.
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Didn't watch much either - but dissecting the boxscore, the shot attempts were even so at least we played better, the problem was the PK which has been absolutely godawful the last few games. 4 PPGs against.

Do think it's too early to panic - when your returners are mostly meh at best and your most promising freshman basically misses the entire season...shit happens. We didn't have that elite-level recruit in the system to ride to a rapid rebuild like UMass had with Makar, and we had no network to pull from, at all.

Women's team hosts a Hockey East semifinal midweek though, so we got that going for us!
 
VT Cat in Texas - careful with the self mutilation.

As a fan who was at both games and stayed to the bitter end I've got some comments. As I said previously Friday was a stinker. Saturday started out better (1st period - down 1-0, and playing well), but quickly deteriorated in the last 2:05 of the 2nd period (3 goals during these last few minutes of the period). When an inferior team plays 5 V 5 it has a better chance to keep the score tight/low - when it goes on the PK - the good teams skills really come out. That is part of the story on Saturday as UMASS had 4 PP goals.

End of the day UVM is better than previous last 2 years but watching UMASS (#10 in country and #1 in HE) you see how far we have to go. It's going to take more good recruiting classes to elevate the overall quality of the players. Case in point. Phil L. is UVM's leading scorer with 16 points (low #). Good kid, works hard, and from what I hear great in the locker room. We're lucky he decided to come here and provide some leadership. He played his first 4 years at UMASS, scoring 38 points in 129 games. Junior season 5 pts, and Senior season 6 points. With those #'s have to believe he was a bottom 6 forward. Comes to UVM and is on 1st line and gets all kinds of special team time. Hence his #'s increase on a weaker team. Our top 6 forwards are really 3rd/4th liners.

Our recruiting has to elevate/get lucky and get higher skilled players in here. Again I have faith in Todd W. and his assistant coaches to beat the bushes across the world and find some diamonds in the rough or just plan out recruit and sell themselves and the University. Obviously winning helps recruiting and we've got to make incremental steps up the ladder. 21-22 currently at 6 wins. 22-23 - needs to be double digits. 23-24 - hopefully 14-16 wins. It's going to be something like that if (BIG IF) Todd can convince the right players to come here. My view.
 
Catfantoo said:
VT Cat in Texas - careful with the self mutilation.

As a fan who was at both games and stayed to the bitter end I've got some comments. As I said previously Friday was a stinker. Saturday started out better (1st period - down 1-0, and playing well), but quickly deteriorated in the last 2:05 of the 2nd period (3 goals during these last few minutes of the period). When an inferior team plays 5 V 5 it has a better chance to keep the score tight/low - when it goes on the PK - the good teams skills really come out. That is part of the story on Saturday as UMASS had 4 PP goals.

End of the day UVM is better than previous last 2 years but watching UMASS (#10 in country and #1 in HE) you see how far we have to go. It's going to take more good recruiting classes to elevate the overall quality of the players. Case in point. Phil L. is UVM's leading scorer with 16 points (low #). Good kid, works hard, and from what I hear great in the locker room. We're lucky he decided to come here and provide some leadership. He played his first 4 years at UMASS, scoring 38 points in 129 games. Junior season 5 pts, and Senior season 6 points. With those #'s have to believe he was a bottom 6 forward. Comes to UVM and is on 1st line and gets all kinds of special team time. Hence his #'s increase on a weaker team. Our top 6 forwards are really 3rd/4th liners.

Our recruiting has to elevate/get lucky and get higher skilled players in here. Again I have faith in Todd W. and his assistant coaches to beat the bushes across the world and find some diamonds in the rough or just plan out recruit and sell themselves and the University. Obviously winning helps recruiting and we've got to make incremental steps up the ladder. 21-22 currently at 6 wins. 22-23 - needs to be double digits. 23-24 - hopefully 14-16 wins. It's going to be something like that if (BIG IF) Todd can convince the right players to come here. My view.
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I think this is a solid assessment, IMO.

I know people look at UMass and think why can't we be them, but UMass had a Cale Makar-sized booster rocket that helped accelerate the rebuild. We flat-out didn't. In fact I'd argue we had virtually no recruiting network at all between the time Wallack left and the time Sneddon retired. (And I do think Wallack leaving mattered - for one example, Zach Okabe has been solid for St. Cloud and would be this team's top scorer, and he directly pointed to Wallack leaving as the reason he flipped his commitment)

If you're going to try and mine New England and NY as that staff did, you're probably fighting a losing battle. You don't have the history of the Beanpot schools, the academics of an Ivy League, or the new hotness of UMass. So you're ending up with guys that you had to compete with like, Holy Cross for - discarded scraps the bigger schools didn't want. So you have to look elsewhere, and you can't rely on VT to constantly produce players with it being so small.

I think it's a good sign that all of the coaches are/were working with WJC programs (Woody in Sweden, Moser with Slovakia, and Wiedler with Norway) because that can help you get inroads in those places (hell, one of the guys currently in the commit pipeline was on Moser's Slovak team) and when you're at those tournaments you're also exposed to other talent from around the world that you might be able to convince.
 
I agree with your recruiting comments and why I said "beat the bushes across the world" and the connection to Europe that our coaching staff has. We're not going to win recruiting battles in New England. Quebec unfortunately is too much of a wildcard and Ontario is pretty embedded with Clarkson/Cornell/Western Teams. The "Pro Ambitions and connections" that Todd has and can explain to players on what is required is also an angle as well. For a player they think NHL but Pro can also be AHL, KHL, Europe as well. Time will tell, really hope #14 Andrei Buyalsky is back next year. That is one component of the top 6 forwards that would help.
 
Catfantoo said:
I agree with your recruiting comments and why I said "beat the bushes across the world" and the connection to Europe that our coaching staff has. We're not going to win recruiting battles in New England. Quebec unfortunately is too much of a wildcard and Ontario is pretty embedded with Clarkson/Cornell/Western Teams. The "Pro Ambitions and connections" that Todd has and can explain to players on what is required is also an angle as well. For a player they think NHL but Pro can also be AHL, KHL, Europe as well. Time will tell, really hope #14 Andrei Buyalsky is back next year. That is one component of the top 6 forwards that would help.
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Yeah, having (probably) the best of the newcomers miss the whole season with injury has not helped. I liked what I saw early in the season. I wonder what exactly happened, because I don't think we've heard anything, whether it be from the TV people or the BFP.

Feel like it's damning of where our recruiting was that virtually none of the guys who committed under KS are still committed here; either they flipped beforehand or they transferred out.
 
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