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Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

schiegs said:
Amen, brother.
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I have some major concerns about the arena. I really thought they'd have announced something by now, especially coming off last year's high and this year's already-peaking fan interest. The school seemed really behind the program, and I thought they'd have done something by now. It's gotta be s--t or get off the pot for the administration. They either need to make the commitment before realignment or be content to be throwing money into something that is always playing up and better than they should be. They either need to act like a D1 program or not. And I, for one, am starting to get aggravated. It's the end of the first semester, and still nothing.

I had heard in the past that they'd be announcing it very soon, but they didn't. I heard that it was an issue from the City of Waltham and then I heard there was an issue with the funding. I've heard conflicting reports, and I don't know what's going on. There's rumors for everything, but I guess they're all just that. Until the school actually picks up the tab on something, this team might be content to skate at the JAR and not make the jump.
****

Air Force in town and the game prep was posted. Game notes are up at Bentley's website too. I really hope this team can take 3 points. They need it having lost their last two.

http://excalibursportspage.com/2012/12/07/game-preps-14-and-15-united-states-air-force-academy/
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Giving up 6 goals (and an ENG) not a good way to begin the weekend. Never before seen a goalie pulled for an EA when down 6-3. Need the split tomorrow night.
 
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Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Falcons vs Falcons back normal for the past three years, playing to a 2-2 tie tonight. Passing was rough for both sides tonight, as the pucks were on edge most of the time, perhaps because of the warm temperature? Dougherty played well in goal tonight. Bentley dominated the OT with some great scoring chances (5 SOG), but could not get the game winner, so goes into the break with just 1 point over the past four games. Bentley will need a strong second half of the season to earn a bye, as a lot of other teams around them in the standings have 1 to 3 games in hand. Offense still leads Div 1 with a 3.80 GPG average, and Gensler leads St. Lawrence's Flanagan by a point and UNH's Goumas by two points, all with 15 games played.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Snively65 said:
Falcons vs Falcons back normal for the past three years, playing to a 2-2 tie tonight. Passing was rough for both sides tonight, as the pucks were on edge most of the time, perhaps because of the warm temperature? Dougherty played well in goal tonight. Bentley dominated the OT with some great scoring chances (5 SOG), but could not get the game winner, so goes into the break with just 1 point over the past four games. Bentley will need a strong second half of the season to earn a bye, as a lot of other teams around them in the standings have 1 to 3 games in hand. Offense still leads Div 1 with a 3.80 GPG average, and Gensler leads St. Lawrence's Flanagan by a point and UNH's Goumas by two points, all with 15 games played.
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I had a couple of observations from this weekend as well:

1) It looks like the team lost confidence in Komm by the end of the semester. I don't know what's going on, but he was completely frozen and taken out of the game mentally by the first two AFA goals on Friday. He had a good first period, and then he just caved in during the second. Coupled with his performance against Dartmouth and the fact that a SHG beat them against Army, I'm starting to think the team started to lose some confidence in him. He has game-breaking ability, but he needed a break in a bad way and can rebound second half of the year. I remind everyone that BC last year went to Billett and benched Milner in the middle of the year. Not that Bentley is BC, but it's a good case study.

2) This team is exactly where it needs to be at this point in the season. They're knocking on the door for the first round bye, and they still have 8 games left against divisional opponents. I'm not impressed with Holy Cross or Army, just like I'm not sold on RIT being as bad as they are. If Bentley can earn a split with RIT, take a point by act of God up at Niagara, then get squared down the stretch in February, they'll enter the playoffs as the 3 or 4 seed most likely. And, honestly, I don't need Bentley to be the 1st place team if they're the 4th. All they need is a bye, and they're probably headed to Rochester for the first time since '09.

3) The defense is not progressing as I'd like. There's major concerns, and I think a lot of it is mental. Weinstein really fought the puck this past weekend, and the frustration showed because he picked up his hitting....and he's not a physical guy. Reardon had to move up to forward to provide a big body, and his compete level is somewhere around a 5 gajillion. Fitzstephens is such a hard worker; he reminds me of Anders Olson or Justin Kemmerer back in the day. They belonged in that lineup just to stabilize it from a compete level in front of the goalie. But, at the same time, it's not about how they're starting. ALl they need to do is get on a roll at the end of the year.

4) Last January, BC lost three of four, including a sweep to Maine where they gave up 7 goals. They fell to 14-10-1 overall and 10-7-1 in Hockey East. In 2010, they were 5-3-2 at one point, 4-3-2 in conference play. In both seasons, they got on rolls that started in February. In '10, they lost two games after February 1st. Last year, they didn't lose any (nor did they tie any). If Bentley can use this as a model, they're right where they need to be. Niagara is peaking early, and in a one-game series, Bentley has the genetic makeup to go toe-to-toe with them. There's no way they can keep it up. Army isn't as good as their stats would indicate, and Mercyhurst is a concern but beatable. Bentley should've swept them, to be honest. Holy Cross is wildly overrated.

What I'm getting at is that Bentley will enter the second half of the year with the expectation that the first half was treading water and the second half is where they need to explode. That means Komm needs to right the ship, the defense needs to finish gelling, and the offense needs to be cranking. Gensler needs to keep up this pace, and I think he will. Grieve needs to get moving. Gladiuk is a revelation. This team is set up to make a run next year that could be epic with the right recruiting class.... but I think this year's team can get moving and do it sooner if the right chips fall the right way. But the second half of the year is the key.

It's going to be a quiet couple of weeks without hockey. Hopefully the team can regroup through exams, get some home cooking over the holidays, and come back for Umass-Lowell with some energy in their legs. Any word on if that game's going to be broadcast?
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Humanoid said:
It's going to be a quiet couple of weeks without hockey. Hopefully the team can regroup through exams, get some home cooking over the holidays, and come back for Umass-Lowell with some energy in their legs. Any word on if that game's going to be broadcast?
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No idea on a TV broadcast, but will go the Falcons - River Hawks (what is a river hawk, anyway?) game with my brother, who will be visiting from Colorado. UML beat Harvard 5-0 this past weekend, and Harvard beat us 5-0 at the end of October, so the Falcons will need "some energy in their legs," as well as a return to greater goal scoring and some stellar defense to win our first game ever against the River Hawks.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Snively65 said:
No idea on a TV broadcast, but will go the Falcons - River Hawks (what is a river hawk, anyway?) game with my brother, who will be visiting from Colorado. UML beat Harvard 5-0 this past weekend, and Harvard beat us 5-0 at the end of October, so the Falcons will need "some energy in their legs," as well as a return to greater goal scoring and some stellar defense to win our first game ever against the River Hawks.
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Will be there to cover the game. More detail later!

Here's the first half review of the AHA as it were:

http://excalibursportspage.com/2012/12/11/semester-break-blues-aha-edition/
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Good stuff, Dan.

I just looked at my Ledyard Tourney tickets (UNH - Dartmouth) and discovered that the games have been moved back two days so now conflict with Bentley at Tsongas; bummer.
 
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Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Snively65 said:
Good stuff, Dan.

I just looked at my Ledyard Tourney tickets (UNH - Dartmouth) and discovered that the games have been moved back two days so now conflict with Bentley at Tsongas; bummer.
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Yikes! Well the alma mater for you will have a great draw one way or the other up there in the Ledyard. There will be some seriously good hockey, and I'm willing to bet UNH will be playing at 4 no matter what to give Dartmouth the extra night of rest. Unless we're talking about the first day of games, in which case that's a guaranteed 7 PM start. The lesson as always? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I'll be heading to Lowell to cover the game audio-wise. It's looking like we probably won't have ppv video, but the audio side of it will be covered. Free as always. This is me crossing my fingers that UStream works for me and the laptop, which is old and getting ready to be put into pasture, holds up.
 
eXcSports said:
Yikes! Well the alma mater for you will have a great draw one way or the other up there in the Ledyard. There will be some seriously good hockey, and I'm willing to bet UNH will be playing at 4 no matter what to give Dartmouth the extra night of rest. Unless we're talking about the first day of games, in which case that's a guaranteed 7 PM start. The lesson as always? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I'll be heading to Lowell to cover the game audio-wise. It's looking like we probably won't have ppv video, but the audio side of it will be covered. Free as always. This is me crossing my fingers that UStream works for me and the laptop, which is old and getting ready to be put into pasture, holds up.
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UNH - Dartmouth @ 7 pm. So, I suppose that I could hire a helicopter to transport us to Hanover from Tsongas to see both Bentley and UNH games. I am still hoping that Umile and $carano invite the Falcons to Lake Whitt for a game next season; would love to see Gensler and Weinstein skate on the big sheet.

Will try to stream your audio in Hanover, Dan; good luck to you and our Falcons at Tsongas.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Snively65 said:
UNH - Dartmouth @ 7 pm. So, I suppose that I could hire a helicopter to transport us to Hanover from Tsongas to see both Bentley and UNH games. I am still hoping that Umile and $carano invite the Falcons to Lake Whitt for a game next season; would love to see Gensler and Weinstein skate on the big sheet.

Will try to stream your audio in Hanover, Dan; good luck to you and our Falcons at Tsongas.
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UNH is another bad season away from scheduling Bentley; unfortunatley, if they keep playing the way that they are as of late, they'll never end up with AHA teams. Western teams will be drooling at potential super matchups when the NCHC forms. That's a real bummer.

Although that actually brings up a good point. Do you think the new conferences will actually help with scheduling? I'd love to see Bentley heading out to UNO or Colorado College over break to play Air Force AND CC over the span of a week.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

eXcSports said:
Although that actually brings up a good point. Do you think the new conferences will actually help with scheduling? I'd love to see Bentley heading out to UNO or Colorado College over break to play Air Force AND CC over the span of a week.
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I don't think they will help much. Unless someone fills the hole left from UConn, teams now have a couple free slots to play OOC. The downside is that some AHA teams have a hard enough time finding a full slate of games. The biggest holes in the schedule will be in the West. I don't know how willing some of those teams are going to be in terms of scheduling AHA teams unless they think they can help the PWR. And right now, that's only a handful of teams.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

eXcSports said:
UNH is another bad season away from scheduling Bentley; unfortunatley, if they keep playing the way that they are as of late, they'll never end up with AHA teams. Western teams will be drooling at potential super matchups when the NCHC forms. That's a real bummer.
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Over the past 7 seasons, UNH has played 22 OOC games against western teams and 27 OOC games against eastern teams, so I doubt that the distribution of their OOC games will change much, regardless how the Wildcats finish this season. The Wildcats have only played one really bad season in the past 15 years and that was last year, when arguably they also played their weakest OOC schedule ever, which followed a string of 14 good seasons. UNH played Brown in 2011-2012 and 2010-2011, after Bentley beat the Brown Bears. UNH played Holy Cross in 2008-2009, which led to funniest post all-time on the USCHO Fan Forum. I still think that the Falcons - Wildcats would be a great match up at Lake Whitt, with one of Div 1's best team offenses playing against one of Div 1's best defenses (based on mid-season this year). End result could be similar to the Falcons game at Dartmouth earlier this month, but I would still like to see it.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

komey1 said:
I don't think they will help much. Unless someone fills the hole left from UConn, teams now have a couple free slots to play OOC. The downside is that some AHA teams have a hard enough time finding a full slate of games. The biggest holes in the schedule will be in the West. I don't know how willing some of those teams are going to be in terms of scheduling AHA teams unless they think they can help the PWR. And right now, that's only a handful of teams.
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Exactly. Western teams have almost no reason to schedule the historically lower-tiered teams out of AHA. I think there is a sort of credibility card at play. Just look at teams like HC and Mercyhurst- even though they have been average in recent years, both have made tournament appearances. It makes little sense for traditional powerhouse teams like CC to schedule a Bentley game. The best thing they can do is take advantage consistently of big games and make a tourney appearance... something I don't see happening under the current staff.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Pk Specialist said:
Exactly. Western teams have almost no reason to schedule the historically lower-tiered teams out of AHA. I think there is a sort of credibility card at play. Just look at teams like HC and Mercyhurst- even though they have been average in recent years, both have made tournament appearances. It makes little sense for traditional powerhouse teams like CC to schedule a Bentley game. The best thing they can do is take advantage consistently of big games and make a tourney appearance... something I don't see happening under the current staff.
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I would tend to disagree. The current coaching staff has built a solid program out of virtually nothing at a Division II school. While it's true that UMass Lowell and Merrimack are both NE-10 schools with hockey programs at the Division I level, both have robust D1 histories. Merrimack, before Hockey East, was one of the first teams to transition to Division I when the ECAC split and the new colleges formed the conference. MACK went to D1 with the intention of joining Hockey East, and thanks to a 34-win season in one of those years, made the tournament as an independent. The River Hawks joined D1 and immediately went to Hockey East, so the two schools have been bolstered by constantly being associated with the top-flight ECAC schools taht formed Hockey East. Even though Merrimack's had some very rough stretches in there, they were always going to be a top-tier D1 school, at least in terms of conference affiliation.

Without Ryan Soderquist, there's a chance Bentley hockey wouldn't even exist. It would've probably been long commuted to club status and ceased to exist without the D2 NCAA championship, or it would've existed in that false D2 NE-10 conference with Assumption, Franklin Pierce, and Stonehill. Soderquist oversaw the move up as a player to ensure Bentley was competitive, then remained as the head coach. He's ushered in the program's richest history, and he's recruited the likes of Jeff Gumaer, Dain Prewitt, Simon St. Pierre, and the immortal penalty men of Bobby Preece and others. Without the current staff, Bentley would be in a lot worse shape, possibly worse than AIC. This coaching staff has a vision for the program that I can't help but buy into. If you look at the recruiting classes in the first year after the 2009 AHA semifinals appearance, look at it through this lens:

Top senior in 2009 - Gumaer, Prewitt, Canzoneri, others.
2010 - Marc Menzione. Good player. Bad leader.
2011 - Dustin Cloutier. Rebounded from injury but not a vocal leader by any stretch. Overrated player without the support Menzione and others. Also throw into this class Erik Peterson, who wasn't exactly a world beater.
2012 - Nudy, Switzer, Kayfes, Stonacek, Bonnett - by far the best recruiting class since the class of '09
2013 - Hartung, Koudys - eh. Not the best recruiting class. Campanelli is an injury liability the last couple of years and never amounted to his freshman level potential.
2014 - Gensler. Komm. Marginsky. Breton. Fitzstephens (whos turning into a hard-working blue collar type). Rickord. Hands down the best recruiting class they've ever had.
2015 - Grieve. Weinstein. Switzer #2. Kubiak. Maher. A class not as strong as the '14, but produced some good players. Grieve could be suffering from Menzione Syndrome though where he's better because he's playing with better talent.
2016 - Gladiuk. Krause. Antoni. O'Brien. Reardon. So far this class has been solid, and it's actually setting up the program for life after Gensler.

I think if you look back from '09 to now, the coaching staff has done a great job getting the team ready for one to two solid runs. They're one more class away from getting on a Niagara-type rally.
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Humanoid said:
I would tend to disagree. The current coaching staff has built a solid program out of virtually nothing at a Division II school. While it's true that UMass Lowell and Merrimack are both NE-10 schools with hockey programs at the Division I level, both have robust D1 histories. Merrimack, before Hockey East, was one of the first teams to transition to Division I when the ECAC split and the new colleges formed the conference. MACK went to D1 with the intention of joining Hockey East, and thanks to a 34-win season in one of those years, made the tournament as an independent. The River Hawks joined D1 and immediately went to Hockey East, so the two schools have been bolstered by constantly being associated with the top-flight ECAC schools taht formed Hockey East. Even though Merrimack's had some very rough stretches in there, they were always going to be a top-tier D1 school, at least in terms of conference affiliation.

Without Ryan Soderquist, there's a chance Bentley hockey wouldn't even exist. It would've probably been long commuted to club status and ceased to exist without the D2 NCAA championship, or it would've existed in that false D2 NE-10 conference with Assumption, Franklin Pierce, and Stonehill. Soderquist oversaw the move up as a player to ensure Bentley was competitive, then remained as the head coach. He's ushered in the program's richest history, and he's recruited the likes of Jeff Gumaer, Dain Prewitt, Simon St. Pierre, and the immortal penalty men of Bobby Preece and others. Without the current staff, Bentley would be in a lot worse shape, possibly worse than AIC. This coaching staff has a vision for the program that I can't help but buy into. If you look at the recruiting classes in the first year after the 2009 AHA semifinals appearance, look at it through this lens:

Top senior in 2009 - Gumaer, Prewitt, Canzoneri, others.
2010 - Marc Menzione. Good player. Bad leader.
2011 - Dustin Cloutier. Rebounded from injury but not a vocal leader by any stretch. Overrated player without the support Menzione and others. Also throw into this class Erik Peterson, who wasn't exactly a world beater.
2012 - Nudy, Switzer, Kayfes, Stonacek, Bonnett - by far the best recruiting class since the class of '09
2013 - Hartung, Koudys - eh. Not the best recruiting class. Campanelli is an injury liability the last couple of years and never amounted to his freshman level potential.
2014 - Gensler. Komm. Marginsky. Breton. Fitzstephens (whos turning into a hard-working blue collar type). Rickord. Hands down the best recruiting class they've ever had.
2015 - Grieve. Weinstein. Switzer #2. Kubiak. Maher. A class not as strong as the '14, but produced some good players. Grieve could be suffering from Menzione Syndrome though where he's better because he's playing with better talent.
2016 - Gladiuk. Krause. Antoni. O'Brien. Reardon. So far this class has been solid, and it's actually setting up the program for life after Gensler.

I think if you look back from '09 to now, the coaching staff has done a great job getting the team ready for one to two solid runs. They're one more class away from getting on a Niagara-type rally.
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Understandable if you want to say that the program wouldn't be where it's at today without Soderquist. Yes there has been a good bit of history built over the years and to his credit he kept the program alive. I think it's foolish to contend that he is what the program needs to step up to the next level though. Bentley may have a similar story to Lowell and Merrimack but it's got a heck of a lot more potential to be great than either of those schools. The academic factor alone gives it much more credibility. If the school would play its cards right, it could be a serious threat for the ivy's in the area in terms of an all-around package for hockey recruits. Soderquist did well to bring the program out of the D-2 slums, but to say he is also the guy to bring it to the next level is questionable. Go down the list of players you named up there. Bentley has consistently had leadership issues over the years. This as a direct extension of the coach and the atmosphere he creates around the rink. The other big problem that I've noticed (and I see repeating itself) is inconsistency. You see them take down UMass (#15 at the time) in 2010 only to end the season early against Uconn. The next year it was an early exit at the hands of Sacred Heart. I hope they can finish strong this year and it looks like they may, but there have been hints of inconsistency already (9-1 win against UAH followed up by a 5-rip display at Harvard the next night)
 
Re: Bentley Hockey 2012-2013: The New Era of JAR Pride Begins

Pk Specialist said:
Understandable if you want to say that the program wouldn't be where it's at today without Soderquist. Yes there has been a good bit of history built over the years and to his credit he kept the program alive. I think it's foolish to contend that he is what the program needs to step up to the next level though. Bentley may have a similar story to Lowell and Merrimack but it's got a heck of a lot more potential to be great than either of those schools. The academic factor alone gives it much more credibility. If the school would play its cards right, it could be a serious threat for the ivy's in the area in terms of an all-around package for hockey recruits. Soderquist did well to bring the program out of the D-2 slums, but to say he is also the guy to bring it to the next level is questionable. Go down the list of players you named up there. Bentley has consistently had leadership issues over the years. This as a direct extension of the coach and the atmosphere he creates around the rink. The other big problem that I've noticed (and I see repeating itself) is inconsistency. You see them take down UMass (#15 at the time) in 2010 only to end the season early against Uconn. The next year it was an early exit at the hands of Sacred Heart. I hope they can finish strong this year and it looks like they may, but there have been hints of inconsistency already (9-1 win against UAH followed up by a 5-rip display at Harvard the next night)
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The consistency is, indeed, an issue, but it's hardly the coaches' fault. We knew heading into the season that the defense would be wildly inconsistent since they replaced three of the best Dmen in the AHA with a revolving door of freshmen. The team itself had to deal with turnover on the coaching staff with the 09 recruiting class because Mark White, the then-assistant who brought in Simon St. Pierre, Jaye Judd, and hte Canzoneri class, left for Brown. That meant that the last couple of White recruiting classes weren't great, but the first Murphy/Soderquist class was fantastic. The first full year of Murphy's recruiting brings in Gensler and those guys, with Soderquist. Murphy's a stalwart on the east coast juniors scene. And he does a great job bringing in players.

In response to the inconsistency regarding games you mention - Bentley's in the middle between two teams at the polar opposite end of the spectrum. At the time, Harvard was playing its first game of the season on home ice while ranked in the top 15. They have NHL-ready talent in Biega and arguably Fallstrom. They also benefitted from some home cooking calls from the worst refs in the country in the ECAC (a noted drawback to the league is that the officials int he ECAC are actually worse than the AHA). And the night before, Bentley played a TERRIBLE UAH team that had guys playing defense who couldn't even skate backwards. A more fair assessment of inconsistency would be the two nights against RMU, when they played like poo on the first night and lost, then had a 3-0 lead they almost coughed up on the 2nd night. UAH would probably lose to Suny-Oswego or Norwich right now.

It's a process, and while we the fans would positively LOVE to see the Falcons go 20-wins and be what Niagara currently is, that's not in the plans for this year. Based on the roster, they're one more recruiting class away from making the jump, and realistically, the coaching staff this year only has to get the team in position to finish in the top four. If they do that, they get a home second round series, which is a huge deal as we found out a year ago. The defense is very young, and it shows. The offense is seasoned and very talented, and it shows. The goaltending is inconsistent because of this, and honestly, Komm's taken a major step back this year that he hopefully works out in the second half of the season.

Bentley is exactly where they need to be, which is in position to make a run in the second half to finish in the top four. The process said last year to get out of the first round after hosting and pressure the second round. This year it's to host the second round and maybe make it to Rochester. Next year - it's all in. And for a guy like Soderquist, who's history has given him two league coach of the year awards and, over time, teams built to go to the conference championship (loss to holy cross) and semifinals (loss to Air Force) in years when the eventual conference champion was loaded give us a track record to go on.

I understand the statements of inconsistency; I just disagree with their premise.
 
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