Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

[blazer777]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Just in time for their final 12 months, online ticket sales for the JAR now available.

New ceiling, heaters that work and now this, looks like Watertown is giving Bentley the middle finger for leaving the friendly confines of the JAR! Next thing you know, they'll have an executive chef in the concession stand!

 

[Snively65]

New ceiling, heaters that work and now this, looks like Watertown is giving Bentley the middle finger for leaving the friendly confines of the JAR! Next thing you know, they'll have an executive chef in the concession stand!

Watertown should be forever indebted to Bentley for getting a lot of those improvements made to the JAR.

 

[acohen527]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Pretty big weekend coming up. Home series against one of the hottest teams in Atlantic Hockey, Robert Morris. These are the last 2 games before the break, and they don't play again til Dec. 30th at UVM, who have been very good this season. I think this weekend is incredibly important for this struggling team, and a sweep would be an unbelievable confidence boost for the boys heading into the second half of the season. We'll do our best to pack the JAR, so hopefully we can encourage the boys to have a strong showing. Last time we played Robert Morris was with a very injured team in the second round of the playoffs last year, which we managed to win the first game of a best of 3 series before eventually falling in the final 2 games.

Coming into this weekend, the hottest guys on the team are the new top line of freshman Ryner Gorowsky, French and Schmidt, who accounted for 5 of the 6 goals we put up last weekend against Canisius. Gorowksy also picked up Atlantic Hockey's Rookie of the Week along the way, with 4 points on the weekend. Special teams continues to be lacking for the Falcons, as they rank 3rd to last in the nation in PP% at 8.77%. Also 45th in the country in PK%, at 80%. To be more successful, we must be better on the power play and the penalty kill, and we need to maintain control better in the offensive zone. When we manage to come into the zone with possession and with good passing, we take much better shots on goal and score a lot more often. We're also getting our shots blocked an insane amount of the time, with Canisius blocking 45 shots this past weekend. Gotta be sure to make a better effort of putting the puck on net with a clear lane, which should lead to more goals and rebound chances.

We have the talent to beat RMU, the boys just have to show up. Should be interesting to see the lines this weekend, after a bunch of mix ups from Soder against Canisius. Also good to have Alexey Solovyev back in the lineup, coming back from injury.

 

[eXcSports]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Watertown should be forever indebted to Bentley for getting a lot of those improvements made to the JAR.

For what it's worth, I had a chance to talk to Dan Brothers, the rink manager of the JAR, about a number of different things he's had to do through the years.

Per the Watertown town website, the fiscal year 2016 generated 405K in revenue for 1900 hours rented versus expenses of just over 378K. They had a capital budget improvement plan for this year to upgrade the fire alarms, install a new scoreboard, and replace fire doors.

I'm not sure about the fire alarms, but the scoreboard addition/replacement and fire doors are already all up and complete. Dan's done a great job getting all of this together. There will be future improvements with the Zamboni and a reno to the lobby.

For what it's worth, while Bentley has its own locker room and has been there for a number of years, there are only 15 college games compared to the number of high school, JV, youth, men's leagues, and state tournament games in play. The JAR will continue to be a serviceable community rink, as it has been despite our derision towards it.

As I've said many times, I respect what the JAR provided Bentley for nearly 40 years. The rink is finally getting its facelift, but it's taken a long time to get to this point. At the same time, Bentley's simply outlived the JAR and outgrown the rink's usefulness.

Dan and his crew do as good a job as they can, especially given the circumstances of being a municipal rink. I think that's something I've learned more and more as the days have gone by. That place has come a long way, but Bentley simply outgrew it.

 

[Snively65]

Pretty big weekend coming up. Home series against one of the hottest teams in Atlantic Hockey, Robert Morris. These are the last 2 games before the break, and they don't play again til Dec. 30th at UVM, who have been very good this season. I think this weekend is incredibly important for this struggling team, and a sweep would be an unbelievable confidence boost for the boys heading into the second half of the season. We'll do our best to pack the JAR, so hopefully we can encourage the boys to have a strong showing. Last time we played Robert Morris was with a very injured team in the second round of the playoffs last year, which we managed to win the first game of a best of 3 series before eventually falling in the final 2 games.

Coming into this weekend, the hottest guys on the team are the new top line of freshman Ryner Gorowsky, French and Schmidt, who accounted for 5 of the 6 goals we put up last weekend against Canisius. Gorowksy also picked up Atlantic Hockey's Rookie of the Week along the way, with 4 points on the weekend. Special teams continues to be lacking for the Falcons, as they rank 3rd to last in the nation in PP% at 8.77%. Also 45th in the country in PK%, at 80%. To be more successful, we must be better on the power play and the penalty kill, and we need to maintain control better in the offensive zone. When we manage to come into the zone with possession and with good passing, we take much better shots on goal and score a lot more often. We're also getting our shots blocked an insane amount of the time, with Canisius blocking 45 shots this past weekend. Gotta be sure to make a better effort of putting the puck on net with a clear lane, which should lead to more goals and rebound chances.

We have the talent to beat RMU, the boys just have to show up. Should be interesting to see the lines this weekend, after a bunch of mix ups from Soder against Canisius. Also good to have Alexey Solovyev back in the lineup, coming back from injury.

Great overall analysis. But, I am afraid that it is going to be tough to earn even a point in the next four games, as we did against Canisius. As long as we play well and stay healthy to set up a better second half.

 

[acohen527]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Also forgot to mention that freshman Aidan Pelino got his first start in net this past Sunday and put on a pretty good performance with 33 saves... Should be interesting to see with Soder goes with back at the JAR. I still think that net belongs to Argue, who has been very good for the majority of this season, but we'll see what Coach has in mind for RMU.

 

[Snively65]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Also forgot to mention that freshman Aidan Pelino got his first start in net this past Sunday and put on a pretty good performance with 33 saves... Should be interesting to see with Soder goes with back at the JAR. I still think that net belongs to Argue, who has been very good for the majority of this season, but we'll see what Coach has in mind for RMU.

I did not even think to check the box score to see who was in the net this past weekend. In any case, I agree, goaltending has not been the problem. I think the main problems are not putting the puck in the net, especially on the PP, and taking too many penalties, which is not a good idea given how bad our PK is. Will be interesting to see if Bentley plays better than they have since the Mercyhurst visit three weeks ago.

 

[Snively65]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Really nice 4-3 win by the Falcons tonight, and they even got a PPG. Gorowsky really makes the first line a force.

 

[acohen527]

Really nice 4-3 win by the Falcons tonight, and they even got a PPG. Gorowsky really makes the first line a force.

Huge win tonight. A lot of fun to watch as well. RMU going to come out strong tomorrow, a sweep will definitely be a tough task.

 

[Snively65]

Huge win tonight. A lot of fun to watch as well. RMU going to come out strong tomorrow, a sweep will definitely be a tough task.

i

Keys today: score at least another PPG; stay out of P Box, and keep Brady Ferguson off the scoreboard, especially on PK. Almost escaped the PK last night on 6 minors, which are too many.

 

[acohen527]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

i

Keys today: score at least another PPG; stay out of P Box, and keep Brady Ferguson off the scoreboard, especially on PK. Almost escaped the PK last night on 6 minors, which are too many.

Did pretty much the opposite of all this yesterday. Extremely inefficient on both the PP and PK, and they were taking STUPID penalties as well. Refs were not great, but still no excuse for the poor play. I don't think play was as lopsided as the score represents, but that said, neither team played very well. I'm pretty sure every RMU score yesterday came after Argue made 2-4 saves on the play, and a failure to clear the puck eventually lead to RMU getting an easy putback with Argue having no chance. They're doing a reasonably good job with defense in terms of not letting the opponent maintain possession for too long, a lot of good poke checks and blocking passing lanes to not give a lot of options. But they've just gotta be able to clear the crease when Argue makes a save and he can't control the rebound. Here's a video of Saturday's game that shows a couple of the goals like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhau8S6k2Y0

Another thing we have to be better about is dumping the puck. WAY too many times do I see guys dumping and chasing when they don't have a lot of pressure on them or they've got open passes that will allow them to maintain possession coming into the zone. Even on the POWER PLAY guys are mindlessly dumping it into the corner which almost never leads to a good offensive possession. With such a small team physically it's so difficult to win battles along the board after dumping it in. I think trying to stick handle the puck or coming into the zone with speed is a better option and could lead to a lot more opportunities to set up a well designed passing goal. That said, I think dumping and chasing is a huge part of hockey and especially college hockey with it being so fast paced, but choosing when and when not to dump the puck should be a more thoughtful process for this team.

At least we were able to pick up 1 victory before the break, and I think the break will provide a really good opportunity to reassess where this team is and create a better game plan going forward. Excited to see what kind of numbers the top line of French Schmidt and Gorowsky can put up in the second half, as they just seem to be reaching their stride.

 

[Snively65]

Did pretty much the opposite of all this yesterday. Extremely inefficient on both the PP and PK, and they were taking STUPID penalties as well. Refs were not great, but still no excuse for the poor play. I don't think play was as lopsided as the score represents, but that said, neither team played very well. I'm pretty sure every RMU score yesterday came after Argue made 2-4 saves on the play, and a failure to clear the puck eventually lead to RMU getting an easy putback with Argue having no chance. They're doing a reasonably good job with defense in terms of not letting the opponent maintain possession for too long, a lot of good poke checks and blocking passing lanes to not give a lot of options. But they've just gotta be able to clear the crease when Argue makes a save and he can't control the rebound. Here's a video of Saturday's game that shows a couple of the goals like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhau8S6k2Y0

Another thing we have to be better about is dumping the puck. WAY too many times do I see guys dumping and chasing when they don't have a lot of pressure on them or they've got open passes that will allow them to maintain possession coming into the zone. Even on the POWER PLAY guys are mindlessly dumping it into the corner which almost never leads to a good offensive possession. With such a small team physically it's so difficult to win battles along the board after dumping it in. I think trying to stick handle the puck or coming into the zone with speed is a better option and could lead to a lot more opportunities to set up a well designed passing goal. That said, I think dumping and chasing is a huge part of hockey and especially college hockey with it being so fast paced, but choosing when and when not to dump the puck should be a more thoughtful process for this team.

At least we were able to pick up 1 victory before the break, and I think the break will provide a really good opportunity to reassess where this team is and create a better game plan going forward. Excited to see what kind of numbers the top line of French Schmidt and Gorowsky can put up in the second half, as they just seem to be reaching their stride.

In complete agreement on dump and chase into the corners. I would prefer quick wrist shots from the middle, which sometimes leads to rebounds (no wind up for slap shots, which gives D too much time to block shots).

I am planning to be at UVM at the end of the month; the Catamounts are playing great hockey this year, so will be good practice for setting us up for the second half.

 

[eXcSports]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Did pretty much the opposite of all this yesterday. Extremely inefficient on both the PP and PK, and they were taking STUPID penalties as well. Refs were not great, but still no excuse for the poor play. I don't think play was as lopsided as the score represents, but that said, neither team played very well. I'm pretty sure every RMU score yesterday came after Argue made 2-4 saves on the play, and a failure to clear the puck eventually lead to RMU getting an easy putback with Argue having no chance. They're doing a reasonably good job with defense in terms of not letting the opponent maintain possession for too long, a lot of good poke checks and blocking passing lanes to not give a lot of options. But they've just gotta be able to clear the crease when Argue makes a save and he can't control the rebound. Here's a video of Saturday's game that shows a couple of the goals like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhau8S6k2Y0

Another thing we have to be better about is dumping the puck. WAY too many times do I see guys dumping and chasing when they don't have a lot of pressure on them or they've got open passes that will allow them to maintain possession coming into the zone. Even on the POWER PLAY guys are mindlessly dumping it into the corner which almost never leads to a good offensive possession. With such a small team physically it's so difficult to win battles along the board after dumping it in. I think trying to stick handle the puck or coming into the zone with speed is a better option and could lead to a lot more opportunities to set up a well designed passing goal. That said, I think dumping and chasing is a huge part of hockey and especially college hockey with it being so fast paced, but choosing when and when not to dump the puck should be a more thoughtful process for this team.

At least we were able to pick up 1 victory before the break, and I think the break will provide a really good opportunity to reassess where this team is and create a better game plan going forward. Excited to see what kind of numbers the top line of French Schmidt and Gorowsky can put up in the second half, as they just seem to be reaching their stride.

Boy the guy calling that game sure does sound handsome.

 

[eXcSports]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Jumped on with USCHO live yesterday to talk some AHC, Army, and whatnot last night. You'll also want to hear what I have to say about Bentley: http://www.uscho.com/uscho-live/201...nson-uschos-rubin-guest-on-dec-13-uscho-live/

 

[acohen527]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Jumped on with USCHO live yesterday to talk some AHC, Army, and whatnot last night. You'll also want to hear what I have to say about Bentley: http://www.uscho.com/uscho-live/201...nson-uschos-rubin-guest-on-dec-13-uscho-live/

Listened to this last night. In complete agreement with you Dan, this team has the potential to break out at any time, and hopefully that win on Friday at RMU is a good motivator. Just gotta get all the cogs in the right place to make the whole system run, and we'll be pretty tough to beat. I think a huge game in terms of momentum and setting the tone for the rest of the season will be Frozen Fenway and the series vs. Army. With Army being such a strong team this year, picking up 4 points from them will definitely be a tough task. But, if we manage to pull it off, it'll be a huge confidence boost and will hopefully be the spark to a great second half. Not to mention the contribution that a win at Fenway in that environment and with a big crowd will do for those guys. Let's hope for a fun second half.

I will also be attending at least one of the UVM games with a few others, but unfortunately will not be able to attend Frozen Fenway due to an already planned trip to Florida I'll be there in spirit!

 

[Snively65]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Listened to this last night. In complete agreement with you Dan, this team has the potential to break out at any time, and hopefully that win on Friday at RMU is a good motivator. Just gotta get all the cogs in the right place to make the whole system run, and we'll be pretty tough to beat. I think a huge game in terms of momentum and setting the tone for the rest of the season will be Frozen Fenway and the series vs. Army. With Army being such a strong team this year, picking up 4 points from them will definitely be a tough task. But, if we manage to pull it off, it'll be a huge confidence boost and will hopefully be the spark to a great second half. Not to mention the contribution that a win at Fenway in that environment and with a big crowd will do for those guys. Let's hope for a fun second half.

I will also be attending at least one of the UVM games with a few others, but unfortunately will not be able to attend Frozen Fenway due to an already planned trip to Florida I'll be there in spirit!

Will look for your group at the Gutt, 527. Likewise, I will miss Frozen Fenway this January, but no question that we have four tough games coming up. Hoping that we can channel some of that positive energy from the beginning of the season in the win and tie against UNH and NU.

 

[Snively65]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Heavy snow in the forecast for the North Country on Thursday, but I-93 and I-89 usually maintained well, so driving to UVM should be ok on Friday.

 

[acohen527]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Tough weekend. Some decent play at times but some of the worst play all season the rest of the time. Will post thoughts on my plane ride to Florida tomorrow morning

 

[Snively65]

Tough weekend. Some decent play at times but some of the worst play all season the rest of the time. Will post thoughts on my plane ride to Florida tomorrow morning

Only saw Friday's game, but that one fits your summary. I thought we played well in the first period, only outshot 16-11, and really think that Lekkas made several great saves to keep the Falcons off the scoreboard. But, French's behind the play cross-check in front of the ref that led to UVM's PPG in the first did not help. However, a continuation of stupid Falcon penalties early in the second pretty much decided the game; not much Argue could do about the four UVM PPGs, nor the two snipes that followed in the second, which really damaged his GAA and SV%. Teams that have subpar PK's should not take so many needless penalties, as I think that only one was necessary to prevent a likely UVM goal. Falcon PP coninues to flounder, now third worst in Div 1, albeit only two partial opportunities on Friday might. Good to see Pelino get some time in net for the third, and apparently he stopped over 40 shots in the 3-1 loss on Saturday night. But, other than goaltending, the Falcons have a lot to work on before conference play resumes. That said, UVM is a solid ranked team, so I am hoping that the challenges this weekend will pay dividends the rest of the season.

 

[Snively65]

Re: Bentley University Hockey 2016-2017: The (Max) French Revolution

Nice 3-1 win by Bentley over #1 Army at Frozen Fenway. Good way to begin 2017!