Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

I'm coming over in the morning. I should have done so today when I got out of the Subaru dealership in under an hour, but it slipped my mind.

GFM

 

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

Are the assistant coaches taking turns on the recruiting trail ?

 

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Are the assistant coaches taking turns on the recruiting trail ?

Mike Warde is the primary recruiter so he does the most traveling to watch and talk to prospects but all are involved in the process...

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Mike Warde is the primary recruiter so he does the most traveling to watch and talk to prospects but all are involved in the process...

Indeed. They typically try to only have one of them gone at a time. I think Mike told me he was going out west this week. I know Gavin has also gone out on the trail and met up with the team at game sites at least once this season. I know UAH, like most schools, really try to take advantage of off weekends to do their recruiting, but an independent schedule makes that tough as the schedule ends up front-loaded to allow for conference play.

GFM

 

[UAHStatman]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Do you think he'd like to ride the jump seat with daddy?

He might, if it's not too loud...but I figure it couldn't be any louder than the speaker system...

 

[UAHStatman]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Observation: First let me say that SOG's are not nearly as important as goals scored and that a team that only takes high quality SOG's will usually have fewer SOG's than teams that shoot at anything from anywhere on the ice. With that said, SOG's can be used as an indicator of how a team plays in the offensive zone and generally. As a total, we take 40% fewer SOG's than our combined opponents 258 vs 429. Combining goals per shots leads to an interesting stat: We score 1 goal for every 10.75 shots we take. Our opponents score 1 goal for every 8.41 shots taken. Comparing goals and shots by percentage gives us this stat: Our 40% fewer shots taken gives us 53% fewer goals scored.

I was wondering if the SOG differential could be partly attributed to how often the Chargers are short-handed compared to opponents, but then I found that UAH has had 83 penalties compared to 82 for the opponents, resulting in the opponents having 3 more power plays -- about a wash. Still, I wonder just how much of a typical game the Chargers are actually IN the offensive zone, let alone how well they play in it.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

even strength uah tends to end up with 3 guys below the goal line too many times resulting in easier transitions for the opp...harder for def to step up at blue line when facing odd man rush situations...also tend to look for "perfect" shot instead of getting shots toward net, creating traffic in front and getting rebound/"ugly" goals - something their opponents have been doing...heard they were better about this vs. pc, but area that needs work...

That's absolutely a fair criticism, especially guys playing behind the net a bit too much for my taste. Transition is where the guys are getting slaughtered right now.

GFM

 

[jyoung]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Well the ice is once again covered at the VBC so the Boys in Blue will be practicing at the Iceplex for what looks to be the rest of this month. If any local fans want to see the boys practice you can catch them most mornings at the Iceplex. They usually start at 8 am and usually don't practice on Mondays. Come on out and watch the drills and show a little support for your Chargers. It can be an interesting experience...

My wife and I wouldn't mind joining you and Geof some morning for a view. Might be a nice chance to improve our knowledge of play development.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

I didn't make it this morning. I'm guessing maybe next week, or this weekend if they're skating then.

GFM

 

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

With only two juniors on the roster it looks like UAH will be more busy in their recruiting efforts this year (six seniors), as opposed to next. 4 forwards graduating, 2 defencemen. One forward recruit for next year so far. Will the team look at increasing roster size as well? Only 13 forwards and 8 d-men this year.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

They're out there after guys, to be sure. Depth was hurt a bit by a couple guys not enrolling and Campbell's eligibility issue.

GFM

 

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

He might, if it's not too loud...but I figure it couldn't be any louder than the speaker system...

It's not loud at all. It does get a little boring for adults after 3 or 4 laps but kids seem to really like the ride. If you're intersted send me an email with your names and I'll see what I can do... I'm assuming you're at all the home games. If not, include a list of the home games you'll be able to make. (Just click on my name to send me an email)

 

[Douglas]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

...even strength uah tends to end up with 3 guys below the goal line too many times resulting in easier transitions for the opp...harder for def to step up at blue line when facing odd man rush situations...also tend to look for "perfect" shot instead of getting shots toward net, creating traffic in front and getting rebound/"ugly" goals - something their opponents have been doing...heard they were better about this vs. pc, but area that needs work...

Too true and astute observations. I've also seen way to many failed passes when a shot would have been a better choice for the circumstance. Three guys below the goal line also leaves no one to outlet a pass for a possible shot as they seem to rarely use their defensemen to spread out the opp defense. Something OSU executed to near perfection. It seemed like everytime I saw OSU digging in one of our corners with three Chargers on them the puck would somehow get out in front of the net where the third OSU forward was waiting with a high quality shot attempt. They scored several goals that way.

Another problem is what I call "getting behind" on the defense. Like when they start scrambling and chasing the puck without a set way to regroup the defense. It sometimes looks like we're on the PK but we're even strength. I start cringing when I see that because the opp lights the lamp all too often. I guess you can only teach so much in a short time, and time and experiece are what's needed most but in short supply. Should be killer when all these frosh are Jr's and Sr's...

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Too true and astute observations. I've also seen way to many failed passes when a shot would have been a better choice for the circumstance. Three guys below the goal line also leaves no one to outlet a pass for a possible shot as they seem to rarely use their defensemen to spread out the opp defense. Something OSU executed to near perfection. It seemed like everytime I saw OSU digging in one of our corners with three Chargers on them the puck would somehow get out in front of the net where the third OSU forward was waiting with a high quality shot attempt. They scored several goals that way.

Another problem is what I call "getting behind" on the defense. Like when they start scrambling and chasing the puck without a set way to regroup the defense. It sometimes looks like we're on the PK but we're even strength. I start cringing when I see that because the opp lights the lamp all too often. I guess you can only teach so much in a short time, and time and experiece are what's needed most but in short supply. Should be killer when all these frosh are Jr's and Sr's...

It's easy to blame a lot of this on being young, but there are eight upperclassmen who should know better. Lou isn't doing anything drastically different than Danton did.

GFM

 

[Back check]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Sounds like JP1 has some contacts in the college hockey network. JP1 - have you heard anything about possible UAH recruits?

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Sounds like JP1 has some contacts in the college hockey network. JP1 - have you heard anything about possible UAH recruits?

Anyone who has contacts worth talking about is usually restricted from doing so. NCAA violations and all that.

GFM <-- knew about Lasse Uusivirta coming to UAH in March, along with a lot of other folks.

 

[ChargerBlue]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Sounds like JP1 has some contacts in the college hockey network. JP1 - have you heard anything about possible UAH recruits?

If you want to keep up with the latest recruiting information go to this site....

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AoPLTHefMmmTdEw4QWgxUjdKLTB0MEk3VTFLdlBOaHc&gid=1

Coaches can't talk specifically about any recruit until they're signed. That's across the board in the NCAA.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

If you want to keep up with the latest recruiting information go to this site....

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AoPLTHefMmmTdEw4QWgxUjdKLTB0MEk3VTFLdlBOaHc&gid=1

Coaches can't talk specifically about any recruit until they're signed. That's across the board in the NCAA.

Heisenberg has good sources, but typically he's just collating the reports of players self-declaring. Self-declaring doesn't always equal signing a national letter of intent, though.

GFM

 

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

Heisenberg has good sources, but typically he's just collating the reports of players self-declaring. Self-declaring doesn't always equal signing a national letter of intent, though.

GFM

True, but the nice thing about college hockey is that once a kid has made his verbal, most (I stress MOST) coaches consider the kid off limits. But until that NLI is signed, things can change.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: Declaring Our Independence: UAH 2010-11, Part the First

True, but the nice thing about college hockey is that once a kid has made his verbal, most (I stress MOST) coaches consider the kid off limits. But until that NLI is signed, things can change.

Indeed, it's really good that the gentlemen's agreement about poaching is largely honored.

GFM