Harvard Crimson 2024-2025 - Will our Youth be Served?

[Skate79]

Glad they won. Lots of injuries right now (I assume). Ryan Fine, Alex Gaffney, Will McDonough. Bar & MacDonald did not play against Yale, but did play against Brown so I hope those are not 2 more injuries. It's a bit scary right now and the depth is quite limited with all of those guys out.

I was wondering the same thing. Gaffney it seems has been out all season. Not sure what's going on there. Tough weekend on the road at RPI and Union even at full strength. Hoping for the best.

 

[Skate79]

Good win last night in Troy especially considering we were shorthanded missing Alex Gaffney, Ryan Fine, and Ben McDonald. Gaffney in particular has been MIA this season which is too bad. We hit the trifecta with a shortie, a power play, and an even strength goal. Two of the goals came at the end of a period which is unusual. Casey Severo's goal was huge to seal the deal. On to Union.

 

[bothman]

Watching some of the Union game and it is 1-1 at the end of 1. On the recruiting front, if you are not fairly dominant in the BCHL, NAHL, AJHL, or OJHL, you aren’t going to be more than a role player at Harvard (goalies excluded to some extent). You have to be able to play in the USHL and I suppose Major Junior as well since those pipelines are now open.

I wonder what the thinking is for a recruit to come to Harvard for juniors, particularly when they could do another year of juniors to try and work their way up the totem pole. You see this year after year.

Succeeding in the USHL is no guarantee to have success at Harvard, but having mixed results in a lower league does seem to guarantee the role player / depth player status. As we look at recruits playing in these leagues, I hope they are reflecting on this before they come to Harvard too early.

 

[bothman]

Good win last night in Troy especially considering we were shorthanded missing Alex Gaffney, Ryan Fine, and Ben McDonald. Gaffney in particular has been MIA this season which is too bad. We hit the trifecta with a shortie, a power play, and an even strength goal. Two of the goals came at the end of a period which is unusual. Casey Severo's goal was huge to seal the deal. On to Union.

Well. That sucked vs Union. I watched the first 2 periods and Harvard was the better team, but same old story. No finish. Just not enough higher end to finish in tight spaces.

the 2nd goal Harvard gave up was awful. Defenseman just watched his guy skate across the crease and bury the rebound after Charette made a nice save.

I did not see the 3rd period but looks like that was a blessing. Total wasted opportunity. But as Jerry said, “Help is on the way.”

 

[Skate79]

Watching some of the Union game and it is 1-1 at the end of 1. On the recruiting front, if you are not fairly dominant in the BCHL, NAHL, AJHL, or OJHL, you are ’t going to be more than a role player at Harvard (goalies excluded to some extent). You have to be able to play in the USHL and I suppose Major Junior as well since those pipelines are now open.

I wonder what the thinking is for a recruit to come to Harvard for juniors, particularly when they could do another year of juniors to try and work their way up the totem pole. You see this year after year.

Succeeding in the USHL is no guarantee to have success at Harvard, but having mixed results in a lower league does seem to guarantee the role player/depth player status. As we look at recruits playing in these leagues, I hope they are reflecting on this before they come to Harvard too early.

I'm wondering about the effect of the Major Juniors and the decision to allow them to play college hockey. Does this help or hurt Harvard? I have to believe the number of Harvard players in the NHL will have some potential recruits thinking about Cambridge as a destination for at least two years. Unless Admissions decides to come down on the coaching staff for recruiting a bunch of one-and-dones.

 

[Skate79]

Even though we were outplayed this weekend, we came away with a split which on this trip is fine by me. We're in 5th place in the ECAC. The two losses to Cornell hurt us in the standings as does the fact that they have two games in hand on us along with Union. So I'm thinking we may finish 7th barring some unforeseen collapse by teams in front of us or directly behind us.

Time for the team to finish strong going into the postseason. We need to ramp up our offensive production and tighten up the D. Charrette looks like he'll play a majority of the games remaining. Aku having a down year so far.