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Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

So I understand that Coaches Jackson and Pooley went back to the Soo to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NC team, Jackson's first as a head coach. They coached the alumni game, among other festivities.

When I first learned of that I thought, "Hey. What the hell? You work here. For my team. Why are you going back there and 'coaching?'"

I thought it was akin to taking your new wife to your ex-wife's parents' anniversary party...or something.

Then it hit me. I'm jealous.

It's actually more like taking your new wife to the graduation party of the niece of your wife who passed away...or something.

Of course they would partake of that celebration. Of course they should partake. That's definitely one of the many things I love about college hockey--the close-knittedness of teams. Especially good, winning teams.

I am jealous. I want that for my team. I can't wait for the time when Coach Jackson partakes of my team's 20th anniversary celebration of their national championship. What season will be the front end of that 2-decade countdown? Will it be this one?
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

So to recap picks thus far for captains and breakout years:

NDF27, TFM and I all agree that Anders Lee should be the sole C. We all also agree that Sam Calabrese should wear an A. Then, dissension reigns. NDF27 wants Nick Larson as the other A, TFM wants Bryan Rust to wear the 2nd A, while I think Stephen Johns should get the 2nd A. I also have Steven Summerhays as a possible 3rd A or an alternate to Johns.

TFM thinks David Gerths will have the breakout year. My pick is Jeff Costello. He's averaged 15 points in his first 2 seasons. I look for him to be pushing 25-28 points this season (more on that later).

Now for the choice for impactful freshman... The obvious choice would be Mario Lucia; however, my pick is Steven Fogarty. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he morphs into Christian Hanson.

Anyone else want to chime in with picks for leaders, scorers or our latest category, great newbies?

75 days til the Irish take the ice in competition.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

Jeff_Jackson_for_Pres. said:
So to recap picks thus far for captains and breakout years:

NDF27, TFM and I all agree that Anders Lee should be the sole C. We all also agree that Sam Calabrese should wear an A. Then, dissension reigns. NDF27 wants Nick Larson as the other A, TFM wants Bryan Rust to wear the 2nd A, while I think Stephen Johns should get the 2nd A. I also have Steven Summerhays as a possible 3rd A or an alternate to Johns.

TFM thinks David Gerths will have the breakout year. My pick is Jeff Costello. He's averaged 15 points in his first 2 seasons. I look for him to be pushing 25-28 points this season (more on that later).

Now for the choice for impactful freshman... The obvious choice would be Mario Lucia; however, my pick is Steven Fogarty. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he morphs into Christian Hanson.

Anyone else want to chime in with picks for leaders, scorers or our latest category, great newbies?

75 days til the Irish take the ice in competition.
Click to expand...

I agree about Steven Fogerty. I watched him play with his BC team a couple of times last year and he's a real stand-out. Hopefully he and Mario Lucia can have an immediate impact. As for breakout year i'm thinking Jeff Costello will have a great year. Last year was more of a fluke because he got injured early on and that took him off his game, IMO. Another break out season candidate is Austin Wuthrich, who I would like to see play with the top line of Lee and Tynan. But I would love to see someone completely unexpected just dominate this season. If one player should step up in a big-time way like that it would give this team a lot of offensive depth.

TJ Tynan might be another candidate for the A.
 
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Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

C - Lee
A - Calabrese
A - Tynan or Rust, whichever has the better voice in the lockerroom. Johns and Larson are too volatile, in my view. Tynan at least backs up his fiery nature with a high level of on-ice production.

Breakout - I'm guessing Wuthrich isn't eligible, having been 5th in the team in points last season, so I'll go with Costello as well.

Newbie - Lucia and Fogarty are the two highly touted ones. I can't in good conscience pick anyone else. I'll take Lucia for his higher ceiling.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

As Captain I think we're all going to assume Anders Lee. It would be a bit of a surprise if someone else wears the "C", what with him being the only returning player who wore a letter last season and Jackson already having enough confidence in him to bestow official leadership on him as an underclassman. I think Calabrese is also the right choice for an alternate. Jackson has been singing his praises for a couple of seasons now and has really been impressed with his attitude and perseverance. As for what I'm assuming will be another alternate, I haven't a clue. No one else stands out to me in particular as a candidate, although quite a few players stand out as not being likely choices.

Is Thomas DiPauli still coming this fall? If so, I'll go with him, rather than Fogarty or Lucia, who come into the fall as the players most are looking at as the impactful freshmen. DiPauli may be a little under the radar and if he's ready for the NCAA and is here and guys can finish off plays he starts, he'll have a productive freshman season. I think the other two I mentioned are likely to score more, but DiPauli seems like a bit of a wild-card pick and maybe will deliver some unexpected results.

Like the second alternate, I wonder about breakout seasons. I know the team is going to need something from a couple of the freshmen, and in addition to the usual suspects producing (consistently during the season this time out) we will need someone to have that "career" season. Bryan Rust started out last season looking like he was going to have a breakout kind of year. 5 goals by the Lake State series but he finished with just those 5. Yet in those five though were the goal in a 1-1 tie at Northern, the game tying goal late in the game at Western, and of course the game winning goal in the dedication game against BC here. He knows how to score some big ones. Imagine that in a season with 12-15 goals. Rust can be the breakout player this team needs, so I'll go with him.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

A final tweaking as the "official" schedule was finally released (the away BG series is split up):

10/7 <18 team exhibition
10/12-13 IB tourney
10/18-19 UMD (Th-F due to football)
10/26-27 @ NMU
11/2-4 WMU (F-Sun due to football)
11/9 @ BC
11/15-16 @ Michigan (Th-F due to football)
11/23-24 NoDak
11/30-12/1 LSSU
12/7-8 MSU
12/15 @ BG
1/5 @ Minnesota
1/11-12 @ MSU
1/15 @ BG (Tu game)
1/18-19 UA(F)
1/25-26 FSU
2/1-2 @ OSU
2/8-9 Michigan
2/15-2/17 @ Miami (F-Su games)
2/22-23 @ WMU
3/1-2 BG

Season ticket renewals are due this Wednesday.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

The combination of summer break and the temps being way too high to survive outside for more than 3 minutes means I've been stuck inside with lots of time on my hands. So I started looking at who were the most useful players--scoring-wise--last season. When considering participation in GWG's, shot percentage (meaning accuracy and conservation of energy), how the team fares when X scores a goal and/or how the team fares when X registers a point, I saw a few surprising stats.

When taking a part in GWG's, T.J. Tynan shared the lead on the team with points on 4 game winners, but his were made up of 1 game-winning goal and 3 assists on the game-winners. Jeff Costello (my candidate for breakout player) is his partner for the lead by playing a role in 4 game-winners. However, he led the team with 3 game-winning goals. His 4th point was an assist. Sam Calabrese (1A, 2G), Stephen Johns (1A, 2G) and Peter Schneider (3A) are the next in line in this category. Costello and Schneider are most notable because unlike Tynan, Calabrese and Johns (who played in either all 40 games or missed only one last season), Costello and Schneider played in only 28 and 23 games, respectively, and their combined parts in 7 game-winners were spread over 6 games. Specifically, one-third of the league wins were tied to their efforts and 37% of all wins were as a result of their timeliness. Here's to a healthy Jeff Costello and Peter Schneider being dressed in more games.

As for shot percentage, it should come as no surprise that Anders Lee led the team (by a wide, wide margin) in shots taken, but that didn't impress me. He hit a lot of posts and expended a lot of energy for nearly naught. Those who made the most of their shots include Tynan, who had the most accurate shot. He registered a point for every 1.63 shots he took. Imagine his point total if he took more than 67 shots! Second on the team for accuracy was Calabrese, registering a point for every 2.44 shots taken. Robbie Russo follows with a point every 3.33 shots. Austin Wuthrich rounds out the accurate shots with a point for every 3.53 shots. Those 4 combined took 216 shots all season, while Lee took 142 himself. The flipside of this is David Gerths who registered a point every 12.75 shots. And he played as often as Wuthrich.

The team fared best when Costello scored a goal as the Irish were undefeated (5-0) when he scored (remember his game-winners...). Beyond him, the other significant scorers for victory included Tynan, Lee (the team was 9-4 when either scored a goal) and surprisingly Nick Larson (4-1). Oddly enough, the team was below .500 when Calabrese and/or Wuthrich scored a goal.

Notre Dame's winning percentage was highest when Shayne Taker registered a point. The Irish won 85.7% of the time when he was on the score sheet. The team winning percentage was .800 when Schneider had a point, .700 when Johns had a point, .633 when Wuthrich found his name in the box score (obviously assists work better for him than goals!) and .625 when Lee heard his name over the PA. It also should be obvious that if Tynan and/or Lee didn't register a point, the team sucked last season, losing two-thirds of the time when they were kept off the score sheet.

I also looked at goals per period. It used to be that ND would start strong and finish stronger. Last season they gave up 42 first period goals, but scored only 25 in the first. That was the mark of a team, from the net on out, that was not ready for the puck to drop. I suspect that won't happen this season.

The first official team practice is in 58 days. The first competition is in 59 days. The first competition that counts towards the season is in 64 days. Yep. Getting giddy.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

Good afternoon,

I don't have a ton to add to this thread, just wanted to introduce myself. Long-time hockey guy (played through high school, coached youth and high school, have Hawks tickets) and Notre Dame guy (the typical Chicago catholic upbringing story, have football tickets, etc). Through the wonders of DirecTV's sports package, I've slowly gotten more exposure and interest in college hockey the last few years. While I've always attended a few games a year at the Joyce, having an actual nice arena (I actually love the standing room only spots) caused me to write the check and get season tickets (though I'll miss a ton of games) this year. With that, I'll obviously be playing attention to college hockey even more, and looking forward to chatting with/learning from you guys.

Take care, enjoy the rest of your summer, and looking forward to the fall where we have games to chat about!

Danny
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

Danny 27 said:
Good afternoon,

I don't have a ton to add to this thread, just wanted to introduce myself. Long-time hockey guy (played through high school, coached youth and high school, have Hawks tickets) and Notre Dame guy (the typical Chicago catholic upbringing story, have football tickets, etc). Through the wonders of DirecTV's sports package, I've slowly gotten more exposure and interest in college hockey the last few years. While I've always attended a few games a year at the Joyce, having an actual nice arena (I actually love the standing room only spots) caused me to write the check and get season tickets (though I'll miss a ton of games) this year. With that, I'll obviously be playing attention to college hockey even more, and looking forward to chatting with/learning from you guys.

Take care, enjoy the rest of your summer, and looking forward to the fall where we have games to chat about!

Danny
Click to expand...

As the Irish are wont to say, "Failte!" And as long as you love Notre Dame hockey more than ND football, you are always welcome here. Aw, hell, even if you're just a casual fan going through a phase we'll take you! Check out NDNation's Jackson's Rink for fans always in need of a few tickets if you have some to pass along.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

You're sending a newbie toward NDNation without warning him to stay far far away from the football sections? Why do you hate him? :p
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

bronconick said:
You're sending a newbie toward NDNation without warning him to stay far far away from the football sections? Why do you hate him? :p
Click to expand...

I think JJFP just wants to ensure that he favors hockey over football. :p
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

bronconick said:
You're sending a newbie toward NDNation without warning him to stay far far away from the football sections? Why do you hate him? :p
Click to expand...

The NDNation football boards make all of the ND fans on USCHO look like the biggest bunch of optimists in the world, even if we don't always act that way here. I'd be scared to post there for fear of what would happen if I accidentally said something nice about Brian Kelly or Jack Swarbrick :eek:.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

IrishHockeyFan said:
The NDNation football boards make all of the ND fans on USCHO look like the biggest bunch of optimists in the world, even if we don't always act that way here. I'd be scared to post there for fear of what would happen if I accidentally said something nice about Brian Kelly or Jack Swarbrick :eek:.
Click to expand...

Aw, I'd love to see Across from the football board post on the hockey board. We don't know what we've been missing. He'd had Jeff Jackson fired four times over last season.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

ND1 said:
Aw, I'd love to see Across from the football board post on the hockey board. We don't know what we've been missing. He'd had Jeff Jackson fired four times over last season.
Click to expand...

There's comedy, there's high comedy, and there's what ensues when folks like Across invade the basketball board and get slapped down by El_Kabong for doing the same schtick he (and the other ops) get away with on the football side of things.

There's a lot of value at NDN when you tune out the nuttiness over football.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

As the school year nears, I'm getting excited for my first trip to South Bend. We've got our hotel and flights booked, now just need to secure tickets.

I see the onsale date is Sept 12 for hockey single game tix. It looks like you've had a tremendous season ticket response, with the whole lower bowl sold out. Do they set some aside for single game sales? Will I be able to purchase some that morning online? Personally, I like standing room but I'll have my Dad with and I don't think he'll be able to stand all game two nights in a row so we'd like some actual seats.

And yes, we plan on going to the football game on Saturday vs BYU as we've never done that either. Tickets are somewhat spendy on StubHub but not too bad. Is that the best option for tickets at this point?

Thanks for the help. Looking forward to the games - really interested in watching the MN kids on your team too!
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

beersong said:
And yes, we plan on going to the football game on Saturday vs BYU as we've never done that either. Tickets are somewhat spendy on StubHub but not too bad. Is that the best option for tickets at this point?
Click to expand...

There are scalpers *everywhere* on Saturdays in South Bend. For BYU, picking up a ticket around face value shouldn't be too hard, unless Notre Dame is miraculously 6-0 heading into that game.
 
Re: Irish hockey: Straight Inta the Off-Season

beersong said:
As the school year nears, I'm getting excited for my first trip to South Bend. We've got our hotel and flights booked, now just need to secure tickets.

I see the onsale date is Sept 12 for hockey single game tix. It looks like you've had a tremendous season ticket response, with the whole lower bowl sold out. Do they set some aside for single game sales? Will I be able to purchase some that morning online? Personally, I like standing room but I'll have my Dad with and I don't think he'll be able to stand all game two nights in a row so we'd like some actual seats.

And yes, we plan on going to the football game on Saturday vs BYU as we've never done that either. Tickets are somewhat spendy on StubHub but not too bad. Is that the best option for tickets at this point?

Thanks for the help. Looking forward to the games - really interested in watching the MN kids on your team too!
Click to expand...
Returned tickets for football go on sale to the public from the box office a few days prior to the game (Tuesday???). There are still single tickets available for the BYU game though. You likely will not have to go the StubHub or scalper route at all.

You can also buy returned tickets for hockey games; however, because the UMD series is a Thursday-Friday series, I doubt it will sell out, so you should be able to get seats when they go on sale in a month. I don't see you having any issues whatsoever getting seats for this series. There are several season ticket holders I know of who have seats, but whenever possible stand in the SRO sections for the views (they get kicked out of SRO and sent back to their seats if the game is sold out as SRO actually has assigned "seats"), so you may even be able to get SRO, but use their seats.

As for everyone else...I'm going to ask Pat Regan if he and his clan and/or the Van Guilders and Whites will be in attendance (since Pat is a UMD alum and former player) as I want to return his Frozen Four favor of the pick-up hockey game. Anyone else interested?
 
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