I caught the last portion of the PC & MC game and the ice was even worse. Player's from both teams had trouble just carrying the puck. Stick handling was nearly impossible. Hopefully the conditions are better next weekend. Important league points on the line.Frozen Fenway - BC vs ND
-The ice conditions look terrible, regardless of the nice things the announcers are saying about the great work of the rink crew.
O'Reagan, Grzelcyk, Santini all played their respective games tonight after World Juniors. But no Gillies for PC.
Quinnipiac has a tendency to play down to their opponents, but they couldn't do that last night as Maine gave them all they could handle. The difference was Maine's compete level as they never gave up. It looked like they totally fooled the Bobcats and if not for some good goaltending could have easily gone home with the win. They hit when they had to, blocked shots when they needed to, and disrupted Q's breakout numerous times. Oullette made some huge saves that kept momentum in Maine's favor. After tying the game they were energized and relentless at times. Sure, they looked a little gassed late in the 3rd but still played their game.
There seems to be some hope in Orono. Good luck the rest of the way.
Seems to me you guys all pick a player each year to rip to shreds... if you watch the play on the turn over that led to the goal one of the Swavelys called for the puck then stumbled... costly mistake yes... deserving of constant thrashing no.... Now that Whiteheads gone and there's HUGE changes in work ethic and overall more fun to be fans let's do that.... be fans .... looking forward to frozen Fenway!Maine isn't playing passively any more, and that situation alone gives them a chance against more-talented opponents such as Quinnipiac, which is probably as good as any team in the nation this year. (And yes, I've seen Minnesota on the tube a bunch of times, too.)
I haven't seen Rutt play a disciplined game yet; he's been a selfish hot-head and a liability to Maine as often as not. I'd have no problem with Red sitting him, or even dismissing him... He's not worth the trouble, so far.
Does anyone know what ails Byron? That kid is a key player for The Bears, and the straw that stirs the drink on that impressive Freshman line. Hope he's back soon.
Seems to me you guys all pick a player each year to rip to shreds... if you watch the play on the turn over that led to the goal one of the Swavelys called for the puck then stumbled... costly mistake yes... deserving of constant thrashing no.... Now that Whiteheads gone and there's HUGE changes in work ethic and overall more fun to be fans let's do that.... be fans .... looking forward to frozen Fenway!
Obviously you are not watching closely or don't understand the game. When we stop critiquing the boyz play, we are in trouble.
Problem being that Rutt has a little too long of a history making, what I call, lazy mistakes. If you want to be successful, you absolutely have to eliminate those kind of errors. All too often in close games, that's all it takes is one mistake by the D to lose the game. Do we expect perfection? He'll no, but I'm confident he can do better.Critique .... discuss... evaluate... my point is did anyone talk about the 2nd goal? Other mistakes made throughout the game? or other players that took dumb penalties? Made mistakes? ... call it how you see it however it seems directly (sometimes brutally) at one player at a time versus looking at the play as a whole .. discuss away some of it is intelligent and relevant. The individual player attacks take away from that.
Problem being that Rutt has a little too long of a history making, what I call, lazy mistakes. If you want to be successful, you absolutely have to eliminate those kind of errors. All too often in close games, that's all it takes is one mistake by the D to lose the game. Do we expect perfection? He'll no, but I'm confident he can do better.
One thing Red has done well is dramatically reduce those mistakes by the team so those that occur stick out like sore thumbs.
Still a work in progress; some have learned faster than others.
As many of you have already noted, our team did look a bit gassed in the last period. It definitely shows against the better teams.
I'm not sure how I feel about playing Providence at the end of the year. It's at home, thank god, but I'm still a little nervous about late season fatigue.
I find it interesting that there were many comments made here about last year's team being out of shape. Now there are comments stating that the current team was "gassed" against Quinnipiac.
I don't think anybody is thinking this years team is out of shape and just not commenting on it. I think the point was that Q was a bigger, stronger...and more talented team with greater depth, and by the end of the third perod it showed the toll it took on a Maine team that gave max effort for the whole game.
The times listed on the Hockey East and UMaine websites are 3 p.m. for Lowell vs. Northeastern and 6:30 p.m. for Maine vs. BU, which I believe is unchanged. However, Sunday's start time for the BC game was officially listed as 7:30 p.m., but the game didn't start until 8:30 p.m. Granted, the Merrimack-Providence game went to OT, but I believe most of the extra time was due to stoppages for shoveling snow off the ice and otherwise maintaining the ice surface.The Patriots will host the Colts Saturday night 8:15 CBS-TV. I heard both Jan 11th FrozFenway start times will be brought back (earlier times) to allow folks to watch the football game.
Anyone here have solid info on this that they can share with us? My info is only hearsay.
Thanks.
