Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

[BobF]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Just a brutal game and exactly what I expected from Merri-hack! But Maine allowed it to happen. Friday night despite penalties the game had flow and Maine easily controlled the tempo. There was no flow what-so-ever last night and thus it was perfect Merrihack hockey.

Spencer, Joey, and Flynn need to stay out of the box at all costs tonight and concentrate on what they do best putting pucks in the net. Any after whistle scrums they need to be turning back and allow the d-men to do the pushing. Maine was the team finishing checks on Friday to. The 'hackers can not skate with Maine, but if they are allowed to slow the game down we will not be seeing the Garden once again.

Also after a perfect game Friday night clearing rebounds and blocking shots Sullivan was hung to dry on so many occasions. Forget about the coaching BS in this thread that everyone wants to get back to. I am sure every body on the staff was imploring them to turn the other cheek, but they did not do it, they were not the more desperate team last night and it showed. JOEY's first 5 could have been the worst penalty he has taken all year, he had actually drawn a penalty and we are down 3 goals and he picks up a 5! They have got to play smart tonight!

Maine must set the tempo early and force Merrihack to be the team marching to the box. And the power play needs to get a goal early as they have been struggling of late! Hope I see the team that played Friday tonight!

 

[walrus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

sweeper... did you put together another video of all the great passes from the Saturday night game?


and to the Joey haters... anyone else commit a lot of stupid penalies?

The first facemask call was absolutely stupid, MC players have enough discipline to take the first penalty and then just stand there and let Maine do what they want and Joey was more than happy to oblige.

Anyone else think Tim should have pulled the goalie way earlier than he did?

Maine is mentally soft and have been for years,

 

[walrus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Good comments by Timmy, aside from the "hats off" part...
.

Hats off is the right call, MC has a plan that allowed them to win, Did Maine?, totally outcoached, totally outplayed and Dennehy gets his players to actually do what he says.

 

[rude1979us]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Was I seeing things or at one point did Benadetto (sp?) pull on the MC coaches tie while he was leaning over talking about a penalty that had just been called?

 

[whatever]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Not a great way to play for a team that wants to go to the NCAA's, that's for sure. They'd get their keisters handed to them 9 times out of 10, playing the way they did Saturday night.

Wise up, guys. You have the talent to skate around MC and figure out the MC goalie a number of times. Playing MC's game isn't going to do it.

As if they'd listen or read these posts

Edit: it looks like it was a record of sorts, penalty-wise...

"Both teams combined to take 50 penalties, a single-game Hockey East tournament record, for a total of 184 minutes, including three game misconducts and six ten-minute misconducts. Read more: http://www.uscho.com/recaps/2012/03...with-maine-as-bly-scores-twice/#ixzz1ooQgaqir "

 

[whatever]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Was I seeing things or at one point did Benadetto (sp?) pull on the MC coaches tie while he was leaning over talking about a penalty that had just been called?

Wouldn't surprise me. They were really involved in the game.

 

[Drew S.]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Hats off is the right call, MC has a plan that allowed them to win, Did Maine?, totally outcoached, totally outplayed and Dennehy gets his players to actually do what he says.

Do you have a game plan prepared for the referees completely ******* up a game? The whole thing was a joke last night. Hopefully there are different referees for tonight's game.

 

[Hockeyman99]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

One of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. The referees took control and dictated everything about the game. I've always said that the best officials are the ones you don't notice. Some officials don't realize that the spectators pay to watch the players and not the officials. They arbitrarily called penalties while ignoring numerous obvious ones right in front of them. When they realized they made a bad call they immediately made another make up call. The game lasted almost 3 hours for crying out loud. There was no flow to the game at all.

Maine is the more skilled team and it was obvious that MC's strategy was to "dumb the game down" by getting Maine's skilled players in the box, while slashing, hooking and otherwise impeding them all over the ice every chance they had. I'm not sure when I've seen so many broken sticks from slashes. Slashing, hooking, obstruction are great defensive tactics if you can get away with it.

It was obvious that MC was hungrier and wanted the game more, they played with more desperation. Hope the boys come to play tonight like their season's on the line which it might be.

 

[KnowItAll]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

I am sure every body on the staff was imploring them to turn the other cheek, but they did not do it, t!

I honestly do not think that tim noticed that he needed to change his game plan, or what Dennehy was doing.
I have no proof, just a hunch.
if he had a clue, then Diamond, Abbott and ONeill would not have been in the box each with 14 minutes of penalties to close out the game pawn takes queen, rook AND bishop... AND checkmate all in one move

 

[KnowItAll]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

One of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. The referees took control and dictated everything about the game. I've always said that the best officials are the ones you don't notice. Some officials don't realize that the spectators pay to watch the players and not the officials. They arbitrarily called penalties while ignoring numerous obvious ones right in front of them. When they realized they made a bad call they immediately made another make up call. The game lasted almost 3 hours for crying out loud. There was no flow to the game at all.

Maine is the more skilled team and it was obvious that MC's strategy was to "dumb the game down" by getting Maine's skilled players in the box, while slashing, hooking and otherwise impeding them all over the ice every chance they had. I'm not sure when I've seen so many broken sticks from slashes. Slashing, hooking, obstruction are great defensive tactics if you can get away with it.

It was obvious that MC was hungrier and wanted the game more, they played with more desperation. Hope the boys come to play tonight like their season's on the line which it might be.

in defense of the officials, they do not write the book, if the players break the rules, then there is no guaruntee that there will be "flow to the game"...AND the game is not played for the fans.

that said, I have to agree that it was a terribly officiated game from the standpoint of the make up calls (which I do not believe in) AND the unwillingness to call 2 minors for the instigator and only one for the retaliator whenever possible.

that said... we all loved it when Shawn's teams played like that and got under everyone's skin.

 

[KnowItAll]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Do you have a game plan prepared for the referees completely ******* up a game? The whole thing was a joke last night. Hopefully there are different referees for tonight's game.

Dennehy did, that is the point... Dennehy is just knowledgable enough to know how a playoff game is going to be called... and he kept swapping penalties all night.

 

[walrus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Do you have a game plan prepared for the referees completely ******* up a game? The whole thing was a joke last night. Hopefully there are different referees for tonight's game.

Gee, does Timmay ever make an in game change, no would be your answer
Stop whining about the refs, the refs didn't make Joey be an idiot, the refs didn't make most of the team stand there and watch MC beat them to the puck, the Refs make MC want it more. You guys sound like UNH fans and that ain't a compliment

 

[Pucknut]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

The first facemask call was absolutely stupid, MC players have enough discipline to take the first penalty and then just stand there and let Maine do what they want and Joey was more than happy to oblige.

Anyone else think Tim should have pulled the goalie way earlier than he did?

Maine is mentally soft and have been for years,

Dennehy pulled Canata with 5-mins. remaining against U-Mass, ending up losing 5-1.

 

[walrus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Was I seeing things or at one point did Benadetto (sp?) pull on the MC coaches tie while he was leaning over talking about a penalty that had just been called?

That happened, can't understand it why Bennie is playing around with Dennehy but he was

 

[walrus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Dennehy pulled Canata with 5-mins. remaining against U-Mass, ending up losing 5-1.

We had a PP down 4-2,

 

[MEFANinLA]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

If MC wins tonight Maine doesn't deserve to go to the NCAAs......then the fun begins. We saw who out coached and which team out played who last nite....let's see what timmay has besides his gum, sting hair and bobble head mode!

 

[KnowItAll]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

watch the post game interviews on themackreport.com

the first and the third player interviewed seem to have a cold... the kind OHanley and Motherwell used to get.... the first guy had pupils the size of tennis balls... wow.

 

[Drew S.]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

Gee, does Timmay ever make an in game change, no would be your answer
Stop whining about the refs, the refs didn't make Joey be an idiot, the refs didn't make most of the team stand there and watch MC beat them to the puck, the Refs make MC want it more. You guys sound like UNH fans and that ain't a compliment

It wasn't the joey stuff that drove me crazy, it was all the cheap penalties that were called in the first period. Maine never got out of first gear with all the disruptions, it wasn't even hockey.

 

[rufus]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

The first facemask call was absolutely stupid, MC players have enough discipline to take the first penalty and then just stand there and let Maine do what they want and Joey was more than happy to oblige.

Anyone else think Tim should have pulled the goalie way earlier than he did?

Maine is mentally soft and have been for years,

Soft, and not mentally disciplined either. I don't know if Whitehead had them prepared for the type of game that they found themselves in, but he should have. And if he hadn't, it should have been quite clear after the first what things were gonna be like all game long, and made sure his team were ready for it, could walk away instead of retaliating all night long. He probably did.

But whether he's just not forceful enough to impose his will on the players, or they're not mentally strong enough to do this, they continued to play right into Merrimack's hands all night long.

I don't have positive hopes for tonight's game, Merrimack is in their heads now.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Maine thread (cont) - Hobey Abbott goes Dancing

There's a fifth student bus on the way from North Andover to Alfond, so get ready for some more noise. About 20% of the MC student body is now in Orono.

But those students are in for a rude awakening...when they were cleaning up last night the Alfond staff found empty beer bottles left by the Merrimack students. That makes the Alfond staff very unhappy.