Northeastern 2024-25: Last Days (Maybe) for the Old Barn

[Split-N]

Rossi's post in the 2023-24 thread is a wake-up call that puck drop on the 2024-25 season is just a week away, so it's time for a new thread.

Agree with Rossi's forecast for the new season. Defense and goaltending will be lockdown solid--among the best in the country. Firepower up front is the big question mark although the veteran nucleus of Jack Williams, Cam Lund, and Dylan Hryckowian isn't a bad place to start. If some of the freshmen and transfers can find the twine, NU should be able more than hold its own and continue to be a thorn in the sides of the Comm Ave hired hands.

As for Matthews Arena, it sadly is showing all of its 115 years with one end being artificially buttressed from the outside. Supposedly, this is the last season for the old barn before it is demolished and replaced with a new state-of-the-art facility equipped with all of the 21st Century bells and whistles. Whether or not this is really the last season is up for discussion with Jerry Keefe already hinting that the historic edifice will host at least part of the 2025-26 season. Boston politics being what it is, that may be optimistic.

Anyway, not envious of the coaching staff having to recruit into that kind of uncertainty.

 

[RossiRules]

I found last week's exhibition against a good QU a nice team win and deserving of Monday's #18 ranking. This weekend against Stonehill won't mean much. Next weekend those away games in Denver will tell us a great deal.

 

[RossiRules]

Not close . Outclassed but there isn't much you can do when you have 16 shots, fairly amazing that two actually went in. Denver is #1 for a reason and while I suspect NU is still a top 20 team, the drop off from the top 5 in the nation is more like a cliff then a hill this season.

 

[Split-N]

I didn't watch but it sounds like they tried to play rope-a-dope and wait for mistakes. Worked against BU last year but the defending national champs don't make many mistakes.

 

[OnePack]

Denver is extremely good and we were outclassed. That said there were some good things. From a score perspective it probably should have been closer. The goal off Telliers skate was a Denver pass in front of the crease that we got terribly unlucky on. And Denver’s first goal was a defensive lapse I hope the team learns from.

Whitehead looked pretty good, we had a few good stretches of possession that just didn’t convert to quality shots, and we didn’t roll over and die in the third.

I think we will win a respectable number of games this year.

 

[RossiRules]

I missed the live game as I was watching QU demolish UNH live in CT. However my ESPN plus recorded it and having watched. I am going to make my prediction of 7 to 9 wins this season. We have good, solid D, but only average goaltending and a very poor offense that will struggle to score goals in fact I think we go 4 or 5 maybe even 6 games with no goals.

 

[OnePack]

I’m not sure it’ll be that bad but maybe not much better. Low double digit wins. I was feeling pretty good about the them the first period but they just fell apart in the second. Whitehead doesn’t have a whole lot of help in front of the net. Bad rebounds, but no help.

The power play is dreadful. They need better coaching there, I’m not sure there is any. The set up for Williams is too slow and incredibly obvious. I’m hopeful some of the offense will start clicking a bit better.

 

[Ryecheers]

I missed the live game as I was watching QU demolish UNH live in CT. However my ESPN plus recorded it and having watched. I am going to make my prediction of 7 to 9 wins this season. We have good, solid D, but only average goaltending and a very poor offense that will struggle to score goals in fact I think we go 4 or 5 maybe even 6 games with no goals.

Once again We have a new season, and you reappear with no clue about what your are posting. If you knew what was going on, or showed up in person, you would have seen an aggressive, up and down game. NU had to play an older, mature high scoring team with just two freshmen D's in the lineup. Our D was a bit shorthanded, because two of our top guys, LeMay and Boltmann were out of the lineup. We also had four rookies and two transfers up front. You've been posting long enough that we know all about your record of ludicrous predictions. Perhaps your "best" was your denigration of Jim Madigan's coaching skills and your call for his replacement in his early seasons.
We need posters here who want to contribute or share their thoughts and ideas. We do not someone who whines and condemns our program after one look. Providence has a poster like that. We don't need one! If you think the team is so bad, please just go away.

 

[OnePack]

We need posters here who want to contribute or share their thoughts and ideas. We do not someone who whines and condemns our program after one look. Providence has a poster like that. We don't need one! If you think the team is so bad, please just go away.

I’ll take this as an opportunity to share my thoughts - I think we are going to see a very chippy and aggressive game from both teams tonight. If we can play some better D in front of the net I think we have a good shot at a win tonight. I think there’s a student poster with ”aggressive and classless” on it and I think that may be a fair characterization of the team this year and all in for the ride.

 

[RossiRules]

Once again We have a new season, and you reappear with no clue about what your are posting. If you knew what was going on, or showed up in person, you would have seen an aggressive, up and down game. NU had to play an older, mature high scoring team with just two freshmen D's in the lineup. Our D was a bit shorthanded, because two of our top guys, LeMay and Boltmann were out of the lineup. We also had four rookies and two transfers up front. You've been posting long enough that we know all about your record of ludicrous predictions. Perhaps your "best" was your denigration of Jim Madigan's coaching skills and your call for his replacement in his early seasons.
We need posters here who want to contribute or share their thoughts and ideas. We do not someone who whines and condemns our program after one look. Providence has a poster like that. We don't need one! If you think the team is so bad, please just go away.

The truth hurts and while I must admit they played better it was a one point weekend and I stand by prediction. So hold it for March. BU and BC are hands down far better than Maine and I don't see any points in those contests barring a miracle. So let's see if my 40 years and heck 800 live games exp. have any bearing on your view of required non critical commentary, the kind of commentary almost a prerequisite of a generation of peeps with 5th place trophy cases. Also come on, Madigan, please you think he's Jack Parker or Red heck the team hasn't won an NCAA game in over 40 years. That said, the landscape of hockey under the portal has really ruined it for coaches at a place like NU. So we just have to make the best of what we have.

 

[Split-N]

...the landscape of hockey under the portal has really ruined it for coaches at a place like NU. So we just have to make the best of what we have.

Absolutely spot-on! NIL is corrupt to its core while the portal is nothing but a meat market for aging players of mostly marginal talent. It's all about the rich getting richer, and NU isn't rich, at least in the athletics sense. In terms of recruiting, it's very much an uphill battle for mid-majors like NU and the hill is going to get even steeper for NU given all the uncertainties surrounding the arena situation.

As for the weekend, I get the posts, crossbars, and a tender who just about stood on his head. Still, 5x5 play in the attacking zone seemed listless for the most part, IMHO. Too much time on the perimeter and too many errant passes. By contrast, the injury-depleted defense seemed to more than hold its own.

Bottom line, grabbing only one point of a possible six at home is just not a good thing.

 

[navy44]

Once again We have a new season, and you reappear with no clue about what your are posting. If you knew what was going on, or showed up in person, you would have seen an aggressive, up and down game. NU had to play an older, mature high scoring team with just two freshmen D's in the lineup. Our D was a bit shorthanded, because two of our top guys, LeMay and Boltmann were out of the lineup. We also had four rookies and two transfers up front. You've been posting long enough that we know all about your record of ludicrous predictions. Perhaps your "best" was your denigration of Jim Madigan's coaching skills and your call for his replacement in his early seasons.
We need posters here who want to contribute or share their thoughts and ideas. We do not someone who whines and condemns our program after one look. Providence has a poster like that. We don't need one! If you think the team is so bad, please just go away.

I have to agree with all the posters who think this team is about a 10 win team. (To be clear, i'm not wishing for that, but it does look that way). Having made the trip to Denver, we don't match up with the top tier teams. We played a near perfect period against Denver, took a really bad penalty, it killed us, and we never got control back. There is nothing wrong with the chat board to support a team, but a little reality is good for the soul too. We've had four games to put some math in our corner for March/April, and we have basically nothing so far. The next 6 games are against PC, BC, UNH. The best our record is going to be after that stretch is 3-7-1. That is after 1/3 of the season.

WRT injuries, it is a reality, but cannot be a part of the discussion. We were missing 4 players vs MC last year, when they beat us here. But they were missing 6 players, and won on the road. And it raises the question, why are we always missing so many key players early in the year, but Maine, BC, BU, Denver are not........?

This looks very similar to Levi season 2 where we hit our stride too late to accomplish anything. Hoping i am wrong, but.......

 

[cinnamoroll]

NU played way better than the results show. Hope this isn't a trend again...

Messing with the lines seemed to spark something. First game looked better, but I think the second games' set up was great. Maybe Keefe keeps going with that lineup, and with extra chemistry, more players get hot.

Speaking of hot, the one guy staying constantly dangerous seems to be Cam Lund, continuing from his performance in Denver. Looks like he really has taken that next step that the coaching staff for the Huskies and the Sharks were pushing for this season. Announcers mentioned the improved physicality, which usually results in better scoring chances since you can get yourself the extra space. Rooting for better puck luck, because it felt like he could've had even more goals/points each night. I bet he had nightmares about that OT chance.

 

[Ryecheers]

The tie last night felt like a loss given the way we gave up the lead and failed to capitalize on numerous great looks in OT. The glaring weakness that shrieks off the stat page is the 0-14 0% Power play coupled with a mediocre ~79% PK. If we had a miserable 14% success rate, we wouldn’t have needed OT last night and might have tied UMO on Friday. When our opponents see that stat, they know they won’t have to pay for playing extra aggressively against us. Years ago, when we had a top rated PP, Jerry was hailed as its architect. He and his staff must refocus on their special teams play. The league is too strong, and well balanced, to compete effectively without contributions frrom both special teams.

 

[OnePack]

The power play has just been miserable to watch. Disappointing coming off a pretty good year last year at 25%. You’d think enough of the same pieces are there, but I guess not. Before last year it had been since 2016-2018 that I think ryecheers is referring to where they clicked in the high 20s. I’m not sure if that was coaching or natural talent from guys like gaudette and Sikura, but I agree it needs to be a big focus. We too often look clueless offensively. Good possession keeps getting wasted as we play keep away until we can’t anymore

 

[RossiRules]

Thinking a week off maybe beneficial after 4 games against the metal of college hockey especially mentally for what must be one of the only teams with jrs in the leadership roles. Onward and upward.

 

[RossiRules]

I'll take 2/3 points on the road to a very good PC team. This was NU's best effort to date in this young season.

 

[OnePack]

I'll take 2/3 points on the road to a very good PC team. This was NU's best effort to date in this young season.

Agreed! Great effort. Only bothersome piece is poitras second 5 for face masking this season. Not acceptable and cost what could have been a great opportunity.

I love finally seeing a power play goal. Hopefully that allows them to play with a bit more confidence. Pumped for tomorrow night

 

[Ryecheers]

It appeared to me that Poitras was defending/protecting himself against a PC defender who had 5” and 40 Lbs. on him. That couldn’t be easy! He spent two seasons in the USHL where fights break out in nearly every game and are more tolerated than in the NCAA.
Edit: Poitras is not in the lineup tonight. The PC D #2 Manchu is playing.

 

[RossiRules]

Met my son and daughter in law at the Whittamore Center tonight. I stand by my original prediction. This team is terrible, UNH isn't really much better but tonight NU made them look serviceable. I can't say they did anything really well aside from falling down in the offensive zone. Long ride home. As I said 7 to 9 wins might not even be achievable. They look like a prep school HS team, they are slow, sloppy and at times appear a bit lost. Not sure either team has a kid that will see a minute in the NHL. I would put this team about the talent level of the team Cronin inherited his 1st year. I can't remember a team that didn't have at least one league win by Thanksgiving.