Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

The Powerplay and the Penalty Kill were both messes this weekend. ND should have had at least one goal on the PP Friday night but Heer missed an open net. They were able to move the puck at will on the PP, if they could shoot straight, the game Friday would have been closer. They had no such issues last night. Against skilled teams up front, NU cannot handle them on either of the Special Teams.

Good game Friday night, Notre Dame was at a different level Saturday night. If anything, I thought both games were the exact same. One team dominating from start to finish, the other team there, but never really threatening.

The problem with Roy on the PP is its not Roy, its the team around him. He is the only guy who can shoot, and he is the only guy who can pass. Saucerman was a mess with the puck last night, at one point Roy could have made an easy pass to him coming out of the zone, chose to go across the ice instead. So if Roy has to carry the puck in, and set guys up, he cannot get a shot. And yeah, he has been not making the best decisions on his shot selection either.

As for the first line, might be time to drop Stephens off of it. He was invisible the entire weekend, and much of last weekend, and basically all of January. I do not know who to move up there, but its time to drop him. I know some would stay Szmatula, but lets be honest, he does not share the puck much and is not a set up other type of center. Maybe Hedges, maybe if Cody comes back you put Pimm at center with Roy and Cody.

JM has never been shy about changing lines, so I would not be surprised if come Harvard, he does.

Credit to this team, they keep getting wins even though the their talent level is more of a 9th place team then a 2nd place team. Having the best college goalie in the land really helps even things out.

They have the third best offense in Hockey East (and only .01 gpg behind Notre Dame). Hardly 9th-place type talent, at least up front. Roy only has 1 goal the last 9 games so it's not like he is lighting the world on fire, the depth is there. Szmatula leads the team in assists so he's not exactly a pug hog.

I don't think the PP suffers from lack of talent, it suffers more from a crappy scheme, same as the PK. THere's no movement, everyone just stands still on the umbrella.

 

[Huskies01]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

They have the third best offense in Hockey East (and only .01 gpg behind Notre Dame). Hardly 9th-place type talent, at least up front. Roy only has 1 goal the last 9 games so it's not like he is lighting the world on fire, the depth is there. Szmatula leads the team in assists so he's not exactly a pug hog.

I don't think the PP suffers from lack of talent, it suffers more from a crappy scheme, same as the PK. THere's no movement, everyone just stands still on the umbrella.

Look at conference only stats. Its the only fair way to measure teams since the OCC schedules are all over the place for each team. Its tells a much different story about the "talent". Scoring offense is not third best. Though our PK is!

I was thinking about this over the weekend, but since NU is going to judge JM on wins, and wins alone, this season is probably going to buy him 5 more. I do hope that he seriously takes stock and brings in someone who can straighten out the special teams, and probably more importantly coach up the defense. Having three forwards as your main coaches, I think its harmed the blue line big time, though I am not sure there is much they could do with some of the guys back there. Benning did have his best weekend in a NU uniform this weekend, hope it continues going forward, though based on the d's track record....

 

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Look at conference only stats. Its the only fair way to measure teams since the OCC schedules are all over the place for each team. Its tells a much different story about the "talent". Scoring offense is not third best. Though our PK is!

I was thinking about this over the weekend, but since NU is going to judge JM on wins, and wins alone, this season is probably going to buy him 5 more. I do hope that he seriously takes stock and brings in someone who can straighten out the special teams, and probably more importantly coach up the defense. Having three forwards as your main coaches, I think its harmed the blue line big time, though I am not sure there is much they could do with some of the guys back there. Benning did have his best weekend in a NU uniform this weekend, hope it continues going forward, though based on the d's track record....

We do have the youngest team in the nation I believe so regardless of Witt's brilliance, to be in this position with 12 freshman on the roster is impressive. I think the big issue is cleaning up in the neutral zone. Too many odd man rushes. The offense, especially once Cody is back, is fine. If they weren't so lackadaisical between the blue lines they wouldn't be trapped in their own end as often. We did outshoot UND 36-33 last night, but of course, that didn't mean ****.

 

[Thiessen'sBetter]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

This weekend is Exhibit A why SOG are overrated. NU was clearly the better team on Friday night and ND was clearly better last night. How does baseball have 87 different stats for every game and Grade A chances aren't shown on a hockey box score?

 

[Huskies01]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

We do have the youngest team in the nation I believe so regardless of Witt's brilliance, to be in this position with 12 freshman on the roster is impressive. I think the big issue is cleaning up in the neutral zone. Too many odd man rushes. The offense, especially once Cody is back, is fine. If they weren't so lackadaisical between the blue lines they wouldn't be trapped in their own end as often. We did outshoot UND 36-33 last night, but of course, that didn't mean ****.

See, again though, do not believe the hype. Youngest roster if you go by the old how many freshmen you have, but look at the AGES of the freshmen. Benning is 19, will be 20 in a few months. ZAR is 19, will be 20 this summer. Stevens is 19, will be 20 in April. Hedges is 19, will be 20 in March. Szmatula is 21 will be 22 in this summer. Those are the guys who play every game. They are not so young. Heck, Pimm is already 24! Its not like these freshmen are straight out of highschool like Adam Reid was, a true 18 year old as a freshmen. If they were not hockey players, they would probably be juniors in college. So the whole, "young team" thing they like to throw around, total BS.

As for SOG, yes, it can be overrated, but it also tells you without knowing the Grade of the shots, who has had possession of the puck. Because you are not getting shots without possession. You do not have possession you cannot score. Yes, last nights game we had pretty good possession, especially compared to Friday's night game. SOG wise, these weekend games were not telling of the story.

I would also love to see the Grade charts for the games this year. I doubt anyone would show them though. While it probably makes Witt's season look even better, the flip side would be making the defense and the scheme they use look even more pathetic.

 

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

See, again though, do not believe the hype. Youngest roster if you go by the old how many freshmen you have, but look at the AGES of the freshmen. Benning is 19, will be 20 in a few months. ZAR is 19, will be 20 this summer. Stevens is 19, will be 20 in April. Hedges is 19, will be 20 in March. Szmatula is 21 will be 22 in this summer. Those are the guys who play every game. They are not so young. Heck, Pimm is already 24! Its not like these freshmen are straight out of highschool like Adam Reid was, a true 18 year old as a freshmen. If they were not hockey players, they would probably be juniors in college. So the whole, "young team" thing they like to throw around, total BS.

As for SOG, yes, it can be overrated, but it also tells you without knowing the Grade of the shots, who has had possession of the puck. Because you are not getting shots without possession. You do not have possession you cannot score. Yes, last nights game we had pretty good possession, especially compared to Friday's night game. SOG wise, these weekend games were not telling of the story.

I would also love to see the Grade charts for the games this year. I doubt anyone would show them though. While it probably makes Witt's season look even better, the flip side would be making the defense and the scheme they use look even more pathetic.

Still a lack of experience across the board. This isn't like the USHL where the olders kids dominate on principle. I think we have a lot more true freshman down the pipeline.

 

[claver2010]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

We do have the youngest team in the nation I believe

BTW I think BC has the youngest for the 5th (?) season in a row

Great to see you guys back on track.

 

[northeastern]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Huskies01.. how do you develop optimism..
answer - you practice!..

 

[Huskies01]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Still a lack of experience across the board. This isn't like the USHL where the olders kids dominate on principle. I think we have a lot more true freshman down the pipeline.

Teams like Northeastern rarely every get true freshmen. In fact those in charge rather not have true freshmen, they like them a bit more seasoned. Teams like BC, bu, Minn, No Dak, get true freshmen.

Its been a nice season so far. Can't knock it. Its just the narrative being written is off. Its been having the best collegiate goalie in the country and an opportunistic offense. Not some massive turnaround and top of the line coaching.

 

[northeastern]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Anybody hardly gets true freshman.. if a kid wants to have a chance at consistent ice or get good/ better.. its Juniors for a season or two. I don't necessarily like it but that's the model right now. Kinda sucks.

 

[beanstalk]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Teams like Northeastern rarely every get true freshmen. In fact those in charge rather not have true freshmen, they like them a bit more seasoned. Teams like BC, bu, Minn, No Dak, get true freshmen.

Its been a nice season so far. Can't knock it. Its just the narrative being written is off. Its been having the best collegiate goalie in the country and an opportunistic offense. Not some massive turnaround and top of the line coaching.

The last paragraph above is the most insightful observation I have read on this thread this season. Throw out the box scores and the statistics. If you have watched a majority of the NU games this season, then you have seen great individual efforts resulting in goals and you have seen Clay Witt outperform the "best" goalies in the nation (including Gillies and Hellebuyck). Yes, there is the occasional game where the Huskies, as a team, outplay a good team, but most of the wins against good teams have resulted from Witt standing on his head. I'm not complaining about having a great goalie - just concerned about the coaches not making personnel and strategy adjustments because a great goalie is masking some deficiencies that need to be addressed for the team to win one or more of the three important titles down the road.

 

[Huskies of NU]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Still can't make heads or tails of this team. In any of the last four games if you watched all of the game except for the minute before each goal, you would probably pick the winner wrong every time. For some reason, good puck possession and cycling does not translate into goals for this team. I didn't get listen to the game Saturday where I was, could only watch a muted TV, but on Friday night something the commentators said really stuck out for me. They said the huskies have good team defense, not good defenders. I think that's a good way of putting it. After they said that I paid more attention to what the forwards were doing on defense. The forwards seem to do a lot more work defensively to help make up for the sub-par defense on this team, at least on Friday. Consequently we didn't end up with as many opportunities to establish pressure in the offensive zone and cycle the puck because we were backed up more.

On Saturday they opened up their play a bit, giving the forwards a bit more liberty. I'm pretty sure this had to be by design after how well they shut the Irish down the night before. The result was more offensive zone time, but less sound defensive zone play. Not sure what to make of this, because effective style of play going to vary from opponent to opponent, but if NU plays ND again, I hope they play the defensively-oriented style of Friday night.

All in all it was a pretty good weekend. I thought it was going to be a split all the way. And hey, up a spot to #10 in the rankings while holding onto #7 in the PWR.

 

[Huskies of NU]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

The stars were 1) Witt; 2) Reid; 3) McMurtry. I've actually been pretty impressed by the graciousness of the ND people. None of the Comm. Ave. attitude.

I went out for the games there 2 seasons ago, and I couldn't agree more. Everyone there, from the ND fans to their security guards, was very nice. One guard even let my friends and me go up to the balcony level to take pictures of the ice/explore a bit since we were at the game pretty early and the arena was brand new.

 

[Huskies01]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

I just thought it was interesting the game they are winning Madigan spends the whole time screaming. The game they are losing, he does nothing. At least that is how it was shown on tv, though i doubt there was an effort by NBCSports to make a point one way or another. They have no dog in the NU fight, they just want ND to look good.

 

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Any news on Cody Ferreiro's injury? Would be great to get him back in time for the stretch run after the Beanpot 1st round.

 

[retsap71]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

See, again though, do not believe the hype. Youngest roster if you go by the old how many freshmen you have, but look at the AGES of the freshmen. Benning is 19, will be 20 in a few months. ZAR is 19, will be 20 this summer. Stevens is 19, will be 20 in April. Hedges is 19, will be 20 in March. Szmatula is 21 will be 22 in this summer. Those are the guys who play every game. They are not so young. Heck, Pimm is already 24! Its not like these freshmen are straight out of highschool like Adam Reid was, a true 18 year old as a freshmen. If they were not hockey players, they would probably be juniors in college. So the whole, "young team" thing they like to throw around, total BS.

As for SOG, yes, it can be overrated, but it also tells you without knowing the Grade of the shots, who has had possession of the puck. Because you are not getting shots without possession. You do not have possession you cannot score. Yes, last nights game we had pretty good possession, especially compared to Friday's night game. SOG wise, these weekend games were not telling of the story.

I would also love to see the Grade charts for the games this year. I doubt anyone would show them though. While it probably makes Witt's season look even better, the flip side would be making the defense and the scheme they use look even more pathetic.

OK so your agrument would make sense if NU was the only team in the country that had older freshman. Take a look around, it is a rare thing for a kid to jump from HS to college hockey. Every single school outside of Ivy league has older freshman which means there upperclassmen are older. Its not just at NU. Soooo that means that Nu who is playing a ton of freshman and sophomores have a young team.

 

[northeastern]

I think the NU- Harvard gm will be much like the NU-ND gms. In that sense, last wknd was good preparation. Only question is.. which NU team shows up. I'll say NU by a goal.. no more.

Also, no one bought this up but in the first ND gm.. Witt made a save.. looked like near his shoulder/ collar bone. I wonder if there was an injury.. or it factored in the gm Saturday. He seemed to indicate some discomfort Fri night, but seemed to have shook it off by gm's end.

He could be the difference once again.

 

[northeastern]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

..also, just checked.. Harvard plays Princeton on Fri. The last time we had extended break, took us a while to get it going.

 

[Huskies01]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

OK so your agrument would make sense if NU was the only team in the country that had older freshman. Take a look around, it is a rare thing for a kid to jump from HS to college hockey. Every single school outside of Ivy league has older freshman which means there upperclassmen are older. Its not just at NU. Soooo that means that Nu who is playing a ton of freshman and sophomores have a young team.

which is why i do not buy that narrative from any team other then BC.

 

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

which is why i do not buy that narrative from any team other then BC.

Just because you're a 19 or 20 year old freshman doesn't mean you'll seamlessly translate to NCAA D1 hockey.

Granted, it's certainly easier to be 19 out of the USHL than 18 out of Mass. High School but at this point, everyone plays a year of juniors first.