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Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

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Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Split-N said:
I'll concede that an argument can be made that Madigan can't coach as well as [insert name] but the notion that the guy can't coach is now officially ludicrous.
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..he has great assistants.. ;) (okay, but i'm only just half kidding). :)
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Split-N said:
If nothing else, I think that the "Madigan can't coach" mantra that was popular on this board for awhile can finally be killed off. If my math and memory serve me right, the guy now has 30+ wins, including three at Notre Dame, one at Michigan, one at Minnesota, and two (so far) vs BU. And yes, I know that he still hasn't beaten BC or won a Beanpot.
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He has beaten BC, start of the season last year. 3-1 victory at Matthews.

One stat that I was surprised to read, comparing Madigan and Cronin- in his first three years, Cronin had 32 wins. In his first 2.5 seasons, Madigan has 32 wins, with another half season to put some distance between himself and Cronin. Not the best comparison, but still, those numbers are in Madigan's favor.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Split-N said:
If nothing else, I think that the "Madigan can't coach" mantra that was popular on this board for awhile can finally be killed off. If my math and memory serve me right, the guy now has 30+ wins, including three at Notre Dame, one at Michigan, one at Minnesota, and two (so far) vs BU. And yes, I know that he still hasn't beaten BC or won a Beanpot.

I'll concede that an argument can be made that Madigan can't coach as well as [insert name] but the notion that the guy can't coach is now officially ludicrous.
Click to expand...

We beat BC last year in the season opener.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

NU_Husky said:
He has beaten BC, start of the season last year. 3-1 victory at Matthews.

One stat that I was surprised to read, comparing Madigan and Cronin- in his first three years, Cronin had 32 wins. In his first 2.5 seasons, Madigan has 32 wins, with another half season to put some distance between himself and Cronin. Not the best comparison, but still, those numbers are in Madigan's favor.
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To be fair, Cronin inherited a what, 5-win team? To put that in perspective, even as god-awful as we were last year, we won 9 games.

As someone bullish coming into the season that we'd be a much improved team this season, I'm not surprised at all. The freshman are better than all but one of the seniors they replaced (Saponari), as many have said time and time again, Witt is better than Rawlings ever was, Roy, already one of the best in the nation, is now a sophomore and the defense, destroyed by injuries last year, added talent and is now healthy with depth.

Granted, 10-5-2, didn't think we'd have already eclipsed last year's win total but this is an unbelievably pleasant surprise for a team picked to finish dead last in HEA.

Just gotta focus on closing out games because we should have two more wins against BC/PC that we gave away.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

NU_Husky said:
One stat that I was surprised to read, comparing Madigan and Cronin- in his first three years, Cronin had 32 wins. In his first 2.5 seasons, Madigan has 32 wins, with another half season to put some distance between himself and Cronin. Not the best comparison, but still, those numbers are in Madigan's favor.
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Not to take anything away from JM, but Cronin got a bunch of Bruce Crowder level talent when he came in and made huge strides including an NCAA berth, where as JM got guys that Cronin had brought in. Day and night.....believe me.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Happy Husky Victory! said:
Not to take anything away from JM, but Cronin got a bunch of Bruce Crowder level talent when he came in and made huge strides including an NCAA berth, where as JM got guys that Cronin had brought in. Day and night.....believe me.
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Agree 100%. The guys that Cronin inherited his first year here were no where near the caliber players Madigan inherited when he took over. Also, remember that Cronin's scheduling was much more difficult than Madigan's has been thus far. Cronin's first two games were against North Dakota in Grand Forks and he never had us play Alabama Huntsville four times in two years. I think the strength of scheduling is a better explanation for Madigan's win totals surpassing that of Cronin thus far. Don't get me wrong, I do think Madigan is doing a good job, but I think anyone, except for Peter Roby probably, would still rather have Cronin at the helm at this point.

Besides that, I believed that this team would be leaps and bounds better than they were last year with the recruiting class that Madigan & Co. had coming in. I also firmly believed that Witt was more than capable of handling the starting job given how he played at Sioux Falls. I just kept wondering why two coaching staffs never gave him the chance to start.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Motorboaters said:
Agree 100%. The guys that Cronin inherited his first year here were no where near the caliber players Madigan inherited when he took over. Also, remember that Cronin's scheduling was much more difficult than Madigan's has been thus far. Cronin's first two games were against North Dakota in Grand Forks and he never had us play Alabama Huntsville four times in two years. I think the strength of scheduling is a better explanation for Madigan's win totals surpassing that of Cronin thus far. Don't get me wrong, I do think Madigan is doing a good job, but I think anyone, except for Peter Roby probably, would still rather have Cronin at the helm at this point.

Besides that, I believed that this team would be leaps and bounds better than they were last year with the recruiting class that Madigan & Co. had coming in. I also firmly believed that Witt was more than capable of handling the starting job given how he played at Sioux Falls. I just kept wondering why two coaching staffs never gave him the chance to start.
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We've beaten Notre Dame three times (on the road), Michigan and Minnesota under Madigan so let's not act like we have only beaten OOC cupcakes.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

SkinsFan09 said:
We've beaten Notre Dame three times (on the road), Michigan and Minnesota under Madigan so let's not act like we have only beaten OOC cupcakes.
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I'm the first to give credit where credit is due. That part of their schedule has indeed been formidable, but how many times did Cronin schedule Alabama Huntsville or Holy Cross during his tenure? Nothing against those teams, but even Jim Madigan commented earlier this season that he purposely scheduled those match ups to build confidence inside the locker room. It appears to have worked so far.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Motorboaters said:
I'm the first to give credit where credit is due. That part of their schedule has indeed been formidable, but how many times did Cronin schedule Alabama Huntsville or Holy Cross during his tenure? Nothing against those teams, but even Jim Madigan commented earlier this season that he purposely scheduled those match ups to build confidence inside the locker room. It appears to have worked so far.
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IIRC, Cronin scheduled home games with a then-weak RPI, followed by back-to-back-to back games vs Bentley, Holy Cross, and Niagara early in the 2010-11 season for the same reason JM scheduled UAH and HC. It backfired. Badly. All that came of it was a tie vs RPI. To this day, I'm convinced that the three losses to the Atlantic teams marked the start of the downward spiral that didn't reverse until recent weeks.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

We may or may not lose upperclassmen, you know how these things go. I'm just glad Szmatula came.. (nice, JM).. and has enjoyed his coll experience thus far instead of sitting out a yr waiting to play college. Also, Roy has enjoyed his college experience thus far.. (Beanpot included) and gotten better. That's all you can ask for. D1's a great experience.. kids get what they put into it. We've got a few good kids. Go Huskies :)
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

Does anyone know if the Dartmouth tournament games will be streamed? I assume they'll have a radio call at the very least...

I'm excited to see us play Air Force. Have a world of respect for the Service Academies, my family used to be very close to a number of cadets and officers at West Point. SA sporting events are always a treat.
 
Re: Northeastern Hockey 2013-14 Season

NU_Husky said:
...I'm excited to see us play Air Force. Have a world of respect for the Service Academies, my family used to be very close to a number of cadets and officers at West Point. SA sporting events are always a treat.
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Right you are. Even though life at the academies isn't as tough as it once was, it still takes a special kind of guy to be able to succeed in that environment while simultaneously meeting the physical and mental demands that go with being a D1 hockey player. I wouldn't mind if NU played Army and/or AF more often.
 
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