Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Sadly, sometimes the truth hurts.

I actually agree with you for the most part. Rawlings is woefully inconsistent. The program needs to boost expectations. Just don't come off as some genius who is the only one who notices these things.

 

[ActionJoe]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

The D played poorly for 4.5 periods over two games, so let’s face it we were lucky to get 1 point this weekend and while the offence had some good play again I must say inconsistent goaltending is the issue. You guys think about this a bit. NU is never, and I do mean never, going to have 3 lines that can compete with top teams in the nation with or without recruiting violations.

Sadly, like it or not, that's s just the way it is! This will continue to be the issue until the program is brought out of the doldrums of mediocrity and top recruits actually want to pick NU over all of the top HE, CCHA and WCHA programs.

Thus, in order to compensate for this fact you must have an absolutely top notch goalie. However, a net minder, who is on night in and night out, is quite hard to come by.

Again, as some of you clearly see the world through rose colored glasses, it’s time for your weekly reality check. Rawlings sucked again on Saturday. Good goalies can play just like Chris can and no doubt he is a good goalie. However, let me be clear great goalies can put up strings of top performances together in a row and carry a team. He is not that guy, at least not yet. I will add that not all teams need that guy, but we do, because we lack depth and talent in other facets of the game.

Although to his credit, if he were with a better team you would most be likely be looking at him as one of the top goalies in the nation, or at least perhaps the league, I mean I think his GAA ranks him 28th and but his save percentage ranks him 6th. So you do the math, he will be fine for his own personal growth and a likely Pro contact will not allude him, but in my view Northeastern Hockey and HE compitition will have likely given to him more than he has given to it. Do you understand this high level thinking here or do I need to dummy it down for you. So good for him, but I don't give a fat rat’s *** about him personally! It’s what does he bring to the team individually that can make the team win games they should otherwise loose. We need that guy. He may still be that guy still but he only has 1 or 2 season left to prove it. So again, down the stretch, he will need to be evaluated.

Again, I stress to you the goal of a top notch “National University” is not to be competing with a small liberal arts college like Merrimack or state degree mills with virtually no budget for hockey like UMASS Lowell, the goal is greater than that now. So you all need to change your thinking. However, the, “I am just glad to be here speech”, does little for the greater good at this juncture.

Also, as the final regular season games appear to mean little for our positioning now, let’s just wish them well and hope they can play gritty NU hockey and work harder than their competition and come away with a good showing and a 1st round win. It will be difficult, but a terrific milestone and a tremendous achievement all things considered, as they started slow, disappointed with 3 consecutive Atlantic Hockey looses, had some injuries and yet battled down the stretch to achieve what looks to be a .500 season, which at Thanksgiving looked to be quite a lofty goal indeed.

Oh, and my thoughts on Cronin are just this, All hearsay, because until we know exactly what was said in those e-mails and texts, we can’t weigh in as a jury or judge in favor of either Greg or the Administration. That’s the bottom line there..who knows what was contained in the body of the messages, that may be the real issue, and that information we may never know. For those complaining about the fan base, you build a winner and they will come, the rafters in the old barn will runnith over... enough said.

BLAH BLAH BLAH. NU sucks and can not compete. Why won't any one listen to me bringing down the team after every game. BLAH BLAH BLAH

"Again, I stress to you the goal of a top notch “National University” is not to be competing with a small liberal arts college like Merrimack or state degree mills with virtually no budget for hockey like UMASS Lowell, the goal is greater than that now. So you all need to change your thinking. However, the, “I am just glad to be here speech”, does little for the greater good at this juncture." -Rossi

BLAH BLAH BLAH, I still support NU and think going far will be great for the program even though the line before I just said that kind of thinking does little for the greater good. Cronin talk. BLAH BLAH BLAH


You picked the wrong season to put down Merrimack as a lowly hockey school. Putting down liberal arts colleges is kinda weird too. There's another small liberal arts college that comes to mind, Colorado College. But they've done nothing, they're just a small liberal arts college in some mountains somewhere.
Also, a weird time to put down the UMass schools on academics. You have no idea what a degree mill is do you?

 

[northeastern]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Rossi, i see the points you make & even though i do not agree with some of them.. critique is necessary & leads to healthy discussion.

Early this season, it was more than just Rawlings..

Last night it was mainly him. He is bound to have an off night. Got another big wknd coming up.. hopefully he can cheer you (and me), up a bit..

 

[RossiRules]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

BLAH BLAH BLAH. NU sucks and can not compete. Why won't any one listen to me bringing down the team after every game. BLAH BLAH BLAH

"Again, I stress to you the goal of a top notch ?National University? is not to be competing with a small liberal arts college like Merrimack or state degree mills with virtually no budget for hockey like UMASS Lowell, the goal is greater than that now. So you all need to change your thinking. However, the, ?I am just glad to be here speech?, does little for the greater good at this juncture." -Rossi

BLAH BLAH BLAH, I still support NU and think going far will be great for the program even though the line before I just said that kind of thinking does little for the greater good. Cronin talk. BLAH BLAH BLAH


You picked the wrong season to put down Merrimack as a lowly hockey school. Putting down liberal arts colleges is kinda weird too. There's another small liberal arts college that comes to mind, Colorado College. But they've done nothing, they're just a small liberal arts college in some mountains somewhere.
Also, a weird time to put down the UMass schools on academics. You have no idea what a degree mill is do you?

LOL, of course your mistaken, Merrimack will be struggling to keep a program if they don't add a woman's program and but soon and ah,"Yes" U MASS Lowell is not a 1/2 of the academic university that NU is, are you not getting that. Don't get me wrong, I am glad they had a nice season, but really who gives a ****. They were lucky to draft one good player who pretty much has carried the offence and after that line graduates they will be in the HE basement again. I mean really if HE was forming today in 2011 instead of 1984, Do you really think Merrimack would have even been in invited to join the league?


I am saying, that I hope we can someday draft against Michigan and BC and BU, schools that win national championships and also have endowments and academics to match because in the end those are the things that will draw student athletes to the programs. Crap BC graduates 90% of their players because they value a BC degree.

I simply don't consider NU in the same breath as Merrimack or minor platform state schools nor should I because I am considering the economics of the sport in my rants too, I mean in a state that needs to eliminate billions of $$ from a budget how long do you think they will continue to sponsor two state hockey programs? I see the future of the small liberal arts collage in NCAA hockey with a future of winning national championships much in the same way as I do a the old Ivy league in football. When you go to the game its says Harvard winner of 4 national championships the last one in 1929. Hockey is going through simmilar metamorphasis.

NU is going to be relevant because of its size, its academics and its growing endowments and what I am saying is the hockey program will be there to share that wealth and that rising tide because a commitment has been made by the administration and alumni to do so.

Its the future of the sport too, it's so expensive. Hockey's cost to coverage ratio is not good unless you are in one of the top teams in the country and unless those stands are packed and the kiddy is full of alumni checks, I simply don?t see a future for all the programs in the current economic landscape. It's not a question of the history of old programs or the desire of the schools to be competitive, or of their fans to want their school to be competitive. The future of this sport at the NCAA level is changing for better or worse.

UCONN intends to start to fund hockey with capital infusions from Basketball and develop that program the way it developed its football team. How is Merrimack going to compete with that kind of thinking next year Penn State is adding hockey. The level playing is changing and you better have both a commitment and cash and lots of it going forward. If CC can compete on that playing field they should be all set.

 

[slurpees]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

UCONN intends to start to fund hockey with capital infusions from Basketball and develop that program the way it developed its football team.

This is false.

 

[northeastern]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

If Merrimack is this yrs 'Cinderella' (who knows?).. so be it.
College hockey needs every program it can get. How anyone runs their show is not your call.

Rossi, i think we can discuss NU hockey without belittling other programs.

 

[ActionJoe]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Rossi Ramblings

I like how you edited for spelling but still left in some pretty hilarious mistakes.

It's great to want your team to succeed. My point was it seems like after every NU game, you post a wall of text saying how horrible this and that is and that people need to take off their glasses and look at these negatives. That's fine once and a while, but not after every game.

Also how does NU's hockey program have anything to do with the situation of UMass hockey teams? You are writing off these lower teams like they are worthless...when guess what...NU is about on that level. In a league that has BC, BU, Maine, and UNH....the rest of the schools will all have the same problems attracting players. I know you want to see NU rise above the rest, it was your point, but by making fun of programs who are going through similar struggles as NU seems a bit silly.

 

[JW Tigers]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

The level playing is changing and you better have both a commitment and cash and lots of it going forward. If CC can compete on that playing field they should be all set.

Ok, I have to pipe in here, because ActionJoe brought up a good point about Colorado College, and you basically blew off the fact that he had basis for what he said. Merrimack doesn't have the facilities that CC does, and they would also have more local competition when it comes to recruiting, so I will not speak for Merrimack and whether they can compete long term. However, at least for the time being, CC DOES compete on that playing field. They already play in a conference that includes ridiculous budgets from the likes of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Not sure if you have seen or know anything about their facilities, but CC plays in a 7000+ seat, hockey FIRST arena where they are the primary tenant. They have superb modern facilities, and hockey is THE revenue sport for their school, and CC hockey is also a big deal in the town of Colorado Springs. They are always in the top 5-8 in the nation in attendance (they average 6700 this year, and draw 6000-7000 per game every season). They are currently outdrawing 52 of the 57 other teams, including BC who seats 500 more people in their arena, is a much larger school, AND is coming off of a championship. Additionally, when thinking about that attendance figure, think about the fact that there are only 1900 students at CC, so they have little student presence at their games. They have had a couple of rough years in a row now where they haven't made the tournament, but have still been in the picture and even during these "rough" few years have been very competitive. This year, they are battling for a home ice spot in the WCHA playoffs and at the present time are also a bubble team for the NCAA tourney while fielding one of the youngest teams in the nation. So I will argue that this tiny liberal arts school can, and does, compete on "that" playing field.

 

[dmjossel]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

LOL, of course your mistaken, Merrimack will be struggling to keep a program if they don't add a woman's program and but soon

Several women's programs were added earlier this year. There is no Title IX issue at Merrimack at the moment that I am aware of. You've posted this in other threads and I asked for substantiation. Perhaps I missed the reply. Do you have a link to share?

and ah,"Yes" U MASS Lowell is not a 1/2 of the academic university that NU is, are you not getting that. Don't get me wrong, I am glad they had a nice season, but really who gives a ****. They were lucky to draft one good player who pretty much has carried the offence and after that line graduates they will be in the HE basement again. I mean really if HE was forming today in 2011 instead of 1984, Do you really think Merrimack would have even been in invited to join the league?

Given that Merrimack's team and facilities-- both athletic and otherwise-- are better now than they were in 1984... yes, and why not? Assuming you wanted a league of 10 teams, rather than 8 or 9, I think you'd have the same situation now as you did then. Would they meet all the league's requirements now? Perhaps not. Neither would Providence. A lot of the teams in the East that are in the Atlantic league wouldn't qualify either, or would involve more travel. Who are they going to take instead? Holy Cross? RIT? UConn? Not that much separated Merrimack at the time from Lowell, playing off campus at the Tully Forum. Shall we assume they aren't in this imaginary new Hockey East either? Who is? Or are you just secure in the knowledge that Northeastern would be, given that they're a non-Ivy Boston school of size and hockey heritage and a proper arena?

In any case Merrimack was Division II in 1984, so that's neither here nor there. They joined in 1990, not 1984.

I am saying, that I hope we can someday draft against Michigan and BC and BU, schools that win national championships and also have endowments and academics to match because in the end those are the things that will draw student athletes to the programs. Crap BC graduates 90% of their players because they value a BC degree.

I simply don't consider NU in the same breath as Merrimack or minor platform state schools nor should I because I am considering the economics of the sport in my rants too, I mean in a state that needs to eliminate billions of $$ from a budget how long do you think they will continue to sponsor two state hockey programs? I see the future of the small liberal arts collage in NCAA hockey with a future of winning national championships much in the same way as I do a the old Ivy league in football. When you go to the game its says Harvard winner of 4 national championships the last one in 1929. Hockey is going through simmilar metamorphasis.

Not in the same breath as Merrimack? Sounds like delusions of grandeur. Matthews is a great arena. Northeastern is my second favorite Hockey East team. The best Northeastern team ever was beaten two out of three by the best Merrimack team ever, at Matthews. Ancient history.

NU is going to be relevant because of its size, its academics and its growing endowments and what I am saying is the hockey program will be there to share that wealth and that rising tide because a commitment has been made by the administration and alumni to do so.

Why is that? Northeastern has had 10,000 plus students since I was a student. In general, endowments and alumni base grow over time, but is there something happening at Northeastern that is somehow allowing them to grow faster than other similar schools of similar size, or to gain on institutions with bigger bases and bigger endowments?

Northeastern is having a pretty good second half, and I'm looking forward to rooting for them (until we have to play them again, if that happens). Not sure exactly why it is that you feel the need to not only rip on their program, but on others as well in order to make your point.

Aside: CC is my third favorite team.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Not in the same breath as Merrimack? Sounds like delusions of grandeur. Matthews is a great arena. Northeastern is my second favorite Hockey East team. The best Northeastern team ever was beaten two out of three by the best Merrimack team ever, at Matthews. Ancient history.

The best Northeastern team ever was beaten by North Dakota in the Frozen Four. The second best was beaten by Merrimack (in a two games total goals series, not best two out of three).

 

[SkinsFan09]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Not in the same breath as Merrimack? Sounds like delusions of grandeur. Matthews is a great arena. Northeastern is my second favorite Hockey East team. The best Northeastern team ever was beaten two out of three by the best Merrimack team ever, at Matthews. Ancient history.

The best NU team ever played when Merrimack wasn't even in Hockey East and finished third in the nation after losing to eventual National Champion North Dakota.

 

[steve66]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

The D played poorly for 4.5 periods over two games, so let’s face it we were lucky to get 1 point this weekend and while the offence had some good play again I must say inconsistent goaltending is the issue. You guys think about this a bit. NU is never, and I do mean never, going to have 3 lines that can compete with top teams in the nation with or without recruiting violations.

Sadly, like it or not, that's s just the way it is! This will continue to be the issue until the program is brought out of the doldrums of mediocrity and top recruits actually want to pick NU over all of the top HE, CCHA and WCHA programs.

Thus, in order to compensate for this fact you must have an absolutely top notch goalie. However, a net minder, who is on night in and night out, is quite hard to come by.

Again, as some of you clearly see the world through rose colored glasses, it’s time for your weekly reality check. Rawlings sucked again on Saturday. Good goalies can play just like Chris can and no doubt he is a good goalie. However, let me be clear great goalies can put up strings of top performances together in a row and carry a team. He is not that guy, at least not yet. I will add that not all teams need that guy, but we do, because we lack depth and talent in other facets of the game.

Although to his credit, if he were with a better team you would most be likely be looking at him as one of the top goalies in the nation, or at least perhaps the league, I mean I think his GAA ranks him 28th and but his save percentage ranks him 6th. So you do the math, he will be fine for his own personal growth and a likely Pro contact will not allude him, but in my view Northeastern Hockey and HE compitition will have likely given to him more than he has given to it. Do you understand this high level thinking here or do I need to dummy it down for you. So good for him, but I don't give a fat rat’s *** about him personally! It’s what does he bring to the team individually that can make the team win games they should otherwise loose. We need that guy. He may still be that guy still but he only has 1 or 2 season left to prove it. So again, down the stretch, he will need to be evaluated.

Again, I stress to you the goal of a top notch “National University” is not to be competing with a small liberal arts college like Merrimack or state degree mills with virtually no budget for hockey like UMASS Lowell, the goal is greater than that now. So you all need to change your thinking. However, the, “I am just glad to be here speech”, does little for the greater good at this juncture.

Also, as the final regular season games appear to mean little for our positioning now, let’s just wish them well and hope they can play gritty NU hockey and work harder than their competition and come away with a good showing and a 1st round win. It will be difficult, but a terrific milestone and a tremendous achievement all things considered, as they started slow, disappointed with 3 consecutive Atlantic Hockey looses, had some injuries and yet battled down the stretch to achieve what looks to be a .500 season, which at Thanksgiving looked to be quite a lofty goal indeed.

Oh, and my thoughts on Cronin are just this, All hearsay, because until we know exactly what was said in those e-mails and texts, we can’t weigh in as a jury or judge in favor of either Greg or the Administration. That’s the bottom line there..who knows what was contained in the body of the messages, that may be the real issue, and that information we may never know. For those complaining about the fan base, you build a winner and they will come, the rafters in the old barn will runnith over... enough said.

From what I was told the violations were, and this is from a very good source it is a nothing violation and he expects to be back with the school next year. I am not going to say on this board what it is but I can tell you this, the NCAA needs to find something else better to do.

 

[slurpees]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

From what I was told the violations were, and this is from a very good source it is a nothing violation and he expects to be back with the school next year. I am not going to say on this board what it is but I can tell you this, the NCAA needs to find something else better to do.

This sounds about par for the course for most NCAA violations. They're almost all ridiculous and absurd. But Cam Newton was still eligible.

 

[ActionJoe]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

From what I was told the violations were, and this is from a very good source it is a nothing violation and he expects to be back with the school next year. I am not going to say on this board what it is but I can tell you this, the NCAA needs to find something else better to do.

It is not the NCAA taking any action, it is the school. The school suspended him to prevent any sort of investigation from the NCAA. Self policing goes a long way, especially at a school that has a couple violations from others sports and years. At least, that is my understanding of what is going on.

 

[slurpees]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

It is not the NCAA taking any action, it is the school. The school suspended him to prevent any sort of investigation from the NCAA. Self policing goes a long way, especially at a school that has a couple violations from others sports and years. At least, that is my understanding of what is going on.

Not the case, the suspension from NU is a precautionary measure not to prevent NCAA investigation, but to prevent further NCAA sanctions. They're on probation because of their basketball program, and are desperately trying to avoid the "lack of institutional control" tag with respect to compliance. The NCAA will investigate, NU seems to have self-reported the violations. But in suspending the coach, they are acknowledging the mistake, and showing they've taken action to prevent it from happening again, and hoping the NCAA agrees and that no further major sanctions are necessary. What gets hairy is how far back did this go, did any improperly contacted players come to NU and play in any games, etc. If that turns out to be true, the program's got some big problems up to and including forfeiture of games, and Cronin would be completely out the door in that scenario. If not, it likely won't go much farther than the current suspension and some other BS slaps on the wrist. But this suspension absolutely does not prevent the NCAA from investigating.

 

[irishfan85]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Not the case, the suspension from NU is a precautionary measure not to prevent NCAA investigation, but to prevent further NCAA sanctions. They're on probation because of their basketball program, and are desperately trying to avoid the "lack of institutional control" tag with respect to compliance. The NCAA will investigate, NU seems to have self-reported the violations. But in suspending the coach, they are acknowledging the mistake, and showing they've taken action to prevent it from happening again, and hoping the NCAA agrees and that no further major sanctions are necessary. What gets hairy is how far back did this go, did any improperly contacted players come to NU and play in any games, etc. If that turns out to be true, the program's got some big problems up to and including forfeiture of games, and Cronin would be completely out the door in that scenario. If not, it likely won't go much farther than the current suspension and some other BS slaps on the wrist. But this suspension absolutely does not prevent the NCAA from investigating.

The violations are no joke, no simple violation of a stupid NCAA rule as some have said. Rico Rossi might get his wish. That's all I'll say.

 

[slurpees]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

The violations are no joke, no simple violation of a stupid NCAA rule as some have said. Rico Rossi might get his wish. That's all I'll say.

I was merely speculating, I have no information on anything that happened there other than what's been in the papers. The NCAA is going to be looking at who knew, and when they knew, and did anyone end up playing. I must say, it's a bit interesting that NU released this info a few days after the Beanpot final. If the NCAA finds out that NU knew about this, and sat on it until after the Beanpot so he could coach in that, they're going to get a harsher sanction. Again, it all boils down to that "lack of institutional control" clause, and whether any improperly recruited players ended up coming to NU, and played. And if so, were Cronin and O'Connell the only two who knew about it? That would be hard to believe seeing that Albie is a recent hire. But again, this is 100% speculation on my part, I have no information. The fact that they're on probation is what's really going to hurt here if this is anything beyond a stupid Cronin called a few kids too many times and his assistant sent a few too many texts, all in a few isolated circumstances, and none of the recruits came to NU. Again, if it's just that, the latter, there shouldn't be much here. If it's more, and players ended up dressing for games, or someone else in the AD knew about it and sat on the info, ESPECIALLY if it's the athletic director, or they held out until after the Beanpot, there's problems, and Cronin would likely be gone.

 

[irishfan85]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Not implying the AD knew or anything about the current probation because of the basketball program. All I know is about the current hockey situation. I'm a fan of college hockey. I like to see all programs do well and especially see the programs I root for do even better. However, from all that is being said, this is not going to end nicely for the current coaching staff at NU.

 

[slurpees]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Not implying the AD knew or anything about the current probation because of the basketball program. All I know is about the current hockey situation. I'm a fan of college hockey. I like to see all programs do well and especially see the programs I root for do even better. However, from all that is being said, this is not going to end nicely for the current coaching staff at NU.

Thing is though, if this is a coaching staff-only violation, it doesn't matter for the rest of the department. If it was bad enough, the fact that they're on probation is a major player. The NCAA expects the department and its compliance office to monitor all programs and make sure they're following the rules. If one coaching staff is not, that's not just on that coaching staff, but on the athletic department, and the NCAA sanctions would be against the program AND the department, and would be more serious due to the probation. What is it that's "being said" though beyond what's been widely written about?

 

[irishfan85]

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2010-2011 Season Thread

Thing is though, if this is a coaching staff-only violation, it doesn't matter for the rest of the department. If it was bad enough, the fact that they're on probation is a major player. The NCAA expects the department and its compliance office to monitor all programs and make sure they're following the rules. If one coaching staff is not, that's not just on that coaching staff, but on the athletic department, and the NCAA sanctions would be against the program AND the department, and would be more serious due to the probation. What is it that's "being said" though beyond what's been widely written about?

I should have just said nothing, but what I'm hearing is that this is no minor problem for the coaching staff. I will leave it at that and let someone else report what happens.