Re: Northeastern Huskies 2011-2012 Season Thread: Year of the Mad Dog
..no kidding. I hope not. Least not our team..
'Mack looks like they've started the season right where they left off.. playing really well right now.
Still, we can't ignore then 700 lb Gorilla in the room
(yes, that's you guys)!
Merrimack has played two games so far. They won a nice one up in Maine, and then had their annual beat down of Army, the night after Army played a home game and had to travel here to play the next day. (I am guessing that Merrimack is unAmerican institution for how they treat one of our service schools every year)
Are they playing well? No idea. To small of a sample size to tell. We do know that they will look to turtle, and they do a great job of it. They will look to work the puck down low and cycle for offense. We know they will block a ton of shots. We know that they are missing their offensive catalyst from the previous few seasons, but bring back some forwards with some pop.
All the games last year were one goal games. We won at their place they won both at ours, one in OT. I like the matchup, size wise we matchup with them, and outside of a guy or two, can play along the boards with them. We handled their stretch pass pretty well, and it comes down to if NU can get enough open looks for good shots. Their defense is very disciplined, does not jump in the play much so getting odd man rushes are hard to come by, if we get them, we need to score on them.
They need to find offense more then we do at this point, 5 goals in 2 games is nice, but really with Army on the schedule I would have expected more then a 3-2 win, so I am tipping towards NU finding a way to get some points up in North Andover Friday night. I think we have better forwards whether or not Cody is in the lineup, and I think our freshmen class that we start up front is going to surprise some teams their first pass through Hockey East. I think all three guys that played over the weekend are going to be key contributors before the year is out. Karlsson is going to be a load for teams to handle, Reid is going surprise some teams with how well he plays in the corners and how composed his game is he was really calm and in control Friday night, and Manno who looks the farthest away of the three, once he gets a feel for this is going to be Brodie Reid like and put up some points as teams look to key on other guys. JG might have been the cherry on top if he came, but these three are going to be a nice goodbye gift from Cronin who should pay some major dividends to the new coaching staff.
As for a crowd up there, NU is one of those teams that is used to playing in front of a crowd that is right on top of you. I do not think our teams is going to go into a shell because of 1800 people in a small building. They can play a nice composed game and take care of business.
Merrimack is still a threat to land home ice, especially as UNH plays the part of a dead fish, but we have played with confidence against them before, typically do not take them lightly and I expect them to be the same on Friday.
Get used to seeing the Warriors too. 3 out of the next 5 games are against them. Come 11/5, unless we meet in the playoffs we won't see them again until the 2012 season!
don't you guys have a big game friday night?