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Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

SkinsFan09 said:
You want the second best center on the team to pass to Reid and Snydeman instead of Pimm?
Click to expand...

Well, preferably Cody than Snydeman. My thinking is to have a finisher on each line. 2nd had Pimm, Hedges can be both the scorer a playmaker, so that would fill the scoring void on the third line. You would swap Hedges and Stevens?

Edit: Didn't see your post below indicating you would. Sorry
 
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Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

NU_Husky said:
Well, preferably Cody than Snydeman. My thinking is to have a finisher on each line. 2nd had Pimm, Hedges can be both the scorer a playmaker, so that would fill the scoring void on the third line. You would swap Hedges and Stevens?

Edit: Didn't see your post below indicating you would. Sorry
Click to expand...

I'd rather have two lines with very high scoring ability than 3 with decent scoring ability. The third line's opportunities come from rebounds and scrappy chances anyway as opposed to skill plays so I don't think their production changes much with Hedges there or not there.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

SkinsFan09 said:
You want the second best center on the team to pass to Reid and Snydeman instead of Pimm?
Click to expand...

Hedges with Reid and Pimm would be fine a 2nd line. Hedges gets space, Reid picks up the trash, Pimm gets to shoot from wherever. Snydeman and McMurty are the 3rd line try hard skate hard guys with Stevens in between them.

Stevens looked so much better out there without the weight of centering Roy on his shoulders. Though i also think a line or Reid-Stevens-? has excellent possibilities. They should mesh pretty easily.

As for the sex chants, i sometimes bring a 6 year old, sometimes a 5 year old, it goes right over their heads. Honestly I do not care either way what the chants are, as long as there are chants. Its to late to make improvement here now anyway. If anything, I would not mind seeing the DogHouse fade away and something original with passion come back in its place. This version of it has had a nice 16 year run, give or take a year. Now its just habit to have it there. Maybe something new would help revitalize it.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
Hedges with Reid and Pimm would be fine a 2nd line. Hedges gets space, Reid picks up the trash, Pimm gets to shoot from wherever. Snydeman and McMurty are the 3rd line try hard skate hard guys with Stevens in between them.

Stevens looked so much better out there without the weight of centering Roy on his shoulders. Though i also think a line or Reid-Stevens-? has excellent possibilities. They should mesh pretty easily.

As for the sex chants, i sometimes bring a 6 year old, sometimes a 5 year old, it goes right over their heads. Honestly I do not care either way what the chants are, as long as there are chants. Its to late to make improvement here now anyway. If anything, I would not mind seeing the DogHouse fade away and something original with passion come back in its place. This version of it has had a nice 16 year run, give or take a year. Now its just habit to have it there. Maybe something new would help revitalize it.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with that 2nd line too. I just want Hedges passing to someone who can finish, aka Pimm. Reid-Stevens is the foundation for an excellent checking 3rd line that will clean up the crease.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Re: In-game atmosphere

I was happy that they had all but eliminated the pumped in music and just let the (much improved) band take care of stoppages in play. It's a college game after all, leave the pumped-in music for the Bruins. No matter what happens during stoppages, it goes off without regard for any in-progress chants. It always has, and it can be a bit of a buzz-kill. If a chant is in progress don't start playing anything or pumping in music until it dies out. I still don't understand why that's so hard for the powers at be to grasp. The drum line is another aspect of the band that I don't quite understand. I like drums and all, and a drum beat or two per period is a nice change of pace, but why do they need to be separated from the band? I say put them over with the rest of the band. That way they can play with the band, which I think needs more drums anyway.

As far as the chants go, I would like to see something more original added to the mix. I would be okay with phasing out the "colorful" powerplay chants, but only if there was something new to take their place. If those are removed from the equation, the only ones available to replace them are "let's go huskies" "go nu" or the occasional "northeastern" (where was that one last weekend btw?) and that rotation would get old fast. The biggest thing that's missing in my opinion is the noise in between chants. The nearly-constant shouting and heckling that would go on during play and between chants in years past is all but extinct nowadays.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Re: Lines

I'm a fan of separating lines into "skill" and "grinder" lines. I'm not a fan of trying to put a "finisher" and a "grinder" on each line. That being said, I would like to see something like this:

ZAR/Szmatula/Roy
Pimm/Hedges/Cody (if healthy, if not healthy either McMurtry or Snydemen)
Reid/Stevens/McMurtry or Snydeman
Belonger/Pond/McMurtry or Snydeman, or Jamieson if Cody is out
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

The lower bowl has had attendance problems since i came to NU in 2007.

A few ways to improve attendance:

-Market more to the general public. Invest in some ad space. Bus Stops, the T, Newspapers, online... whatever. Just do something. Market our draft picks... Benning is a bruins pick, I'd imagine that could draw some fans. we have some of the cheapest ticket prices in boston and a hugely historical venue... MARKET THAT!!!

-Have someone hand out flyers at Back bay or North Station during rush hour. Its cheap and easy to catch a game at matthews on a friday after work or with a group of people from an office. (make that a deal!? advertise your group ticket pricing and market that to businesses)

-Invest in an electronic message board - BU has one on comm ave advertising games and events... do the same. Get a billboard or something at least, the amount of traffic that goes down mass ave is massive... Tap into that somehow.

-Kids under 12 or 10 get in free... at minimum you can make it for a few games ("family nights" or something of that nature).

-Give a pair or a set of 4 tickets to corporate sponsors to the lower bowl. They payed good money for the ad space... reward them and help fill seats and gain exposure to people who may not watch college hockey at all. Plus, some could give tickets away as promotions for themselves. (join zipcar and win two free tix... etc)

-Market with the bruins... we have a bruins prospect so the market is there... try to have tickets given away at bruins games or in promotions to their season ticket holders etc.




as far as student attendance:

Yes, the doghouse leadership needs some work. IDk how to help that though. That comment about not being able to post signs in Curry or academic buildings being a fire hazard is BS. I'm a volunteer firefighter where I live and i've never heard of any such code in any municipality as far as egress in a fire is concerned (some places have aesthetic concerns which makes sense but we don't have those, nor should we). And WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD did the chalk on the sidewalk stop!? as far as i'm concerned that's an NU tradition and if i was an undergrad i'd be making noise about it (every student group should). :mad:

The Resident director approval thing i can believe but its BS too. Get athletics to work something out with housing for an Athletic Department waiver and have signage/ posters approved through them, propose specific locations to housing and work it out with them via athletics. When i lived on campus there were signs in every dorm building referencing a hockey game and who it was against and what you should wear (red, black, white, etc) and if there was a theme (red light/green light, pots and pans... ok maybe not pots and pans :D)

-Take the signs on campus ("Hockey game tonight") and make them "hockey game this weekend" or whatever and add a slot to interchange what team we're playing and PUT THE TIME

-Take the posters with the hockey schedules and stop handing them out at games... post them on campus in every conceivable place.

-Partner with the vendors on campus for game promotions. Buy coffee at dunkin donuts and have a chance to win a free jersey or a signed puck or something. Buy a subway footlong and win tickets to the varsity club.

-Market Directly to International students. idk how to go about it but make it seem like its an american thing to do or that its a cultural experience. Ultimately these kids want to experience the culture, they're not JUST here for the education... Spin it that cultural understanding will help them in their fields as ultimately a lot of the kids from asia etc will work with western businesses throughout their careers.

-Get players in on promotions?

-Bring back the t-shirt cannon

-Get ice girls?

-DO NOT DEPEND ON EMAIL AND TWITTER. I never check my facebook anymore, and i get at least 3 emails a day from NU. News@Northeastern, Alumni news/ donation groveling, Somthing college specific, and usually a promotion for RISE or EmPower or the career fair (which is useless if you're not in business or healthcare anyway). its all just noise i dont read any of it.

-Is there a reason they take the names off the back of the jerseys they sell at the beginning of the year? if theres no NCAA rule or something, leave the names on.

-Sell beer at the games

/Rant
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

..wow, lots of good ideas. nice job. Athletics admin (if you read here).. pls takes notice of some of these.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Bleedenator

Thanks for the thoughtful and useful suggestions. Since there is no assurance that our sports marketing department will read it, actually there is no assurance that they do much at all, please send it to everyone you think will read it and can make a difference. I would start with George Gardner, Matt McDonald and Darren Costa. You can find their email addresses here: http://gonu.com/staff.aspx?tab=staffdirectory

Then, follow up by posting your thoughts on Diehard Dogs. If you are not a member, just say so, and I will post it for you.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

HHound said:
Bleedenator

Thanks for the thoughtful and useful suggestions. Since there is no assurance that our sports marketing department will read it, actually there is no assurance that they do much at all, please send it to everyone you think will read it and can make a difference. I would start with George Gardner, Matt McDonald and Darren Costa. You can find their email addresses here: http://gonu.com/staff.aspx?tab=staffdirectory

Then, follow up by posting your thoughts on Diehard Dogs. If you are not a member, just say so, and I will post it for you.
Click to expand...

Add my thanks to Bleedenator for the suggestions and maybe add these (which were posted earlier in this thread but seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle):

--A Paws who can actually skate
--Cheerleaders on skates pre-game and between periods. (If you want to see first-hand what I'm driving at, go to any game at Michigan or Wisconsin game and see the spectacle the on-ice cheerleaders and mascot put on. It's entertaining and gets the crowd fired up)
--(Partially related to the above) Bring back the girls with the compressed air bazookas firing t-shirts into the crowd. Don't try to tell me it's a safety hazard. (So is crossing the street.)
--Get the band and the Doghouse on the same page. NU'14 made a comment earlier in this thread that the band tends to cut off the DH at stoppages in play before it has a chance to get anything going. Good point but it strikes me as a self-inflicted wound. It seems to me that the DH student leadership and the band student leadership should be able to sit down and work things out so that they feed off of each other instead of compete against each other. (BTW, the band sounds much improved from earlier years.)
--At the end of each game, instead of the center ice stick raise, have the team gather below the DH and have the band play the Alma Mater (the NU one actually isn't bad as Alma Maters go) while everyone links arms and sings the words. Then do the stick raise. I've seen this done at Notre Dame, Navy and other places and it's pretty impressive.

Bottom line is that the game experience at Matthews has become boring and needs to become energized to the point where it becomes a "gotta be there" event.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Split-N said:
it becomes a "gotta be there" event.
Click to expand...

Not easy when you're competing with the entire city of Boston. Compare that to Orono, Lowell, or Burlington. There's not much to do in those places except watch hockey.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Erix_The_Red said:
Not easy when you're competing with the entire city of Boston. Compare that to Orono, Lowell, or Burlington. There's not much to do in those places except watch hockey.
Click to expand...

this very true. btw, not much to do in Chestnut Hill either.. :)
;)
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

HHound said:
Bleedenator

Thanks for the thoughtful and useful suggestions. Since there is no assurance that our sports marketing department will read it, actually there is no assurance that they do much at all, please send it to everyone you think will read it and can make a difference. I would start with George Gardner, Matt McDonald and Darren Costa. You can find their email addresses here: http://gonu.com/staff.aspx?tab=staffdirectory

Then, follow up by posting your thoughts on Diehard Dogs. If you are not a member, just say so, and I will post it for you.
Click to expand...

I'm not a member of DHD so please repost it over there if you so feel inclined.

I'll write a letter with all that stuff worded more eloquently and send it out to those individuals later this week. Thanks for the heads up on contact info!
I hold a degree in Architecture yet the people who get paid to do this can't figure out some of the more basic ideas. (although its probably more likely that theres just no funding for most of it, which in itself is sad).

EDIT:
One thing I do like that they did this year is the "Huskies Unleashed" episodes a la 24/7. I thought they were both very well done.

Link to the second episode: http://youtu.be/NYWcH2Rfawg
 
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Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

northeastern said:
this very true. btw, not much to do in Chestnut Hill either.. :)
;)
Click to expand...

the few times ive been to Matthews , even for BC, the lower bowl isnt filled and it seems you have to get alumni off their arses and get to games and support the team. I could be way off base with that but it seems that way. At BC there are very few games that the alumni hasn't packed their side. I know it's a different case as all are but do you guys feel the alumni is supporting the team well? Am right or off base?
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

sterlippo1 said:
the few times ive been to Matthews , even for BC, the lower bowl isnt filled and it seems you have to get alumni off their arses and get to games and support the team. I could be way off base with that but it seems that way. At BC there are very few games that the alumni hasn't packed their side. I know it's a different case as all are but do you guys feel the alumni is supporting the team well? Am right or off base?
Click to expand...

At least for the BC games (all of which over the past few years have been sellouts) the reason there are empty seats is due to a combination of people having lower bowl seats but opting to stand in the upper bowl or having seats but spending large chunks of time in the Varsity Club. For other, less popular games, a lot of the empty seats are simply not sold/people not showing up in addition to those other factors I described. I think a large portion of the alumni dislike the AD, Roby, which hurts attendance also. I haven't been an alumnus long enough to experience more than one AD so don't really have an opinion on that matter.
 
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