What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

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

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

Huskies01 said:
Yes they were.

I say whoever was coaching up the three of them, either Cro or one of the assistants did one of the best jobs i have seen of getting three freshmen to play at a much higher level from September to March then I have ever seen. The jump Olesniak made was amazing, along with Bitetto. Yeah, they were talented guys to begin with, but they were different players by the end of their freshmen year. Type of coaching I wish Benning would be getting here now.

And yeah, Toronto has fallen to pieces. Same way our team did down the stretch. Lots of similarities between them and us. Both teams have a few high end forwards and then grinders who really do not add much of anything. Neither team have any quality dmen to speak of. Both are over reliant on their goalies. Neither team play with the puck. Both historically never win anything and when the team starts to do well the fans start to puff out their chests just a bit to early to see it all fall apart.
Click to expand...


Olesiak was a 1st round pick who feel to NU cause BU was out of scholarships and he knew he was only playing 1 year. You can't compare Olesiak with any DMan on the team right now. Bitetto had a great freshman year, followed up by a terrible sophomore season, Eibler had a good freshman and sophomore season. All 3 were better players than what is here now. Coach's can't coach if there is no talent. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

I thought Benning made some big improvements from October until he got injured at UMass. In fact, I thought he had been our best defenseman for the month or so before his injury.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

HHound said:
Cotterill signed during the November period. Gaudoury also signed, but couldn't get through the clearinghouse and went to the Q. Those are the only ones I know about. there may be others.
Click to expand...

I was wondering why he suddenly made the jump to the Q. Thank you. Didn't know about Cockerill, glad to hear it. 8-12-20 in 43 USHL games with 2 different teams..don't know much about him otherwise. Hopefully he's more of a defensive defenseman
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Did anyone see the article about Johnny G today? Good story, mentions how his mom is pushing him hard to finish school, pro's will always be there but to play college hockey will not.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

retsap71 said:
Olesiak was a 1st round pick who feel to NU cause BU was out of scholarships and he knew he was only playing 1 year. You can't compare Olesiak with any DMan on the team right now. Bitetto had a great freshman year, followed up by a terrible sophomore season, Eibler had a good freshman and sophomore season. All 3 were better players than what is here now. Coach's can't coach if there is no talent. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****.
Click to expand...

Olesniak became a first round pick AFTER his year at NU. He did not come in that high, coaching got him there. Bitetto did have a great freshmen year under one coach, failed under the next one, though he probably had one foot out the door the entire year his last year.

Coaches cant coach untalented kids, but they can put together a system to make their lives easier and play to their strengths. Maybe even improve their games a bit. Improvement in some of these guys have been slow, if at all. Lets also keep in mind, these are all JM kids on the blue line, no more Cro holdovers who dont want to take to their coaching. Scouted and recruited by the guy who was a scout in a prior life.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
Olesniak became a first round pick AFTER his year at NU. He did not come in that high, coaching got him there. Bitetto did have a great freshmen year under one coach, failed under the next one, though he probably had one foot out the door the entire year his last year.

Coaches cant coach untalented kids, but they can put together a system to make their lives easier and play to their strengths. Maybe even improve their games a bit. Improvement in some of these guys have been slow, if at all. Lets also keep in mind, these are all JM kids on the blue line, no more Cro holdovers who dont want to take to their coaching. Scouted and recruited by the guy who was a scout in a prior life.
Click to expand...

Your wrong about Olesiak, he came in here with the reputation as being a 1st rounder. He went a little higher than originally thought. I am dissapointed in Saucerman and Gunn, hopefully this next group is better. But you can't expect to hit it with every recruit.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

NU_Husky said:
Didn't know about Cockerill, glad to hear it. 8-12-20 in 43 USHL games with 2 different teams..don't know much about him otherwise. Hopefully he's more of a defensive defenseman
Click to expand...

I typically do not pay to much attention to the stats of dmen. While its nice to see high offensive numbers, i do not rely on them to tell me much. I look at the teams GA, compared to the rest of the league, if they have it, the amount of shots they have given up again comapred to the rest of the league, and the goalies save %. I can get some kind of idea on what type of guy we maybe getting. If its one of the worst defensive teams in the league, while it may not be on our guy, its warning. Same goes for a great defensive team, may not be our guy, but chances are he knows what he is doing.

Its not full proof, but if you cannot watch the games, its something.

Write ups by coaches and stuff help to. Like if you read "great at blocking shots", to me its a warning the guy cannot skate. Powerplay expert typically means he is clueless in his own end.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
I typically do not pay to much attention to the stats of dmen. While its nice to see high offensive numbers, i do not rely on them to tell me much. I look at the teams GA, compared to the rest of the league, if they have it, the amount of shots they have given up again comapred to the rest of the league, and the goalies save %. I can get some kind of idea on what type of guy we maybe getting. If its one of the worst defensive teams in the league, while it may not be on our guy, its warning. Same goes for a great defensive team, may not be our guy, but chances are he knows what he is doing.

Its not full proof, but if you cannot watch the games, its something.

Write ups by coaches and stuff help to. Like if you read "great at blocking shots", to me its a warning the guy cannot skate. Powerplay expert typically means he is clueless in his own end.
Click to expand...

Why is great at blocking shots meaning a guy can't skate? Everyone today is asked to block shots?
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

retsap71 said:
Your wrong about Olesiak, he came in here with the reputation as being a 1st rounder. He went a little higher than originally thought. I am dissapointed in Saucerman and Gunn, hopefully this next group is better. But you can't expect to hit it with every recruit.
Click to expand...

More then a few people felt Olesiak came here a year early and needed another year in the USHL. His skating was blah in October, but he got the hang of it quick.

Sauce has sucked. We agree there. They should move him to forward.

Gunn has not been that bad, and I think playing injured his entire time here, or at least not 100%. Keep in mind Gunn had Manson out there with him, which meant having to stay back and cover up when ever Manson went on one of his seek and destroy missons and got himself out of the play at hand. That being said, he can beat wide with speed pretty easily.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
More then a few people felt Olesiak came here a year early and needed another year in the USHL. His skating was blah in October, but he got the hang of it quick.

Sauce has sucked. We agree there. They should move him to forward.

Gunn has not been that bad, and I think playing injured his entire time here, or at least not 100%. Keep in mind Gunn had Manson out there with him, which meant having to stay back and cover up when ever Manson went on one of his seek and destroy missons and got himself out of the play at hand. That being said, he can beat wide with speed pretty easily.
Click to expand...

Gunn just seems very slow.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
I typically do not pay to much attention to the stats of dmen. While its nice to see high offensive numbers, i do not rely on them to tell me much. I look at the teams GA, compared to the rest of the league, if they have it, the amount of shots they have given up again comapred to the rest of the league, and the goalies save %. I can get some kind of idea on what type of guy we maybe getting. If its one of the worst defensive teams in the league, while it may not be on our guy, its warning. Same goes for a great defensive team, may not be our guy, but chances are he knows what he is doing.

Its not full proof, but if you cannot watch the games, its something.

Write ups by coaches and stuff help to. Like if you read "great at blocking shots", to me its a warning the guy cannot skate. Powerplay expert typically means he is clueless in his own end.
Click to expand...

Your glass half-empty world allows you to view all comments as euphemisms.:rolleyes: It is always possible that the player is a well rounded athlete with a particular well developed skill in one area.

Saucerman and Gunn each had knee injuries that hampered them in their last year of juniors. Sauce seems to have recovered well. Possibly Gunn's situation was a bit worse than our coaches believed when they recruited him. You may recall that needed to rehab it a second time and missed the first half of the season. Both Gunn and Belonger were guided to us by Rob Rassey when he was coaching in Youngstown, so I'm sure the recommedations were made with the best of intentions.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

HHound said:
Your glass half-empty world allows you to view all comments as euphemisms.:rolleyes: It is always possible that the player is a well rounded athlete with a particular well developed skill in one area.

Saucerman and Gunn each had knee injuries that hampered them in their last year of juniors. Sauce seems to have recovered well. Possibly Gunn's situation was a bit worse than our coaches believed when they recruited him. You may recall that needed to rehab it a second time and missed the first half of the season. Both Gunn and Belonger were guided to us by Rob Rassey when he was coaching in Youngstown, so I'm sure the recommedations were made with the best of intentions.
Click to expand...

it is possible that we get the well rounded athlete, but we are NU, so most of the time, that is not the kid we are getting.

As for Sauce and Gunn, yes Sauce looked healed, now he just needs to learn the position, or perhaps move to forward where he seems to actually play. Gunn looks like he can play the part, but physically is not there yet. And yeah, his knees or legs or whatever seem to be an issue. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

As for Belonger, he can play on the 6th line of a team for me any day. The weather has more impact on the game then he does.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Gunn and Lauwers are both very similar players to me. Slow, lumbering guys who play physical. Gunn has a bit more puck skills than Lauwers. I think they can both be serviceable stay at home defensemen if they get paired with another Dman who can skate and move the puck. They both get completely exposed if they have to skate with the puck or make breakout passes. Unless our recruiting class has some real gems on defense, I would expect the first two D pairings to be something like Benning/Gunn and Saucerman/Lauwers next season. Hopefully a newcomer can take that spot from Saucerman though.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

retsap71 said:
For NHL yes, for AHL or lower no.
Click to expand...

He's going to get more experience and face better competition in the AHL than he would in college. Also, what if he regresses next year? Kid has to do what he has to do. At Lowell, we fully expect Christian Folin to be gone after this year, and wouldn't be too surprised to see another or two leave early. They can always go back and finish their degrees later or online while they're playing.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

bottomdweller said:
He's going to get more experience and face better competition in the AHL than he would in college. Also, what if he regresses next year? Kid has to do what he has to do. At Lowell, we fully expect Christian Folin to be gone after this year, and wouldn't be too surprised to see another or two leave early. They can always go back and finish their degrees later or online while they're playing.
Click to expand...

Yup, BU goalie Sean Fields had multi-year AHL/NHL two-way contract offers after his junior year in a very Witt like situation (poor team that he carried), stayed for his senior year and by then only the CHL/ECHL were interested. Had he left after his junior year his lifetime earnings would have been well over 100K higher. Plus most schools allow players to take summer classes for free once they return to get their degree.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

USPHL ‏@USPHL Mar 13

USPHL #Premier Defensive Player of the Year: Trevor Owens from @NJHitmen

2014 NU recruit
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

I meant to do this last week but never did. Turning the Dartmouth tie into a win NU is in NCAA. I had wondered if that would have been enough, I was hoping it wouldn't have been.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2013-14 Season Thread II: In Witt we Trust

Huskies01 said:
Honestly, how many guys do we want back from this defense?
Click to expand...

Two. Manson and Benning. And only Benning because of what he could potentially be. Manson was the only legit top 4 guy we had, and the BU series showed how much we missed him. I'm gonna have nightmares of Lauwers and Gunn trying to keep up with Gaudreau next year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top