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Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

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jcarter.. absolutely enjoy it. your team is playing well & prepared for task at hand. our team better be ready for sunday (a.m) practice.. that is.. if its okay with JM!..
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Ouch, I am without words. Worst performance since Cronin year one. Hopefully, it was an off night, but, if it wasn't, we are in big trouble! Witt looked terrible, D was horrendous, the transition game was non existent and the offence really only got it going for 5 minutes in the 3rd. They are going to need to get a lot better fast.

However, I did see a good team this weekend though, Lowell on Friday night looked terrific, nice job River Hawks in doing something the Huskies have not done in a year and a ½, beat BC.

Also, the old barn was not sold out, far form it, if it was a 1/3 full, I would be surprised. I'll blame it on the long weekend. However, it was just about the worst home opener I can remember.

Let’s just put it behind them and hopefully move on. Clearly, Witt was so shaky, however, the 1st goal was a seeing eye slap shot from between the right circle and the blue line, a total screen and there was nothing he could do, but after that, he totally fell apart. Madigan should have pulled him after the 3rd goal, as he really couldn’t stop anything. The other ROY was in the pipes to start the 3rd and looked ok but, he was fairly untested 10 shouts and he too eventually let in a poor 6th goal, that's when I headed for the exit.

That said, it might not have mattered who was between the pipes as we were totally outplayed in all three phases of the game. Madigan looked lost, he looked like the kids I used to find wandering in Lechmere who had meandered over to play Atari on the 1st big screens TV's only to turn around and find there parents where nowhere to be found, that’s the look he had. Yo Jim, a time out may have been beneficial when they started to fall apart in th 2nd. Whatever, I am sure Roby will put you in for bonus for being .500

BTW, Don’t look now but that #4 and #16 ranking, well that might need some adjustment! LOL! Heck I smell 0 - 4 before we get back with UMASS!
 
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Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Well that was terrible. No defense to be heard of. Good things happened when Roy and Smatz got back on the same line in the third, as much as you hate concentrating the talent, one good line is better than no good lines.

I would have liked to have seen a timeout at some point while we were collapsing, do something to slow them down. Bad (assistant) coaching on that one.
 
Madigan needs to work smarter to get the most out of his players.. Cronin did that. Bazin absolutely does that now. Sneddon as well.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Madigan needs to work smarter to get the most out of his players.. Cronin did that. Bazin absolutely does that now. Sneddon as well.

JM finally has "his" players, at least on D. Cro made it work with Stevie Birnstill, Jimmy Driscoll, Dennis Chisholm etc. On paper the blue-line we have now should be way more talented than those groups. Of course, Cro knew how to coach em up while as many have said, Madigan looks lost. The easiest apples-to-apples comparison: look at Bitetto and Eibler in year 1 under Cronin, and look at them in year 2 under Madigan. Night and day.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

jcarter.. absolutely enjoy it. your team is playing well & prepared for task at hand. our team better be ready for sunday (a.m) practice.. that is.. if its okay with JM!..

In all seriousness I thought this was going to be a really tight game with NU probably winning by a goal... What happened? I didn't see the game, did UVM play that much better? Did NU just not show up? Combination? Either way, as a Cat fan have to be happy coming out with a league win against NU... I'm sure the next time we meet it will be a different story.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Well where do we start , I can tell the new faces will not be even close an impact as last years were. The experiment with the 2 Stevens brothers needs to be dismantled as they were a -2 or 3 and 0 shots on net. To have a freshman run your power play just boggles my mind he maybe a good defenseman on the future but as of now he was a -4 need to work him in slowly. He will definitely lose confidence. The lines did not work plain and simple hope we can regroup
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

I managed to catch part of the game and you guys have a great feed. Love the replays and stats etc.. I wish UVM had that.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Nice to be back,had some log in problems,nice to see everyone again,not under these circumstances though,went to the Acadia game watched Vermont. Rossi had some good statements about the transition game,it's one thing to have your D-men stink,its another to have to camp your forwards in the D-zone to bail out the D-men,if that's the case your forwards cant do anything,it starts and ends with the Defense,weve got great quality up front but they are handcuffed having to bail out all the defense,I love all those guys but lets be honest,this is Northeastern University in Hockey East,we should expect them to demonstrate top D-1 quality,dont blame the forwards.

FYI Former NU (great kid) Ryan Belonger has team leading 6 goals already for ASU http://www.azfamily.com/sports/ASU-Hockey-vs-Arizona-Wildcats-recap-278847801.html

He had the tools but Madigan didnt give him the icetime,miss seeing him at Matthews,anyone see any positives yet?
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

I held off offering any comments on last night's debacle until I had time to cool off and clear my head. Actually I didn't get to watch the game but was forced to listen to the audio because, for the second week in a row, the vid stream was totally messed up (at least for me). In retrospect, I'm glad I wasn't able to watch because it sounded all too similar to the vomit that was the last weekend of the 2013-14 regular season.

Others who actually witnessed the thing have already contributed their takes so there's no point in rehashing what has already been said. I'm just left to wonder if, considering the way last season ended and the way this season has apparently started, if there isn't something systemically wrong inside of the program.

I did find myself somewhat surprised to note that Brendan Collier and Jake Schechter were both healthy (apparently) scratches.

Other than those things, life is just peachy.

BTW: Kudos to Mr. Huskies01, whose oft-maligned analyses of the NU defense appear to have been spot-on. At least through Game One.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Newton and Bitetto ran the PP as freshmen. I don't mind it if you don't have someone better. That said, Benning and Sauce should be better...
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Believing Sauce should be better is you latching onto his better moments and fervently wishing that they would become more than just moments. Unfortunately, the defense situation is somewhat similiar to the situation we endured when Rawlings returned for his senior season: there is nothing you can do but look to the future and hope it is better. Trying not to be too negative but this GROUP of Dmen is just not up to the job at hand. They are neither stalwart in protection of their own end nor capable of freeing the forwards to concentrate on Offense. It may be two seasons before that changes, (hopefully).
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Newton and Bitetto ran the PP as freshmen. I don't mind it if you don't have someone better. That said, Benning and Sauce should be better...
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Jake Newton left NU after his frosh year, but Anthony Bitetto Played his soph season with an even better Player, Jamie Oleksiak; Jamie NHL first round pick is now playing with the Dallas stars, and Anthony should be playing in the NHL this year.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

JM finally has "his" players, at least on D. Cro made it work with Stevie Birnstill, Jimmy Driscoll, Dennis Chisholm etc. On paper the blue-line we have now should be way more talented than those groups. Of course, Cro knew how to coach em up while as many have said, Madigan looks lost. The easiest apples-to-apples comparison: look at Bitetto and Eibler in year 1 under Cronin, and look at them in year 2 under Madigan. Night and day.

Um, these current guys on defense are not as talented as the guys Cro had to work. At least Birnstill, Driscoll, Chisholm could SKATE! The #1 dman on this team, Gunn, can barely go backwards. Dax cannot.

Look its 1 game against a pretty good Vermont team. But I will go back to the same example I used last year, the Toronto MapleLeafs. They made the playoffs 2 years ago after basically getting dominated in every game, but got good goaltending and lots of luck. What happened to them last season? They fell off, fired everybody but the coach, (including Cronin), and have gotten off to a bad start this year.

Our team was basically dominated in a majority of the games they won last year, and this year, things will probably not be different. They cannot control play, they cannot keep the puck in the other teams zone, and the defense is a huge weak link. They basically scored goals last year when the other goalies fell asleep after the play was in our zone forever. And it seemed after February Witt's fairy dust ran out and he went back to looking like the Witt who could not knock Rawlings out of the net, no matter how bad he played. Last year they should have lost all 3 games to UVM, but did not. They should have lost all the games to PC, and somehow did not. They got smoked by a pathetic bu team, and then UNH basically scored at will against us in the playoffs. If this team had made the Garden, they would have gotten blown out by whatever team they met there. The refs did them a favor.

There is some decent talent up front which will keep this team in most games where they all "show up". They could be around .500 again if they find some luck. But I would not expect anything better then that.

And Rossi - Madigan didn't coach the game on Saturday, he was suspended for it. Blame it on Keefe who I would assume was running the bench. I am still wondering what Keefe does well? Does anybody else know?

You wanna win games? you really want to win games? You get dmen who beat the other forwards to the puck, and then get it up ice to our forwards. Do we have that? No.
 
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Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Um, these current guys on defense are not as talented as the guys Cro had to work. At least Birnstill, Driscoll, Chisholm could SKATE! The #1 dman on this team, Gunn, can barely go backwards. Dax cannot.

Look its 1 game against a pretty good Vermont team. But I will go back to the same example I used last year, the Toronto MapleLeafs. They made the playoffs 2 years ago after basically getting dominated in every game, but got good goaltending and lots of luck. What happened to them last season? They fell off, fired everybody but the coach, (including Cronin), and have gotten off to a bad start this year.

Our team was basically dominated in a majority of the games they won last year, and this year, things will probably not be different. They cannot control play, they cannot keep the puck in the other teams zone, and the defense is a huge weak link. They basically scored goals last year when the other goalies fell asleep after the play was in our zone forever. And it seemed after February Witt's fairy dust ran out and he went back to looking like the Witt who could not knock Rawlings out of the net, no matter how bad he played. Last year they should have lost all 3 games to UVM, but did not. They should have lost all the games to PC, and somehow did not. They got smoked by a pathetic bu team, and then UNH basically scored at will against us in the playoffs. If this team had made the Garden, they would have gotten blown out by whatever team they met there. The refs did them a favor.

There is some decent talent up front which will keep this team in most games where they all "show up". They could be around .500 again if they find some luck. But I would not expect anything better then that.

And Rossi - Madigan didn't coach the game on Saturday, he was suspended for it. Blame it on Keefe who I would assume was running the bench. I am still wondering what Keefe does well? Does anybody else know?

You wanna win games? you really want to win games? You get dmen who beat the other forwards to the puck, and then get it up ice to our forwards. Do we have that? No.

I'm not sure about all that now, particularly the Providence/UVM December games. They led Providence 3-0 in the third before pulling a Northeastern and salvaging a tie, and beat Vermont by the same score. If any pure luck games come to mind, they're the game in Providence that was a loss going into the last few seconds and the game at Lowell where they squeaked out a win after Lowell beat Witt no less than 10 times and rang the pipes like a wind chime. There was also a game against UNH that was 1-0 that nobody remembers because of the scoring onslaught that followed.

Regardless, it doesn't help that the defense sucks. Either Saturday was a particularly off day and they're going to be passable, or it's going to be a reversal of our projection vs. reality from last year.
 
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Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Believing Sauce should be better is you latching onto his better moments and fervently wishing that they would become more than just moments.

I honestly don't think he's terrible on the PP. He's a turnover machine and I don't trust him at all in his own end, but in a settled PP situation, he's not bad.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

Um, these current guys on defense are not as talented as the guys Cro had to work. At least Birnstill, Driscoll, Chisholm could SKATE! The #1 dman on this team, Gunn, can barely go backwards. Dax cannot.

I disagree with this, but I can certainly see the argument you make. My bigger point was Madigan can't coach defense, be it individual or team. Do you think this team, with the same personnel, would be better defensively with Cronin? Obviously a subjective answer, but I think yes it would.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

I don't think any Coach could "coach" these guys up to the level we'd like. Cro may have had some more talented individuals to work with, but he also emphasized a breakout system heavy on "JUST BANG IT OFF THE GLASS AND GET IT OUT!". This group might be better off trying that.
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

I disagree with this, but I can certainly see the argument you make. My bigger point was Madigan can't coach defense, be it individual or team. Do you think this team, with the same personnel, would be better defensively with Cronin? Obviously a subjective answer, but I think yes it would.

Well, even Cronin could not make lemonade out of lemons like Jacques Perreault. Would Cronin be able to drill these guys better to at least make sure they know what they are doing out there? Yes, that I agree with. Plus, Cronin realized early on he had nothing back there and worked like the dickens to make sure he did not have to play those guys any longer then he needed to. The fact that it looks like we are going to have to play DD, Dax, and Fennel this year, while it makes the coaches look loyal, it means they either failed to realize that the defense is an issue, or could not land anybody who wanted to play for them. Really, I am not asking for BC caliber players back there, just guys who can compete at this level.

Yes, we are 4 years in and we have to have any kind of identity with this team. Outside of Adam Reid, its all Madigan guys now. Like I said before, its just 1 game. But typically the first game of the year is not the one where team comes out flat and gets railroaded. Even in "bad" years, they show up for that first one and manage to pull an upset out of the behinds. Maybe this year will be an opposite year. Bad October, followed by a great February?
 
Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014-15: Release the Hounds!

The fact that it looks like we are going to have to play DD, Dax, and Fennel this year, while it makes the coaches look loyal, it means they either failed to realize that the defense is an issue, or could not land anybody who wanted to play for them. Really, I am not asking for BC caliber players back there, just guys who can compete at this level.

Yes, we are 4 years in and we have to have any kind of identity with this team. Outside of Adam Reid, its all Madigan guys now. Like I said before, its just 1 game. But typically the first game of the year is not the one where team comes out flat and gets railroaded. Even in "bad" years, they show up for that first one and manage to pull an upset out of the behinds. Maybe this year will be an opposite year. Bad October, followed by a great February?

At least DD was out of the lineup, so that's addition by subtraction. IMO, if the defense is going to be porous, I'd rather see someone who can move the puck in the lineup, a la Jake Schechter, over Fennell. Fennell has never impressed me in any aspect of the game ever since he arrived here. Shecks can at least skate and pass. Small potatoes, I know. But at this point I'd take any positive. I was also surprised Collier was not dressed. I thought McMurtry was our worst forward in both the exhibition and vs UVM. Scratch MM, but Collier in, and have some more offensive skill in the lineup.

Went back and painfully rewatched the game. All I could think of was Kurt Russell's line in Miracle: "You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone." Too much coasting in our own zone, too much cute and fancy in the neutral zone, not enough pressure in the o-zone. I hope JM grilled them after the game, they'll need a complete overhaul in attitude if they want to avoid a sweep by Colgate.
 
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