Re: Northeastern Huskies 2014 Offseason: Resurrection's Over....Now What?
Thought I'd bump this thread with some of the notable talking points Coach Madigan made at last nights FOH meeting regarding schedules and incoming players.
Regarding schedules: for the 2014-15 season, the dates we have all seen are accurate, with the exception of the Providence games in December. As of last night, they are still TBD, the exact dates. Of our three UMass games, the one on December 16 is the non-conference game. Exhibition scrimmage will be a SUNDAY this year (Oct 5), with a league game vs Vermont without Jimmy the following Saturday. Last note is that we added a game to bring us to 34 total- we will be hosting Yale on January 6. For 2015-16, Coach said the schedule is just about finalized, and it will be a mirror image of most of the '14-15 schedule. So we will be hosting QU/Colgate, going to Yale/Minnesota, in addition to having a home-and-home with Holy Cross and hosting Michigan State. We will also be playing BU earlier in the year, in the first half of the season, and we will no longer have NC games versus Hockey East opponents.
Regarding incoming recruits: Coach confirmed there will be six new players wearing the red and black this season, bringing the team total to 28. Two he could not name, as their paperwork still had to be finalized and completed. He did say one was a transfer student (which can be assumed is Ryan Rosenthal), and one is an accelerated player (whom I believe to be Nolan Stevens). As for the other four, he did say a few words about each one of them.
--Dylan Sikura: The staff is excited about his offensive potential, and expects him to be among the top 6 forwards right from the get-go.
--Jake Theut: Coach praised his athleticism at 6'3'' 195. He will join the goalie duo of Witt and Roy.
--Trevor Owens: A traditional stay-at-home defenceman that Coach expects to bring leadership and physicality to the D corps.
--Garrett Cockerill: Coach had the most to say about him. Said that Cockerill "might have the best stick of all our defencemen," which seconds what HHound has said here multiple times about him having a booming shot. Coach also alluded to Cockerill not being in the most ideal shape and condition, so Dan Boothby will be "attached to his stomach" making sure it doesn't grow any larger. Cockerill, Theut, and Owens will all be on campus during Summer 2 to work on their conditioning with some of the returning uppclassmen.
On the topic of conditioning, Coach expressed great pleasure in the reports he has gotten so far this offseason. Obviously he cannot be there in person due to NCAA rules, but he seemed very happy with what he has been told and what he knows. He said that this is where the team made great strides last year, conditioning in the off/preseason to prepare better for the upcoming season, and I think we can all say it paid dividends the first half of the year. Often I felt we were still flying high when other teams were gassed in the third, Coach expects that to be the case all season next year.
Last thing of note for me, when asked about the Gentleman's Agreement that has been in the college hockey news this summer, Madigan declared that he and his staff are (unsurprising to me at least) in favor of the agreement.
