Re: St. Lawrence University 2013-2014: Carey, Carey, carry us to Placid ... And beyon
IMH(and novice)O, I honestly think the problem is the transition from Coach Marsh to Coach Carvel. Coach Marsh recruited the seniors and juniors, but the seniors only got to play for him for 1 year, and the juniors never played for him at all. In both cases though, they were recruited for Coach Marsh's system, but had to play for Coach Carvel's. How many of them would be at SLU if Coach Carvel had been doing the recruiting, or would we see a different group? I think the latter. The sophomores were recruited at a time when we had a coach-to-be-named-later, not a good recruiting tool. The FY's are Coach Carvel's first real class, and look at the promise they've shown.
I foresee another couple tough years, but I also foresee some real good years in our future once we've got a team that's been recruited for and plays Coach Carvel's approach.
I don't totally agree. Hurley was the primary recruiter for the Senior and Junior class and I don't think any member from either class would say that they didn't have a lot of fun playing Carvy's system. The PP was fantastic all season, although streaky, and that was Carvy. Setting aside this game which I think was horribly officiated, it was just not our year. So many times we'd kill 1:50 of a penalty to get scored on. Our TEAM defense was not what it should be all season. I think we really lacked a stay at home, big defensemen. Dustin Stevenson should have been a senior this year and that's the kind of player we missed. It's a bummer Riley Austin was not dressed for his final game, but his two penalties last night were a very big deal. It set the tone for the weekend in fact.
So Greg Carey gets close to the scoring title, but not quite. I wished he got it. It's so much tougher to score now and if Carey had the 88 scoring cast he'd have finished with 200 points.
I'll really miss this senior class. I'll miss them as much as I won't miss this season. Greg Carey was dangerous every shift for four years. Baker was always such an exciting playmaker. Wick was the guy, so strong, consistent, hard-hitting and fundamentally sound. Raley who was strong as horse and worked hard. Austin who I always liked as a player the way I liked Matt McDonald. I liked his edge. Wenny who gave us a lot of good minutes and is a great young man. Essery who was always a great two way player and hard worker. One and all, a good class with the exception of Stevenson (he can bite my ***). I think we were close this year. We were parked on the corner a long time. Ending the season on a Too Many Men Penalty is fitting. This was a shoot yourself in the foot, make it too easy on the opponent kind of season.
Congrats to Vaughner for the win and I hope the Raiders tear it up in LP. I do hope they win it all, but I'll also add that I am not a Spiro Goulakas fan. He is a chippy player and he clearly said something unclassy to Wick while shaking hands. There was a lot of other BS he pulled this weekend. I hope someone from SLU lays him out next year.
Final point, is I wished Carvy worked the refs more. Ever since Wick went hard to the net and Finn / Goulakas were complaining to the refs, the calls were about 6-1 for Colgate.
I think we will be much better next year or two from now. This season didn't go the way the coaches wanted. To me this season was like the Broncos in the Superbowl. We were good enough and some nights could be anyone, but no matter the top line talent on our roster a good, well-balanced team could easily exploit our weaknesses.
Good luck to the seniors. I wish each of you well and I hope and expect one of them to use that NHL shot at the next level.
