Who gives a rats *** about the band
Listening to the band is one of my favorite parts of a game, personally.
Who gives a rats *** about the band
Sigh. And to make the evening even more pleasant the Merrimack band was the next section over. They have to be the most horrifyingly bad band that has ever been in that arena. (Including elementary school bands). Good gravy. How hard is it to hit the base drum in unison during a piece of music? It was like sitting next to someone who was scraping their nails on the chalkboard all night.![]()
well boys. do you want it? Well...?
It seems like we've been asking that question all season long.
Hopefully a better crowd turns out tonight. Only 2,849 showed up last night, the smallest crowd at the Tsongas in a while and the lowest of the 3 HE playoff games. Many of the season ticket holders around me were not at the game last night. I wonder if they passed on buying the playoff tickets this season.
It was nice having the students at a playoff game for once. They were loud and engaged the entire game.It seems like we've been asking that question all season long.
Hopefully a better crowd turns out tonight. Only 2,849 showed up last night, the smallest crowd at the Tsongas in a while and the lowest of the 3 HE playoff games. Many of the season ticket holders around me were not at the game last night. I wonder if they passed on buying the playoff tickets this season.
It seems like we've been asking that question all season long.
Hopefully a better crowd turns out tonight. Only 2,849 showed up last night, the smallest crowd at the Tsongas in a while and the lowest of the 3 HE playoff games. Many of the season ticket holders around me were not at the game last night. I wonder if they passed on buying the playoff tickets this season.
Basketball is playing well and scoring on their chances though they’re taking a lot of fouls. Hopefully they’ll stay out of trouble. UMBC appears to be far more athletic
It was nice having the students at a playoff game for once. They were loud and engaged the entire game.
First time posting.....biding my time and biting my tongue before...lol. Approximate 8 year season ticket holder and this was my first time passing on the playoff round tickets. I just had no hope that this team could rebound and win a series after all the ups and downs this year. I listened to Bob and crew doing the broadcast and as soon as Merrimack scored with a little over 4 minutes remaining......i knew the outcome, as we do not have any semblance of consistent offense. After last year my lament was where is the scoring going to come from? While everyone can rightfully place blame on the players for lack of effort, i do think we need to point some blame to the coaching staff as well. Grit, determination and over-achieving can only last so many years. While I applaud the academic accomplishments of the student athletes, all of those characteristics can only take you so far for so long. The fraternity of coaches in Hockey East for the most point, sorry Dick Umile, pay attention and learn. The other teams in the league have stepped up their games. Look at the recruiting prowess of Providence, from a talent and academic perspective. I'm not sure why that can't be the same for UML. And now Massachusetts-Amherst (had to say it that way) and Maine are picking up their recruiting or re-energizing their programs while our recruiting has been sub-par given all the successess of the last few years. For me its the lack of talent through sub par recruiting that has us on the trajectory we are on......back to the old days of a 20 win seasons every 3 or 4 years and an occassional HE or NCAA appearance. If I look at our ratio of USHL recruits to other league recruits our talent level has suffered as the number of USHL players falls. Some prime examples are the lack of scoring form this team, which is painfully on display during power plays. Last nights back to back power plays were pitiful. I am not an X's and O's guy.......but for me its a simple fact that low goal scorers and lower skilled players equal poor power play production. Gone are those years when we had 10+ ten goal scorers and to me it falls on the coaching staff for either not coaching to the extract the most from the players and poor recruiting.
One last observation deals with the coach himself. I always watch the highlights, even when I attend the games, and always listen to the post game press conferences. When asked what the other team has changed that lead to their success, as in last night's overtime loss, the stock answer from Norm is that he needs to review the film. What about in game adjustments. Maybe I am taking comments out of context.....but should not we know what the other team is doing that is causing us to be outplayed and communicate that to the team in ways to counter their momentum? I don't know. Maybe I am just bummed out after all the sucesses of the past years. But every facet of this team has me kind of bummed out this year, coaching included. Still semi optomistic about the program in general, but i think we need to up our talent level to counter every other teams moves before we become the UML of the past
Great first post and welcome! While this isn't the 5 win season and we all may just have very high expectations given the past 6 seasons (and rightfully so), couldn't agree more with this. I've been beyond puzzled the last few years why Lowell's success hasn't translated into more top recruits while lesser programs have gotten them. We'll never be up there with BC and BU but we should be in the trenches with everyone else. There is definitely a talent issue on this team and the diamonds-in-the-rough/hidden gems players are really far and few between and Lowell's done well with those the past several seasons, not so much this year. Perhaps they're trying too hard to find those sort of players, skipping over already developed and talented ones who might actually come here? Or is it the system Norm plays that only those sort of players are what he's looking for? Who knows. But there's no reason why Lowell should look the way they did against Merrimack last night.
Only three USHL players coming in next year out of 10 FYI.