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UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

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Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

UMLFan said:
Go Hawks!
Click to expand...

Despite Rhawkobservers thoughtful analysis on Lowell's troubles playing with big heavy playing draft pick laden teams I'm hoping that we can compete with Providence the way we did with Notre Dame. I won't pretend to understand the game at Rhawks level but it seems to me those two teams have similar make ups and styles. Big, tough, skilled, hard checking. Our guys who's strength is their quickness (White, Smith, Gambardella, Chapie, McGrath) stepped up and countered that heavy style against ND, hopefully the can do the same against PC.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

UMLFan said:
Secondly ... last season, we had two of the worst games of the year against the Friars. Screw the Alliance ... I want revenge! :)
Click to expand...

That's bulletin board material right there!
Oooh, you... fans of a different team!
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Was looking at HE standings the other day... with the Riverhawks having played the most games (14) I gave teams the most possible points thru 14 games and re-sorted them. I also considered the top 5 to be a fairly clear cut line (let's be honest Yukon is in 6th place and 4 points out of last place so...) and looked at the number of games left vs the top 5 teams in the league.

Here is how it shakes out:

Team, most points thru 14 games, games left against the top 5
ND: 24, 5
BC: 23, 3 (easiest schedule, holds tiebreaker on PC and BU)
PC: 23,4
UML: 21, 6 (toughest schedule)
BU: 17, 4

Looks like BC and ND have an edge currently on the rest of the field. Riverhawks have toughest schedule remaining so a lot of movement up or down is possible for them. BU is kind of in left field but not a terribly tough schedule the rest of the way. PC is certainly in the mix.

Some quality teams at the top of this league that is for sure.
Click to expand...

Nick, have you ever visited this site?
http://www.playoffstatus.com/hockeyeast/hockeyeaststandings.html

Its pretty cool, and the probabilities for each team's finish at the moment are pretty much in line with your analysis. It has NCAA tournament probabilities too.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Middle Street said:
Nick, have you ever visited this site?
http://www.playoffstatus.com/hockeyeast/hockeyeaststandings.html

Its pretty cool, and the probabilities for each team's finish at the moment are pretty much in line with your analysis. It has NCAA tournament probabilities too.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... I must be pretty smart. I usually check that in March site out in March. It is a very interesting site even though it doesn't really account for certain things (and I think they disclose that). But still I assume pretty accurate for all intents and purposes.

Thanks for shooting that link over.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Middle Street said:
Nick, have you ever visited this site?
http://www.playoffstatus.com/hockeyeast/hockeyeaststandings.html

Its pretty cool, and the probabilities for each team's finish at the moment are pretty much in line with your analysis. It has NCAA tournament probabilities too.
Click to expand...

they don't use tiebreakers and don't include pairwise in their calculations... I would not sanction their efforts.

Dr. Pat

edit: that doesnt mean they aren't approximately correct though
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

boblav1 said:
Yup, watching the video feed. Hopefully they can get it going in the 2nd and 3rd.

Christoffer Hernberg replaces Boyle in net.
Click to expand...

hearing "henbetty" over the radio doesn't make it any less weird
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

For the first 3 minutes of the game last night I thought we were going to see a different Lowell team. They came out with a physical presence, were quick on the forecheck and were winning puck battles. Unfortunately a turnover in the neutral zone lead to a a defence getting beat wide and then a lost battle in front of the net leads to Friars first goal. After that Lowell goes back to the same style of play that we have seen too often and then it is 4-0. PC goes into shut down mode after that and allows Lowell a little bit of an opportunity to come back but Lowell never establishes any sustained offensive pressure and their power play does not deliver despite some key opportunities to allow them back in the game.

The disappointing theme to all of this is again we see the same mistakes that I alluded to previously. Even though Lowell outshot PC in the game and by a quite a margin in the second period, the majority of these shots came from outside the dot line. You can count the number of times on one hand that they had opportunities from the "house" and almost no second opportunities. They did not establish a forecheck all night, did not retrieve pucks and had little sustained pressure inside the Providence zone. As a result, Providence had a very easy night defending.

The difference last night in the two teams was that Providence had puck support in all 3 zones.The concept to puck support is creating more than 1 option for the puck carrier. When Providence had the puck last night, they had speed and numbers coming through the neutral zone which allowed them passing options or an opportunity to dump and forecheck with pressure. Lowell gets the puck in the neutral zone and has no passing options and when they dump they only have 1 player heading on the forecheck. This lead to lost puck battles all night and playing on the perimeter.

The power play had opportunities to allow Lowell back in the game but entries really hurt Lowell last night along with a lack of puck support and quick puck movement. Last night Lowell was attempting to turn the puck back up ice only 2-3 feet inside the blue zone. In my opinion they need to drive the puck deeper into the zone before turning it back up ice and then need to change the point of attack to the (other side of the ice) to relieve the pressure. PC was overloading the entry side of the ice and creating a quick turnover and an easy dump down the ice. The second thing is that we need to be able to make passes tape to tape with quick puck movement and exchanges. Passes have to be on the stick and can't be fumbled or be on the backhand or off target where they then need to be recovered before being passed. By that time, PC was able to recover and that is why PC was able to block so many shots and close and cover the passing lanes. Need to spread out the PC penalty kill more but in order to do so have to be able to make quick tape to tape passes and need the right players on the ice that can do this. Going back to a previous comment I made about having skilled players. A measuring stick is that good skilled teams should be able to score 1 goal for every 8 shots on net. High end skilled teams can lower that ratio to 1:7 or even 1:6. You can easily do the math last night and going back do the math on Lowell's numbers over the season.

I know people will read this and think this is being very critical of the Lowell game. Unfortunately, I think the identity that Lowell is trying to play with or say they have does not match up to the strengths of their team. It will allow them to compete with the lower end teams in HE but won't allow them to compete with the upper end teams and we saw that very evident last night. It will be interesting to see what changes and adjustments the coaching staff makes tonight based on their review of the film. We seem to hear this each week. We will also see what type of resolve this team has tonight. I am hoping we saw a strong effort as it is important that this team proves they can be a contender and play with the big boys of HE as we move towards the playoffs.

Those are my observations.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

RHawkobserver said:
For the first 3 minutes of the game last night I thought we were going to see a different Lowell team. They came out with a physical presence, were quick on the forecheck and were winning puck battles. Unfortunately a turnover in the neutral zone lead to a a defence getting beat wide and then a lost battle in front of the net leads to Friars first goal. After that Lowell goes back to the same style of play that we have seen too often and then it is 4-0. PC goes into shut down mode after that and allows Lowell a little bit of an opportunity to come back but Lowell never establishes any sustained offensive pressure and their power play does not deliver despite some key opportunities to allow them back in the game.

The disappointing theme to all of this is again we see the same mistakes that I alluded to previously. Even though Lowell outshot PC in the game and by a quite a margin in the second period, the majority of these shots came from outside the dot line. You can count the number of times on one hand that they had opportunities from the "house" and almost no second opportunities. They did not establish a forecheck all night, did not retrieve pucks and had little sustained pressure inside the Providence zone. As a result, Providence had a very easy night defending.

The difference last night in the two teams was that Providence had puck support in all 3 zones.The concept to puck support is creating more than 1 option for the puck carrier. When Providence had the puck last night, they had speed and numbers coming through the neutral zone which allowed them passing options or an opportunity to dump and forecheck with pressure. Lowell gets the puck in the neutral zone and has no passing options and when they dump they only have 1 player heading on the forecheck. This lead to lost puck battles all night and playing on the perimeter.

The power play had opportunities to allow Lowell back in the game but entries really hurt Lowell last night along with a lack of puck support and quick puck movement. Last night Lowell was attempting to turn the puck back up ice only 2-3 feet inside the blue zone. In my opinion they need to drive the puck deeper into the zone before turning it back up ice and then need to change the point of attack to the (other side of the ice) to relieve the pressure. PC was overloading the entry side of the ice and creating a quick turnover and an easy dump down the ice. The second thing is that we need to be able to make passes tape to tape with quick puck movement and exchanges. Passes have to be on the stick and can't be fumbled or be on the backhand or off target where they then need to be recovered before being passed. By that time, PC was able to recover and that is why PC was able to block so many shots and close and cover the passing lanes. Need to spread out the PC penalty kill more but in order to do so have to be able to make quick tape to tape passes and need the right players on the ice that can do this. Going back to a previous comment I made about having skilled players. A measuring stick is that good skilled teams should be able to score 1 goal for every 8 shots on net. High end skilled teams can lower that ratio to 1:7 or even 1:6. You can easily do the math last night and going back do the math on Lowell's numbers over the season.

I know people will read this and think this is being very critical of the Lowell game. Unfortunately, I think the identity that Lowell is trying to play with or say they have does not match up to the strengths of their team. It will allow them to compete with the lower end teams in HE but won't allow them to compete with the upper end teams and we saw that very evident last night. It will be interesting to see what changes and adjustments the coaching staff makes tonight based on their review of the film. We seem to hear this each week. We will also see what type of resolve this team has tonight. I am hoping we saw a strong effort as it is important that this team proves they can be a contender and play with the big boys of HE as we move towards the playoffs.

Those are my observations.
Click to expand...

No, no. Great stuff, keep it up. It's been a very frustrating season despite the good record and being in first place for much of the season. Too many silly plays trying to be fancy, turnovers, shots sailing high and wide, lack of scoring, Campbell being on a milk carton, etc. Yet they're still in first and top ten in country but very lucky to be.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

Last night was very painful to watch, especially in Schneider, where there isn't an ounce of courtesy from fans near you. Up, down, walking whenever and wherever....

One especially puzzling thing was the tactic of the drop pass in the neutral zone. I don't know if it was to help get past an anticipated PC trap but at least a third of the time, it ended up in a turnover. Other tactics to get the puck in the zone were successful without the turnovers.

It was nice that we eventually found our game but by then it was too late. I really hope we can pick up where we left off and take it to PC from the opening whistle to the final horn and come away with the split. We need it bad.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

I was ready to say "yaknow... maybe we're not that good"... after tonight... no revelations... played a solid game and the puck fell through towards the end... not much else to be asked for
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

On the radio it sounds like there is an echo. Are they playing the postgame interview over the speakers in the Tsongas, because that would be awesome
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

UML Puck Hawk said:
On the radio it sounds like there is an echo. Are they playing the postgame interview over the speakers in the Tsongas, because that would be awesome
Click to expand...
Yes.

Parts of the game were great other parts :eek: I am not sure what they were thinking~ or not.
 
Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

A nice win by the Hawks. I thought they worked hard all game long. It wasn't pretty at times but they found a way to get it done. Two huge points.

Game highlights: https://youtu.be/Fals16q_P3c
 
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Re: UMass Lowell 2015-2016 Season Thread

The (mostly) putrid performance on the PP might have over shadowed what was a dominant game for Lowell.

SF 30-17 (63.8%) at 5x5.
 
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